Villisca & The Man From the Train

In June 1912, someone entered the Moore home in Villisca, Iowa, took the family’s own axe, and killed Josiah and Sarah, their four children, and two visiting Stillinger sisters as they slept. The doors were locked from the inside, faces and mirrors were covered, a lamp was turned low—and before investigators could secure the house, the town had already trampled through the scene.

In this Time and Tales episode walks through the Moores’ last Sunday, the chaotic investigation, and the main suspects before widening the frame to The Man from the Train, where Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James argue Villisca was part of a rail-linked series of family axe murders—and name a likely offender: a German immigrant named Paul Mueller, who may have killed dozens across North America.

**This one was a quick one! Look forward to a return to our usual format next week.

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Links

• Intro Music by Randy Lee Riviere
• Time and Tales Pod IG
• Patreon

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Sources

• “Villisca Axe Murders,” Iowa legislative brief; Villisca Axe Murder House historical overview.
• Mike Dash, “The Ax Murderer Who Got Away,” Smithsonian Magazine (2012).
• The Man from the Train (2017), Bill James & Rachel McCarthy James; “The Man from the Train” and “Billy the Axeman” entries (overview of the pattern, Paul Mueller theory, estimated victim count).