Mystery Tuesday: Villisca axe Murders

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These brutal murders take place between the evening of June 9 1912 and the morning of June 10 1912 where the Moore family of six - Josiah ( 49 ), Sarah ( 39 ), Herman Montgomery ( 11 ), Mary Katherine ( 10 ), Arthur Boyd ( 10 ), Paul Vernon ( 5 ) and the Stillinger sisters Ina Mae ( 8 ) and Gertrude ( 12 ) all lost their lives with an axe murder.

on June 9 1912 Katherine invited the Stillinger sisters to spend the night at the Moore residence.
That evening they all attended the Presbyterian church where they participated in the Children's day program which Sarah had coordinated. The program ended at 9:30pm when the Moores and Stillinger sisters then walked home and arrived there at about 9:45 to 10 pm.

On 10 June 1912 at 7am the Moores neighbor Mary became worried since they have not come out to do their morning chores. She proceeded to knock on the door and got no answer then she called Josiah's brother Ross Moore.

When Ross arrived he also knocked and shouted, after getting no answer he unlocked the front door with his copy of the house keys, while Mary waited by the front door Ross went in and opened the guest bedroom where he found the Stillinger sisters dead on the bed. He had Mary call the Villisca Primary Peace Officer Hank Horton who arrived shortly after.

Hank found that the entire Moore family and Stillinger sisters had been bludgeoned to death. The murder weapon being an axe belonging to Josiah which was found in the room the Stillinger sister had been.

Docters then concluded the murder took place between midnight and 5am.

2 spent cigarettes where found in the attic suggested the killer(s) patiently waited in the attic until everybody was asleep.
The murderer(s) began in the master bedroom where Josiah and Sarah were sleeping, Josiah had more blows to the head than any of the other victims he was also hit with the blade of the axe where as the other victims with the blunt side.

After being in the master bedroom the proceeded to the children's rooms and bludgeoned Herman, Kathrine, Boyd and Paul. They then went back to the master bedroom to inflict more blows to the parents. They then went down stairs to the guest bedroom and killed the Stillinger sisters.

The suspects of this case were : Reverend George Kelly, Frank F. Jones, William Mansfeild, Loving Mitchell, and Henry Lee Moore.

Goerge kelly was tried twice for the murders. The first ended in a hung jury, while the second trial ended in acquittal.

There are so much information on these suspects that if i had to type it all i will be typing untill tomorrow, if you are interested in this information feel free to have a look on : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villisca_axe_murders

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