Your History, Preserved
At the Warren County History Museum, we keep history alive through preservation, hands-on education, and interesting events, including the annual Great Nicola Magic Festival. We have something for everyone to enjoy, from our Civil War collection to a Country School Room and Plants of the Prairie, a seasonal outdoor exhibit.
From spring through fall, our exhibits are open to the public, with free admission. The collections area is open by appointment only.
From spring through fall, our exhibits are open to the public, with free admission. The collections area is open by appointment only.
The Warren County Historical Society Speaker Series
Join us on Thursday, October 10, at 7 p.m. for a night of true crime! Our guest speaker, Dr. Edgar Epperly, is the author of Fiend Incarnate: Villisca Axe Murders of 1912 and a Luther College Professor Emeritus. A book signing will follow the presentation.
On June 10, 1912, eight people were bludgeoned to death in Villisca, Iowa, and the crime led to a decade of investigations and trials. Similar crimes had been committed across the United States, including the Dawson family murders in Monmouth in 1911. Investigators and reporters speculated that the brutal crimes were the work of a serial killer.
The investigation resulted in some major improvements in crime-fighting. M.W. McClaughry, an assistant warden and fingerprint expert at Leavenworth Penitentiary, investigated the Villisca scene. While he did not find any usable fingerprints, his extensive collection of other fingerprints became the basis of the FBI’s current fingerprint database. The public's frustration with law enforcement's inability to solve the Villisca murders led to the formation of the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Dr. Epperly spent over 60 years interviewing eyewitnesses and key figures in the Villisca murder case, and he examined historical records connected to the crime. He began his research in 1955 as a college student in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and he is considered the foremost authority on the sensational crime.
