Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I finally watched the DvD "Villisca- Living with a Mystery" that Stefani loaned me a couple of years ago. I had fallen asleep watching it the last 2 times I attempted it. I think it was the rather slow pace and the quiet narration. Come to find out the filmmaker, Kelly Rundle did the narration. There probably was a reason why the story was presented in low key.

Anyway, my interest was piqued especially when a photo of the town marshal, Horton was shown, and the signature of the photographer was *Churchill.*

After that, being that it was an ax murder with multiple victims, I started looking for things that were familiar to the Borden case:

-*Churchill* took photos
-One suspect was named *Kelly*
-The murder house was at 508 Second Street
-The crime scene was over-run by spectators soon after the discovery
-A Caroline Gage ran the modern local newspaper in Villisca
-Ken Souza and Ed Thibault were named as *Interviews*
-A *Dream Team* was said to be collectively trying a matter in the case
-There was an impression in the hay in one of the outbuildings where it was thought someone loitered, spying on the family
-The villain spent quite some time in the house during and after the murders
-Books, documentaries and a play were written about the crime
-The town of Villisca did not want to discuss the case, nor want to be known for the crime. They abjured their children not to ask about details, as they wanted it forgotten

The axe was weilded not as a bladed weapon at first- but rather the non blade side was used to batter the victims- but Sarah, the wife, was mutilated in the face later by the blade. It was a second attack on her in her bed.
The criminal was thought to have been hiding in a closet until the family retired and came out to attack around midnight.

Near the end of the story they mentioned other ax murders in the state (I think) and in a neighboring state which had unusual parallels.

The documentary needs crime scene photos of the victims and a more urgent tone. This is an unsolved crime. There was no passion- although the Rundels went to a lot of time & expense filming this project (and I certainly could not have done better, altho I'm quarterbacking from the couch..).

I believe the Rundels joined this Forum when they released their video in 2004.

Oh, and the house on Second Street, in Villisca, Iowa, has been made into a museum and is supposed to be haunted!

Interesting post, Kat. Wasn't the main suspect Frank Jones because he was Moore's business rival and Moore supposedly had an affair with his wife? I read all I can on this and the Smuttynose murders.

There was a "psychics investigate" program of recent vintage on the house and the murders, this past autumn, on the Bio or History Channel.
It's surprising, to me, that one of the children didn't manage to escape.
A fortyish, blond psychic investigated. I didn't know who she was. Anyway, she freaked and had to leave.

Thanks for posting this information, Kat. I've not seen the documentary. But I remember reading info about the case and finding it odd that the killer didn't use the blade side for much of the attacks.

Another thing that struck me was the report that all the mirrors had been covered. Did the documentary give a theory as to why someone would do that?

I haven't seen the DVD, but it might have been something to do with lingering Victorian superstitions. They could have been covered because of the belief of the soul departing the body and escaping into and getting trapped in a mirror. Also, it was thought if death was present in a home, the next person to glimpse into a mirror would die also. I'm sure the murderer didn't want that.

I have not heard any theories as to why the mirrors were covered.

There was a more recent treatment on TV which was really good- try to catch it if it comes back on. In that show they said the killer brought a slab of bacon wrapped in material and it seemed like it had been *abused,* as they say. Maybe the covered mirrors had something to do with that activity.

Isn't there a Jewish tradition of covering all mirrors in a house after someone dies? Perhaps it is related to this.

I too thought the film slow paced. I think the filmmakers either had to present the material in this way, without crime scene images, in order to get people to participate, or else they decided to tell the story in the way the town felt it should be told---- that the town didn't want the murders discussed and was granting them the courtesy of doing a soft story.

Either way, it made for a slow show. I would think that the film could never be termed definitive unless the evidence, including crime scene images, were to be shown. A murder like this of children is indeed horrifying, but that is part of the story. One doesn't have to dwell on the blood, or focus in on the horrific nature of the photographs, but I don't think the story can be rightly told without them. The shocking nature of this crime should be allowed to be part of the telling.

