Mary Peckham stands on her Villisca, Iowa porch observing an "odd stillness" at the Joe Moore family house next door.
A Timeline Detailing the Day the Villisca Axe Murders were Discovered - Part Two
By Tammy Rundle
7:00 am:
Mary Peckham notices that the Josiah B. Moore house, the home just east of hers in Villisca, is uncharacteristically quiet. No one answers when she knocks and calls. Mary tries to open the front door but it is locked. She hears the chickens behind the house and lets them out. Then she calls Joe's sister-in-law Jessie to find out whether the family was visiting Joe's parents.
Mrs. Glackmeyer sends her children to Joe Moore's to invite Paul and Boyd to a birthday party for their daughter who is 5 years old today.
7:30 am:
Joe Stillinger's wife tries calling the Moore house three different times during the morning to find out what was keeping their daughters Lena and Ina. They were supposed to be home for school.
Jessie Moore receives a call from Mary Peckham around 7:30 and Mary asks if Joe Moores' father C. C. was alright, and she notes that Joe and his family are not up and around their home as usual. Jessie calls Joe's hardward store employee Ed Selley to see if Joe is at work. Ed says no. He offers to call the family of Joe's wife Sara (Montgomery) to see if they are visiting there. Selley calls Jessie back and reports the Moores are not visiting the Montgomerys.
Mary Peckham calls Joe's brother Ross Moore at about 8:15. She asks if anything is wrong with Joe's parents.
Ed Selley receives a call from Ross Moore asking where Joe is. Selley then calls Joe's mother (on the Mutual phone) looking for Joe, but she says he is not there.
Selley receives a call from Mary Peckham asking for Joe. He tells her Joe is not at the store. Mary asks him to come down and feed Joe's horses at the house.
Villisca Marshall Hank Horton stops at the Villisca Post Office before going in to work at City Hall.
8:00 am:
Ed Selley leaves the Moore Implement Store and walks to Joe Moore's house. After feeding the horses, he goes back to the store and sends a fellow employee named Carl to milk Joe's cows.
Ross Moore arrives at his brother's house and looks in the barn. He notices that the horses have been fed. He and Mary Peckham walk to the north window of his brother's house (the sewing room), he raps on the glass, and hollers out for Joe. The blinds are drawn to the sill and they can't see into the house.
Mary calls Ed Selley again and tells him to get Marshall Hank Horton. She tells him that she and Ross are going to try to get into Joe's house.
Ed Selley looks out the storefront window and sees Horton standing outside City Hall. He walks over to Hank and asks him to accompany him to the Moore house. Ernie Peckham, Mary's son, tags along as does Joe's brother Harry Moore.
Ross Moore takes a set of keys from his pocket. He tries several skeleton keys in the lock until one opens the east front door of the Moore house [the Moore house has two front doors--the other faces south and enters the kitchen. Mary Peckham enters the house with Ross Moore. They step into the parlor and fasten the dining room door open. Ross pushes open the downstairs bedroom door and sees blood on the sheets. He immediately exits the house bringing Mary with him.
As Horton, Selley, Ernie, and Harry arrive they see Ross and Mary coming out the front door. Ross says he thinks, "something is terribly wrong in there." Selly and Horton enter the house through the open parlor door.
As they enter, Hank notes, "It's dark in here," and Selley lets up the blind on the south parlor window.
They enter the downstairs bedroom and Hank strikes a match before crossing the tiny room and lets up the shade on the north window. He sees a kerosene lamp at the foot of the bed with a missing chimney. They both see blood on the sheets of the bed that sits head to the north along the west wall. An axe is leaning head down against the west wall near the foot of the bed. Selley exits the house. Selley said, "I was scared there, I admit it." He said, "Hank, I'll get out of here. Those were the words I used. I remember them very well."
Horton enters the kitchen and turns to climb the stairs. He says, "it was as dark as night." At the top of the stairs, and the foot of Joe and Sara's bed he sees another lamp without a chimney. He lets up the shade on the north window and sees blood splashed up over the head of the bed and on the washstand beside the bed. Looking up he observes a two inch long slice in the ceiling over the bed. Hank sees a pair of women's shoes on the south side of the bed. One is lying on its side with blood visible on the sole and on the inside. Joe's shoes are also on south side of the bed.
Horton then turns south to enter the children's room. He lets the shade up and sees a bed in the southeast corner with a girl in it, a boy in another bed in the northeast corner, and two younger boys in a double bed in the northwest corner [he mistakes them for little girls]. He only pulled down the bed sheets and observed their remains.
Hank makes his way back down the steps and into the kitchen where he sees the children's shoes and a hat lying on the table.
Horton exits the house and locks the door behind him. He says to Ross Moore, "There is someone dead in every bed."
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