![]() ![]() ![]() Edgar Epperly, the historian considered the foremost authority on the Villisca murders. The documentary, now available on DVD, features Dr. Filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle combined period photographs, computer animation, original art, limited re-enactments, and interviews with historians, eyewitnesses, town residents, and forensic experts to shed light on the then-92-year-old mystery and to reveal the face of a new suspect. On June 10, 2004, Fourth Wall Films released a documentary feature film, “Villisca: Living with a Mystery,” which first premiered in Des Moines. No one else has ever been tried for the murders, and the crime remains one of the most horrific, unsolved mass murders in American history. A second jury was immediately empanelled, but acquitted Rev. The jury deadlocked eleven to one for acquittal. Kelly recanted his confession at trial, and his case went to the jury on September 26. On August 31 at 7 a.m., Kelly signed a confession to the murder, saying God had whispered to him to “suffer the children to come unto me.” Lena and Ina Stillinger are buried together at the Villisca Cemetery. The funeral cortege was 50 carriages long. Their caskets, not on display during the funeral, were later carried on several wagons to the Villisca Cemetery for burial. National Guardsmen blocked the street as a hearse moved toward the firehouse, where the eight victims lay. The Moore-Stillinger funeral services were held in Villisca’s town square on June 12, 1912, with thousands in attendance. Lena also had a bloodstain on her knee and an alleged defensive wound on her arm. Though Lena Stillinger’s nightgown had been pushed up and she’d been left exposed, doctors concluded she had not been sexually abused. The ceiling in the parents’ bedroom and the children’s room upstairs showed gouge marks, apparently made by the upswing of the axe. (Courtesy photo – “The Funeral in the Park”)Īll the victims were found in their beds, their heads covered with bedclothes, and all had their skulls battered 20 to 30 times with the blunt end of an axe. The funeral procession for the Moore family and Stillinger sisters. ![]()
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