Again, I have no idea why the filmmakers decided to take this tact. Perhaps they can tell us!

Speaking of soft narrations that sort of lull you to sleep, the Discovery Channel series on famous crimes---where they recreated them for modern forensics investigators to reexamine (the same company that did Lizzie Borden Took an Axe), used a woman narrator that did that to me too. She was waaaaay too monotone and it was a big distraction for me. I think it was called Unsolved Mysteries or something like that. They did one on the shootout of the OK corral. That one in particular got to me.

A woman's narration can be quite effective, and I have strong memories of a documentary on the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The woman's voice that narrated that film haunts me still. So it can work, but you can't be too quiet, too soft, too monotone. It works against the grain of the story to do so, IMHO.

It seems like there are more and more ax murders going on now days. Everywhere I turn there is news of another ax killing. There was another one earlier this week. I guess the killers didn't have a gun. Maybe we need ax control.

Over twenty years ago there was a young woman who was found walking along a California road completely naked with both arms cut off at the forearms. It turned out that she had been picked up hitchhiking then raped. The guy then chopped off her arms. Fortunately they got that low-life in prison and she is living a "normal" life and has some children.

Covering the mirrors has something to do with superstition. I can't remember the exact reason.

I seem to remember that documentary about that atomic bombs, Stefani. I remember that woman's voice from other shows as well. I'll never forget the creepy feeling I got hearing singer Vera Lynn singing, "We'll Meet Again" as the atomic bomb is detonated at the end of, "Dr. Strangelove." The right voice can work wonders against the right setting. The only thing my voice would be good for is monster movies.

-1bigsteve (o:

I *asked google* and here is a link to folks supposing what the meaning might be of covering mirrors after a death:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 612AArIDm7

I guess we could probably *suppose* as well as anyone else...

The Villisca case is so completely creepy. It's a nightmare come to life. I cannot imagine how paranoid that town must have been afterward. I don't think i could have stayed there.

All the theories on google are interesting. Keeping a mourner's vanity in check during the wake sticks out to me as being a fairly plausible explanation. I think one even mentioned that it was to keep the dying person's attention away from seeing how bad they looked as well.

But if it was a superstition of sorts, where people covered the mirrors so as to not "trap" a soul or keep a soul from passing on, it's awfully strange that the killer/s cared enough about this to do this for them.

There was a medium (I read somewhere) that said one of the killers
(she believed there were two) dragged one of the children around the entire home showing her his deeds before violating and then finally killing her. I can only hope this was not the truth. I hope that all this evil took place so fast, that even the last of the children had no idea what hit them.

Kssunflower & Stefani- YES, it appears you guys are accurate according to a NY Jewish funeral home website:

LOW STOOLS AND COVERING MIRRORS:
As friends enter the house of mourning, they often find that it looks quite different from its ordinary appearance. That is because Jewish law dictates specific alterations as part of Shivah. There are two customs in particular that bear examination:

1. Boxes or low stools in place of, or in addition to, chairs
2. The covering of all mirrors.

What is the purpose of low stools?
It is customary for members of the immediate family to sit on low stools or boxes during the Shivah period. Indeed, it is probable that this practice resulted in the expression "sitting" Shivah.

Why are all mirrors covered?
There is no halachic perscription for covering mirrors. We recall two superstitious fears:

1. The soul of a person in the home might be "caught" in the mirror and snatched away by the ghost of the deceased.
2. Due to the supposed presence of the angel of death, those seeing their reflections might place their own lives in jeopardy.

........................................
If the killer/s had hidden in the home for quite some time before the family came home, they may have gathered the coverings beforehand and taken note of where all the mirrors were. As the manner of death was instant for some of the victims, (and the killer/s were indeed afraid of these superstitions), it would seem to me that he/they would have had to cover them just prior to the attacks.

Another coincidence I thought related to the Lizzie Borden case was the connection of Uncle John Morse. He lived.....and died just 30 miles to the west of Villisca in Hastings, Iowa. Some people at the time thought Uncle John might be connected somehow to these murders also but when they went to Hastings to investigate all they found was a gravestone. Uncle John Morse had died on March 1, 1912. Another coincidence that he died the same year right before the murders.

