During the hours before dawn on June 10, 1912, a small frame house in Villisca, Iowa became the site of one of the grisliest massacres in Midwestern history when the family of J.B. Moore and two overnight guests were murdered as they slept. The house earned a place in American crime history that morning and a place in the annals of ghostly legend as well.
Ever since the Moore house was opened to overnight visitors several years ago, ghost enthusiasts, curiosity-seekers and diehard paranormal investigators have come here in droves, all seeking the strange, the unusual and the haunted. Some have stayed here alone, like the Des Moines disk jockey who awoke in the night to the sounds of children’s voices when no children were present. Others have come in groups and have gone away with mysterious audio, video and photographic evidence that suggests something supernatural lurks within these walls. Tours have been cut short by falling lamps, moving objects, banging sounds and a child’s laughter, while psychics who have come here have claimed to communicate with the spirits of the dead.
