The Axe of 1912

0:00 Speaker 1: The quiet town. The town of Veliska, Iowa, in the

0:03 Speaker 1: summer of nineteen twelve was the definition of idyllic. It

0:07 Speaker 1: was a place where neighbors knew each other by name,

0:10 Speaker 1: where the sound of church bells dictated the rhythm of

0:13 Speaker 1: the day, and where the most pressing concern for the

0:16 Speaker 1: average citizen was the quality of the harvest. It was

0:19 Speaker 1: the kind of town where you didn't just feel safe,

0:21 Speaker 1: you were convinced that violence was something that happened somewhere else,

0:25 Speaker 1: to someone else. Josiah Moore was one of the town's

0:28 Speaker 1: most successful businessmen. He was a pillar of the community,

0:32 Speaker 1: a man who had built a life through hard work

0:34 Speaker 1: and steady ambition. He lived with his wife, Sarah, and

0:38 Speaker 1: their four children in a modest, white framed house on

0:42 Speaker 1: a quiet residential street. They were a family that represented

0:45 Speaker 1: the American dream of the early twentieth century. But even

0:49 Speaker 1: in the brightest light, shadows grow long. In the days

0:53 Speaker 1: leading up to June tenth, nineteen twelve, there was no warning,

0:57 Speaker 1: no strange figures lingering at the edge of the woods,

1:00 Speaker 1: no odd markings on the door, but there was a strange,

1:04 Speaker 1: pervasive tension in the air of the Midwest that summer,

1:07 Speaker 1: the news was filled with stories of a stranger moving

1:10 Speaker 1: through the train lines, a man seen in nearby towns

1:13 Speaker 1: with a heavy coat and a suitcase that looked far

1:16 Speaker 1: too heavy to be filled with clothes. On the evening

1:19 Speaker 1: of June ninth, the More family attended a children's day

1:22 Speaker 1: program at the local Presbyterian church. The event was packed.

1:27 Speaker 1: It was a joyful, noisy affair, filled with the laughter

1:30 Speaker 1: of children and the pride of parents. When the program ended,

1:34 Speaker 1: the Moors walked home under a clear, star studded sky.

1:38 Speaker 1: They stopped by the home of a neighbor, dropping off

1:41 Speaker 1: two young friends of their children who would spend the night.

1:44 Speaker 1: When the family stepped inside their home, they were stepping

1:47 Speaker 1: into a trap. The killer didn't need to break in,

1:51 Speaker 1: He didn't need to shatter windows or kick down doors.

1:54 Speaker 1: He was already there. Or he had access that no

1:57 Speaker 1: one could have anticipated. He had waited in in the

2:01 Speaker 1: suffocating heat of a June evening, listening to the family

2:05 Speaker 1: settle in. He heard the children climbing the stairs. He

2:09 Speaker 1: heard the murmur of Josiah and Sarah's final conversation before

2:12 Speaker 1: the lights were extinguished. As the house drifted into that

2:16 Speaker 1: deep heavy sleep of a small town. At midnight, the

2:19 Speaker 1: visitor emerged from the shadows of the parlor. He carried

2:23 Speaker 1: an axe he had taken from the family's own woodshed.

2:26 Speaker 1: He was not there to rob them, He was not

2:29 Speaker 1: there to settle a business dispute. He was there to

2:32 Speaker 1: commit an act so calculated, so cold, and so total,

2:37 Speaker 1: that it would effectively destroy the soul of Veliska. The

2:40 Speaker 1: silence of the house that night was absolute, and in

2:43 Speaker 1: that silence, the killer began to walk toward the stairs.

2:47 Speaker 1: The morning discovery. The morning of June tenth, nineteen twelve,

2:51 Speaker 1: broke with a deceptive, tranquil beauty. The sun rose over Velliska,

2:56 Speaker 1: casting long shadows across the neat lawns and quiet streets.