I just watched "Ghost Stories" on the Travel Channel that had a 30-minute story about the Villisca murders that is meant to be creepy and ghostie. It is repetitive, but we see a lot of the interior- might be worth a look over this Halloween week.

One thing- these sisters (?)- who say they lived there in the 60's and were the last to try to do so- one has brown eyes and the other blue- that's not possible, is it?

It is possible for offspring of the same parents to have either brown or blue eyes. One parent was homozygous recessive (blue), and one parent was heterozygous (brown hiding blue). The cross is represented Bb X bb and each of the offspring has a 50/50 chance of either brown or blue eyes.

The combinations for eye color are BB or homozygous dominant, Bb or heterozygous, and bb or homozygous recessive. BB and Bb individuals have brown eyes and bb individuals have "blue" eyes, which includes gray eyes, green eyes, etc.

My four boys are as follows: brown eyes and straight dark brown hair, hazel eyes and wavy brown hair, ice blue eyes and straight copper colored hair, and dark blue eyes and dark curly hair.

My brothers children are: brown eyes and curly light brown hair, brown eyes and dark brown straight hair, and blue eyes and light blonde straight hair.

I, too, always thought brown eyes were dominant, but I guess I was wrong.

Yooper @ Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:13 am wrote:It is possible for offspring of the same parents to have either brown or blue eyes. One parent was homozygous recessive (blue), and one parent was heterozygous (brown hiding blue).

All possible combinations are also possible if both parents are heterozygous (brown hiding blue).

Sally, you don't say what your own eye color, your husband's, your brother's and his wife's are. From what you say, I don't see how you can say you were wrong.

That's correct Constantine, if both parents are Bb, then the offspring have a 75/25 chance favoring brown eyes over blue.

Sally, dominance relates to one allele masking another. The combination Bb combines the brown allele, B, with the blue allele, b. Because the brown masks the blue when both are present, the brown is said to dominate. Since only one allele is contributed by each parent, a BB individual can contribute only the B, a bb individual only the b, and a Bb can contribute either B or b. I expect that either both you and your husband are heterozygous with brown eyes, or one of you is heterozygous brown eyed and the other is homozygous recessive with blue eyes. This is really an overly simplistic explanation, recent research has determined a separate green eyed gene and a more complex method to determine eye color than previously accepted. They have also determined that two blue eyed parents can (very rarely) have a brown eyed child, which invalidates the cross to recessive as an infallible control method in traits with complete dominance.

With BB=homozygous dominant (brown), Bb=heterozygous (brown), and bb=homozygous recessive (blue) the possible combinations are:
BB X BB -> 100% BB, 100% brown eyes
BB X Bb -> 50% BB, 50% Bb, 100% brown eyes
BB X bb -> 100% Bb, 100% brown eyes
Bb X Bb -> 25% BB, 50% Bb, 25% bb, 75% brown, 25% blue
Bb X bb -> 50% Bb, 50% bb, 50% brown, 50% blue
bb X bb -> 100% bb, 100% blue eyes

The percentages refer to the chance for each offspring individually to have either eye color and are not cumulative.

I'm sorry...I forgot to mention that I and my brother both have blue eyes, and our spouses have brown eyes. Our parents both had blue eyes, and they both had parents who were both blue eyed!

Your husband and sister-in-law are obviously hybrids (Bb). My guess is that other genes account for the hazel eyes and the different shades of blue.

(Also, it has been established that pre-natal environment can have much to do with how a gene is expressed. In some cases at least, the same gene may also be expressed differently depending on which parent it comes from!)

1bigsteve @ Wed Apr 08, 2009 8:53 am wrote:It seems like there are more and more ax murders going on now days. Everywhere I turn there is news of another ax killing. There was another one earlier this week. I guess the killers didn't have a gun. Maybe we need ax control.

