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1. On the morning June 10, 1912, Mrs. Mary Peckham noticed something strange. Her neighbor's house was strangely silent. Mrs. Peckham found this strange because the owner of that particular house had four young children, and as everyone knows, children are hardly ever completely silent. What is the surname of Mrs. Peckham's unlucky neighbors?
2. Mrs. Peckham was confused by the silent state of her neighbor's house. After she went over to the house to investigate, she observed that all the curtains were tightly drawn. She also found that the front door was locked. Mrs. Peckham found this very strange, because almost nobody locked their doors in the seemingly "safe" community of Villisca. After going home and puzzling about this strange predicament, Mrs. Moore decided to call a relative of her neighbor's. What was his relationship to the neighbor's family?
3. The responding sheriff was John Henry "Hank" Horton. Sheriff Horton saw what had frightened Ross Moore so: the ground-floor bedroom, with blood-spattered walls, and two still forms underneath the blood-soaked bed covers. He also found the likely murder weapon: a bloody axe leaning against the wall. Sheriff Horton also noticed something strange about the mirror in the bedroom. What strange thing did Sheriff Horton notice?
4. Sheriff Horton continued, already knowing that there was no hope that the rest of the family was alive. As he reached the top of the stairs, he entered another bedroom. Yet again, Sheriff Horton encountered the same scene: two bodies under bloodstained bed covers, the walls covered with blood. Those two bodies were the bodies of J.B. and Sarah Moore. As Sheriff Horton proceeded to the next bedroom, he encountered a sight that brought him, a full-grown man, to his knees: four little children, under blood-soaked sheets, and the walls covered with blood. But this confused Sheriff Horton: there were six members of the Moore family, but there were eight victims. Who were the two unrelated victims later identified as?
5. Sheriff Horton, having identified all the bodies, went to fetch the town's physician, Dr. J. Clark Cooper. Also arriving with Sheriff Horton and Dr. Cooper were Dr. W. A. Lomas, Dr. F. S. Williams, and the Reverend Ewing. County coroner A. L. Linquist also arrived to help with the identification of the victims. Which room did the men investigate first?
6. The party continued their gruesome investigation of the house. They investigated J.B. and Sarah's room, then the room of their children. After they had investigated all the victims, they found that every one of the victims shared one common characteristic. What was it?
7. The party then went to investigate the barn on the Moore property, to see if there were any signs of the killer there. Indeed, they found a pile of hay, with a depression in it that was roughly the size and shape of a man. Coroner Linquist thought the depression in the hay looked fairly recent. They also found a knothole near the hay pile, which they thought the killer may have used to spy on the family. But, by midday, despite orders from the police, the public entered the Moore house. Which group had to be called in to Villisca to control the murder scene?
8. Officials could not clearly think of a suspect for the hideous crime, but, judging from the amount of damage inflicted to him (several wounds being inflicted post-mortem), the officials assumed that J.B. Moore was the target for the killing, the other victims murdered needlessly. But still, there were no clear cut suspects. A psychic claimed she knew who the murderer was: a large man, with a dark mustache, and a hat. The psychic also claimed, erroneously, that the murder weapon would be found near another building close to the Moore house. Who was this "so-called" psychic that tried, unsuccessfully, to help with the investigation?
9. Which of these was NOT considered by the officials to be a theory on why the crime was committed?
10. After no apparent leads could be found in this tragic mass murder, authorities eventually gave up on the investigation. The Moore house, in the 90-plus years since the crime, had gone through several different owners, and eventually fell into disarray. But, in 1994 a couple purchased the house, and renovated it to look exactly as it did on the night of June 9, 1912. What is the name of this couple?
Source: Author
BlueCheer
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
DakotaNorth before going online.
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