Lyn George Jacklin Kelly was born October 18, 1878 at Erith, Kent, Camberwell District, London County, England to Samuel G. and Miriam J. Kelly. He and a younger brother by the name of Gerald K. Kelly resided with their parents at 1881 St. Olaves Lordship Lane.

Kelly and a woman named Elizabeth Kelly (listed on the passenger list as his wife) disembarked from the Eturia at the Port of NY on October 8, 1904. As you can see in the document below, their ages were listed as 26 and 25 respectively.  There is another age written over the age listed for Elizabeth which is 34. Even then, Kelly listed his profession as a minister. I haven't yet been able to figure out what happened to Elizabeth or when he married Laura Kelly.

According to Roy Marshall in his book, "Villisca", "Kelly was a spidery little man with protruding ears, a prominent nose, high forehead and a wide mouth with large lips that seemed to turn down at the corners even when he smiled. People remembered his dark, deep-set and chilling eyes, but it was his mannerisms even more than his looks that disconcerted them.

When excited, and he was easily excited, he ranted and spoke so fast he was often impossible to understand. He drooled excessively, and while in one of his frequent tirades was apt to spray spittle on those nearby."

One well known historian is adamant the Reverend Kelly was responsible for the Villisca Axe Murders. In an article that appeared in the Sept. 28th 1986 issue of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Ed Epperly, author of several articles on the Villisca Axe Murders is quoted as saying "Personally, I am convinced that Kelly was the killer. I think you can prove that beyond a reasonable doubt."

Present at the Children's Day Exercises at the Presbyterian Church, Kelly quickly became a suspect in the Villisca Axe Murders. Kelly had a somewhat checkered past and his departure from Villisca early on the morning of the murders was enough to arouse suspicion. Kelly arrived in Villisca on Saturday from his home in Macedonia, Iowa. He was to attend the Children's Day Exercises and then stay overnight at the home of Reverend Ewing, pastor at the church, and his wife. When Reverend George Kelly arrived in Villisca, Seymour Enarson, the son of Henry and Jenny Enarson met him at the train depot. He was driven from the depot to the home of Louis Enarson (Seymour’s uncle) for supper. After supper at the home of Louis and Dora, Kelly was taken to the Henry Enarson home for the evening.

In a letter dated Dec. 28, 1993 Lena Atkinson (Enarson) described that evening as follows:

“At the family farm, where Rev. George Kelly stayed the night before the murders, there were my father, Henry; my mother, Jenny; my two brothers, Seymour and Wayne; and my four sisters, Grace, Garnet, LaVerne, myself, and Wilma. After supper at Uncle Lou’s, Seymour brought Rev. Kelly out to the (Enarson) farm, which is located six miles north of Villisca. It was still light. When the little Minister got to the farmhouse, he was very nervous and began to walk the floor in the living room.

He told my mother to get those children out of the living room because they were too noisy and they bothered him. But there was no other place to play so the three younger children had to stay in the living room. The two older daughters helped my mother in the kitchen. There was a bedroom off the living room, on the ground floor, where Rev. Kelly spent the night. The Rev. Kelly’s behavior so alarmed my mother that, after the family had gone upstairs to bed, she wrapped herself in a blanket and spent a sleepless night on the steps leading to the upstairs bedrooms.

The stairway had a door at the foot of the stairs leading from the living room, where she sat behind the door. The next morning, the day of the murders, my father and Seymour took the Minister to the Pilot Grove Church. Seymour was the one who talked about what happened there. The women at the noon picnic made over the Minister and Seymour thought some of the women acted silly toward him. The morning sermon, Seymour thought was the strangest he had ever heard. He was only fourteen at the time and didn’t say exactly what the Minister had said. After the picnic, my father drove the Minister back to the house for supper. Afterwards, Seymour drove Rev. Kelly back into town (Villisca) where he left him at Rev. Ewing’s home.

That was the last any of the family saw of him prior to the murders.” “We youngsters always heard the Minister confessed the crime on the train going to Macedonia. As we heard it, he had received a vision to follow the biblical injunction, “Slay and slay utterly.” Whether that is in the Bible I have no idea, but we as youngsters always repeated it to each other. After he was acquitted in the two murder trials and left for England, Rev. Kelly wrote letters to both my father and Uncle Lou asking for money so he could return to the United States. They both refused him. Nonetheless, I have always heard he did somehow return.

I do remember my parents always believed Rev. Kelly committed the Villisca Ax Murders.”

