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The Villisca Axe Murder house is a Queen Anne Victorian house in Villisca, Iowa and was the site of the horrific murder of the Moore family and two guests on the night of June 10th 1912. The crime's nature was reportedly so brutal that it took the sinking of the RMS Titanic off the front page of the newspaper.
The family consisted of Josiah B. (aged 43), Sarah (née Montgomery) (39), and their four children: Herman Montgomery (11), Mary Katherine (10), Arthur Boyd (7), and Paul Vernon (5). On June 9, 1912, Mary Katherine Moore invited Ina Mae (8) and Lena Gertrude Stillinger (12) to spend the night at the Moore residence.
The killer had supposedly hid in the attic, as two spent cigarettes were found there, and had come out between midnight and 5 a.m. The killer attacked the parents first with Josiah receiving the most blows out of any victim, Sara Moore was the only one hit by the blade of the axe as the killer used the blunt end on all the other victims. The next victims were the Moore children that slept in the upstairs bedroom and the last victims were the Stillinger girls in the bedroom on the first floor, it is speculated that Lena Stillinger was awake when she died as she was lying crosswise on her bed with a defensive wound on her arm.
All mirrors within the house were covered up with sheets and an axe mark can be found on the wall in the master bedroom. The axe used for the murders was found in the guest room by a 4lb slab of bacon that had been taken out of the icebox after the killings.