The 1912 Villisca Axe Murders Blog

Ask Ed: How did the Villisca Axe Murderer Light His Way?

The Villisca murder ax and a lamp taken from the crime scene on June 10, 1912 as evidence.  This is the only Villisca "crime scene" photo known to exist.

We recently received the following query via VilliscaMovie.com for Villisca axe murder historian Dr. Edgar V. Epperly.  We have our own thoughts regarding the theory/questions below, and we will share those in a future post. --Kelly Rundle, Director, Villisca: Living with a Mystery

Dr. Epperly:

 

I am new to the [1912 Villisca axe murder] case but have already got a few questions for you.

 

First off, is it plausible that the killer's way was lighted, not by his own hand, but by Mrs. Moore? It may be that she left lights burning at the foot of the beds so that the children, if need be, could use the chamber pot without doing so in the dark. The killer may have blown the lamps out when the deed was done, in the process of leaving the dark bedroom upstairs, kicked the glass chimney causing it to roll under the dresser.

 

Secondly, do you believe the killer closed all the windows after the fact, or the Moores?  Why would the windows be closed by the family, being June, would it not have been too hot for the windows to be closed?  And why would the killer close the windows after the killings?  It seems the fear of being heard or discovered would have passed by then.  It seems rather odd that he closed the windows after the killings.

 

Next, I am curious as to why the body of Mrs. Moore was not examined for signs of sexual assault, or was it? It would seem that she would have been the intended target of such an assault rather than the Stillinger child, if indeed such an assault was premeditated at all.

 

Do you believe the murderer even knew the two Stillinger girls were downstairs at the instant of the attacks upstairs?

 

In my line of thinking, it would seem that the killer had chosen this house at random. He would have been a drifter, unable to maintain a steady job, thus traveling much. He would have watched the house from an outbuilding, and probably thought there was only the Moore family to contend with. He observed them leave for the Church function, and made his way into the house to find food, not to murder.

 

He would have taken the ax for protection in case he was discovered. He would have made a plate of food, and prepared to eat, when, he heard the children coming up the steps on the porch. He would have dashed upstairs to the attic to hide.

 

The Moores never even saw the plate of food sitting out. He heard them settle in for the night, then crept out and killed in order to not be caught or killed for the burglary.  He made his way back to the kitchen, where he thought it too risky to eat the plate of food, and decided to grab a slab of bacon on his way out.

 

The eldest guest had heard the event upstairs, and heard the killer come down to the kitchen.  She got out of bed to investigate, and startled the intruder in the kitchen.  He swung the ax hitting her arm, and she ran back to the bed, where he caught her as she tried to slide down under the covers, and dashed her.

 

He returned to grab his food, and became curious as to whether this victim was an adult or child, returned to the room with the bacon and ax, then examined her genitals.  He wiped the ax, not to remove prints, but because it had become slick from blood, and nearly came out of his hands during the initial mayhem.

 

Once it was wiped down, he returned to each victim to ensure he wouldn't be startled again, bashing again and again. This being done, he merely wiped the ax off in case he needed it again.  He was in the home when he heard the neighbor tussling about preparing to do her wash.

 

In a hurry, he left through the door once he thought it safe.  He entered the Moore house to scavenge for food, and left empty handed, empty bellied, and having committed eight killings just to keep from going to prison again.

 

Please let me know your thoughts on this sir.

 

Thank You,

Troy

 

 

Dr. Epperly's response:

 

Troy:

 

Officials first on the scene in Villisca, reported a lamp in the downstairs bedroom and another upstairs in Joe and Sara's room.  Downstairs the lamp, whose chimney had been removed, was sitting on the floor at the foot of the Stillinger girls bed.  Upstairs the lamp was also unlit and most observers reported it was on a lamp stand, although at least one person remembered it being on the floor.

 

I am very doubtful the Moore's would have left a burning lamp on the floor.  Newspapers of that day were full of tragic stories of death, injuries, and fires resulting from mishandled lamps.  I do suspect the family might have left a burning lamp on a table in another room, to reassure the young girls sleeping downstairs.

 

Consequently, I believe the killer placed the lamp on the floor, after the Stillinger girls had been killer.  It was to conceal this light that the murderer went to such pains to cover all windows, including the glass in the front doors.  It was also from this light that he was able to gaze at the semi-nude Lena Stillinger in her final repose.

 

All of this is of course speculation, but I am quite sure the killer needed some light to move through the house on what was a very dark night in Villisca.  If the parents hadn't left a lamp burning I am confident the killer found and lit one before he struck.

 

Turning to your question regarding who closed the windows?  I suspect the windows were closed by the family when they went to bed, if they had been open that day.  It was quite cool that night and there was a threat of rain.

 

Reports from the U.S. weather station in Corning Iowa, some 20 miles east of Villisca reported a high of 64 degrees and a low of 52 with a trace of rain on June 9,1912.  The Moore's also did not have screens on their windows.  Therefore I suspect it was only the hottest weather that caused them to open their windows to the insects outside.

