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Villisca: The True Account of the Unsolved 1912 Mass Murder That Stunned the Nation
In 1912 what was arguably the most violent crime, the darkest mystery, in Midwest history took place. Law enforcement officers encountered a scene of unimagined violence: eight victims, six of them children, bludgeoned to death with an ax while they slept. Everywhere there were clues. But inexperienced investigators failed, and private detectives took over. When Detective James Newton Wilkerson charged that a respected state senator had been motivated to the unthinkable by the promiscuity of his daughter-in-law, the community was drawn into a bitter and accelerating struggle between powerful men. And then a deranged and perverted minister confessed. . . .
416 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 27, 2016
There's nothing like a good ol' axe murder to haunt the conscience of a nation. It seems that the Great Plains are home to many such hatchet-based crimes, though Lizzie Borden's famous "forty whacks" were taken in New England. An axe murderer is a rare breed. Having been around a courthouse and seen a progression of criminals, you find that most killers have acted in a fit of pique, what is termed flash violence. It is the rare few - the true sociopaths - who premediate and plan and execute. This is why first-degree, premediated murder is at the top of the heinous hierarchy. An axe murder, by its very nature, is the work of someone suppressing the basic human instinct against killing. It has none of the informality or distance of a firearms crime. Instead, it is close, brutal, and intimate. You don't kill with one blow; usually, it takes a few swings to get it right. The time it takes allows for contemplation, and only the truly deranged can keep on hacking, after seeing the results of that first blow.
During the night of June 9-10, 1912, someone broke into the home of J.B. Moore, a local scion of Villisca, Iowa. During the course of that break-in, with the moon blocked by some clouds, 8 people were hacked to death with an axe: J.B., his wife, their four children, and two neighbor children.
It was impossible to know exactly what happened. Even has forensics been anything more than rudimentary, a veritable troupe of neighbors, deputies, physicians and gawkers had passed through the crime scene. The bodies were all found in bed, their faces smashed in. It didn't appear, except in the case of one of the children, that any of the victims had even moved - which was odd, considering the gouge marks in the ceiling were made by the back-swing of the axe. Later their would be rumors of sexual assault - even that the killer had digitally penetrated one of the little girls post mortem; however, the examining physician found no sign of rape or attempted rape.
This is not a marvelously written, polished book. Instead, it is one of those small-press releases written by an unknown guy who has a passion for a subject and who has exhausted all the sources. You can tell that he is rigidly hewing the historical line, with few inferences or flights of supposition. This means that you aren't going to get that vicarious, guilty thrill you get from reading other true crime books. Indeed, if you want to get those chills, you should check out the Villisca murder website, which distills everything you learn in this book down to its gory essence.
However, I have a soft spot for the little author who takes his hobby horse and turns it into something tangible. The book starts with a fairly boring, if well researched biography of the J.B. Moore family. This later becomes important, since one of the suspects was a former state senator named Frank Jones, and it is possible that the murder was the result of tangled business interests. Still, this possible web is not nearly as captivating as the crime itself, which is as detailed a reconstruction as you are likely to find, especially considering the discreteness of early 20th century testimony.
After the set up and the crime comes the search for suspects. There is former Senator Jones; there is cocaine fiend William Mansfield, believed to have axed his family two years after Villisca; there is serial killer Henry Moore, who was thought to have been involved in 25 axe murders; and finally, there is the nutty Reverend George Kelly, who gave a coerced confession that didn't manage to hold up in court. Kelly was charged with the murder and acquitted on the second trial. No one was every convicted of the crime.
Marshall does a detailed and thorough job discussing each and every one of these suspects. Such a good job that you are likely to be thoroughly bored by the end. I know I was. There was simply too much information and too little drama. A better editor would have been appreciated. There is a summary at the start of the book to keep everybody straight. That said, while I never got lost, I did get bogged down.
I also found it interesting that Marshall has no horse in this race. He doesn't really pick a suspect he thinks did it. This is in keeping with my earlier mention of the research done on this book. It's as if the author thought that making a supposition would cheapen his collection of verifiable facts. To the contrary, I would've appreciated some conjecture on the part of a man obviously as well-versed as anyone on this subject.
