Villisca Axe Murder House Essay

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It was a very normal, very boring night when eight people, six of them kids, were brutally bludgeoned to death while they peacefully slept in their Iowa home. June 10, 1912 is a day that brutally changed Iowa history forever. The Villisca Axe Murder House is still a very popular tourist attraction and a hotspot for paranormal activity. 1912 was a very bad year for America. The main event on all of the front pages in the papers was the sinking of the Titanic, but this tragic event that happened in this little Iowa farm town took that off the front pages for a few weeks. (Ghost Adventures Episode) Villisca, like many other midwest towns, thrived on agriculture and animal products. With a population 1,252 in 1912, it is no New York. But a tragic …show more content…

The Moore family, who owned this residence, consisted of parents Josiah and Sarah and four children Herman (8), Paul (6), Boyd (4) and Catherine (7). Friends of Catherine, Lena and Ina Stillinger were staying over the night of the killings because Catherine invited them to earlier that night. (Villisca Ax Murder House) A few hours before the murders, the Moore family and the Stillenger girls were at an evening service at the church. The Moore’s were always active in the church. The kids would read sermons and the parents were serving deacons. That night a traveling preacher, George Kelly, was reported acting very strange around the Moore’s. After the Moore’s returned, they ate dinner and went to bed. The two Stillenger girls slept in the downstairs guest bedroom. Sometime between midnight and 3:00, the killer emerged from the guest bedroom closet with Josiah Moore’s axe and went straight up stairs. First, he hit Josiah twenty to thirty times with the blade of the axe. He was hit so many times that his eyes were missing. Then he murdered Sarah by hitting her just as many times with the blunt end of the

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