Over twenty years ago there was a young woman who was found walking along a California road completely naked with both arms cut off at the forearms. It turned out that she had been picked up hitchhiking then raped. The guy then chopped off her arms. Fortunately they got that low-life in prison and she is living a "normal" life and has some children. -1bigsteve (o:

Lawrence ? Singleton is the one who cut off the girl's arms. Can you believe he was released, beat and killed a woman in a motel ? after serving time ? Creepy guy. He's dead now. I can't recall how he died, but I was glad he did.

stargazer @ Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:55 am wrote:Lawrence ? Singleton is the one who cut off the girl's arms. Can you believe he was released, beat and killed a woman in a motel ? after serving time ? Creepy guy. He's dead now. I can't recall how he died, but I was glad he did.

Lawrence Singleton, died of cancer in a Florida prison hospital; he was 74.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 225792.DTL

Here's are a couple of pictures:

You may find the following links interesting:

http://crimeshots.com/VincentNightmare.html

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/106424_m ... nt30.shtml


I can't imagine going through something as horrible as what Mary went through.

I also found this video of Mary Vincent:

Mary Vincent, no hands, two hooks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjHGCy1F_N4

I just love you guys!
Villisca ax murders, modern victim with arms amputated (no one turns a hair) and the intelligence to explain genetic traits!
Good group we have here!

We are quite an eccletic group aren't we?

SteveS is on to something here, I really get a prickly feeling about this:

"Another coincidence I thought related to the Lizzie Borden case was the connection of Uncle John Morse. He lived.....and died just 30 miles to the west of Villisca in Hastings, Iowa. Some people at the time thought Uncle John might be connected somehow to these murders also but when they went to Hastings to investigate all they found was a gravestone. Uncle John Morse had died on March 1, 1912. Another coincidence that he died the same year right before the murder."

Now, that's some WILD coincidence, doesn't it seem? I mean, here we are exactly 20 years later, the case goes unsolved, it's so similar to the Lizzie case, and out of ALL THE STATES in the Union at the time, he just "happened" to live in Iowa, 30 miles away? I have to think there is some connection here. Was Morse really more involved than we all thought? This is just too coincidental to me -- isn't it plausible to consider that he might have worked with an accomplice all those years to whack people in the FACE (same MO, and the Sarah Moore was axed twice; none of the others were) because he was just a little bit more than "off?" Morse never married, either, not that there's anything wrong with it (HA! ECHOES OF SEINFELD!) but it's a little telling, IMO. Also, remember, "Uncle John" said to Lizzie upon his return, "For God's sake, Lizzie, how did this happen?" To me, that sounds like he's blaming her for letting things go awry in his absence -- I don't know how this all pieces together, but it just can't be a "coincidence," can it? Or not?

I don't know- maybe. There are other tales of murders in surrounding areas- I don't remember how far away from Hastings or Villisca- it may be written on this thread on an earlier posting. Or you could research other killings within a few state radius?

A crime equally as ferocious as Villisca occurred near Macon, Georgia in 1887. The Woolfolk family consisting of a father, mother, six children and an aunt were killed with an axe. Another son was accused and convicted of the murders. He was hung in October, 1890.

Couldn't help but notice that the murders were committed on August 5th.

I agree, Harry, the Woolfolk murders were definitely one of the most heinous of crimes. I did some research on the Woolfolk murders and found several links that I found quite interesting...

BLOODY WOOLFOLK
Author: Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law.
http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profil ... lfolk.html

REMAINS OF MASS MURDER HOUSE FOUND
Author: Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law.
http://www.lawsch.uga.edu/academics/pro ... mains.html

Tom Woolfolk and the Woolfolk Family murders
http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/ogh/Tom_Wo ... ly_murders

Family Woolfolk
This is where the Woolfolk family are buried. Interred here is Richard F. Woolfolk (54), Mattie H. Woolfolk (41), and their six children, Richard Jr. (20), Pearl (17), Annie (10), Rosebud (7), Charlie (5), and baby Mattie (18 months).
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cg ... id=6722879