3:00 Speaker 1: It was a Monday, and in a town that prided

3:03 Speaker 1: itself on its industry, the day began early, but at

3:07 Speaker 1: the Moor house there was an unnatural silence. Usually the

3:11 Speaker 1: moors were up well before the sun, The children would

3:14 Speaker 1: be heard playing, and Josiah would be preparing for the

3:17 Speaker 1: day's business. By eight a m a neighbor named Mary

3:21 Speaker 1: Peckham grew concerned. She had watched the house for hours,

3:25 Speaker 1: waiting for any sign of life. Seeing the curtains drawn

3:29 Speaker 1: and hearing absolutely nothing, she walked over to the property.

3:33 Speaker 1: She knocked on the door, no response. She tried the handle,

3:37 Speaker 1: it was locked. Mary walked to the side of the

3:40 Speaker 1: house and peered through a window. The house seemed undisturbed,

3:44 Speaker 1: but the lack of movement in such a lively household

3:47 Speaker 1: felt like a physical weight in the air. She eventually

3:50 Speaker 1: called Josiah's brother, Ross Moore. When Ross arrived, he used

3:55 Speaker 1: his key to enter the home. He didn't make it

3:57 Speaker 1: past the parlor before the reality of the situation hit

4:01 Speaker 1: him with the force of a physical blow. The air

4:03 Speaker 1: in the house was thick, metallic, and heavy. As Ross

4:07 Speaker 1: moved through the rooms, he realized the house had become

4:10 Speaker 1: a slaughter house. He found the bodies of Josiah and

4:14 Speaker 1: Sarah in their bed. They had been struck with such savage,

4:18 Speaker 1: overwhelming force that there was no possibility of survival. As

4:22 Speaker 1: he moved from room to room, the horror compounded. The children,

4:26 Speaker 1: four of them were found in their beds, along with

4:29 Speaker 1: the two neighbor girls who had spent the night. Every

4:32 Speaker 1: single victim had been attacked in their sleep. The killer

4:35 Speaker 1: had gone from room to room with the chilling precision

4:38 Speaker 1: of a machine. He had used the blunt side of

4:41 Speaker 1: the axe for the majority of the blows, ensuring the

4:44 Speaker 1: deed was done quietly, without a struggle that might wake

4:47 Speaker 1: the others. He had even draped clothes or bed sheets

4:50 Speaker 1: over the faces of the victims, a final twisted act

4:54 Speaker 1: of obscenity that left the townspeople who arrived later trembling

4:58 Speaker 1: in shock. The scene was so great ruesome that it

5:00 Speaker 1: defied the local authority's ability to process it. Valiska was

5:05 Speaker 1: not prepared for this kind of darkness. The local marshal,

5:08 Speaker 1: blinded by panic, allowed neighbors and curious onlookers, to wander

5:12 Speaker 1: through the house, touching furniture, trampling the floors, and effectively

5:17 Speaker 1: destroying every scrap of physical evidence before the state investigators

5:21 Speaker 1: even arrived. By noon, the news had traveled. A crowd

5:25 Speaker 1: of thousands people from Valiska and the surrounding towns descended

5:30 Speaker 1: upon the Moor home. They came to gawk, to whisper,

5:34 Speaker 1: and to search for answers In a tragedy that had

5:37 Speaker 1: no precedent. The house, which had been a home only

5:40 Speaker 1: hours before, was now a public spectacle. It was a

5:44 Speaker 1: day that changed the town forever. The shock wasn't just

5:47 Speaker 1: in the violence. It was in the realization that the

5:50 Speaker 1: killer had stood inside that house, looked at these innocent people,

5:54 Speaker 1: and decided they would not see another morning. The killer

5:57 Speaker 1: had walked out the front door and vanished into the

6:00 Speaker 1: bright morning light, leaving behind a ghost town where nobody

6:04 Speaker 1: felt safe closing their eyes. The investigators finally began their work,