The following is an excerpt from a letter signed by LaVerne (Enarson) and dated December 1, 1986.
She wrote:

“I remember the ax murder as tho it were yesterday. I still can see all the caskets in the park. I feel like I grew up with that. The Senator Jones was mistreated something terrible. Verna Means (our cousin who worked as Secretary to F.F. Jones) worked for him. It was all handled the way a lot of gossip starts. I remember a lot about the preacher Kelly. He was crazy as a loon. The nite of the murder there was a children’s program at the Presbyterian Church. This preacher had been at our home. Dad had taken him up north some place to preach.

They came back, had supper & Mom told Dad to never bring that thing out there again. He wouldn’t have a thing to do with any of us kids and that bothered Mom. That night Dad sent Seymour into Villisca to take the preacher back and attend the Children’s exercises. The preacher never attended the exercises and when he said before he left Villisca-he admitted he did it and said, ‘I slayed the children first because they have always been a detriment to me’ & when Mom read that she said ‘He did it’, and when he got on the train the next morn to leave Villisca he told the conductor, ‘there was an awful murder in Villisca last nite.’

All this was brought out at the trial in Red Oak. Dad & Uncle Lou each had letters from him written like a crazy man and Dad said they sat back in the (Court) room & were never called up & they were both there ready. But they wouldn’t let the preacher’s voice mean anything. They dismissed him as crazy and shipped him back to England.” “It caused a break in the town, split the churches and really I don’t know why they would want to keep it hanging. There was a Detective too. I’m sure you would find his name in your papers. I have no papers, just what I have written you is just what I remember hanging around with dad and the men. I would like to forget it but I never will.”

In letters written to authorities after the murders, Kelly appeared obsessed with the murders in Villisca and supposedly wrote about things that only the murderer would have known. Witnesses said he spoke of the murders on the morning train to Macedonia before they had even been discovered and he also sent a bloody shirt to the laundry in Council Bluffs.

Kelly was arrested in 1914 in South Dakota for sending obscene materials through the mail and was sentenced to prison. He wound up instead in a mental hospital in Washington D.C. The following newspapers articles were sent to us by Royce McDowell of the Tripp County Historical Society. They appeared in the paper in the Winner, South Dakota Journal. Click on the image to see a full size copy.

 

In 1917 Kelly was arrested for the Villisca Axe Murders. His confession would become the most disputed part of his case. Kelly's first trial ended in a hung jury and in the second he was acquitted.

The following articles regarding the trial of Reverend Kelly appeared in various newspapers around the country.

"Says He Killed Eight at God's Command "

New York Times, June Sept. 1, 1917 - Click here to see the article.

"Ex-Detective is Arrested in Villisca Case "

Corning, June 30, 1917 -- J.N. Wilkerson, former Burns detective who has been active in the interests of the defense in the case of Rev. Lynn George J. Kelley charged with the Villisca ax murders is in jail here charged with conspiracy to commit a felony. Wilkerson was arrested at Red Oak and brought here by Sheriff G. Simpson of Adams county this morning.

His arrest followed the confession Thursday and Friday of William Walker, 28; E. Boiler, 25 and Harry Nave, 17 all of Atlantic who said Wilkerson furnished them with revolvers and automobiles to plunder the store of F.F. Jones at Red Oak last evening. Wilkerson has accused Jones, former senator, with complicity in the ax murders nad the raid on the store is alleged to have been for the purpose of securing personal letters and papers belonging to Jones. The confessions of the three men are said to have been given to County Attorney Ray Maxwell of Adams county, Sheriff Simpson and Attorney General Havner. They were released on $1000 bond.

It was also learned today that Judge Woodruff of Glenwood today issued a temporary injunction restricting him from making an advertised address at Red Oak and from intimidating witnesses, jurors and state attorneys in the trial of Kelley which trial is set for September 4. The petition makes sensational charges against Wilkerson. It is charged that after Kelley was indicted and before being apprehended, the detective visited Kelley at Alta Pass, Illinois, paid bills owed by Kelley and his wife, took them to Chicago and paid all the expenses of the trip. While at Alta Pass Wilkerson introduced himself to the railway agent of that town as F.F. Jones and shipped Kelley's goods to Kansas City, Mo., consigned to one Jackson. He is also charged with having visited Kelley at St. Louis prior to Kelley's indictment for the purpose of obstructing justice.

