It has been 97 years since the "worst crime in Iowa History" was discovered by a concerned neighbor.
Just five days after Rollin and Anna Hudson were discovered bludgeoned to death in their home in Paola, Kansas, the Moore family and two Stillinger girls were discovered to have met a similar fate. Go to the Villisca blog or hit their Facebook page and find out more.
In Paola, there was a brief memorial service, attended by hundreds, for the young couple. Rollin Hudson's father, Jonathan, took the bodies back to Ohio for burial. The memorial in Paola included a viewing of the bodies. Investigators began looking for "Hooky" Adams and the stranger who had visited just hours before their murders. They also began a search for an "affinity" letter. George Cole had told investigators Rollin had insinuated he had in his possession a letter or note proving Anna to be untrue. This letter was believed to have been received by Anna on the morning of Decoration Day, May 31st. Hooky Adams turned out to have an air tight alibi but as far as I know, the stranger was never found. Something like an affinity letter was left on a stairway between two businesses with a note on it suggesting it be turned over to the proper persons. I'll get into this letter in another post.
Who was the stranger visiting the Hudsons that night? The description of the clothing would suggest a traveling salesman, likely out of Kansas City. A dark suit and a straw boater were pretty posh items to travel around in at the time. He may have been a friend from Ohio passing through Paola on sales calls and stopped by the Hudson's home on the way to the train station, leaving after a brief visit. The items inside the house were situated in such a way as to suggest some brief reminiscing. A photo album was out on the table as well as a box of letters; the dinner dishes had not been cleared and it looked as if the laundry had been interrupted. This suggests an unplanned, hurried visit. The stranger was invited into the house immediately and may have told Rollin and Anna he was on his way to catch a train. Anna might have thrown together a quick meal and they sat down to look at photographs from back in Ohio. The stranger may have asked about a mutual friend so they pulled out the box of letters in order to find out what city the friend lived in. After the visit the stranger left; Mr. and Mrs. Pryor may not have seen him leave due to being occupied elsewhere or just not paying attention to something that really wasn't all that interesting. The stranger boarded his train and took off to his next location; with the way news traveled (and in comparison to other crimes, Paola received very little press) he may not have known they had been killed for a year or more. It's very possible he didn't know he was the last person, other than the killer, to see them alive.
Could this stranger have been the killer? Sure; was he? Probably not. I think it is safe to assume the late night intruder into the Longmeyer house was the killer of the Hudsons or had something to do with it. If it was our stranger then the scenario gets stupidly complex. Said stranger is invited into the house; he then subdues the couple (investigators thought chloroform may have been used but never explain why), lays them on the bed in a sleeping position and bludgeons them to death with the pick axe he had hidden under his jacket the entire time. He then washes up, steals Anna's robe for kicks and leaves through the back room window. Before leaving he pulls out the photo album and letter box to make it look as if they had been sitting around looking at them the entire time. The album may have been sitting on the table to begin with but it was sheer luck he found the box of letters without needing to ransack the place. Once outside, he decides to go try to kill the next door neighbors so he breaks in through a back window but before he can begin, he drops the chimney, wakes the occupants and flees back through the house, leaving his souvenir from the first murder behind. Setting aside that it is near impossible to chloroform two concious people back to back, why go through all the other trouble of making the crime look like a burglery but not do anything inside the house to make it look like a burglery. Typically, when a killer "stages" a burglary-gone-wrong, they tear the place up but fail to take things in plain sight like money and jewelry. In this case, Anna's jewelry was untouched and the house was in order. The perpetrator here was of a single mind; kill.
4 comments:
You are correct. I may have exaggerated. Your scenario is entirely possible. I accidentally deleted it so here it is in it's entirety.
Anonymous said...
Hey, I don't know if you still read this but I'd just like to point out an alternative scenario where their visitor could be the killer. I don't know how likely it is but it's less conveluted than the scenario you suggested. As being an old friend the visitor could have looked at the photos and letters and then been invited to stay the night, waiting until the Hudson's fell asleep before striking. I'm just curious about the neighbor's description of the intruder wether it conflicted or complied with the description of the visitor.
April 10, 2018 at 6:56 PM
There really isn't a description of the intruder next door. Mrs. Pryor never saw the man and her daughter didn't really get a look at him either.
I wonder if it is somehow important that the man breaking into the house next door fled rather than attacked the awakened family. This guy would apparently only attack and kill sleeping families. Was it because he could be easily overpowered by the family who was awake or was there another reason he wouldn't hurt someone who was totally conscious and facing him?
Also interesting is him taking the chimney off the lamp like other murders. I couldn't imagine being the family who woke up to him fleeing the house. I don't know that i would ever sleep again!
This is such a great site! Thank you so much for sharing your information with us!
It would have been sometime between 1915 and 1920 but my great grandmother would always tell a story about when her entire family was drugged in Tennessee. She was a child when it happened, but always remembered laying on the bed unable to move while this man was in their home. She never went into specific details but I know it was horrific enough for her to check the closets and under the beds in her home until the day she passed away at 100.
Apparently whatever was used left her conscious mentally but unable to move. I don't know if it was an injection or something else. I've always wondered if some of the victims were somehow drugged. Chloroform would be near impossible but maybe some other drug couldve been administered.
"I wonder if it is somehow important that the man breaking into the house next door fled rather than attacked the awakened family."
I believe so. By waking up the family, the fantasy was broken. As I wrote about regarding the Showman murders, when Pauline Showman woke up and alerted the children, the killer was forced to improvise. His behavior toward Pauline afterwards was likely a direct result of him being angry with her for ruining the fantasy. Add that to his failure at the first house in Ellsworth and he was likely pretty rattled by the time he left town.
"It would have been sometime between 1915 and 1920 but my great grandmother would always tell a story about when her entire family was drugged in Tennessee"
Did other members of the family corroborate this experience? I can't think of anything from that time period that would have that effect and not kill everyone or cause long term damage. Curare comes to mind but you have to be injected and it can easily kill a person. The other thing that comes to mind is CO poisoning which can lead to sleep paralysis and pretty scary hallucinations.
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