Noel's Crime Book

Episode 18 : The Story Of The Villisca Axe Murders

Hello everyone! This is Noel and I'm really excited to tell you about my 3rd favourite crime story of all time! The Villisca Axe Murders! This is a story I've known for almost 3 years and it still haunts me to no end! I've wanted to write about this story in my own words for 2 years! But it is really long, so I rarely had much motivation to write it during all that time. But I thought today was the best possible day for me to finish it and publish it because it is the 112th Anniversary of this world changing story! I really hope you like it and thank you all so much for being patient. Credit to Wikipedia, FindAGrave.com, and the legendary YouTuber, Horror Stories for the information. Like a lot of other cases, I learned about it from him and I am really sad that he's retiring from YouTube. We will miss you very much, Horror Stories. Thank you and enjoy.

On this day, 112 years ago, in the early morning hours of June 10th 1912, 8 people, a family of 6 and two guests staying over for the night, were all violently MURDERED in their sleep from an axe inside their house in Villisca Iowa, and to this day, 112 years later, it is still unknown as to who murdered those 8 people on that fateful night and it remains one of, if not, the BIGGEST unsolved murder mystery in HISTORY...

Villisca was a small, quiet, and peaceful town in Southwestern Villisca Iowa in The United States during the 1910's with a population of 2500 people. In this town, lived a happy and wealthy family known as The Moore Family. The family consisted of the father, 43 year old Josiah Moore, the mother, 39 year old Sara Moore, and their four children, 11 year old Herman Montgomery Moore, 10 year old Mary Katherine Moore, 7 year old Arthur Boyd Moore, and the youngest child, 5 year old Paul Vernon Moore. Josiah worked as a businessman who owned a hardware store and Sara worked at the family's church. They were a wealthy, successful, and happy family who had a great life together, and they wouldn't want to spend it with anybody else. Unfortunately, what NO ONE could've predicted, was what would happen to them in the early hours of June 10th 1912, would be an event so horrifying that it would become a GIANT staple in History and change the world FOREVER...

On the night of June 9th 1912, Sara Moore coordinated an annual event at the family's presbyterian church called "The Children's Day Program" as a way to celebrate the end of the school year. The family left their house at 8:00 PM and headed off to their church and had a fun time like they always did. Two of Katherine Moore's friends, 11 year old Lena Gertrude Stillinger and 8 year old Ina May Stillinger were also attending the event and without their parents because they were away. After the service ended one hour later at 9:00 PM, the Stillinger sisters asked the Moores if they could stay at their house for the night since they were alone and were too scared to walk home in the dark. The Moore's happily invited them over without a problem. Joe called The Stillinger's residence and asked their older sister, Blanche Marie Stillinger if they could stay at their house for the night. Blanche gladly agreed to let them stay over for the night and told Joe she would notify her parents because they were out for the night.

After Joe told his family that the sisters could stay for the night, they left the Church at 9:30 PM and arrived at their house 15 minutes later. At their home, they ate dinner, ate desert, and then went to bed. Little could anyone on Earth have guessed however, that what would happen to them on that very night, would arguably be considered the most EARTH SHAKING event in History...

On this day, 112 years ago, at 5:00 AM on the morning of June 10th 1912, a day that would change the entire World forever, The Moores' neighbour, Mary Peckham was hanging laundry in her backyard when she noticed that nobody was awake at their house and it was completely silent, which was really unusual for The Moores since they were usually awake at that time. But Peckham decided to just brush it off since she thought they were just sleeping in a little longer. But 2 hours later at 7:00 AM, Peckham realised that the house was just as quiet as it was 2 hours earlier. At this point, Peckham started to grow a little concerned about what was happening and went to The Moore's house and knocked on their door but no one answered. After nobody responded to her knocking, she tried to open their door, but she found out it was locked from the inside. Something was not right and Peckham was getting more worried.