6:09 Speaker 1: but they were already fighting a losing battle. The scene

6:12 Speaker 1: was corrupted, the witnesses were hysterical, and the killer had

6:15 Speaker 1: a head start that stretched across the state. The hunt

6:18 Speaker 1: for the man who had turned Veliska into a graveyard

6:21 Speaker 1: had begun, but the trail was already buried under the

6:24 Speaker 1: footprints of a thousand curious neighbors the suspects. In the

6:29 Speaker 1: wake of the carnage, the investigation turned into a desperate,

6:33 Speaker 1: frantic dragnet. With no clear physical evidence left behind by

6:37 Speaker 1: the intruder, the police and the terrified citizenry of Velliska

6:41 Speaker 1: turned their gaze toward anyone who seemed even slightly out

6:44 Speaker 1: of place. It was a time of intense paranoia. If

6:48 Speaker 1: you were a stranger, a drifter, or someone who held

6:51 Speaker 1: a grudge you were a suspect. The list of potential

6:54 Speaker 1: perpetrators grew to a staggering size, reading like a rogue's

6:58 Speaker 1: gallery of nineteen twelve. The first individual to draw significant

7:01 Speaker 1: heat was a man named Reverend George Kelly. Kelly was

7:05 Speaker 1: a traveling minister who had been in town during the

7:08 Speaker 1: children's day program. He was, by all accounts, a man

7:12 Speaker 1: of strange behaviors, intense, fixated on the morbid, and prone

7:17 Speaker 1: to odd outbursts. Police became convinced he was their man,

7:21 Speaker 1: noting that he had been seen watching the more children

7:24 Speaker 1: with an unsettling intensity. They eventually subjected him to grueling interrogations,

7:29 Speaker 1: hoping to break him. But Kelly's personality was a labyrinth

7:33 Speaker 1: that led nowhere. Despite his peculiarities, there was no concrete

7:38 Speaker 1: proof connecting him to the acts. Then there was the

7:41 Speaker 1: political angle. Josiah Moore was a powerful businessman who had

7:45 Speaker 1: crossed paths with many influential people. Whispers began to circulate

7:49 Speaker 1: that the murder was a contract killing, orchestrated by a

7:53 Speaker 1: local rival who wanted more out of the way. Investigators

7:56 Speaker 1: combed through business ledgers and secret correspondences, but they found

8:00 Speaker 1: only the mundane dealings of a small town entrepreneur. Perhaps

8:04 Speaker 1: the most persistent theory involved the train line drifters. The

8:08 Speaker 1: Midwest in nineteen twelve was criss crossed by railway lines,

8:12 Speaker 1: and with them came a constant flow of transient men, laborers, runaways,

8:17 Speaker 1: and criminals moving from town to town. Witnesses reported seeing

8:20 Speaker 1: a man matching the description of a traveler carrying a

8:23 Speaker 1: heavy suit case seen boarding a train shortly after the murders.

8:27 Speaker 1: Some amateur detectives were convinced that a serial killer was

8:30 Speaker 1: moving along the rail lines, striking in isolated towns, and

8:34 Speaker 1: then disappearing before the bodies were even cold. As the

8:37 Speaker 1: weeks turned into months, the pressure to produce a culprit

8:41 Speaker 1: became unbearable. The town of Veliska was fracturing. Neighbors were

8:46 Speaker 1: accusing neighbors. Anonymous letters were sent to the police naming

8:51 Speaker 1: local people based on nothing more than long standing petty feuds.

8:55 Speaker 1: The investigation became less about justice and more about clearing

8:58 Speaker 1: the name of the town its The police were drowning

9:02 Speaker 1: in theories. They followed thousands of leads, but each one

9:05 Speaker 1: led to a dead end. They were hunting a phantom.

9:09 Speaker 1: The killer had left behind a single, terrifying truth. He

9:13 Speaker 1: had been close enough to them to hear their breathing,

9:15 Speaker 1: to smell the heat of their bodies, and to watch

9:18 Speaker 1: them sleep. Yet he remained utterly invisible. The suspicion began

9:22 Speaker 1: to take a toll on the town's spirit. The once

9:25 Speaker 1: vibrant community became a place of locked doors and hushed conversations.

9:30 Speaker 1: Everyone was watching everyone else. The killer hadn't just destroyed

9:34 Speaker 1: the more family. He had introduced a permanent, corrosive distrust

9:39 Speaker 1: into the very foundation of Veliska. Every man who walked

9:42 Speaker 1: alone at night, every stranger who bought a ticket at

9:45 Speaker 1: the train station, was now viewed through the lens of

9:49 Speaker 1: potential murder. The investigation had become a mirror reflecting the

9:53 Speaker 1: town's darkest fears back at them the trial of the century.

