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Speaker 1: The following episode contains deeply disturbing scenes of violence, murder,
Speaker 1: and sexual violence toward children. Parental discretion is advised. If
Speaker 1: the United States was a body, you might say the
Speaker 1: town of Velisca, in the southwest corner of Iowa was
Speaker 1: its heart, located as it is in its upper torso,
Speaker 1: a little to the right at center, as it sits
Speaker 1: prettily under a vast Midwestern sky between the middle and
Speaker 1: west Nodaway River, surrounded by endless acres of rich and
Speaker 1: fertile earth. Life in this modest sized town has chained significantly,
Speaker 1: albeit subtly, since its heyday back in the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: where once it boasted a bustling population of twenty five hundred.
Speaker 1: Over the years, the gradual modernization of the agricultural industry
Speaker 1: on which most of the town's economy is based, has
Speaker 1: led to a steady decline in the numbers of personnel
Speaker 1: it employs. To day, the town's population sits a little
Speaker 1: closer to the thirteen hundred mark. Regardless, though some of
Speaker 1: the paint on its main street buildings may be peeling
Speaker 1: and the brickwork crumbling, it remains a proud and tight
Speaker 1: knit community that values its history and place in the world,
Speaker 1: a place no better epitomized than by the immaculately preserved
Speaker 1: early twentieth century house that sits on the corner of
Speaker 1: sixth Avenue and Second Street, a typical home of any
Speaker 1: of the industrious church going families of the area upon
Speaker 1: whose hard work and resilience the town was established. Certainly,
Speaker 1: on the surface of it, this quaint, white panel walled,
Speaker 1: three bedroom and achronism is perhaps the last place you
Speaker 1: might have expected an ambulance crew to find themselves late
Speaker 1: one night in November twenty fourteen, after reports that a
Speaker 1: man had been violently stabbed there. But how dark and
Speaker 1: deep are the many tendrils that lie beneath the surface
Speaker 1: of things. For the house of which I speak is
Speaker 1: no ordinary preserved property, but rather an ominous, singular place that,
Speaker 1: back in June nineteen twelve, was the scene of one
Speaker 1: of the most brutal and inexplicable unsolved murders in American history.
Speaker 1: And it was there on that peculiar night in November
Speaker 1: just over a hundred years later, that thirty seven year
Speaker 1: old Robert Louis and Junior traveled on the hunt for answers,
Speaker 1: only to almost lose his life in the process, as
Speaker 1: Robert would explain some years later, as a keen ghost
Speaker 1: hunter with a particular fascination for the infamous for Lyska murders,
Speaker 1: his mother and stepfather decided to buy him an overnight
Speaker 1: stay at the Pretty White House on Sixth and Second,
Speaker 1: which by then was a museum devoted to the history
Speaker 1: of the crime and its victims. That night, accompanied by
Speaker 1: his parents, Robert entered the property and immediately felt the
Speaker 1: weight of its grim history, made all the more potent
Speaker 1: by the efforts of the museum owners to model the
Speaker 1: interior exactly how it would have been on that infamous
Speaker 1: night back in June nineteen twelve. Robert, who'd come equipped
Speaker 1: with walkie talkies, a tape recorder, and a six inch
Speaker 1: hunting knife, handed one of the radios to his parents
Speaker 1: and told them to start in the main bedroom upstairs.
Speaker 1: He would start downstairs in the parlor bedroom, where two
Speaker 1: of the victims were found. Once inside the small, narrow room,
Speaker 1: he took a moment to position the bed, nightstand, and
Speaker 1: dresser exactly how he believed them to have been on
Speaker 1: the night of the crime, and then switched off the light.
Speaker 1: Standing in the center of the room, he lifted his
Speaker 1: head and cried out for the spirits to reveal themselves.
Speaker 1: Visions of the crime and how he imagined it played out,
Speaker 1: flashed through his mind, and soon a rage rose inside
Speaker 1: of him. Unable to hold it back any longer, his
Speaker 1: words became coarser as he directed them solely toward the
Speaker 1: unknown culprit, telling them how dare they for doing what
Speaker 1: they did and that they should pay for their crimes.
Speaker 1: Then a crackle came through on the walkie talkie. It
Speaker 1: was his mother from upstairs. Something was happening, she said excitedly.
Speaker 1: The room was filling with orbs. As Robert would go
Speaker 1: on to explain, he too saw an orb appear in
Speaker 1: the corner of the room that he was in, and
Speaker 1: then instinctively grabbed for his knife from above. Robert's parents
Speaker 1: heard a piercing, anguished scream and raced down to find
Speaker 1: their son lying prostrate on the bed with the six
Speaker 1: inch hunting knife now protruding from his chest. After nearly
Speaker 1: bleeding to death and being airlifted to Crichton University Medical
Speaker 1: Care in Omaha, Robert woke up the following day in
Speaker 1: a hospital bed with a tube down his throat. Certain
Speaker 1: of only one thing. There was something deeply evil in
Speaker 1: that house, a darkness that he should never have provoked.
Speaker 1: Back when Vealiska was just a nascent settlement on the
Speaker 1: banks of the Nodaway, its founders searched for an aim
Speaker 1: that could best encapsulate the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside.
Speaker 1: They settled on the term Williska, from the language of
Speaker 1: the Native American sork and Musquawky people. The men had
Speaker 1: been led to believe that the word translated to pretty
Speaker 1: place in English. What it actually meant was evil spirit.
Speaker 1: You're listening to unexplained, and I am Richard McClean smith.
Speaker 1: It had been an unusually cool summer's day in Valiska,
Speaker 1: with a permanent threat of rain in the gathering clouds above.
Speaker 1: As Sarah Moore called to her husband Joe from the
Speaker 1: backyard of their home, a white panel up two down
Speaker 1: on the northeastern outskirts of the town. It was Sunday,
Speaker 1: June ninth, nineteen twelve, and with the time just gone
Speaker 1: seven p m, the family was still to get ready
Speaker 1: for that evening's church service. Forty three year old Joe
Speaker 1: Moore or Josiah, to give him his full name, who
Speaker 1: seemed to be in a rather deep conversation with his neighbor,
Speaker 1: Albert Jones took a few more minutes, then finally peered
Speaker 1: away from Albert and returned to the house. As a couple,
Speaker 1: the Moors were immensely popular and a cherished part of
Speaker 1: the community, with thirty nine year old Sarah being the
Speaker 1: daughter of a prominent farming family and Joe running a
Speaker 1: farming implement store in town. Inside the house that evening,
Speaker 1: the couple's four children, eleven year old Hermann, ten year
Speaker 1: old Mary, seven year old Arthur, and five year old Poor,
Speaker 1: along with their friends eight year old Eina and twelve
Speaker 1: year old Lina Stillinger, had little to do, having spent
Speaker 1: the morning at Sunday school. Already drest in their finest
Speaker 1: church attire, white dresses and bows for the girls and
Speaker 1: gray shorts and jackets for the boys. Joe found them
Speaker 1: are busily putting on shoes and fixing their hair as
Speaker 1: he made his way to the telephone to make a
Speaker 1: quick call to Eina and Lena's parents farm. The girls
Speaker 1: had been due to spend the night at their grandmothers
Speaker 1: in town, but had decided it might be more fun
Speaker 1: to stay at the Moor's home instead. Joe wasn't able
Speaker 1: to reach their parents, but their sister Blanche promised to
Speaker 1: pass on the message. Then, after a quick brush of
Speaker 1: his hair, Joe joined the rest of his family in
Speaker 1: the parlor to begin the short three block walk to
Speaker 1: the local Presbyterian church for a night of children's exercises.
