Villisca Axe Murder House — Six Children and Two Adults Bludgeoned, Killer Never Found

On the night of June 9-10, 1912, eight people were found murdered in their beds with an axe in a modest home in Villisca, Iowa. The victims included Josiah and Sarah Moore and their four children, plus two young houseguests who had attended a church event with the Moore children the night before.

The killer entered the house while the family slept and killed all eight with a single axe found in the house. Every mirror in the home had been covered, food had been prepared on the stove, and kerosene lamps had been modified to burn slowly through the night — details that suggested planning and a period spent in the house. Despite multiple suspects and two trials, no one was ever convicted of the murders.

In the years since, the Villisca house has developed a reputation for intense paranormal activity. Investigators and overnight guests report objects moving, children's voices, apparitions seen in doorways, and the sound of children playing in empty rooms. The activity is often concentrated in the children's room where the Moore children and guests died.

The house is now operated as a museum and offers paranormal investigations. It has been the site of over 20,000 paranormal investigations and is considered one of the most active sites in the American Midwest. In 2014, a paranormal investigator was stabbed by another investigator during an overnight stay, adding a modern layer of violence to the location's history.