This book is four-stars because it is the go-to book on this subject. That's just the way the stars work (for me, that is). It is sometimes dry, sometimes clunky, and has its share of typos. If you are looking for solid history, this is it; if you are looking for something a bit more sensationalistic - and I think if you are a true crime fan, you are, and really, isn't that the point of true crime? - you probably won't enjoy this as much.
During the night of June 9-10, 1912, someone broke into the home of J.B. Moore, a local scion of Villisca, Iowa. During the course of that break-in, with the moon blocked by some clouds, 8 people were hacked to death with an axe: J.B., his wife, their four children, and two neighbor children.
Doctors agreed the time of death to have been about midnight, or perhaps shortly thereafter. The window curtains were all closed over except for two without curtains; these were covered with clothing and cloth batting belonging to the occupants...The bedcovers were drawn up to cover the entire bodies of the victims; the only exception being the arm of Lena Stillinger...Underwear under the bed was stained with blood wiped from the ax or the killer's hands. The ax was old, rusty, not particularly sharp...It had blood on it, and lint, indicating it had been wiped with a cloth. There were markings of blood smeared on the sheets downstairs, where the weapon or hands of the killer had been wiped...There were gouge marks in the upstairs ceiling, both in the parent's and children's rooms. There was a pool of blood at the top of the stairs...There was a bowl of bloody water and a plate with a small amount of food on the kitchen table.
It was impossible to know exactly what happened. Even has forensics been anything more than rudimentary, a veritable troupe of neighbors, deputies, physicians and gawkers had passed through the crime scene. The bodies were all found in bed, their faces smashed in. It didn't appear, except in the case of one of the children, that any of the victims had even moved - which was odd, considering the gouge marks in the ceiling were made by the back-swing of the axe. Later their would be rumors of sexual assault - even that the killer had digitally penetrated one of the little girls post mortem; however, the examining physician found no sign of rape or attempted rape.
This is not a marvelously written, polished book. Instead, it is one of those small-press releases written by an unknown guy who has a passion for a subject and who has exhausted all the sources. You can tell that he is rigidly hewing the historical line, with few inferences or flights of supposition. This means that you aren't going to get that vicarious, guilty thrill you get from reading other true crime books. Indeed, if you want to get those chills, you should check out the Villisca murder website, which distills everything you learn in this book down to its gory essence.
However, I have a soft spot for the little author who takes his hobby horse and turns it into something tangible. The book starts with a fairly boring, if well researched biography of the J.B. Moore family. This later becomes important, since one of the suspects was a former state senator named Frank Jones, and it is possible that the murder was the result of tangled business interests. Still, this possible web is not nearly as captivating as the crime itself, which is as detailed a reconstruction as you are likely to find, especially considering the discreteness of early 20th century testimony.
After the set up and the crime comes the search for suspects. There is former Senator Jones; there is cocaine fiend William Mansfield, believed to have axed his family two years after Villisca; there is serial killer Henry Moore, who was thought to have been involved in 25 axe murders; and finally, there is the nutty Reverend George Kelly, who gave a coerced confession that didn't manage to hold up in court. Kelly was charged with the murder and acquitted on the second trial. No one was every convicted of the crime.
Marshall does a detailed and thorough job discussing each and every one of these suspects. Such a good job that you are likely to be thoroughly bored by the end. I know I was. There was simply too much information and too little drama. A better editor would have been appreciated. There is a summary at the start of the book to keep everybody straight. That said, while I never got lost, I did get bogged down.
I also found it interesting that Marshall has no horse in this race. He doesn't really pick a suspect he thinks did it. This is in keeping with my earlier mention of the research done on this book. It's as if the author thought that making a supposition would cheapen his collection of verifiable facts. To the contrary, I would've appreciated some conjecture on the part of a man obviously as well-versed as anyone on this subject.
This book is four-stars because it is the go-to book on this subject. That's just the way the stars work (for me, that is). It is sometimes dry, sometimes clunky, and has its share of typos. If you are looking for solid history, this is it; if you are looking for something a bit more sensationalistic - and I think if you are a true crime fan, you are, and really, isn't that the point of true crime? - you probably won't enjoy this as much.