9:57 Speaker 1: As the investigation dragged on, the frustration of the public

10:01 Speaker 1: reached a boiling point. The authorities needed a scapegoat, and

10:05 Speaker 1: they found their target in Frank Jones, a prominent local

10:09 Speaker 1: businessman and arrival of Josiah Moore. Jones had been a

10:12 Speaker 1: fixture in Velliska, but his relationship with Moore had soured

10:16 Speaker 1: over business interests. The police desperate for a conclusion, pivoted

10:21 Speaker 1: their focus toward the idea that Jones had orchestrated the murder,

10:25 Speaker 1: hiring an assassin to eliminate his competitor. This theory led

10:29 Speaker 1: to a long and grueling legal saga that captivated the

10:32 Speaker 1: entire nation. It wasn't just a murder trial, it was

10:36 Speaker 1: a societal spectacle. People traveled from across the Midwest just

10:40 Speaker 1: to catch a glimpse of the proceedings. The courtroom became

10:44 Speaker 1: a stage where personal vendettas, long buried secrets, and the

10:48 Speaker 1: fragile reputation of an entire town were put on display.

10:52 Speaker 1: The prosecution's case was built on a foundation of circumstantial

10:56 Speaker 1: evidence and shaky testimony. They relied heavily on the word

10:59 Speaker 1: of unreliable witnesses who claimed to have seen suspicious figures

11:03 Speaker 1: lurking near the Moor home on the night of the crime.

11:06 Speaker 1: The defense, meanwhile, painted a picture of a town blinded

11:10 Speaker 1: by panic and a police force so desperate to close

11:13 Speaker 1: a case that they were willing to ruin an innocent

11:15 Speaker 1: man's life to do it. One of the most infamous

11:18 Speaker 1: elements of this era was the reliance on bloodhounds. The

11:22 Speaker 1: police brought in dogs to track the killer's scent, believing

11:25 Speaker 1: they would lead them straight to the culprit. Instead, the

11:29 Speaker 1: dogs were led from one innocent person to another, failing

11:32 Speaker 1: to provide any reliable direction. The spectacle of these dogs

11:36 Speaker 1: running through the streets, followed by a mob of reporters

11:40 Speaker 1: and angry citizens, became a symbol of the entire investigations

11:44 Speaker 1: in competence. The trial lasted for weeks, characterized by shouting matches,

11:50 Speaker 1: surprise witnesses, and the crushing weight of public expectation. The

11:54 Speaker 1: courtroom was packed to capacity, the air thick with the

11:57 Speaker 1: heat of a summer that felt cursed. For Frank Jones,

12:01 Speaker 1: it was a fight for his life and his legacy.

12:03 Speaker 1: For the prosecution, it was a chance to finally provide

12:07 Speaker 1: the town with the closure it so desperately craved. But

12:10 Speaker 1: as the days turned into weeks, the case against Jones

12:13 Speaker 1: began to crumble. There was no direct evidence, no weapon,

12:17 Speaker 1: no confession, and no witness who could place a higher

12:20 Speaker 1: assassin anywhere near the more residents. The jury, faced with

12:25 Speaker 1: the overwhelming absence of proof, ultimately acquitted Jones. The verdict

12:30 Speaker 1: landed like a lead weight in the town. Many had

12:33 Speaker 1: been convinced of his guilt, not because of the facts,

12:36 Speaker 1: but because they needed someone to blame. When Jones walked free,

12:40 Speaker 1: the town of Eliska was left with the same question

12:42 Speaker 1: they had faced on that Monday morning in June. If

12:45 Speaker 1: it wasn't him, then who The trial proved that the

12:49 Speaker 1: machinery of justice was ill equipped to deal with a

12:52 Speaker 1: crime of this magnitude. It had consumed the town's resources,

12:56 Speaker 1: poisoned its social fabric, and ultimately delivered nothing but more questions.