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Speaker 1: com forward slash unexplained one zero. With the congregation arriving
Speaker 1: steadily in preparation for the event, all were greeted warmly
Speaker 1: by Reverend William j. Ewing and his wife Lenore, alongside
Speaker 1: one other less familiar figure, the slight and mousey Reverend
Speaker 1: George Kelly, dressed also in black ministerial robes like Ewing,
Speaker 1: had arrived from the nearby town of Macedonia the day
Speaker 1: before and had been invited to Vliska by Ewing to
Speaker 1: observe that night's service. The thirty three year old Kelly,
Speaker 1: who came to the US from Kent in England with
Speaker 1: his wife Laura in nineteen oh four, was studying to
Speaker 1: be a Presbyterian minister at the Omaha Seminary and had
Speaker 1: gladly taken up Ewing's offer, which included a bed for
Speaker 1: the night at his home in the past snage across
Speaker 1: the road that evening, as the children sang their songs
Speaker 1: and recited scripture, Sarah and Joe watched on proudly alongside
Speaker 1: the rest of the parents, while Kelly watched on from
Speaker 1: the back, smiling pleasantly as the sweet sound of the
Speaker 1: children's voices echoed around the church. At roughly ninety five PM,
Speaker 1: Sarah and Joe were among some of the last to
Speaker 1: leave as they exchanged pleasant trees and goodbyes with fellow
Speaker 1: members of the congregation before finally gathering the children and
Speaker 1: heading off back home. With the last of the congregation gone,
Speaker 1: Reverend Kelly escorted the Ewings and their four children back
Speaker 1: to the parsonage. At the time, the family were sleeping
Speaker 1: together in a tent in the garden due to an
Speaker 1: ongoing issue with Reverend Ewing sinuses. While the rest of
Speaker 1: the family bedded down there for the night. The two
Speaker 1: reverends stay up talking until sometime around eleven PM, when
Speaker 1: Ewing finally called it to night and retired to the tent,
Speaker 1: while Kelly made his way to the guest room. At
Speaker 1: the top of the house. It had just gone four
Speaker 1: am early in the morning of Monday, June tenth, when
Speaker 1: Sarah and Joe's neighbor Mary Peckham got up from bed
Speaker 1: and quietly made her way to the kitchen. With daylight
Speaker 1: yet to break and only the stillness of the night
Speaker 1: for company, Mary lit the fire in the cooking stove,
Speaker 1: then stood back for a moment to enjoy the warmth
Speaker 1: of it before making a start on the day's laundry.
Speaker 1: Over the next few hours, Mary went back and forth
Speaker 1: from the house, washing and hanging the laundry in the
Speaker 1: yard as a large golden sun inch gradually higher into
Speaker 1: the sky. Over at the moor house, however, the windows
Speaker 1: stayed resolutely dark. Like most in the farming trade, the
Speaker 1: moors were early rises. Certainly Mary would have expected to
Speaker 1: see Joe heading off to work by seven a m.
Speaker 1: But as the minutes continued to tick by, a strange
Speaker 1: stillness prevailed at their home. It was a few minutes later,
Speaker 1: when the family's cows, in desperate need of milking, began
Speaker 1: to wail mournfully that Mary finally went over to investigate.
Speaker 1: Stepping on to the porch, she could see clearly that
Speaker 1: all the blinds and curtains had yet to be pulled back,
Speaker 1: but when she knocked on the door, she received no
Speaker 1: response from insight. She was just about to rap on
Speaker 1: the window when she remembered that Joe's father had recently
Speaker 1: been gravely ill. Perhaps the family had left hastily in
Speaker 1: the night to tend to him, she thought, and so
Speaker 1: around a tm Joe's sister in law Jesse, received a
Speaker 1: call from Mary to ask if something had happened to
Speaker 1: Joe's father, because the family didn't seem to be at home.
Speaker 1: But Jesse had heard no such news and quickly passed
Speaker 1: Mary's concern onto her husband and Joe's brother, Ross Moore,
Speaker 1: who was tending to the store he managed in town
Speaker 1: at the time. Ross, in turn but to call in
Speaker 1: to Ed Selli, an employee of Joe's. Sellee, arrived at
Speaker 1: the moors a short time later, and, after knocking on
Speaker 1: the door to no avail, concluded that the family must
Speaker 1: have headed out somewhere at short notice. After making a
Speaker 1: quick check on the animals, Celli, who had a number
Speaker 1: of errands to run for Joe that morning, then headed off,
Speaker 1: eager to complete them before his boss returned. But when
Speaker 1: news of Celli's visit got to Ross soon after, Joe's
Speaker 1: brother couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his
Speaker 1: stomach that something was terribly wrong. Russ locked up the store,
Speaker 1: then hurriedly made its way to the house. After also
Speaker 1: getting no response from any one in sight, he cupped
Speaker 1: his hand to the glass, but saw nothing beyond the
Speaker 1: thick material of curtains. By now, others had gathered in
Speaker 1: the street to see what all the commotion was as
Speaker 1: Ross tried one more time to get his brother's attention,
Speaker 1: or any one else in the house for that matter.
Speaker 1: Still hearing nothing from inside, he pulled a key from
Speaker 1: his pocket, placed it into the keyhole, and turned the handle.