Thomas G "Tom" Woolfolk
There have been two books written about the murders, Shadow Chasers : The Woolfolk Tragedy Revisited by Carolyn Deloach in 2000 and The Woolfolk Tragedy: The Murders, the Trials, the Hanging & Now Finally, the Truth! by Carolyn Deloach in 1996. The author uncovered much undiscovered evidence and was able to conclude that the actual murderer was Simon Cooper, a hired hand of the family. After Cooper's death, a diary was found that he had written, notating the Woolfolk murders just as Tom had stated. He had also written a statement, "Tom Woolfolk was mighty slick, but I fixed him. I would have killed him with the rest of the d*** family, but he was not at home." Tom was married to Georgia Bird Woolfolk (she was later married to Reuben Lamb and Bryant Holcomb). She passed away June 22, 1932 and is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Macon, always believeing the innocence of her late husband.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cg ... d=10690460

The Murders, the Trials, the Hanging & Now Finally, the Truth!
by Carolyn Deloach in 1996.
This is the first book on the Woolfolk murders that Carolyn Deloach wrote; unfortunately, I couldn't find a book review on it.

Shadow Chasers: The Woolfolk Tragedy Revisited
By Carolyn Deloach
Publisher: Eagles Publishing Company, (June 2000)

Everybody has heard of Lizzie Borden, the young Massachusetts woman charged in 1892 with murdering her father and mother-in-law (both hacked to death with a hatchet), and acquitted by a jury the following year. We all remember the ditty: "Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty whacks, and when the job was neatly done she gave her father forty-one."

Hardly anyone, however, remembers a convicted mass murderer named Tom Woolfolk whose far worse crime, an ax mass murder, occurred in Macon, GA, five years before Lizzie Borden's arrest. The ditty about that crime -- "Woolfolk, Woolfolk, look what you've done; you've killed your whole family and never used a gun" -- has long been forgotten.
http://www.ghostvillage.com/library/200 ... oach.shtml

Wow, Judy, you sure did your homework! Thank you for the web sites. I'm surprised this case is not as well known as the Villisca murders.

I'll have to look into the books.

Again, great post, Judy!

Yes, thank you very much for the links. What a very interesting and sad case. I am imagining it isn't as well known as Villisca or even our own Lizzie because it was "solved". A murderer was found guilty in a court of law and was hanged for the crime. I wonder if we would even know about Villisca or even Lizzie Borden for that matter if a murderer had been found guilty and hung for the crime.

I am glad you all enjoyed the links I posted. I particularly liked the mention of our Lizzie in the last link!!!

I think the pictures of the Woolfork graves, in the Find-A-Grave link that is titled, the Family Woolfolk, are pretty eerie. The write up doesn’t mention who is buried in the ninth grave; although I could be wrong, I am assuming that it is the grave of 84-year old Temperance West, the relative of Mrs. Woolfolk who was murdered along with the Woolfolk family.

I am also surprised that this case is not very well known. In the Shadow Chasers: The Woolfolk Tragedy Revisited link, it is stated that these murders occurred five years before Lizzie Borden's arrest. I wonder if whoever (Lizzie or an outsider) killed the Borden’s knew about this case. If they did know about this case, then perhaps a seed was planted, and with this seed maybe a plan was developed to use a hatchet instead of an axe because it would be an easier weapon to use on Abby and Andrew. Just a thought.

SteveS, I was thinking the same thing… It may not be as well know because it is a solved case. Although, in the link titled, Thomas G "Tom" Woolfolk, it states that author Carolyn Deloach uncovered much undiscovered evidence and was able to conclude that the actual murderer was Simon Cooper, a hired hand of the family. So, perhaps this case isn’t as solved as we might think. I intend to get the two books mention in this link – I’d like to know what the undiscovered evidence is, and see if I came up with the same conclusion as the author.

I agree with you, SteveS; I think we continue to seek knowledge on Lizzie Borden and the Villisca cases because they are unsolved.

Harry, thank you, for the kind words regarding my above post; I appreciate it.

