Villisca Axe Murder House

Iowa · USA · House

The Villisca Axe Murder House in the small town of Villisca, Iowa is one of the state's most notorious haunted sites — the scene of a brutal and still unsolved mass murder.

On the night between 9 and 10 June 1912, after a church service, eight people were bludgeoned to death with an axe as they slept. The victims were the parents Josiah B. Moore (43) and Sarah (39), their four children Herman (11), Mary Katherine (10), Arthur (7) and Paul (5), and two visiting girls, Ina May (8) and Lena Stillinger (11). All eight had severe head injuries; Josiah alone had been struck at least thirty times.

The investigation named several suspects. The Reverend George Kelly confessed in court, but the jury did not believe the confession, and he was acquitted after two trials. In the book The Man from the Train (2017), Bill and Rachel James argue that the killer was Paul Mueller, a German-speaking immigrant who was the object of a year-long but fruitless manhunt. The crime remains unsolved to this day.

A couple bought the house in 1995 and restored it to how it looked in 1912, without modern installations. Guided tours and overnight stays are offered today — the principal attraction being that the house is said to be haunted by the victims. Few places in America carry a tragedy so heavy and so concrete.

Sources: English Wikipedia "Villisca axe murders", murderhouse.com, allthatsinteresting.com, traveliowa.com

FAQ

Hvor ligger Villisca Axe Murder House?

Villisca Axe Murder House ligger i Iowa, USA.

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Image: Jason McLaren / CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons