Villisca axe murders

Active: 1912–1912
Region: Villisca, Iowa, USA
State: IA
Kind: Mass
Status: Unsolved
Victims: 8

Around midnight on the night of June 9-10, 1912, eight people were killed with an axe as they slept in the home of Josiah and Sarah Moore in Villisca, a small town in southwest Iowa: the Moores, their four children, and two young sisters, Lena and Ina Stillinger, who were staying the night. A neighbor raised the alarm the next morning, and townspeople crowded through the house before it was secured. Nearly ten years of investigation, grand jury hearings and two trials followed, but no one was convicted. The case is unsolved, and the house is now a historic site.

Ask the Atlas about this case →

Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Josiah B. "Joe" Moore, 43 · June 10, 1912
A well-known Villisca businessman who ran his own farm-equipment business.
Sarah Montgomery Moore, 39 · June 10, 1912
Herman Montgomery Moore, 11 · June 10, 1912
Mary Katherine Moore, 10 · June 10, 1912
Arthur Boyd Moore, 7 · June 10, 1912
Paul Vernon Moore, 5 · June 10, 1912
Lena Gertrude Stillinger, 11 · June 10, 1912
Staying the night with the Moores; sources give her age as 11 or 12.
Ina May Stillinger, 8 · June 10, 1912
Lena's younger sister, also staying the night.

Timeline of locations

June 10, 1912
Moore house (Villisca Axe Murder House) (Crime scene)
All eight victims were killed in the Moores' house. It was restored in the 1990s, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is open to visitors.

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.