I studied as much as I could about Villisca, and the murders. I should buy the dvd. I think it was Reverend Kelly. The article said that he was mental, never amounted to much, was an insomniac, left handed, fond of young girls, and women, overly eager to become involved in the aftermath, and investigation, had been to church the night of the killings, and that the people who owned the home in which he stayed had slept in a tent, leaving him in the house. He also left town at the crack of dawn, and returned to his wife ?

He was very unstable mentally with emotional outbursts. Mary may have started moaning after being struck with the axe the first time, and he hit her in the face with the blade to silence her. Whoever went into that home must have been there before. I also think he "copy catted" other axe murder details to confuse the investigation. It's too bad that they didn't take the bloodhounds directly to the house where Kelly had spent the night.

I don't think so. Someone said he may have been too short to make those axe marks in the ceiling. I truly think it was that fellow Moore who was suspected of being a serial killer in murders that were done the same way in other places.

Thank you all for adding more disturbing/fascinating mysterious murders to my reading list - gee, I barely have enough time for dear Lizzie.

The mention on one of the Woolfolk sites of the crime scene being a veritable bloodbath got me to thinking (rather morbidly, of course) that it would be interesting to compare the blood spatter evidence in the Woolfolk and Villisca cases with that of the Borden murders... just because I'm curious to see if there are any "trends" in blood evidence for that type of murder.

On the other hand, curiosity has been known to kill the cat.

Well, the rest of that saying goes (which your Mother never told you)...

Curiosity killed the cat
But satisfaction brought it back!

Yes thank you very much for the links, Twinsrwe. I didn't know much about this case although had heard of it, just never researched it before.

It would be interesting to compare blood spatter evidence, Andrea, just to see if there are more similaries to the same types of crimes. I do have trouble taking much stock in blood-spatter evidence even now, and feel it still fits with junk science. I guess because I feel it can be subjective among different so-called experts, and because I've heard of recent cases in which flawed blood-spatter evidence was the basis for overturning some convictions. Sorry I don't have a link right now but I believe some were in NC.

patsy @ Thu Sep 02, 2010 9:15 am wrote:Yes thank you very much for the links, Twinsrwe. I didn't know much about this case although had heard of it, just never researched it before. ...

You're welcome, Patsy. Glad you enjoyed them.

I just watched a show on A & E called my ghost story, it had the Villisca axe murder story on there, as well as a few other stories.

I visited the website of the house, that place gives me the creeps. I think I might take the tour but not stay there.

I've always had interest in Villisca because just a few days prior to the murders, a couple was killed in the same manner in a nearby town (Paola) here in Kansas. A suspect in the Villisca case, William Mansfield, was rumored to have committed the Paola murders also. It is believed by some that Moore's business rival, Frank Jones, hired Mansfield to commit murder.

I read they suspected Mansfield because his family had been murdered in a similar way in Blue Island, IL in 1914.

I found an article in the chicago Tribune of 7/7/1914 about the Blue Isand murders.
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/w ... oduct=CTHA

(Excerpt)



SEEK HALF-WIT AS AX SLAYER OF FOUR PERSONS


KINSMAN SUSPECT, TOO

Casimar Areiszewski a half wit permitted to run at large by the authorities, is being sought by the police as the most probable suspect of all those being hunted as the elusive ax man who entered the Mislich cottage in Blue Island Sunday night and chopped in the heads of four persons. The victims were slain as they slept.


JACOB MISLICH, 66 years old,

MRS. MARY MISLICH, 55 years

old, his wife.

MRS. MARTHA MANSFIELD,

31 years old, his daughter.

MARIE MANSFIELD, 7 months

old, his granddaughter.

The murder was discovered by Jacob Mislich Jr., a son, when he returned home yesterday morning. There was no clew to the crime save the bloody as with which it had been committed.

Son-in-Law a Suspect.

Until early in the afternoon William Mansfield, son-in-law of the aged couple, who was dishonorably discharged from the army following improvement in the federal penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, was credited with being the most likely author of the crime. He deserted his wife more than a year ago.

One Alternative Clew.

