UNSOLVED: Villisca Axe Murders Pt. 2

About this episode

In Part 2 of Murder: True Crime Stories, host Carter Roy follows the decades of suspects, theories and trials that never produced a conviction for the Villisca axe murders. The investigation started with a crime scene hundreds of people had already walked through, and it never recovered from that. Private detectives, grand juries, a state senator and a traveling minister all became part of the case. The minister, Lyn George Jacklin Kelly, was tried twice for the murders: the first jury hung and the second acquitted him, and no one has been charged in the years since. Researchers have pointed to a run of axe killings along Midwestern rail lines in the same era as a possible connection, though nothing has ever tied any of them to the house on East Second Street. More than a century later, the Villisca axe murders remain officially unsolved, no one has been convicted, and eight people, six of them children, have never had an answer. Please note, this episode contains descriptions of extreme violence and may not be suitable for all audiences. Head over to our YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios If you’re new here, don’t forget to f