* Trigger warning: Depictions of violence *

On a quiet summer night in 1912, the small town of Villisca, Iowa, was rocked by a brutal crime that would leave a mark on the town’s history forever. The bodies of six members of the Moore family, along with two friends of the children, were discovered axed to death in their own beds; victims of an axe murderer who would be left undiscovered.

On June 9, 1912 the Moore family: Josiah B, Sarah Montgomery, with their children Herman Montgomery, Mary Katherine, Arthur Boyd, and Paul Vernon, were attending the Presbyterian church which was hosting a children’s day program that Sarah had coordinated. 

Before the program had started Mary had invited her friends Ina Mae and Lena Gertrude Stillinger to stay the night at her house since the program would end late and the sisters didn’t want to walk to their grandma’s house in a blackout. Both parents agreed to this and were perfectly fine with the children spending the night at the Moore’s house. 

The church program ended around 9:30, and because the house was very close to the Moore family and the Stillinger sisters decided to walk home between 9:45- 10 p.m. When they arrived, they made the decision that the Stillinger sisters would sleep downstairs in the guest room while the rest of the family slept upstairs in their rooms. The family decided to go to bed fairly quickly, ready for a new day, unaware that the killer was patiently waiting in the attic next to the parents room, ready to make the final blow on the family. 

The killings began in the guest room where Ina and Lena were sleeping. For Ina the killer struck her multiple times in the head with the blunt side of the axe killing her instantly. For Lena the killer continued using the blunt side of the axe, killing her. The only difference between the two was that Lena’s body was moved down the bed, officers believe she was either awake when the killer hit first or that the hit had such an impact on her head that the body slid down. Continuing the killing streak the killer went back upstairs and murdered Josiah and Sarah. For Sarah the killer used the sharp side of the axe instead and hit her multiple times. For Josiah the killer used the blunt side but swung multiple times, even more than what he did to the others, the killer swung the axe so much at the head that gouge marks were left on the ceiling. After he killed Josiah and Sarah he moved on to the room next door where Herman, Mary, Arthur, and Paul were peacefully sleeping, he used the blunt side of the axe again killing the four children. After it was all done the killer left the axe in the Stillinger girls room and left the house with nobody suspecting anything was wrong. 

At 7:00 A.M. On June 10th Mary Peckham, the Moore’s family neighbor, felt that something was extremely odd when looking at the Moore’s house. Peckham was their neighbor for a long time so she knew that the Moore family always woke up early to take care of their chores, so when she saw that the Moores had not done their chores she decided to see if they were home. Mary knocked on their door several times but nobody answered, she then looked through one of the house’s windows but was unable to see anything since the blinds were down. She decided to call Josiah’s brother Ross to come investigate and make sure everything was okay since he knew the family better. Ross arrived at the house a couple of minutes later and tried to knock on the door again hoping for an answer, the Moore’s still did not answer so Ross found the spare key and decided to find them. When entering the house Ross felt an uneasy feeling but still decided to investigate. He grabbed a candle and walked to the guest bedroom. What he found was the two Stillinger sisters dead in their beds, he ran out the house and called the cops from Mary’s phone. 

Before the cops arrived, the town started to discover what had happened and quickly went to the house. Twenty people or more decided to go into the house and see for themselves the horrible crime that had happened. When cops finally arrived the damage had already happened, people who visited the house took pieces of the victim’s skull and touched the murder weapons which threw away the chance of finding the fingerprints of who did it. The town’s cops decided that the situation was too large for them to handle, so they decided to call the national guard.

When the National Guard arrived, the town started to calm down, they were able to tape off the house and begin their investigation. When officers and detectives entered the house and saw the bodies many had to leave the house, immediately disturbed by the image of the family, the faces of the victims were unrecognizable, so much that for the children they had to be identified by the body size and how young they were, and for the guest children they were identified by weight and the bibles on the night stand that had their name. The detectives couldn’t figure out who would do this to the Moore family, they were seen as an honorable family and had no enemies. 

The detectives investigated for many days trying to figure out clues that might lead to who did this crime but many lead to dead ends. Over the years there were a lot of suspects that they found like Reverend George Kelly, Andrew Sawyer, Frank F. Jones, and William Mansfield but every suspect was released and never charged because their story never added up to the murder or they were mentally ill and couldn’t have committed such a crime. During the investigation the story quickly spread around the US. The murder took the Titanic story off the front pages of newspapers and was covered on every news channel around. The detectives still investigated for many years after the crime but came out short handed, they were never able to find the person who did this crime and they never got justice for the victims nor their families. 

As of today the Moore’s house is still standing 113 years later. The new owners of the house turned it into a historical site that allows people to go into the house and learn about the event that changed Iowa’s history. The owners allow tours and even allow guests to spend the night and have a paranormal experience. The Villisca Axe Murder House is still a very important event in Iowa’s history and will never be forgotten, even now in 2025 people are still trying to solve the case and finally give peace to the victims.