There is another theory held by the police, however, and that is that the quadruple murder was the work of the myserious maniacal ax man who was left a trail of fourteen victims across the country is the last two years. There are several features in the Mislich murders which tally with those of all the other crimes committed by him. All of his crimes have been committed Sunday night and discovered Monday morning, which may indicates he is a religious maniac. Robbery has been the motive in none, as all of his victims were in poor circumstances.

This site has information and pictures of various axe murder crimes. There is one they don't have listed. Jacob Neslesla, his wife, their daughter, and the latter's infant child, Chicago, Ill., July 6, 1914.

http://www.millersparanormalresearch.co ... Case42.htm

I understand that Jones probably had the best motive for wanting Moore dead, Moore was a competitor in the hardware and implement business, and Moore was allegedly one of several men Jones' daughter-in-law was "entertaining", but his hiring a transient to accomplish the task seems a bit of a reach. First, if the animosity between Jones and Moore was public knowledge, Jones would have known that he would have been a suspect. He would have lost credibility for being suspected of the crime, and he still had political aspirations as well as credibility as a businessman to consider. Secondly, would Jones pay a transient outright for the crime and expect it would actually happen, or would he expect the transient to wait until the job was done to collect his money while the investigation was being conducted? Neither one sounds plausible. Third, whoever killed the Moores didn't bring his own weapon, he used Moore's axe which was on the premises. Why would someone go there intending to do a job for someone, and expect to get it done without bringing some means to accomplish the task? A hired transient wouldn't be aware there was an axe readily available. I can't argue that it isn't possible, but it isn't the first place I would look.

The MO was strikingly similar to several other murders in the midwest at the time. Families murdered in their homes at night, all having been bludgeoned to death with various implements. Note that the Villisca murders were accomplished with the poll of the axe rather than with the blade. There may well be a reason for that. An axe is a much more powerful implement than a hatchet, the long handle allows a greater velocity with the longer swing arc, and the head of an axe is heavier than a hatchet. The momentum generated by the greater weight and velocity may make it more likely to stick in the target and harder to pull it out if multiple rapid blows are desired when it is used in the conventional manner, striking with the blade. This may imply a familiarity with an axe sticking in a human target, which also implies the murderer was experienced with using an axe on people. Villisca may not have been his first axe murder. One of the murders mentioned earlier was done with a length of gas pipe. If Villisca was part of a series of murders, the murderer wasn't an axe murderer per se, he simply beat people to death with whatever was readily available. He likely would have used a hammer if that's what he came across first at the scene. There was a part of a slab of bacon found near the axe and that almost sounds like a transient wanting to take something with him he couldn't ordinarily get. It might tend to keep a bit longer than other types of food in the early summer, so it might last a couple of days. He may have had second thoughts about it if he feared being tracked by dogs, it would make him very easy to follow, so he left it there. There was a plate of food found in the kitchen, so apparently the murderer planned to spend some time in the house after the murders, or maybe he was simply hungry. This all seems to point to a transient committing a random crime, perhaps part of a series of similar crimes.

Reverend Kelly was a suspect in the murders but he was acquitted in court. A detective named Wilkerson was so adamant that Jones was responsible for the murders that he may have subverted part of the case against Kelly. The grand jury did not indict Jones, so neither one was ever convicted. Jones initiated a slander suit against Wilkerson, probably to recover his reputation. The problem was that Wilkerson simply said that you can't slander someone with the truth, so the burden of proof was on Jones. He now had to prove that Wilkerson was lying about his (Jones') involvement in the Moore murders, he in fact had to prove his innocence! The jury found in favor of Wilkerson and Jones had to pay court costs, which implies the jury didn't believe Wilkerson was lying about Jones, they thought Jones was at least involved in the murders.