13:01 Speaker 1: The trial of the century ended not with a resolution,

13:05 Speaker 1: but with a profound silence. The killer remained a ghost,

13:09 Speaker 1: and the more House stood as a decaying monument to

13:12 Speaker 1: a mystery that would never be solved, the eternal shadow.

13:15 Speaker 1: Decades have passed since that dark morning in June nineteen twelve,

13:19 Speaker 1: yet the more House in Veliska still holds the weight

13:22 Speaker 1: of that night. The house itself has survived, changing hands

13:26 Speaker 1: several times, standing as a quiet, haunting reminder of a

13:30 Speaker 1: tragedy that never reached a courtroom conclusion. Today, it is

13:34 Speaker 1: known as one of the most haunted locations in the

13:37 Speaker 1: United States, a place where people visit not just to

13:40 Speaker 1: learn history, but to feel the lingering vibration of the past.

13:44 Speaker 1: The mystery of the Veliska acts murders and doers because

13:47 Speaker 1: it represents our ultimate fear. The idea that a monster

13:50 Speaker 1: can walk into our sanctuary, destroy everything we hold dear,

13:54 Speaker 1: and simply vanish into the ether, leaving behind no footprints

13:58 Speaker 1: and no answers, challenges the American belief that if we

14:01 Speaker 1: work hard, live right, and lock our doors, we are safe.

14:06 Speaker 1: The case stripped that illusion away from an entire town, and,

14:09 Speaker 1: by extension, from all of us. Over the years, dozens

14:14 Speaker 1: of theories have emerged to fill the void left by

14:17 Speaker 1: the failed investigation. Some believe the killer was indeed a

14:20 Speaker 1: wandering serial killer, a precursor to the modern predator, who

14:24 Speaker 1: moved between cities, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.

14:28 Speaker 1: Others point to the local rivalries, convinced that the truth

14:32 Speaker 1: was hidden by the very people tasked with finding it.

14:35 Speaker 1: But no theory has ever been able to account for

14:37 Speaker 1: every detail, and no piece of evidence has ever definitively

14:41 Speaker 1: pointed to a single name. The moor House remains a

14:44 Speaker 1: place of intense, unsettling energy. Visitors report hearing the sound

14:49 Speaker 1: of children playing in rooms that have been empty for

14:51 Speaker 1: over a century, or the feeling of being watched by

14:54 Speaker 1: an unseen presence from the top of the stairs. It

14:57 Speaker 1: is as if the tragedy was so sudden and so

15:00 Speaker 1: so violent, that it imprinted itself onto the very walls

15:03 Speaker 1: of the structure. It is a monument to the victims, certainly,

15:07 Speaker 1: but also a monument to the uncertainty that has followed

15:09 Speaker 1: them through history. When we tell this story, we are

15:13 Speaker 1: not just recounting a cold case. We are confronting the

15:16 Speaker 1: reality that some doors in history can never be opened.

15:19 Speaker 1: We are looking at a shadow that refuses to be

15:22 Speaker 1: cast in light. The Veliska Acts murders remain the ultimate

15:25 Speaker 1: American ghost story, not because of spirits or hauntings, but

15:30 Speaker 1: because of the terrifying reality of human malice. The killer

15:33 Speaker 1: is long dead, of course, time has claimed everyone involved,

15:37 Speaker 1: the suspects, the witnesses, the investigators, and the victims. Yet

15:42 Speaker 1: the question that hung over the town of Veliska on

15:44 Speaker 1: that Monday in nineteen twelve remains as sharp and as

15:47 Speaker 1: painful today as it was then. Who was he? The

15:51 Speaker 1: truth of the moor House is that it doesn't need

15:53 Speaker 1: to be solved to be felt. It serves as a

15:56 Speaker 1: permanent dark marker in the landscape of our history. It

16:00 Speaker 1: reminds us that there are predators in the dark, that

16:03 Speaker 1: there are gaps in our understanding of justice, and that

16:06 Speaker 1: sometimes the only thing we are left with is the

16:08 Speaker 1: silence that follows the scream. This has been dark American crime.

16:13 Speaker 1: Stay safe in the shadows.