The Midwest Axe Man
editThe Midwest Axe Man, sometimes refferred to as "Billy the Axman,"[1] is an unknown serial killer who murdered families in towns throughout the Midwest United States in 1911 and 1912. While several suspects have been proposed the crimes remain unsolved. The total number of victims attributed to the killer has been listed as high as thirty[2] but that total usually includes victims of similar but unrelated crimes.
Modus Operandi
editThe MO of the Midwest Axe Man was to break into a house late at night, between midnight and very early morning, when the family inside was asleep. He would sometimes gain entry by cutting a screen and climbing in a window and sometimes by entering through an unlocked door. In all but one crime the weapon used was an axe belonging to the owner or picked up along the way to the crime scene. Once inside he would move through the house using the low light of an open flame to guide him.[3][4][5]He would then attack the victims while they slept in their beds and at only two crime scenes was it apparent any of the victims had woke up before being killed.[6][7]After the victims had been killed the murderer covered their bodies with bedclothes and/or clothing.[8][9][10][11][12]In at least two of the crime scenes one of the female victims had been posed in a sexual way.[13][14] In three of the crime scenes the killer washed up before leaving the house. In all but two of the crimes, the murder weapon was left at the scene. The killer likely moved from town to town via the railroads, which was the only means of long distance travel in the country at the time.
The Victims
editThe following are victims generally reguarded as being killed by the Midwest Axe Man.
Colorado Springs, Colorado, Sep. 18, 1911
Henry F. (Frank) Wayne, 24
Blanche V. Wayne, 22
Lulu May Wayne, 1
May A. Burnham, 35
Nellie E. Burnham, 7
John Burnham, 2
Monmouth, Illinois, Oct. 2, 1911
William E. Dawson, 56
Charity Dawson, 52
Georgia Dawson, 12
Ellsworth, Kansas, Oct. 16, 1911
William H. Showman, 31
Pauline Showman, 26
Lester W. Showman, 6
Fern Showman, 4
Fenton Showman, 1
Paola, Kansas, June 5, 1912
Rollin Hudson, 21
Anna Hudson, 22
Villisca, Iowa, June 11, 1912
Josiah B. Moore, 43
Sara Moore, 39
Herman Moore, 11
Katherine Moore, 10
Boyd Moore, 7
Paul Moore, 5
Lena Stillinger, 11
Ina Stillinger, 8
The Suspects
editThe following are the names of people known to have been suspects in one or all of the crimes at one time or another and does not include suspects who were cleared by investigators.
Rev. Lyn George Jacklin Kelly - Suspect for the murders in Villisca, Kelly confessed and later recanted. He was aquitted in 1917 for the murder of Lena Stillinger. He was never prosecuted for any of the other victim's deaths.[15]
William Mansfield - Identified as a suspect for the Villisca crime by an agent for the Burns National Detective Agency, the prosecutor failed to secure an indictment when payroll records were produced showing him to have been in Illinois at the time. In spite of that fact, some still believe him to be a key suspect. He was briefly a suspect in the axe murders of his estranged wife, child and his in-laws in Blue Island, Illinois.[16]
Frank Fernando Jones - F. F. Jones was a former state senetor from Villisca and one time employer of Joe Moore. A detective with the Burns National Detective Agency accused F. F. Jones of hiring William Mansfield to kill his former employee who had left Jones to open a competing business. It was also rumored that Moore was having an affair with Jones' daughter-in-law, Dona Jones.[17]
Henry Lee Moore - Moore was not related to the Moore family in Villisca but was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the axe murders of his mother and grandmother in Columbia, Missouri. Moore was put forth as a suspect primarily by M. W. McClaughry, a special agent for the Department of Justice and Head of the Bureau of Criminal Identification at Levenworth Prison.[18] Moore was a womanizer and had spent time in the Kansas Reformitory, being released shortly before the muders began. McClaughry felt the similarities in MO were suffecient enough to connect the crimes. However another Kansas City detective saw the only similarity as being the type of weapon used.[19]
Lovey Mitchell - Mitchell was implicated in the murders of the Dawson family in Monmouth, Illinois after three local attorneys continued to investigate after the police had given up.[20] He was arrested and put before a Grand Jury in March of 1915. The motive was believed to be revenge for attention Dawson gave to female members of Mitchell's family.[21] Monmouth police chief G. W. Morrison didn't believe Mitchell was responsible for any of the other crimes.[22]
- ^ Colorado Springs Gazette, Oct. 18, 1911, pg. 1
- ^ New York Times, March 22, 1915
- ^ Colorado Springs Gazette, Sep. 21, 1911
- ^ Ellsworth Reporter, Oct. 19, 1911
- ^ New York Times, June 11, 1911
- ^ Colorado Springs Gazette, Sep. 21, 1911
- ^ Ellsworth Reporter, Oct. 19, 1911
- ^ Colorado Springs Gazette, Sep. 21, 1911
- ^ Ellsworth Reporter, Oct. 19, 1911
- ^ Chicago Tribune, Oct. 2, 1911
- ^ Western Spirit, June 14, 1912
- ^ Villisca Review, June 13, 1912
- ^ Ellsworth Reporter, Oct. 19, 1911
- ^ Villisca Review, June 13, 1912
- ^ http://www.villiscamovie.com/george_kelly.htm
- ^ http://www.villiscamovie.com/william_mansfield.htm
- ^ http://www.villiscamovie.com/frank_jones.htm
- ^ Klingensmith, Beth H., The 1910's Ax Murders, pg. 3
- ^ Klingensmith, Beth H., The 1910's Ax Murders, pg. 26
- ^ Monmouth Review Atlas, Dec. 19, 1984
- ^ New York Times, March 22, 1915.
- ^ Monmouth Review Atlas, March 22, 1915.