Speaker 1: The door eased open with a long, drawn out creak,
Speaker 1: throwing pale light into the unsettling silence of the family's
Speaker 1: parlor room. Beyond dust mots floated in the air as
Speaker 1: Ross stepped forward, the sound of his shoes on the
Speaker 1: wooden floorboard reverberating loudly around the room. Ross called out
Speaker 1: for Joe and Sarah, but the words merely dissolved into
Speaker 1: the air. Looking back at the concerned face of Mary
Speaker 1: Peckham on the porch. He then turned to the parlor
Speaker 1: bedroom on his right, noticing that some kind of material
Speaker 1: had been placed over the window in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: He opened the door and proceeded in side. A dull,
Speaker 1: metallic odor struck him first as he stepped into the room.
Speaker 1: In the single bed that lay opposite against the far wall,
Speaker 1: two small lump and shapes could be discerned lying under
Speaker 1: a bed sheet that looked almost black in the half light,
Speaker 1: a single pale white arm protruding from out of it.
Speaker 1: Ross cocked his head waited for a sign of life
Speaker 1: as the horrifying realization dawned on him. The bedsheet was
Speaker 1: saturated with blood. It was sprayed all up the wall too.
Speaker 1: Ross stumbled back out onto the porch. Called the authorities,
Speaker 1: Missus Peckham, call them now, he said. City Marshall Hank
Speaker 1: Houghton was promptly dispatched to the property. Moments later. He
Speaker 1: stood in the gloomy half light of the parlor bedroom
Speaker 1: and lit a match to better observe the scene. Dear God,
Speaker 1: he said, as he stepped closer to the bed, only
Speaker 1: noticing then how the blood had come from the head
Speaker 1: end of the victim's bodies. Then the match burned out, suddenly,
Speaker 1: plunging the room back into darkness. Horton rushed to the
Speaker 1: windows and pulled back the curtains, flooding the room with
Speaker 1: light and revealing suddenly the grizzly sight of the long
Speaker 1: handled axe leaning against the opposite wall, its blade clean
Speaker 1: but its handle still sticky with the blood and the
Speaker 1: faint wisps of human hair, and next to it, utterly incongruously,
Speaker 1: a two pound slab of red raw bacon wrapped loosely
Speaker 1: in a dishcloth. Houghton retreated back into the parlor, then
Speaker 1: continued on into the kitchen, stopping at the foot of
Speaker 1: a narrow flight of stairs. Another match was struck, hissing
Speaker 1: and fizzling as it lit up the stairwell. Then Houghton
Speaker 1: continued on up the stairs, each step creaking heavily as
Speaker 1: he went, arriving quickly at the top floor. He stopped
Speaker 1: suddenly and listened for a moment. Hearing nothing, he headed
Speaker 1: on into the master bedroom. The opening of the blinds
Speaker 1: revealed another grim scene to larger bodies, this time lying
Speaker 1: under a heavily blood soaked sheet, and in the bedroom
Speaker 1: across the hall. It was more of the same four
Speaker 1: more bodies, smaller ones spread out across three beds, also
Speaker 1: hidden under dark, burgundy stained sheets. By shortly after eight am,
Speaker 1: news of the horrors of the More property had steadily
Speaker 1: filtered through to the town center, where Frank Jones was
Speaker 1: overseeing the building of the first National bank in the
Speaker 1: town square. As a former member of the Iowa House
Speaker 1: of Representatives, a banker and successful business owner, the fifty
Speaker 1: six year old Jones was one of the more prosperous
Speaker 1: members of the community, and an acquaintance of the Moors
Speaker 1: have he once employed Joe. As such, it seemed only
Speaker 1: fitting that he would be one of the first to
Speaker 1: arrive at the Moor's home to offer his condolences to
Speaker 1: Ross and his brother Harry, who arrived soon after. The
Speaker 1: steadily growing group were then joined by a doctor Howe
Speaker 1: and the Reverend William Ewing, offering whatever help they could.
