This Is The Number One Unsolved Mystery In Iowa And It Will Leave You Baffled

This article from The Day Book, a newspaper in 18th century Chicago, shows Josiah and Sarah Moore, and three of their four children: Herman, Katherine, and Boyd. Herman was 11 at the time of the murders, Katherine was 10, and Boyd was 7. Not pictured is Paul Moore, who was only 5, and the visiting Stillinger sisters, Lena and Ina, who were 12 and 8 respectively.

With how grisly and bizarre the crime was, you couldn't expect the investigation to be anything less than unconventional. In all, there were 3 devious suspects, any of which could have committed this crime and numerous others like it. Pictured here is Henry Moore. While being of no relation to the aforementioned Moore family, he was suspected in the murders and then convicted several months later for the slayings of his mother and grandmother with an axe.

There were a slew of other murders carried out with an axe, before and after the events of June 1912. They shared many details with the Villisca case, and Henry Moore was suspected in as well. The crimes were largely committed along the Southern Pacific Railroad, and although police forces at the time found it unlikely to be the same perpetrator, it remains a possibility.

Also suspected for the crime at Villisca and others like it was William Mansfield. Mansfield's wife, infant child, and his wife's parents were hacked to death with an axe two years after the Villisca murders. Just like the Villisca case, bedclothes were laid over the victims' faces and the windows were covered. A third possibility still is the Reverend George Kelly, who boarded a train from Villisca at 5 a.m. the morning of the murders, and allegedly told fellow passengers there were murders committed back in Villisca before the bodies had yet been found. He would later return to the crime scene impersonating an officer of the law, and then actually confessed to the 8 killings, saying that God had told him to slay the family. The jury was unconvinced by his confession, and Kelly was acquitted.