Murder House

The Villisca Axe Murder House in Iowa is one of the scariest places on earth. It is also known as one of the creepiest unsolved mysteries of modern times. An entire family was brutally killed and their murderer was never caught.

The story of the Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa, begins one hot summer evening in 1912. At the time, a family by the name of Moore lived there. The family consisted of the father, JB Moore, the mother, Sarah Moore and their four children, Herman, age 11, Katherine, age 9, Boyd, age 7 and Paul, age 5.

On the 9th of June 1912, the Moore family attended an annual Children’s Day event at their local church. After the event finished, Katherine Moore met two of her friends, Lena and Ina May Stillinger (aged 12 and 8) and invited them back to her house to spend the night. As the family went to bed that night, they never suspected that they would not live to see the morning.

The next day, the neighbors noticed that the house was strangely quiet and they became suspicious when none of the children came out to do their chores. They let themselves into the house to investigate and found a horrible scene inside. The parents and the six children had all been brutally murdered as they slept in their beds. The killer had caved in their heads with an axe until they were unrecognizable.

The police were immediately called and the horrible news travelled quickly around the small town. The story was almost too terrible to believe. While the family had been getting ready for bed that night, they had no idea that a crazed killer was lurking in a closet with an axe, just waiting for them to fall asleep.

Sometime after midnight, he came creeping out of his hiding place and went from room to room, murdering the sleeping parents and children. A bloody axe was found downstairs in the guest bedroom, where the Stillinger sisters had been sleeping.

After the murders, the killer went around covering all of the victims’ faces with sheets or clothing. He also covered all of the windows and mirrors in the house. He stayed in the house for a while, made himself a sandwich, then escaped into the night.

Unfortunately, the killer left very few clues and the police had little to go on. In the end, the person who committed the gruesome crime was never found and today, the case of the Villisca Axe Murders remains an unsolved mystery.

Over the years, the Murder House had many owners and tenants. In the 1930s, a young couple were living in the house. The wife began hearing noises during the night and had the feeling that there was someone in the house. One night, she awoke to see the shadowy figure of a man holding an axe standing at the foot of her bed. She became hysterical and her husband had to stay awake and watch over her at night so that she could get some sleep.

In the 1960s, the Murder House was rented by a married couple with two daughters. The girls would often be awoken in the night by the sounds of children sobbing and crying. Sometimes, they found their clothes strewn about their bedroom, hanging from the mirrors and windows. The girls shared their experiences with their parents, but they were met with disbelief. One evening, their father was sitting at the kitchen table sharpening his pocketknife. Suddenly, the knife flew out of his hand and stabbed him in the arm. That very night, he told his family to pack their things and they moved out.

In 1994 a husband and wife purchased the famous Villisca Axe Murder House and restored it to the condition it was in at the time of the murders. According to local people, the ghosts of the victims and the killer still remain in the house.

Ghostly footsteps have been heard walking up the stairs that lead to the bedrooms. The same stairs the killer walked up back in 1912. There have been sightings of 2 ghostly little girls in white dresses in one bedroom. People who sleep in this room say they are awoken during the night by the ghost of a man holding an axe standing at the foot of their bed.