The Villisca Axe Murders: 1912 Tragedy

[dannye_chase]

 

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On this day in 1912, eight people were murdered with an axe in their home in Villisca, Iowa. Josiah Moore (shown above), and his wife Sarah, along with their four children and two neighbor children, were killed in their beds by a person who has never been identified. And I mean never—the internet doesn’t even have a favorite suspect.

I used to live in Iowa, and I have actually been to the “Villisca Axe Murder House,” now a museum and historical site, and a frequent host to ghost tours. Visitors are free to leave their mark on the rafters in the barn, writing messages which range from the usual names and dates to oddly creepy warnings like “Don’t stand on your head in the kids’ room.” On my visit I was struck by how little has changed, though Iowa has traveled more than a century into the future: at the end of our tour, we were discussing suspects and expressing sympathy for the victims, exactly as people have been doing outside that house for over 100 years.

Check out the blog post for the whole story and some creepy writing prompts, such as:

Nobody woke up

So this part is almost true. There’s evidence that only one person in the house woke up before being murdered: one of the neighbor girls downstairs. Everyone else was killed in their sleep, probably starting with the parents. But that’s quite a feat considering eight sleeping people were in just 3 rooms. Neighbors reported hearing some inconclusive sounds, but nothing that would cause alarm. The crime wasn’t discovered until a neighbor noticed the house was silent at breakfast time. 

Now, murder with an axe is not nearly as loud as murder with a gun. (Ronald DeFeo of Amityville infamy claimed to have drugged his family before shooting them, which is why they didn’t wake. No evidence of sedatives was found, however.) As far as writing a story goes, it is extremely creepy to think of someone killing eight people essentially soundlessly. Your story could have multiple killers, a really experienced killer (most likely the real answer to the mystery), or victims who have been drugged, poisoned, or gassed. Perhaps neighbors could be threatened to keep quiet until morning (or nasty neighbors could even be paid off). Paranormal explanations for quiet killing include a spell or magical/cursed item that removes sound, a ghostly killer, a supernatural disease that kills quickly, or a killer so demonically horrifying that victims freeze in silent terror when they see him.

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