Speaker 1: Surely before nine a m City Marshall Houghton, who'd himself
Speaker 1: left to find a doctor, returned with doctor j Clark
Speaker 1: Cooper in tow, telling the others to wait outside. Houghton
Speaker 1: then led Cooper into the house and into the first bedroom,
Speaker 1: resisting every urge to turn away. Doctor Cooper stepped closer
Speaker 1: to the bed, took hold of the sheet and pulled
Speaker 1: it back. Of the two bodies lying underneath, The smallest
Speaker 1: was on its back, closest to the wall, in what
Speaker 1: might be described as a natural sleeping position, a small
Speaker 1: gray jacket placed over the face. Cooper grimaced as he
Speaker 1: pulled the sheet down further to reveal the head of
Speaker 1: the second body, which had been pulverized and split completely
Speaker 1: open at the top. The face was unrecognizable. This body
Speaker 1: lay completely differently, its arm dangling out to the side
Speaker 1: and the legs twisted round, suggesting to Cooper that the
Speaker 1: young victim had attempted to fight back. Cooper pulled back
Speaker 1: the gray jacket from the head of the other body
Speaker 1: and grimaced again. This head, too had been pounded until
Speaker 1: it had split, with nothing but a lump and reddened
Speaker 1: mass for a face. Cooper turned to the two bibles
Speaker 1: lying on the nightstand opposite the bed and thumbed open
Speaker 1: the front pages. On the inside of each. The owner's
Speaker 1: names were inscribed Lina and Ana Stillinger. Heading up to
Speaker 1: the second floor, Cooper went first into the master bedroom
Speaker 1: and pulled back the sheet there to reveal the larger
Speaker 1: bodies of what he assumed to be Sarah and Joe Moore.
Speaker 1: He gasped again at the sight of them. The sheet
Speaker 1: and pillows were completely saturated with blood that had also
Speaker 1: sprayed out in a violent mess up the wall to
Speaker 1: the back and side of Joe's face. It too had
Speaker 1: been pulverized, with its two protruding, cheap bones the only
Speaker 1: visible feature. The eyes had been scythed out with the blows,
Speaker 1: and the rest who completely caved in. Bone splinters covered
Speaker 1: the pillow, while bits of brain could also be seen
Speaker 1: having been chopped out of the top of his head.
Speaker 1: Sarah's body was in much the same condition. In the
Speaker 1: bedroom opposite, doctor Cooper found the Moore's children, all murdered
Speaker 1: just like the others, with their heads smashed and their
Speaker 1: bodies covered over with the sheets. Just after nine am,
Speaker 1: County coroner doctor Linquists arrived to inspect the scene. Starting
Speaker 1: like the others in the parlor bedroom, Linquist noted first
Speaker 1: how the two Stylinger girls had been killed with mainly
Speaker 1: blows from the blunt end of an axe. Then, pulling
Speaker 1: off the rest of the sheet, he found something unexpected.
Speaker 1: Lena's nightgown had bunched up around her waist, revealing her
Speaker 1: naked body underneath, with a spot of blood on the
Speaker 1: inside of her thigh. While one arm hung out of
Speaker 1: the bed, the other was extended above her head rest
Speaker 1: on the pillow, which had led doctor Cooper to assume
Speaker 1: that she'd fought back against the killer, but Linquist wasn't
Speaker 1: so sure. Though the girl didn't appear to have been raped,
Speaker 1: the coroner couldn't shake the feeling that there was far
Speaker 1: more to all this than just a brutal slaying of innocence.
Speaker 1: Turning to examine the room, he noted then that the
Speaker 1: mirror on the dresser had likely been deliberately covered up
Speaker 1: by the killer, just like the window in the door,
Speaker 1: and both with the same material. A dress of Sarah's
Speaker 1: that had been hurriedly ripped in half. A kerosene lamp
Speaker 1: had also been placed at the foot of the bed
Speaker 1: with its chimney removed, which again was likely put there
Speaker 1: by the killer. Looking at the axe, it took him
Speaker 1: less than a minute to confirm it as the murder weapon,
Speaker 1: but as for why there was a two pound slab
Speaker 1: of bacon lying next to it, he couldn't be sure.
Speaker 1: Then Linquist saw Lena's underwear that had been discarded under
Speaker 1: the bed and on which the killer had wiped their
Speaker 1: bloodstained hands. The girl hadn't fought back. He thought she'd
Speaker 1: been deliberately placed like that, exposed for the killer to see.
Speaker 1: What makes a murderer's mind tick. Killer Psyche is a
Speaker 1: true crime podcast from Wandry that explores these types of
Speaker 1: questions about the crimes that killers and criminals commit. Killer
Speaker 1: Psyche covers high profile cases that shocked the world, and
Speaker 1: host Candy Stlong uses her five decades of experience as
Speaker 1: a clinical psychiatric nurse and FBI criminal profiler to dissect
Speaker 1: the motivations and behaviors of the most terrifying felons in history.
