Villisca, in south-western Iowa, was a busy little town in 1912: a railway stop with a few thousand residents, shops and churches. Its name is often said to mean "pretty place".

On the evening of Sunday 9 June, the town held a Children's Day programme at the Presbyterian church. Among the families attending were Josiah Moore, a well-known local businessman, his wife Sarah, and their four children: Herman, Katherine, Boyd and Paul, aged between eleven and five. Two young friends of Katherine's, the sisters Lena and Ina Stillinger, came home with them to spend the night.

The next morning, the Moore house was silent. No one came out to do the chores. A neighbour, worried, called Josiah's brother, who unlocked the door.

All eight people inside had been killed during the night, with an axe that belonged to the family.

A ruined crime scene

What happened next made the case almost impossible to solve. As word spread, crowds came to the house. Before the authorities had control of the scene, a great many townspeople — by some accounts hundreds — had walked through it, touching things and, according to some reports, taking souvenirs.

Investigators did record some details: curtains drawn throughout the house, and some windows covered with clothing, as if the killer had wanted no one to see in. The killer seemed to have stayed in the house for some time after the attack.

Suspects

Many people were suspected. A local businessman and political rival of Josiah's was accused by a private detective, and the accusations divided the town for years. Some investigators suspected a travelling serial killer, pointing to similar attacks in other towns in the Midwest around the same time.

The man who was eventually charged was the Reverend George Kelly, a travelling preacher who had attended the Children's Day service and left town early the next morning. He later gave a confession, which he withdrew, saying it had been obtained under pressure.

He was tried twice, in 1917. The first jury could not agree. The second acquitted him.

The house today

The Moore house still stands. In the 1990s it was bought and restored to how it looked in 1912, without plumbing or electricity, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is now open for tours — and has a reputation, among some visitors, for being haunted.

It is worth remembering, amid the ghost stories, that eight real people lived and died there, six of them children, and that their families never got an answer.