Moore had been employed by an existing hardware business which Jones had bought out, he never intentionally sought out Jones as an employer. If he had been the top sales representative for the lucrative John Deere line of implements, he may have had little trouble taking the John Deere franchise with him when he left to establish his own business. I expect this was a relatively common practice in those days, as it is now. In fact, getting the go ahead from John Deere might have been the boost Moore needed to go out on his own. Moore had to realize that Jones would be angry about losing the franchise, but that was just business, and I'm sure Jones would have done the same thing if the roles had been reversed. Moore had to be aware of the relationship between the woman he was seeing and Jones, she was his daughter-in-law, so he must have known this would further antagonize Jones if he became aware of it. Moore seems to have been quite a risk taker! Still, from Jones' perspective, his problem was with Moore directly, not Moore's family, and certainly not with the Stillinger girls. If he wanted Moore dead, he might have engineered a way to send his son out of town and wait for Moore to show up at his son's house. He could have had both Moore and his daughter-in-law dispensed with simultaneously, and the problem is solved.

I'm not sure what to think about Reverend Kelly, he was rather unstable mentally. He said he was up and walking around Villisca at the time of the murders because he couldn't sleep. He had attended the Children's Day program at the church which the Moore and Stillinger children were part of. He left Villisca on an early morning train, somewhere near daybreak, and he allegedly told other passengers there had been eight people killed in Villisca before the murders had been discovered. He was a sexual predator, involving children at times, and the eldest Stillinger girl was said by some to have been suggestively posed in some manner. If the allegation about telling other train passengers about the crime was true, then there's little doubt of guilt. Even without that, the rest seems awfully coincidental. He had confessed under coercion and recanted the confession in court.

Kelly is pretty hard to ignore as a candidate, but for all of his demented behavior, it didn't necessarily make him a killer. Being a minister might tend to excuse his attending a church function. Suffering insomnia might be understandable being away from home, but wandering around at night at a time when the street lights weren't functioning in Villisca was perhaps a bit odd. I think they were turned off as the result of some squabble with the public utilities, but I don't know for sure. I certainly won't attempt to defend the sexual predation of anyone, particularly minor children, but murder is in a different category. I haven't seen anywhere that Kelly was suspected of killing anyone other than the Moores. If the eldest Stillinger girl had been posed in some suggestive manner, Kelly wasn't necessarily the only one who might have done that.

Previous murders with much the same MO are also very coincidental, but they demonstrate a capacity for murder directly. It seems to be a more straightforward correlation than other deviant behavior which was not murder. I guess in this early stage of my reading about the Villisca murders, I have to favor the scenario of a single transient committing a series of related murders, but in a random manner.

I've always thought it was a serial killer, most likely Henry Moore. Plus, Kelly was such a small man I don't think he would have had the nerve or the strength to take on so many people who might possibly fight back. The remark someone made about the bacon sounds very plausible- a vagrant would want to take something like that but then would realize that the scent could attract pursuant hounds.

A couple of other thoughts, first, there are two identified suspects, Jones and Kelly. Both may have had motive, but which one do you eliminate? Both are viable suspects, but barring a connection between Kelly and Jones, at least one of them is innocent, and maybe both. Secondly, if it wasn't for these two suspects to focus on, where would the case be? It would be dealt with as a continuation of the other random murders with the same MO. Maybe that's what it was from the start.

I tend to lean towards a random murder scenario. I think Kelly was coerced into a confession through an all night interrogation session. If Jones did pay Mansfield or someone else to do away with Joe Moore, why were an entire family and two overnight guests also targets, unless they were collateral damage.

Mansfield was found to have been elsewhere working on the job when the Villisca murders took place.

I have to agree that Henry Lee Moore was probably the most likely candidate among the transients suspected. Shortly after the Villisca murders, he killed his mother and grandmother. This directly demonstrates a capacity for murder. He had been released from prison shortly before the Colorado Springs murder, so he was at large during the other similar cases.

I read something about the sheriff placing Mansfield in a car after the grand jury trial, and taking him out somewhere in the countryside, ostensibly to release him. I wonder if he was ever heard from again?

Yooper wrote:I read something about the sheriff placing Mansfield in a car after the grand jury trial, and taking him out somewhere in the countryside, ostensibly to release him. I wonder if he was ever heard from again?

Really? That's creepy. Something out of NCIS.