A Real, Unsolved Ax Murder in Iowa

I am a citizen of Villisca, and proud of our community and our citizens who are hard working and supportive of many projects for the good of all. I take great offense at the depiction of a writer who drops by probably for an hour at the most and then depicts our town as "droopy" with a "dreary past". Did she bother to learn about anything else but the axe murder?

I highly doubt she did. I myself am studying to be a History major and this case has fascinated me. I would love to learn more about the city but my main interest would be on the Villisca Ax Murder.

It is very sad to know that this man (or possibly a woman...can't be sexist) would commit such a crime and get away with it. These poor helpless children did not deserve to be murdered, even though I was not born back then, I do wish he was caught and brought to justice. But as I tell myself, God knows who it is, and it's all up to him to judge.

Someday I do wish to go up there and visit, hopefully it was will soon.

I'm sorry it offends you, and I'm sure it gets irritating to know that many tourists only come because of the house.

I like droopy towns. Lazy, sleepy, slow, quiet, backwoods, lost in time, off the beaten path, all of them.

I lived in Villisca for several years, just a few houses from the "Ax-Murder" house. It wasn't a big deal back then....just an interesting, sad story from the past. Don't take offense at the 'droopy' term. Probably not meant in a bad way at all.

I was raised in Clarinda. I never heard about the Axe Murders! What year did this happen? Where can I find documentation about the murders? So sad.

Ex-Small towner wrote:

I was raised in Clarinda. I never heard about the Axe Murders! What year did this happen? Where can I find documentation about the murders? So sad.

june 9th 1912 ! there is books about it and movies !

It's a very sad, yet interesting story, only because they never discovered who did it.