Gruesome Iowa

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One hundred years ago Villisca, Iowa made the national spotlight when eight people were butchered in their sleep. Attention quickly turned to the Reverend Lyn Kelley, "a queer, strange, little preacher man," often accused of window peeping.

Kelley said he was walking by the Moore house when a voice commanded him to, "Go in. Slay utterly." What could he do? He climbed the stairs and slaughtered the children. "Slay utterly. Suffer the little children."

Back downstairs, he went into the parent's bedroom. "More work yet. There must be sacrifices of blood." Again, the ax did its work.

In another downstairs bedroom, he discovered the Stillinger girls, asleep in their beds. "More work still." The ax resumed its work.

Eight people were dead. The ax was satisfied.

When Kelley recanted his confession, detectives developed dozens of other suspects, but none of them panned out. The Villisca Ax Murders remain Iowa's most famous cold-case file.