FriendBurst Blog

In this post, I want to give interested ghost hunters a look at one of the most famous haunted places in America. The Villisca house in Iowa is the site of a notorious unsolved murder and the property is said to be incredibly haunted.

The Backstory

June 10, 1912 started off like any other day in Villisca, Iowa. However, that morning would find a house filled with eight victims that were brutally slaughtered with an axe. The victims were:

• Paul Moore Age 5
• Boyd Moore Age 7
• Katherine Stillinger Age 8
• Katherine Moore Age 10
• Herman Moore Age 11
• Lena Stillinger Age 11
• Sarah Moore Age 39
• Joe B Moore Age 43

The Stillinger girls were invited to spend the night after the Children’s Day festivities at their local church. The Moore’s had arrived home at 11 PM that night before they were murdered and the killings are said to have taken place between Midnight and 2 AM.

When law enforcement arrived at the scene, the crime scene had been compromised. Horrified neighbors were walking the halls and reviewing the carnage. The mirrors and windows of the home were covered and the victims had blankets over them. At the foot of the bed were Kerosene lamps and in the kitchen, a meal that was never finished. To this day, the killer has never been brought to justice.

The Hauntings

The documented hauntings of the house didn’t begin until the 1930s when Homer and Bonnie Ritner began to rent it. It was Bonnie who would have the first set of horrifying experiences in this house.

At night, Bonnie claimed she would hear strange noises coming from different parts of the home. On occasion, she would awake at night and see a man holding an axe was standing at the food of her bed. In fear, she would wake her husband who would calm here and write it off. They became so bad though, that when doing an exam to check on her baby, Dr. Cooper told Bonnie the stress would harm her baby and she may lose it.

Deciding he needed to step in Homer began to watch over his wife. At night, he would watch her sleep and soon noticed the sounds she mentioned. At one point, he heard the sound of footsteps going up and down the stairs and it was enough for him. Deciding he had enough, he went to the local bar searching for the home owners, a bartender instead showed him the skull fragments from Joe Moore and this was enough to send the couple on their way, without ever getting a refund.

John and Allie Geeseman were the next owners of the home who had a similar tale of terror. The couple frequently dealt with the porch door opening without anyone there. One morning at 3 AM, the couple was seen running down the street screaming in their night clothes. It was at that point they decided the barn would make a subtle bedroom.

From the years 1963 – 1971 a family rented the home and experienced a string of strange happenings on the property. The little girls in the home were frequently awoken by the sounds of children crying in the home. Their personal belongings were ripped from their drawers and tossed around the room.

While the girls continued to tell their parents about what was going on, their concerns were written off as being childish behaviour. It wasn’t until the father was sharpening his knife that he would find out otherwise. As he worked on the blade, the knife shot out and stabbed him. In that moment, he gathered up his family and they never went back.

Hauntings Today

Ghost hunting today at the property continues to be fruitful. Many of those who come to this property claim to experience various types of paranormal experiences. This includes the typical items like cold areas, the sensation of being touched in addition to orb photos and even some haunting EVP.

Let’s take a moment to look at some of the documented ghost adventures online. With quite a bit of documentation out there, you might be surprised by what you can find.

Scariest Places on Earth did a piece on the home:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T54lLMJ17kk

EVP of girls screaming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBlA8Rzm11w

Ghost Adventures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD_1sdQtWCw