Speaker 1: And you'll definitely want to listen to a recent episode
Speaker 1: of Killer Psyche where Candies looks into the mysterious murder
Speaker 1: of Ted Ammon, a wealthy Wall Street financier. Ted had
Speaker 1: been going through a divorce with his wife of thirteen years,
Speaker 1: Gena Rosa, and child custody and millions in assets were
Speaker 1: at stake. Generosa and her new boyfriend Danny Pelosi were
Speaker 1: the prime suspects, but Generosa died of cancer before police
Speaker 1: could prove her involvement. In twenty four Danny was convicted
Speaker 1: of second degree murder, but still maintains his innocence. How
Speaker 1: does hatred drive a person to murder the father of
Speaker 1: their children? Listen to Kill a Psyche on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: Amazon Music, or you can listen to one Week and
Speaker 1: Free by joining Wandry Plus in the Wandry app Moving
Speaker 1: into the main house, Linquist took note of how clean
Speaker 1: the place was. There were no bloody footprints or handprints anywhere.
Speaker 1: In the kitchen, however, a large bowl of bloody wall
Speaker 1: had been left out, he presumed used by the killer
Speaker 1: to wash their hands. Then Linquist turned his attention to
Speaker 1: the bodies upstairs. Unlike with Lena Stillinger, there was no
Speaker 1: sign of any resistance or abuse of the more children,
Speaker 1: with all killed quickly and presumably more or less silently,
Speaker 1: since none appeared to have awoken during the horrific ordeal.
Speaker 1: The same appeared to be true of Sarah and Joe,
Speaker 1: but here Linquist found significant differences, mainly in the manner
Speaker 1: of their mutilation. Both had been hacked at far more
Speaker 1: than any of the other victims. A shoe that had
Speaker 1: been knocked over close to their bed, spilling blood from
Speaker 1: inside it onto the floor that had needed time to
Speaker 1: fill up there suggested the murderer had even come back
Speaker 1: to mutilate them further, having already killed them, the apparent
Speaker 1: intention being the complete removal of their faces. Where the
Speaker 1: others had been struck five to ten times for Sarah
Speaker 1: and Joe, it was closer to thirty. Indentations in the
Speaker 1: ceiling above the bed, presumed to be from the back
Speaker 1: swing of the axe, were testament to the wild brutality
Speaker 1: that had been meted out. After finishing up in the house,
Speaker 1: doctor Linquist made his way to the family barn. He
Speaker 1: wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for, but eventually
Speaker 1: found himself in the hay loft, where he noticed a
Speaker 1: relatively fresh pile of hay that had been dumped next
Speaker 1: to some neatly stacked bales in the corner. Moving closer
Speaker 1: to investigate, he saw what appeared to be the pattern
Speaker 1: of a body in the straw, as if some one
Speaker 1: had recently been lying there, And at the end where
Speaker 1: the head and shoulders would have been, Linquist noticed a
Speaker 1: hole in the wall. Bending down to peer through it,
Speaker 1: he could see perfectly a completely unobstructed view of the house.
Speaker 1: Having supervised the initial analysis of the crime scene, City
Speaker 1: Marshall Houghton placed a night watchman outside the property to
Speaker 1: guard it, then made his way to Veliska's city hall
Speaker 1: to meet with Montgomery County Sheriff Jackson to discuss the
Speaker 1: next steps. The forty nine year old Houghton had lived
Speaker 1: most of his life in or near Veliska, and up
Speaker 1: until that day, had spent most of his time as
Speaker 1: city marshal coloring petty criminals and pulling drunks off the street.
