FIEND INCARNATE: VILLISCA AXE MURDERS OF 1912

If you're going to read any one book about Villisca, Dr. Epperly's forthcoming book, Fiend Incarnate is probably the one to own.

From The Comments: Nathan B. Harvey

Nathan B. Harvey ca. 1880

Lori writes: "My family has lived near this area for 5 generations and I'm curious if anyone knows if the old large green farm house on the North side of Johnson Creek Blvd as it goes up the hill west toward the rail tracks, was owned by the Harvey family? My grandfather at 15, around 1918, was pulled from that house in the middle of the night by his father after his mother read of a murderer owning the house. My grandfather had been working in the fields of the owner and sleeping over at the house with some other boys at night. My great grandmother said something about the murder of a young girl being found in the fields and the perpetrator owning this home. I still drive by this house often, tempted to ask the new owners but I hesitant to freak anyone out."

Lori – First of all, thanks for the comment! Secondly, please don’t knock on anyone’s doors and ask them about axe murders. I’m uncertain about the house you are referring to, but it definitely never belonged to Nathan B. Harvey. Harvey purchased the land he lived on, about a mile south of the 32^nd Ave. bridge over Johnson Creek, in 1882 and, after 1900, he never lived anyplace else. I don’t know who might have been living there in 1918. I had started a short response to you but found it needed more exposition so here I go.