The petition also claims that while the grand jury was in session Wilkerson tried to intimidate witnesses and jurors and that he broke into the office of County Attorney Oscar Wenstrand and abstracted certain papers and files.

"Slay Utterly" Is Text; Preacher Becomes Slayer

Council Bluffs, Sept 1, 1917 -- "Slay Utterly" was the text which the Rev. Lynn G.J. Kelly, traveling preacher, followed when he murdered with an ax Joe Moore, his wife and four children and the two little Stillinger girls as they lay in their beds in Villisca, Iowa, on the night of June 9, 1912, according to a confession alleged to have been made before a state agent and several attorneys Friday morning. Information regarding the confession was given out today by State Agent Risdon and J.H. Hess, an attorney representing the prosecution. Kelly had heard a sermon on the text "Slay Utterly," and, according to this alleged confession, the two words had been running through his mind for days. The night of the murder a voice told him to go to the Moore house, where he picked up an ax in the back yard. He then went into the house and committed the murders, according to the confession.

"Alleged Murderer Of Eight Goes On Trial"

Red Oak, Ia., Sept 5, 1917 -- Selections of a jury to try Lyn George J. Kelly, charged with the "axe murder" of eight persons in Villisca, in 1912, was expected to be well under way before adjournment today. A special venire of 100 has been ordered to report. Attorney General Havener refused to coment today on his indictment by the county grand jury late yesterday for "oppression in office," as a result of his conduct of the state's case. He will play as his trump card the confession he says Kelly signed, admitting the murder of Joe Moore, his wife, their four children and Lena and Ina Stillinger, at the command of a "shadow - the voice of God." The defense will repudiate the alleged confession. 

"Jones' To Be Drawn in Trial"

Red Oak, Sept 6, 1917 -- That the defense in the trial of Rev. Lyn George J. Kelley charged with murdering eight persons at Villisca with an ax in 1912 would try to bring the name of F.F. Jones, former state senator into the trial was indicated this afternoon by the questions put to prospective jurors.

Pearl Kluck, a farmer, drawn for jury service was asked if he had an opinion as to the "guilt or innocence of Senator Jones" in connection with the murders. He replied that he had but was not asked to express it.
J.N. Wilkerson, the detective working for the defense has frequently charged Jones with "having criminal knowledge" of the murders.

The state is not likely to ask for the death penalty if Kelley is convicted. This was indicated thru the failure to ask prospective jurors their opinion as to capital punishment. Of the seven men examined this morning only one was accepted, bringing the total of tentative jurors to ten.

"Murder Ax Introduced in Villisca Murder Case"

Red Oak, Iowa, Sept. 13, 1917 -- Five witnesses, testifying today in the trial of the Rev. Lyn George J. Kelly, charged with the Villisca ax murders, told of the manner and condition in which the bodies of the victims were found. Dr. J. Clark Cooper, Dr. W.A. Lomas, Dr. A.L. Linquist, former coroner, Dr. F.S. Williams and Marshal J.H. Horton of Villisca, the first persons summoned to the residence of J.B. Moore after the murders were committed, were the witnesses.

During the examination of former Coroner Linquist, now commander of an Omaha ambulance company, the murder ax was introduced. The blade, blunt side and part of the handle show faded splotches of blood. Dr. Linquist shaid there were no finger marks on the ax handle, which, he said, was streaked with blood. He said the body of the elder Stillinger girl apparently was the only victim moved after being slain.

Opening statements of counsel in the trial of the Rev. Lyn George J. Kelly, charged with the murder in connection with the ax slayings at Villisca, Iowa, in 1912, occupied only an hour today and the way was cleared for the introduction of testimony. Assertions by the state that it would be positively proven that Kelly killed the ax victims and has confessed his guilt, wree met by counter charges from the defense that the confession was by "inquisitional" methods for the purpose of shielding another.

"We will prove by reputable witnesses," H.M. Havner, attorney general of Iowa, opening for the state, said, "that on the morning following the murder, Kelly, while on a train between Macedonia and Hastings, Iowa, told of the fact that eight persons had been slain at Villisca. This was before seven o'clock in the morning and all evidence will show beyond question that the murder was not discovered in Villisca at that time and was not known until between 8:30 and 9 o'clock.

Mr. Havner also said the state would prove the confession Kelly is said to have made a few days before the trial opened, that it was made on the defendant's own volition, entirely without coercion. In opening for the defense Attorney W.E. Mitchell asserted that the alleged confession was worthless except as showing that the state was trying to shield someone. "Kelly was more dead than alive; more insane than sane," after making the purported confession, Mr. Mitchell said.