Speaker 1: In fact, Houghton had only been in the job a
Speaker 1: year when the more and stillinger murders took place, having
Speaker 1: worked the previous few years as a night patrolman and
Speaker 1: before that as a farm hand. In short, he was
Speaker 1: woefully out of his depth. Though Sheriff Jackson had seen
Speaker 1: a little more of the world, most notably trying his
Speaker 1: luck in Alaska during the eighteen ninety gold Rush, his
Speaker 1: primary responsibility was overseeing the town jail and making sure
Speaker 1: the relevant paperwork was up to date. It didn't help
Speaker 1: either that, due to the system at the time, there
Speaker 1: was no state police or criminal investigative agency set up
Speaker 1: to deal with crimes of such complexity and magnitude. As such,
Speaker 1: the state had to rely on private detective agencies if
Speaker 1: they wanted to crack the case. At City Hall, it
Speaker 1: was agreed to give Detective Thomas O'Leary from the Kirk
Speaker 1: Detective Agency a first go at finding the culprit. Houghton
Speaker 1: also suggested bringing him bloodhounds, but worried that it might
Speaker 1: be too expensive. Then Frank Jones spoke up. As a
Speaker 1: significant figure of the community. Jones had taken it on
Speaker 1: himself to join Haughton and Jackson at City Hall. Frank
Speaker 1: told Houghton not to worry about the cost. Whatever it was,
Speaker 1: he would make sure it was covered. Houghton returned to
Speaker 1: the Moor's home late in the afternoon to find it
Speaker 1: completely full of people, with as many as fifty to
Speaker 1: one hundred believed to have poked around the crime scene
Speaker 1: before the VELISKA National Guard were eventually called in to
Speaker 1: take control of the situation. A short time later, the
Speaker 1: first posses from the National Guard set out on the
Speaker 1: hunt for clues, searching homes and outbuildings, hoping to find footprints,
Speaker 1: scraps of clothing or maybe even the killer themselves, but
Speaker 1: little of note was discovered. It was just after nine
Speaker 1: pm when the bloodhounds arrived, using the axe to scent
Speaker 1: them from inside the house. The dogs immediately set off
Speaker 1: through the front door, pulling hard on their leads as
Speaker 1: they traveled west all the way to the banks of
Speaker 1: the west not Away River, only to hit a bank
Speaker 1: of heavy bushes, where they quickly lost interest. As news
Speaker 1: of the killing spread throughout the county, many naturally began
Speaker 1: to wander as to who could possibly do such a thing,
Speaker 1: But when darkness finally came round again, petty gossip turned
Speaker 1: to abject fear at the thought of a deranged killer
Speaker 1: that was quite possibly still very much among them. Local
Speaker 1: stores quickly sold out of padlocks, while those who didn't
Speaker 1: own guns raced into town to purchase one. Later in
Speaker 1: the afternoon, coroner doctor Linquist convened the coroner's jury and
Speaker 1: led the members round the house to inspect the crime scene.
Speaker 1: Then at ten p m. County Attorney Ratcliffe arrived and
Speaker 1: gave word finally for the local undertakers to take the
Speaker 1: bodies away. Each was carried carefully one at a time,
Speaker 1: then placed on a buggy and wheeled out of the
Speaker 1: house to gasps and cries from the many who'd gathered outside,
Speaker 1: drawn there inexorably by a collective morbid fascination. It was
Speaker 1: sometime around two am, with the bodies having been delivered
Speaker 1: to a temporary morgue at the town fire station, that
Speaker 1: armed guards were placed at each of the two doors,
Speaker 1: and one by one the onlookers dispersed that evening. Families
Speaker 1: stayed up all night, sat with lamp lights on and
Speaker 1: loaded guns across their laps, their doors and windows heavily
Speaker 1: barricaded shut. Those who lived alone stayed with friends, and
Speaker 1: few ventured out into the dark to use outhouses, while
Speaker 1: virtually no one got any sleep at all. In the
Speaker 1: days to come. Some would attest to seeing Reverend Ewing's
Speaker 1: guest of the night before, Reverend George Kelly, depart that
Speaker 1: morning from Veliska train station on the five nineteen. Later
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, having arrived back home in Macedonia, many
Speaker 1: would be especially struck by how obsessed he seemed by
Speaker 1: news of the crime. Some even claimed they'd heard him
Speaker 1: discussing the murders much earlier in the day, earlier in fact,
Speaker 1: than when the bodies were first discovered, but all that
Speaker 1: was yet to come. You've been listening to Unexplained Season six,
Speaker 1: episode twelve, A Darkness on the Edge of Town, Part
Speaker 1: one of three. Part two will be released next Friday,
Speaker 1: April eighth. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to
Speaker 1: help support us, you can now do so via Patreon.
Speaker 1: To receive access to add three episodes, Just go to
Speaker 1: patron dot com Forward Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained,
Speaker 1: the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
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