Strange Country

Strange Country Ep. 304: Villisca Axe Murders

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Description

Tis Pumpkin Spice time and Strange Country has a spooky story to listen to as you drink a pumpkin spice-flavored whatever gets you through this America 2025. Co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss the unsolved ax murders plaguing railroad towns in the early 1900s and how people trampled crime scenes for entertainment.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Dash, Mike. "The Ax Murderer Who Got Away." Smithsonian Magazine, 8 June 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-ax-murderer-who-got-away-117037374/. Accessed 7 October 2025.
 
"An Entire Family Murdered." The New York Times, 11 January 1898, p. 5, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/01/11/102522610.html?pageNumber=5.
 
Hesse, Josiah M., et al. "​Why Did a Ghost Hunter Stab Himself Inside a Famous Ax-Murder House?" VICE, 18 November 2014, https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-did-a-ghost-hunter-stab-himself-inside-a-famous-axe-murder-house-1118/. Accessed 7 October 2025.
 
Miller, Matt, and Lauren Kranc. "13 Terrifying-But-True Horror Stories Reported in the News." Esquire, 5 October 2023, https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a39179/five-real-life-horror-stories/. Accessed 27 September 2025.
 
Taylor, Troy. Murdered in Their Beds. Whitechapel Productions Press, 2012.
 
Taylor, Troy. "THE NEWTON FAMILY MURDERS — American Hauntings." American Hauntings, winter 2024, https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/manonthetrain. Accessed 7 October 2025.
 
Van Gilder, Fay, and Joseph B. Moore. "History of the Villisca Axe Murders - The Suspects." Villisca Axe Murder House, https://murderhouse.com/the-house-and-murders/suspects/. Accessed 7 October 2025.
 
"Villisca Axe Murder House." US Ghost Adventures, https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-houses/villisca-axe-murder-house/. Accessed 7 October 2025.