July 9, 2008
Ach! What kind of vanity job was this one?!?! Typos, grammatical errors, paragraphs with gigantic indents, no footnotes, no sense of style.
January 22, 2013
this book is the Cass County Reads pick of the year. I've always been curious about the details of the unsolved 1912 mass murder of the Moore family & two visiting girls. This book is tedious to read because it is so detailed and repetitive. But the author lays out all the details AS they were discovered and explored throughout the years. This reinforces my thought that I'd hate to be on a jury -- as details are uncovered, it is SO hard to know what to believe!
pg. 31 no state police; pg. 33 Wilkerson either solved the mystery or laid waste to many lives.... pg. 43 Rev Kelly -- strange character. pg 45 possible serial murders from Colorado to Illinois 1911-14. pg. 62 possible affair between Joe Moore and Dona Jones. pg. 65 investigated by the Postal Service and Secret Service - possible lace peddler as suspect; pg. 77 Kelly took bloody shirt to laundry in Co Bluffs. Pg. 109 mental eval in DC because while in So. Dakota he talked about murders all the time and said he did it. pg 113 Sunday murders. Wilkerson meets Mansfield. Pictures in center of book. Pg. 285 description by Kelly of murders to someone in Macedonia. pg. 325 Kelly talked about details before murders were discovered. pg. 376 Wilkerson was charged of adultery, felony in Iowa at the time, punishable by up to 3 years in prison. Pg. 384 - Wilkerson gave up detective work, law, or elective office.... Bought remains of purported Booth and lectured on conspiracy of killing Lincoln... Pg. 385-386 Letha Jones left Vilisca... In 1971-72 the author tried to call her with his doubts about Wilkerson’s theories -- she hung up on him -- and died at age 92 and was buried in Villisca.
pg. 31 no state police; pg. 33 Wilkerson either solved the mystery or laid waste to many lives.... pg. 43 Rev Kelly -- strange character. pg 45 possible serial murders from Colorado to Illinois 1911-14. pg. 62 possible affair between Joe Moore and Dona Jones. pg. 65 investigated by the Postal Service and Secret Service - possible lace peddler as suspect; pg. 77 Kelly took bloody shirt to laundry in Co Bluffs. Pg. 109 mental eval in DC because while in So. Dakota he talked about murders all the time and said he did it. pg 113 Sunday murders. Wilkerson meets Mansfield. Pictures in center of book. Pg. 285 description by Kelly of murders to someone in Macedonia. pg. 325 Kelly talked about details before murders were discovered. pg. 376 Wilkerson was charged of adultery, felony in Iowa at the time, punishable by up to 3 years in prison. Pg. 384 - Wilkerson gave up detective work, law, or elective office.... Bought remains of purported Booth and lectured on conspiracy of killing Lincoln... Pg. 385-386 Letha Jones left Vilisca... In 1971-72 the author tried to call her with his doubts about Wilkerson’s theories -- she hung up on him -- and died at age 92 and was buried in Villisca.
December 28, 2015
This is the true account of a rural family of six and their two young house guests who were hacked to death in their beds while they slept over 100 years ago. The murderer was never caught. This is no In Cold Blood, but it's still a page-turner. If only it had been better edited it would be worth four stars.
December 17, 2017
This book deeply saddens me for two reasons:
1. Whatever the motive, six innocent children lost their lives through no fault of their own and to this day their horrific murders have not been solved.
2. The book is in terrible need of a good round or two of thorough editing, given the numerous punctuation errors alone in addition to missing words. The victims of this awful crime deserve better.
The story itself is compelling and is one of those that we can not look away from, given the sensationalism of it all and the fact that so many of the victims were children. We will, in all likelihood, never know who the perpetrator(s) was/(were). I wish that were not the case. They deserve justice and just about everyone involved in investigating the crime was kind of worthless at various times throughout. I understand, the technology needed to solve the crime did not exist yet and most wouldn't for decades. But come on, common sense here: why were so many damn people allowed to traipse through the house while the victims still lay in their beds? Why were so many lookie-lous allowed to HANDLE THE MURDER WEAPON? I mean seriously, FFS, this never stood a chance of being solved.
