Dark Enigma - Villisca Axe Murder House mystery

Please be aware the stories, theories, re-enactments and language in this podcast are of an adult nature and can be disturbing, frightening and in some cases offensive. Listener Discretion is advised – there is very adult content ahead and you have been warned.

Welcome heathens welcome to the world of the weird and unexplained. I’m your host, Nicole Delacroix and together, we will be investigating stories about the weird, wonderful, unexplained, eerie, scary and down-right unbelievable. There will be tales of ghosts, murder, supernatural beings and unexplained mysteries. So, sit back, grab your favorite drink, relax and prepare to be transported to today's dark Enigma....

And on today’s Dark enigma since we’re all coming off a holiday weekend and none of us feel like working, I thought I’d pull out another quick one for you guys, so as always, we will be playing our drinking game and as you know, the drinking game is only for those of us that are at home and have nowhere else to go tonight. The choice of libation is up to you, so choose your venom accordingly… Alright, now for the game part how about every time I say Axe that will be a single shot and every time I say Villisca, that’s a double shot. Ok, now that the business end is out of the way we can jump headfirst into today’s double dark enigma… and the Villisca Axe Murder House mystery!

At the end of a quiet street in Villisca, Iowa, there sits an old white frame house. Up the street, there are a group of churches, and a few blocks away is a park that faces a middle school. The old white house looks like many of the others that fill the neighborhood, but unlike them, it lies abandoned. The house emits no light or sound, and upon closer inspection, the doors are found to be tightly boarded up. A small sign out front reads: “Villisca Axe Murder House.”

Despite its ominous air, the little white house was once filled with life. Life that was harshly stamped out one warm summer’s night in 1912, when a mysterious stranger broke in, and viciously bludgeoned its eight sleeping inhabitants to death. The event would come to be known as the Villisca axe murders and would baffle law enforcement for over a century.

On June 10, 1912, the Moore family was sleeping peacefully in their beds. Joe and Sarah Moore were asleep upstairs, while their four children were resting in a room down the hall. In a guest room on the first floor were two girls, the Stillinger sisters, who had come for a sleepover. Shortly after midnight, a stranger entered through the unlocked door (not an uncommon sight in what was considered a small, safe, friendly town), and plucked an oil lamp from a nearby table, rigging it to burn so low it supplied light for barely one person. On one hand, the stranger held the lamp, lighting the way through the house. In his other, he held an axe.