Trail Of The Red Ax

True Crime Historian

Richard O Jones

True Crime, Performing Arts, Documentary, Arts, Society & Culture

4.5 • 720 Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Villisca Ax Murders Mystery

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Episode 69 starts with a brutal ax murder that scandalized the quiet town of Villisca, Iowa, about 2,000 souls in the summer of 1912, when a family of six and two young visitors were killed in their beds by an assailant wielding a long-handled ax, the family’s own tool, which was left at the scene. Clues were scant, and it took years for the twists and subplots to emerge, including a string of similar murders, implications that it was a job for hire by a business rival, and a bizarre confession by an itinerant minister five years later.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	D'Oin, Iowa, July 7, 1912.
0:12.0	Dressed in a long frock coat, blue-surge trousers and wearing a silk hat.
0:18.0	A little old man passed 80, so he said, but walking with a sprightly step,
0:25.2	arrested the attention of a number of visitors to the statehouse yesterday. There seemed to be
0:31.0	something mysterious about him as he picked his way along the corridors, but he was not backward
0:37.3	in stating his errand. He had come to confer along the corridors. But he was not backward in stating his errand.
0:39.3	He had come to confer with the authorities on the Velisca murder.
0:44.3	John Stevens is the man's name, and he said his home is in Des Moines part of the time.
0:50.3	Forty-five years ago he had to leave Iowa because of ill health. He betook himself into the west and lived his life among the cowboys and the hills of the mountainous regions. His health regained, he came back to Iowa. I am interested in the murder at Veliska for the the sake of justice, he told, his interrogator.
1:12.1	I have put seven men behind the bars in my days, and while I have no experience as a detective,
1:18.6	I think I have some clues as to the perpetrators of the deed.
1:23.1	According to the story, the old man told one of the officials in the state house,
1:28.6	his wife is a clairvoyant, and he is doing part of his work on the murder through her assistance.
1:34.2	The old man firmly believes that the crime was committed by someone who lives in the town
1:39.1	of the Liska.
1:40.4	He grew quite enthusiastic in his condemnation of the way the officers handled the bloodhounds.
1:46.6	He declared that when the bloody handkerchief was found, it should have been kept and the dogs taken to the funeral.
1:53.5	With the help of the scent of the rag, he said, he had no doubt the murderer would have been found.
2:00.0	The old man seemed sincere in his offers of assistance
2:03.3	to the state. He declares he wants no reward, but that he should like to see the criminals
2:09.9	brought to justice. It is to this end he is offering his services to the state....he is offering his services to the state.
2:20.3	... True Crime Historian presents Unsolved, a special edition of yesterday's news,
	...

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