I purchased this book after embarking on an adventure to Villisca with a friend. We visited the home and spent quite a while there, as well as the museum downtown owned by the Linns, and part of the tour took us out to the cemetery where the Moore family and Stillinger girls were buried.
I can state 100%, unequivocally, without a doubt, the home is haunted. This is not surprising, given the horrific trauma the home witnessed. As my friend and I explored the home with maybe a handful of other tourists, I snapped several pictures. I had no issues whatsoever with my camera on the first floor of the home where the kitchen, pantry, parlor, and bedroom were located. The first floor bedroom is where the Stillinger girls died.
As we moved up the stairs, I began to feel lightheaded and headachey. I began to feel this intense pressure as I stood on the landing at the top of the stairs where Josiah and Sarah Moore's bed had been, where they too died. There was a narrow passage that could barely be called a hallway, where to the left a door opened into the attic. Straight ahead was the bedroom where the Moore children had slept. I felt drawn to the attic and attempted multiple times to take photos of the space. My camera refused to cooperate. This problem did not occur at any other time during the entire tour. In the end, with dozens of pictures of every other room in the house, both upstairs and downstairs, I managed to finally get two or three of the attic. After heading back downstairs, I had to get out of the house. It was not until I stepped out into the bright October sunshine that the headache and lightheaded-ness went away. The pressure was different, it was more of an overwhelming sadness. I will not go back to the home ever again.
When one looks at the information in this book and the main suspects, it is easy to see that no a single one of the suspects fits perfectly. Kelly was quite insane I'm sure, but enough to murder 8 people on what he thought was a command from God? And Jones, if he was so furious about Moore's competing business or the rumored affair Joe was having with Jones' daughter-in-law, why have the children and Moore's wife killed also? Or was that something the hired killers decided on their own when they'd gone to kill Joe but someone else had woken and would have been able to identify them? And who on earth would ever think it be possible to sneak into a house full of 8 people and murder only one? None of it makes sense, and I don't think it ever will.
Please allow for one more side-note about the book. I purchased it several years ago on the aforementioned visit a friend and I made to Villisca. A couple years after that I began dating a guy who was also interested in paranormal events and I told him about my trip to the house. I had not begun the book at that point, and I am not sure why. Something about the cover really spooked me. I let him borrow it and for weeks it sat on his coffee table, face down. The cover kind of spooked him too. He'd begun reading it and one night as we were going to sleep, the book was sitting on his nightstand. In the middle of the night I woke up to use the rest room and noticed he was sleeping, on his back, with something clutched tightly to his chest. Using the light from my phone, I shrieked in my half-asleep state that woke both of us quickly. He looked down and saw the Villisca book on his chest and without thinking, threw it across the room, startled. He had no memory of waking at any point, nor had no idea why he would have been holding the book so tightly. He'd gone to sleep at the same time I had, turning out the light with no reading beforehand. In the morning he told me I could take the book home with me, he had no intention of ever reading it after the events during the middle of the night. I didn't blame him one bit. I took the book home, keeping it face-down always, but I could not get rid of it. I shoved it in a box and did not read it for years, until today. The cover spooks me still and I don't think that feeling will ever go away.
1. Whatever the motive, six innocent children lost their lives through no fault of their own and to this day their horrific murders have not been solved.
2. The book is in terrible need of a good round or two of thorough editing, given the numerous punctuation errors alone in addition to missing words. The victims of this awful crime deserve better.
The story itself is compelling and is one of those that we can not look away from, given the sensationalism of it all and the fact that so many of the victims were children. We will, in all likelihood, never know who the perpetrator(s) was/(were). I wish that were not the case. They deserve justice and just about everyone involved in investigating the crime was kind of worthless at various times throughout. I understand, the technology needed to solve the crime did not exist yet and most wouldn't for decades. But come on, common sense here: why were so many damn people allowed to traipse through the house while the victims still lay in their beds? Why were so many lookie-lous allowed to HANDLE THE MURDER WEAPON? I mean seriously, FFS, this never stood a chance of being solved.
I purchased this book after embarking on an adventure to Villisca with a friend. We visited the home and spent quite a while there, as well as the museum downtown owned by the Linns, and part of the tour took us out to the cemetery where the Moore family and Stillinger girls were buried.