The courtroom was crowded during these recitals, a sprinkling of women being included. Kelly, who weighs 115 pounds and stands but one inch over five feet, watched proceedings closely and without display of emotion.

"Boasted of Eight Murders"

(By United Press) Red Oak, Ia., Sept 17, 1917 -- The confession of Lyn George J. Kelly is alleged to have been made to the state agents, that he killed eight persons with an ax at Villisca in 1912, was not the first made by the itinerant unordained minister. This was brought out today when the Kelly trial was resumed here. W.C McQueen, former deputy at Sioux Falls, S.D., who arrested Kelly in 1914 on some trivial charge, testified that Kelly told him he committed the murders at Villisca. According to witnesses Kelly told other persons who came to the cell to see him that he killed the Moore family and the two Stillinger girls and asked them "how did the Iowans find out I killed them?"

A man who shared a cell with Kelly at the Sioux Falls prison testified in the same line. According to this prisoner, he said he killed the eight persons and added that none would suspect him because he was a minister.

"Claim Kelley Was Insane"

Red Oak, Sept. 19, 1917 -- That Lynn George J. Kelley was of unsound mind was the point of the defense was trying to impress on the jury in the Kelley murder trial here today. Witnesses called to the stand told of wild ramblings by the itinerant, unordained minister who is accused of crushing out eight lives with an axe at Villisca in 1912.

The defense also charges that the alleged confession presented by the state, if it had been made at all, came after the minister's mind had been weakened through grilling by the state's agents.
The state charges that Kelley in his confession admitted he slayed Joe Moore, his wife, four Moore children and Ina and Lena Stillinger because a voice from God commanded him to "slay utterly."

Witnesses said Kelley imagined he was a detective when taken through the Moore home about two weeks after the crime was committed. Persons close to the trial said today that the fate of Kelley would be in the jury's hands before the end of next week. This prediction came through the abrupt ending of the state's testimony yesterday afternoon and it was thought that the defense's witnesses probably would be all examined before next Wednesday.

"Defense Has Closed Case"

Red Oak, Sept 22, 1917 - The defense in the Lynn George J. Kelley murder trial closed its case shortly before noon and adjournment was taken until Monday when the state will begin its testimony in rebuttal. This arrangement indicates that the jurors will have the fate of the itinerant, unordained minister charged with the Villisca ax murders in their hands by thursday or Friday.

Mrs. Kelley testified that her husband's mind had been weakened through overwork. She told of Kelley's arrest in Nebraska on arson charges and testified that on the night he confessed he had set the fires he was at home with her. This she said was her first knowlege that his mind was weakened. Other defense witnesses told of the various indications that the minister was weak-minded.

"Kelley May be Retried for the Other Seven Deaths"

Des Moines, Nov. 26, 1917 -- Lynn George J. Kelley acquitted Saturday night of the murder of Lena Stillinger, one of the eight Villisca ax murder victims, can be indicted and retried for the other seven deaths, Attorney General Havner announced today when he returned from Red Oak. He said that each of the deaths in the Villisca murders constitute a separate crime for which Kelley can be indicted. He did not say, however, whether he would push the case further.

Three years after he was acquitted of the Villisca murders, Kelly and his wife Laura show up in the 1920 census in North Dearborn, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. He's 41 and she's 49. He still claims ministry as his profession and his wife is a clerk. Kelly also listed his field or industry as educational.

By the time the 1930 Census rolled around, Kelly and his wife were back New York City, NY. He is listed as 55 year old minister. Her age is also listed as 55 and she is employed as a building laborer. It appears that on April 11 of 1930, however, Kelly was incarcerated at the Willard State Mental Hospital in Seneca, New York.

Willard has an interesting and not so inviting history. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of the people who entered never left. To read more about the asylum, click here. The Willard records are currently housed in the New York Archives, I'm hoping someone from NYC will read this and get in touch with me - we'd love to know more.

In 1945, Kelly gives an address in the Bowery in New York City. In the 1920's and 1930's, this area of New York City was “infamous as a place of squalor, alcoholism, and wretchedness”. As you can see on the draft card below, he listed his occupation as the pastor of the Bowery Mission Church Day Services.

Kelly was still married to Laura and gave his address as 271 W. 11th Street, NYC, NY. The building is still standing (below), however, today - one bedroom apartments are renting for about $2500.00 a month.