Lizzie Borden Society Forum

From this website: http://www.villiscaiowa.com/the-suspects.php

The work of serial killer?

There existed a strong possibility that a serial killer was actually at work and Wilkerson's case against Mansfield actually suggested the same. M.W. McClaughry, a federal officer assigned to the Villisca case actually announced in May of 1913 that he had solved not only the Villisca murders but 22 others that had been committed in the Midwest around the same timeframe. McClaughry's theory was that Henry Moore, no relation to Josiah Moore, was the serial killer responsible for all of the crimes.

Henry Moore was actually convicted of the murders of his mother and maternal grandmother in Columbia, Missouri just months after the murders in Villisca. Moore's family members were killed just as brutally as the victims in Villisca and his weapon of choice was an axe.

Henry Lee Moore was born November 1, 1874 in Boone County, Missouri. He was the eldest son of Enoch and Georgia Ann Wilson Moore. There were three other sons born of the couple. Henry's father was a farmer and served in the Civil War. His mother was a nurse. Two of Henry's brothers, Tilden and Turner Moore as well as his father passed away before 1910. Henry's remaining brother, Charles died in 1960 in Stockton, California. Charles left the area prior to the deaths of his mother and grandmother and did not return for the trial. It was unknown whether or not he was aware of the situation.

In 1900, Henry was living with a family in Franklin County Iowa and working as a farmhand. It is suspected that Henry may have fathered a child with the young daughter of the farmer. Henry was sentenced to the Kansas State Reformatory in in Hutchinson Kansas on a forgery charge and was released on April 11, 1911. The murders in Colorado Springs occurred in Sept of the same year. Testimony during Henry's trial indicated that he had lived with his mother and grandmother during the winter of 1911 and the summer of 1912. He left to take a job on the railroad.

Henry Lee Moore served 36 years of a life sentence before being paroled by the govenor of Missouri on December 2, 1949. The govenor commuted his sentence on July 30, 1956. Henry Moore was 82 years old and had been living at the Salvation Army Center in St. Louis. It is unknown when he died or where he was living at the time.

During the Villisca investigation, other axe murders also came to light. Just 9 months before the crime in Villisca, H.C. Wayne, his wife and child and Mrs. A.J. Burnham and her two children were bludgeoned with an axe in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

A month later, in October of 1911 a family was killed in Monmouth Illinois and just a week later, five members of a family in Ellsworth Kansas were murdered as they slept. Just a week before the killing of the Moore's and Stillinger's in Villisca, a man and his wife were killed in Paola, Kansas. The similarities in the crimes were striking.

McClaughry received information about Moore's conviction from his father who was the warden of the Leavenworth Kansas Federal Penitentary. It was his belief that Mr. Henry Moore had committed all of the murders. For whatever reason, McClaughry's announcement went largely ignored and to our knowledge, Henry Moore was not convicted of any of the other crimes.


"Similarity of Case To Colorado Horror"

Colorado Springs, Col., June 15, 1912 -- Police officials who are in constant touch with the Villisca authorities find added parallels in the Moore and the Burnham-Wayne murders, which are difficult to explain by the theory that the same person or persons committed both crimes. In Villisca the murderer strung skirts and aprons across the windows to prevent any one from looking into the house. At the Wayne and Burnham homes bed spreads were stretched across the windows.

In Villisca, he covered the heads of the victims with bed clothing, wiped the blood from his axe and removed the stains from his hands and clothing; and this, too, was the case here. Here, as in the Iowa town, the doors were locked, an unfastened rear window in each instance affording an means of entrance for the ax man.

Here's another link to information on the Villisca case:
http://docublogger.typepad.com/villiscamystery/

What does covering the victims signify? Perhaps the killer is ashamed of his work?

One other thought, a plate of food was found in the kitchen of the Moore house and that might be important. It might tend to indicate the murderer had no place better to be than in the house, maybe it was more of a risk to leave the house for some reason. Ordinarily we might expect a murderer to commit the crime, then leave as quickly as possible, for home or somewhere else. This individual may not have had anywhere else to go if he was a transient, and he might have been stopped if he was discovered wandering the streets.

Yooper wrote:One other thought, a plate of food was found in the kitchen of the Moore house and that might be important. It might tend to indicate the murderer had no place better to be than in the house, maybe it was more of a risk to leave the house for some reason. Ordinarily we might expect a murderer to commit the crime, then leave as quickly as possible, for home or somewhere else. This individual may not have had anywhere else to go if he was a transient, and he might have been stopped if he was discovered wandering the streets.

That kinda knocks out the paid killer theory too, who gets paid to kill someone then sit's down to eat after the deed? I lean toward the serial killer and it sounds like they connected all the right dots and came up with the right guy.

I think most of the hypotheses concerning a hired killer center around transients being hired. One problem with that is; when does the transient get paid? Why would a transient, handed a wad of money, actually take the chance of committing a murder if he was paid before the fact? Why would he trust getting paid at all if he first committed the murder? Half before and half after raises both questions simultaneously, but why not take half the promised amount and beat feet?

Someone hired to kill one person wouldn't have taken it upon themselves to murder the whole family and a couple of extra children. That just doesn't make sense either. Even if both adults were on the list, surely the children wouldn't have been on the hit list.

Killing everyone in the house would ensure no alarm would be raised right away. It would allow the maximum time for an escape. It is completely inconsistent with a plate of food being found in the kitchen. If Josiah Moore was the intended victim, there may have been better places to murder him without involving everyone else. I have to wonder about Moore, he almost seemed to want to antagonize Jones.

I wonder if there was any truth to the rumor that he had an affair with Jones daughter-in-law.

I read somewhere that local telephone operators were responsible for the allegation of an affair with Jones' daughter-in-law, but I haven't seen any documentation. It was apparently a widespread rumor that Moore was not the only man involved, but he was the one most frequently involved. Still, without proof, it's just a rumor.