Bio

Henry Lee Moore was born on November 1, 1874, in Boone County, Missouri. He was the eldest son of Enoch Moore and Georgia Ann Wilson Moore. His father was a farmer and Civil War veteran, while his mother worked as a nurse. Several members of Moore’s immediate family died before the 1912 murders, including his father and two of his brothers.

By 1900, Moore was living in Franklin County, Iowa, where he worked as a farmhand. He later spent time in Kansas and had a criminal record before the murders. He was sentenced to the Kansas State Reformatory in Hutchinson on a forgery charge and was released on April 11, 1911. This release date later became important because several unsolved axe murders occurred in the Midwest after he returned to civilian life.

Before the confirmed murders, Moore had stayed at times with his mother and grandmother in Columbia, Missouri. He later worked in Moberly, Missouri. Prosecutors said he traveled from Moberly to Columbia shortly before the murders and registered at the Central Hotel under the false name “L. Smith.” The use of that alias became one of the details used against him at trial.

Murder Story

On the night of December 17, 1912, Henry Lee Moore’s mother, Georgia Ann Wilson Moore, and his grandmother, Mary Wilson, were killed inside their home in Columbia, Missouri. Both women were beaten to death with an axe. The crime was discovered the next morning after Moore appeared at the home and asked a neighbor to come see what had happened.

Moore claimed he had arrived in Columbia to visit his family for Christmas and denied killing the two women. Prosecutors argued that he had actually arrived earlier than he first admitted and had registered at a local hotel under the name “L. Smith.” They also presented evidence that blood was found on his clothing and body after the murders. Moore claimed the blood came from a nosebleed, but the prosecution rejected that explanation.

At trial, prosecutors argued that Moore had a financial motive. They said he had been spending money in Moberly, had discussed buying furniture for a rooming house, and expected to gain from his mother’s property after her death. Moore denied the accusation and testified in his own defense. The jury found him guilty on March 14, 1913. He was sentenced to life imprisonment rather than execution.

After Moore’s conviction, investigators began looking at whether he could be connected to a larger series of unsolved axe murders across the Midwest. A federal investigator, M. W. McClaughry, believed Moore might be responsible for several similar killings, including murders in Colorado Springs, Monmouth, Ellsworth, Paola, and Villisca. These crimes involved victims being attacked with axes or similar weapons, often inside their homes while they slept.

The most famous of these suspected cases was the Villisca axe murders in Iowa. On the night of June 9–10, 1912, six members of the Josiah Moore family and two visiting Stillinger girls were killed with an axe. Henry Lee Moore was not related to that Moore family. Iowa historical records list Henry Lee Moore as one of several suspects, but they also state that the Villisca case remains unsolved.

Because Henry Lee Moore was never convicted of the other axe murders, they must be treated as suspected connections, not confirmed crimes. His only confirmed murder conviction was for killing his mother and grandmother in Columbia, Missouri.

Moore served 36 years of his life sentence before being paroled by the governor of Missouri on December 2, 1949. His sentence was later commuted on July 30, 1956. Later records state that he died in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 30, 1963, at the age of 88.