I can state 100%, unequivocally, without a doubt, the home is haunted. This is not surprising, given the horrific trauma the home witnessed. As my friend and I explored the home with maybe a handful of other tourists, I snapped several pictures. I had no issues whatsoever with my camera on the first floor of the home where the kitchen, pantry, parlor, and bedroom were located. The first floor bedroom is where the Stillinger girls died.
As we moved up the stairs, I began to feel lightheaded and headachey. I began to feel this intense pressure as I stood on the landing at the top of the stairs where Josiah and Sarah Moore's bed had been, where they too died. There was a narrow passage that could barely be called a hallway, where to the left a door opened into the attic. Straight ahead was the bedroom where the Moore children had slept. I felt drawn to the attic and attempted multiple times to take photos of the space. My camera refused to cooperate. This problem did not occur at any other time during the entire tour. In the end, with dozens of pictures of every other room in the house, both upstairs and downstairs, I managed to finally get two or three of the attic. After heading back downstairs, I had to get out of the house. It was not until I stepped out into the bright October sunshine that the headache and lightheaded-ness went away. The pressure was different, it was more of an overwhelming sadness. I will not go back to the home ever again.
When one looks at the information in this book and the main suspects, it is easy to see that no a single one of the suspects fits perfectly. Kelly was quite insane I'm sure, but enough to murder 8 people on what he thought was a command from God? And Jones, if he was so furious about Moore's competing business or the rumored affair Joe was having with Jones' daughter-in-law, why have the children and Moore's wife killed also? Or was that something the hired killers decided on their own when they'd gone to kill Joe but someone else had woken and would have been able to identify them? And who on earth would ever think it be possible to sneak into a house full of 8 people and murder only one? None of it makes sense, and I don't think it ever will.
Please allow for one more side-note about the book. I purchased it several years ago on the aforementioned visit a friend and I made to Villisca. A couple years after that I began dating a guy who was also interested in paranormal events and I told him about my trip to the house. I had not begun the book at that point, and I am not sure why. Something about the cover really spooked me. I let him borrow it and for weeks it sat on his coffee table, face down. The cover kind of spooked him too. He'd begun reading it and one night as we were going to sleep, the book was sitting on his nightstand. In the middle of the night I woke up to use the rest room and noticed he was sleeping, on his back, with something clutched tightly to his chest. Using the light from my phone, I shrieked in my half-asleep state that woke both of us quickly. He looked down and saw the Villisca book on his chest and without thinking, threw it across the room, startled. He had no memory of waking at any point, nor had no idea why he would have been holding the book so tightly. He'd gone to sleep at the same time I had, turning out the light with no reading beforehand. In the morning he told me I could take the book home with me, he had no intention of ever reading it after the events during the middle of the night. I didn't blame him one bit. I took the book home, keeping it face-down always, but I could not get rid of it. I shoved it in a box and did not read it for years, until today. The cover spooks me still and I don't think that feeling will ever go away.
October 22, 2018
Interesting but there are so many errors and there are no sources cited. Therefore, for all I know, Marshall could've just been making up his own version of what happened. This is a case that has interested me since childhood, but I want to read something with some sources.
April 17, 2012
Captivating book, HORRIBLE editing.
December 13, 2022
This is a very dry version of the Villisca murders. The prose is stilted at times, and reads like a textbook. The most interesting part was at the end when the author was coming up with theories. He was ruling out several, and said he ruled out a serial killer. The logic he used was unsound, and based on an “introduction to profiling” class he took: note that he did not become a profiler, only completed the intro course. He stated serial killers plot and plan, thus did not happen in this case. He ignored the hay in the barn hideout where it was clear someone had been watching the family for a bit of time. He states they are more likely to kill on their own turf, yes if you look up railway killer, you will get multiple results on known serial killers that used trains as a mean to get from place to place. Other illogical fallacies occurred in that, and then the author reached for paranormal as one of the lesser known possibilities for the killer. 😒 all while quoting Sherlock Holmes. Overall, not super impressed with this book. It does have a lot of details, including letters sent and received that correlate to the case. But the last chapter threw me so much that it turned an okay book it one I disliked.