 

If they had not closed their windows to the chill the killer did so when he was drawing the shades.  We know that all but two windows were locked when the murder was discovered.  We also know that neither of these two unlocked windows could have been used by the killer for entrance or exit.  One had an intact spider web that would have been broken had the window been opened.  The other was blocked by a sewing machine.

 

Thank you for the interesting questions.  I hope this information helps.

 

Ed Epperly

Ask Ed: Connection Between Senator Jones and Murder Suspect?

Dr. Edgar Epperly is the foremost historical authority on the 1912 Villisca axe murder mystery.  Think you can stump him?   Submit your question today.

What tangible link between F. F. Jones and William Mansfield did Detective Wilkerson forge? -Bill, Northern Ireland

Edgar V. Epperly: The simple answer is none, but perhaps I should offer some evidence to support that assertion.

In the spring of 1914 James N. Wilkerson arrived in Villisca posing as a Texas land agent. Actually, he was an operative of the Burns Detective Agency investigating the axe murder incognito. His first reports to the Iowa Attorney General’s office were wildly speculative and revealed no coherent theory guiding his initial investigations. One of his more colorful speculations was that the killer had committed the murder in the nude which explained why no bloody clothes hampered his escape.

Wilkerson’s nosing into the case soon led him to the widespread local suspicion that prominant Villisca citizen and Iowa State Senator F. F. Jones (photo on left) was somehow behind the outrage. By the early summer of 1914, Detective Wilkerson had focused his interest on Jones and began to windrow the hundreds of rumors into a coherent, if improbable, case against Jones. All he lacked was a murderer.

In a rare stroke of luck, another major axe murder hit the public press during the summer of 1914. On July 5th Jacob Mislich, his wife Mary, daughter Martha, and her infant daughter Marie, were murdered in their beds in the south Chicago suburb of Blue Island. Initial speculation linked William (Bill) Mansfield, estranged husband of Martha to the murder. Police investigated Bill’s whereabouts at the time, but were satisfied with his alibi that he was working in a Milwaukee packing house when the killer struck.

Wilkerson was not so easily satisfied. He visited the scene and reported that the two cases were practically identical. From that point on Wilkerson insisted that Bill Mansfield was the perpetrator of both murders, and he began to refer to Mansfield as "Blackie."

Working behind the scenes, Wilkerson (photo on left) developed an elaborate theory that pictured Mansfield as the primary murderer with two supporters added just in case Bill faltered. Harry Whipple, a part time coal miner and day laborer from the Carbon, IA, area, and his young brother-in-law John Oviett were the two helpers hired to stand behind Mansfield.

By 1916 when Wilkerson laid his case before the general public he had this trio of murderers meeting in Villisca on Saturday, June 8, to case the house. That inspection on Saturday morning was followed by a Saturday night meeting with F.F. Jones in the rye field behind Joe Moore’s house.

Unfortunately for Wilkerson, Bill Mansfield was able to prove, with both written records and sworn testimony, that he was working in Montgomery, IL, during both the week before and after the Villisca murder. It was also an embarrassment that the Blue Island murder had been solved in 1915 by a confession from Casimer Arezewski, an immigrant who had boarded with the Mislichs. Casimer confessed the crime and was identified as being seen in the area the day before the murder. On this evidence he was convicted and incarcerated in a Illinois mental hospital.

Contrary to Wilkerson’s accusations, Mansfield (photo on left) was never suspected of using drugs, could not be placed in Villisca at anytime and never laid eyes on F. F. Jones. Standing four square for the union movement, Mansfield spent his life as a labor organizer for the packing house workers union. He died in the 1950s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, honored by his union and unacquainted with Frank Fernando Jones.

Photo at top: Edgar Epperly at the "Double Talks" event in Ames, Iowa at the Des Moines Area Community College campus in January 2008. (Fourth Wall Films)

Ask Ed: How Did Killer Gain Entry in 1912 Villisca, Iowa Axe Murder Case?

For the uninitiated, during the 10-years we spent working on the Villisca: Living with a Mystery documentary project, we published a newsletter called the Villisca Journal to keep supporters informed of our progress...or lack thereof.  : )

One of the newsletter's most popular features was a column called Ask Ed.  Readers submitted questions for historian Dr. Edgar V. Epperly as we hope you will, too.

Ed has researched the still-unsolved mystery since 1955 and is considered the foremost historical authority on the case.  There are few questions posed on the case that can stump him.  We invite you to try.  Send your queries to Villisca@aol.com.

ASK ED: "In the 1912 Villisca Axe Murder case, how did the murderer gain entry to the house?" (name of questioner withheld because...we don't remember who asked the question!)

ED: We are a good deal more confident of how the killer got out of the house than how he got in. The early investigators found all of the exterior doors locked and the kitchen screen door was hooked from the inside when they arrived. All windows but two were also locked from the inside. Close inspection revealed that the two unlocked windows had not been used for either entrance or exit since one was blocked by a sewing machine and the other had an unbroken spider web that showed it had not been opened. Consequently, it has always been assumed the killer sealed the house and left through the front door which he closed and locked. Since the front door key appeared to be the only thing missing after the murder, it is further assumed the killer took the key with him.

Turning to your harder question, “How did the murderer enter the house?” we are not so sure of the correct answer. Burns Detective James Wilkerson produced a witness (Ed Landers) who testified Albert Jones “walked right in” the front door about 8:30 p.m. on the murder night, supposedly to place William “Blackie” Mansfield in the upstairs closet where he could await the family’s return from church. Reverend George Kelly, the other primary suspect, says in his confession that he found the ax in the back yard and, following God’s command, (he) “went around towards the front door.” Both these witnesses suggest the killer entered the front door finding it unlocked. Unfortunately both these witnesses are flawed. Ed Lander’s wife was walking with him that Sunday night and she denied seeing anyone walking in front of them or entering the house. Reverend Kelly later repudiated his confession and the jurors at his trial agreed with that repudiation.

Police and detectives during the early investigation were all convinced it was a wandering killer who had entered through the kitchen door at the rear of the house. After all the ax was picked up in the back yard so it would be logical for the killer to enter the house through the back door. This entry would have been facilitated by the relative isolation of the Moore’s back yard. There was only a barn and vacant lot north of the Moore house with houses to the east and west at least partially screened by bushes.

Therefore most people assume the killer picked up the ax in the back yard and let himself in through the back door. Since there was no evidence the back door had been forced open, he probably found it unlocked. I have not heard nor read of the back screen being damaged and am quite sure it was not cut.

The moral of this story seems to be that even in a small town it pays to lock your doors at bedtime.

Ask Ed: Did an Affair Lead to Iowa's Worst Mass Murder?

Why are people so sure that Joe Moore and Dona Jones [left] were having an affair?  L.T., Carson, Iowa

(Note: Josiah Moore, known to friends as Joe, was a victim of the 1912 Villisca axe murders along with his wife, four children, and two visiting girls.  Senator Frank Jones was considered by many to have hired the killings in response to a fierce business rivalry and an alleged affair between the murdered man and Jones' daughter-in-law.)

In a small town everyone knows what everyone else is doing.  There are always a thousand eyes on the street, and this means there are five hundred tongues to wag.

Beyond the almost impossible task of concealing an affair in a town of two thousand, Joe used the telephone to arrange his trysts with Dona.  During these calls, Joe would ask to come down and Dona would accept or deny the request with such responses as, "come on down, he's not here," or "don't come now, he's home."

In that day of telephone operators, able to eavesdrop on every conversation, it was inevitable that the Central girls would tell their friends, who in turn had friends--within hours, everyone in town heard the juicy rumor.

Beginning in October of 1911, about a year after her marriage to Albert Jones, Dona began accepting phone calls and visits from Joe Moore, and at least two other men.  In one instance, Albert Davie, a young insurance salesman, was paying Dona a private visit when husband Albert came home unexpectedly.  A fight ensued and the telephone was knocked off its stand.  Thinking a call was coming in, the operator made the connection and overheard the scuffle which culminated in a gunshot.  Jones had drawn a bulldog pistol and shot off Davie's thumb!

The next week's Villisca Review carried a story telling how Albert Davie nearly lost his thumb because it was caught in a harness ring when his horse reared, but everyone in town knew that it was really a case of a husband coming home at the wrong time.

These liaisons and shenanigans would never have been more than rumors had it not been for the 1917 grand jury investigating the Villisca axe murders.  The telephone girls were all questioned under oath, telling again how Dona arranged to meet local swans, of whom Joe Moore was by far her most frequent caller.

Dr. Edgar V. Epperly

Villisca Street Light Mystery

(Dr. Edgar Epperly, the foremost authority on the Villisca ax murder case, responds to a question from an audience member before a Muscatine, Iowa screening of "Villisca: Living with a Mystery".)

During the decade we were making "Villisca: Living with a Mystery" we published a newsletter called the VILLISCA JOURNAL to update supporters on  our progress.  One popular feature was a column called "ASK ED" wherein readers were encouraged to pose puzzling questions regarding the axe murder mystery to Dr. Edgar Epperly.  We are hereby reviving the feature for this blog!  Do you have a question for Ed?

"Why were Villisca's street lights out the night of the murders?"  Lynn L., Milwaukee, WI

The Villisca town council had for months been engaged in an acrimonious dispute with the Villisca Public Service Company, a private electric utility.  The dispute involved better lighting and the replacement of light poles in the business district.  This push for upgraded lighting coincided with the laying of brick on Third Avenue in 1911.

The bickering went all the way to the District Court, so the power company played its ace in the hole by turning off the city lights--coincidentally on the night of the murders of the Josiah Moore family and the two young Stillinger girls.  They were turned on again Monday night, as the murder overshadowed the petty dispute that had pulled the plug.

I doubt the lack of street lights had any effect on the murder.  Joe Moore still used Kerosene lamps in his house, so the only possible effects would be to make it easier for the killer to roam the streets undetected.  One of the more fantastic rumors was that the city had commissioned the killers as a means to force the power company to turn on the lights.

The more interesting question is how the killer moved about the darkened house.  Apparently, he used a chimney-less lamp which is really a glorified candle.  That is a very dim light.  Believe me, I have been in darkness in the axe murder house, and it is not easy to see one's way from room to room!

Dr. Edgar V. Epperly