Inquiring minds want to know: Whodunit?
Epperly presents research on Villisca ax murders
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WEBSTER CITY -- On June 10, 1912, eight people were discovered dead in a home in Villisca, Iowa.
Each had been killed by blows from an ax.
To this day, nobody has been convicted of the crime.
Edgar Epperly, like so many others, found the case fascinating. He began a lifelong passion of researching it, then wrote a book about the infamous crime. On Saturday, he spoke to a full room about the murders and his book, "Fiend Incarnate: Villisca Axe Murders of 1912."
Carolynn Miller, church coordinator of the Mulberry Center Church in Wilson Brewer Park, introduced him with a challenge for the audience.
"We have great minds here," Miller said. "You can figure it out."
By the standards of today, the investigation was a mess and the forensics rather primitive.
"One of the doctors lifted and then dropped one of the bodies," Epperly said. "He estimated the time of death by the degree of rigor mortis."
There were also only a few people that got to see the scene before it became a tourist attraction.
"Four doctors, the coroner and the city marshal got in before it was overrun by local people," Epperly said. "They estimated there were a thousand people on the lawn and the street. People stood on the porch peering in."
One local pool hall owner was reported to have taken a piece of broken skull.
"When he sold the pool hall, the new owner found a piece of skull in a box," Epperly said.
Those that discovered the bodies found a scene straight out of a horror movie.
"They had been struck in the head by an ax," said Epperly. "There was an ax in the room and beside it a slab of bacon leaning against the wall. All of them were covered completely. Each victim has a facecloth over their face. Everyone was struck in the head. There were no injuries to anyone below the neck. It was a big ax; it blew the little children's heads apart. Then he went back and mutilated the parents."
The authorities called in some help.
"They called in a fingerprint expert from Leavenworth, Kansas," Epperly said. "He was so drunk he couldn't get off the train."
The audience had plenty of questions.
"Chopping somebody up makes a lot of noise," one person stated. "The kids wouldn't sleep through that."
"Kids sleep the sleep of the righteous," Epperly said. "They can and will sleep through just about anything."
One of the victims was put on display, a lamp was nearby and a mirror had been hastily covered with a sheet nearby.
"There's a strong sexual and rage component," he said. "That might explain the covering of the mirror."
So who actually did it?
One suspect, who later sued for libel, was a local banker named F.F. Jones, who was less than popular and had a motive.
"One of the victims was having a relationship with the daughter-in-law of the banker," Epperly said. "How did people know that? They knew because they arranged their meetings on the telephone and phone operators talked."
Jones was quickly ruled out.
That left William Mansfield, a German immigrant from Blue Island, Illinois, and the Rev. Lyn Kelly.
"He was a Methodist minister, he was mentally unstable, he was a diagnosed schizophrenic and he was really drawn to seeing naked women," said Epperly. "He was in town the night of the murder and was once heard to say, 'A man can starve to death working for the Methodists.'"
Kelly also sent odd letters later with information that perhaps only the killer would know.
"He said the woman sat up when she was struck and that the killer was interrupted by people walking down the street. How did he know that? A week later he sent a bloody shirt to be laundered."
The killer was believed to be left handed.
To find out if Kelly was, after his arrest in 1917, his jailers came up with an interesting way to determine it.
"They said, 'You might want some exercise cooped up in here. We've got some wood to chop.' There was probably somebody in every window watching that," Epperly said. "He swung the ax left-handed."
Kelly was put on trial for the murders.
"The first trial was a hung jury," Epperly said. "One wanted to declare him insane. Eleven wanted to acquit. In the second trial, he was acquitted."
So what happened to Kelly?
"He drifted 10 years after Villisca," Epperly said. "He died in 1959 in a mental hospital on Long Island."
The Villisca Murder House still stands today and is a popular attraction for visitors, including many who claim it's haunted.
"I've been in the house," Epperly said. "I didn't feel or hear anything."
So did the audience solve the case?
They did not, but many of them went home with a signed copy of his book and the good sound advice not to read it right before bed.