October 8, 2025
Finished this one. Unfortunately it left a lot to be desired. The first maybe quarter of the book was actually about the incident itself. The rest was all about the numerous court cases and other random events that took place for the following years after the actual event. It was very long winded and repetitive and imo not very well written. This felt like more of a log of notes vs. a story and could’ve been chopped down a bit. It was very monotonous and boring at times. This was also poorly edited as there were numerous misspellings, typos, spacing issues, and grammatical errors literally on every page. While the mystery remains unsolved the story of “who dunnit?” and all of the investigations of the time was interesting. Wild to see how rumors and conspiracies influenced so much of human behavior way back then just as they do now. Despite the subject matter being interesting, this book just has so much going against it. Won’t be keeping it. 2/5 ⭐️⭐️
November 24, 2020
2.5 stars. I’ve always been intrigued by this story, and while I give this book a low rating I’m glad I read it. The beginning is good and the ending is good but the parts in between I was bored to tears. The author could’ve left a lot of that out or summarized it a little differently, but then I guess the book wouldn’t of been long enough? But I am shocked that the ending that I liked so much in which the author gives his opinion on what he thinks actually happens, was left out of the original publication. I can’t imagine that because I probably would’ve given it one star if that last part had not been in there.
October 23, 2022
I’ve always been fascinated by this case, I live 5ish hours from the house and it’s a huge spectacle around here. People believe the house is haunted. When I found this book I was so excited. But it was such a disappointing read. No sources, grammatical errors, formatting issues, spelling errors… it’s like it wasn’t even edited before being published. I couldn’t finish it, it was that bad and I’m disappointed I spent money on this. I was so excited to learn more about it.
June 30, 2023
The book had some interesting things but to me it was way to wordy and droned on and on just get to the facts at hand and stick with important facts I lost track of who was who and the book is supposed to be about the murders and who they think did it but it was more like someone just writing to write and dragging it out !
I truly got bored 🥱
I truly got bored 🥱
May 11, 2025
In 1912 the town of Villisca in Iowa woke up to the news that an entire household had been bludgeoned to death overnight. This book sets out the facts and explores what happened. It was an interesting case, a real mystery for officials of the time.
September 15, 2018
Very hard to finish. I tried, so hard. Really I did. In the beginning it was interesting but there’s just too much stuffed into it to make it interesting to finish.
May 25, 2020
An interesting read that would have garnered more stars if the editing had been better. I was too distracted by the missing words, spelling mistakes and bad grammar.
October 4, 2022
Non-fiction, a lot of information, details, and people.
September 3, 2023
The book was very good and interesting and would recommend the book to anyone
September 27, 2024
The editing in this book is horrible. Tons of spelling & grammar errors made it difficult to finish.
November 4, 2025
Such an interesting topic, but the book was not well written.
February 20, 2022
This is an interesting account of the Villisca murders of 1912. It features a detailed account of the trials of the accused at that time and the various tactics of authority figures behaving badly back then. I found it interesting. I do find it odd for a book to be published with so many spelling errors, spacing errors and just very weird sentences missing words or just the wrong ones.
December 5, 2016
I am finally done! This book is not well written. While the topic is interesting, it was way too drawn out. I don't think it was necessary to quote so many things. In the end all we know is that 8 people were brutally murdered on a Sunday night in 1912 with an ax. The investigation was a joke and they never found a credible suspect.
July 2, 2008
This book gives a good account of the circumstances and suspects surrounding Iowa's largest mass murder. Some of the "facts" seem more based on conjecture, but overall, this is an interesting tale and a good account of life in rural Iowa in the early 1900's.
February 7, 2012
This book at first was awesome, I couldn't put it down. Then as the book goes on, I couldn't pick it back up. I still have not finished it but I love it. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes these kinds of books.
November 29, 2015
I found this book initially very interesting but it was also extremely repetitive and could have been shortened. I would like to read another book about the crime and compare them but I think this is the only book there is. It's so sad this crime was never solved. :(
wishlist
April 24, 2009For some reason I can't recall now, I read about the murders in Villisca online and became interested in them.
Read
September 1, 2012This is also one of the most shocking crimes in america,, next to serial killer henry holmes...
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews