The 50-year anniversary of the Mark family murders

What may be considered by some as one of Iowa’s most famous murders took place in Villisca in the southwest part of the state June 10, 1912.

On that night, someone used an ax to bludgeon and murder Josiah and Sarah Moore and their four children, Herman, 11, Mary, 10, Arthur, 7 and Paul, 5, along with two child guests, Ina Stillinger, 8, and her sister, Lenae, 11.

The family had attended the Presbyterian church in Villisca the evening before where they participated in the Children’s Day Program, which Sarah had coordinated.

It was reported that the family arrived home sometime around 9:45 p.m. the evening before the murders.

There were several suspects in the murders, including traveling minister the Rev. George Kelly, who was tried twice for the murder. The first trial ended in a hung jury, while the second ended in an acquittal.

Other suspects included Frank F. Jones, a prominent Villisca resident and Iowa State Senator; hired gun, William “Blackie” Mansfield, Henry Lee Moore, S.A. Sawyer and Joe Ricks, who was detained in Monmouth, Illinois, but none were found guilty of the crime.

Even though there were many leads and suspects, to this day, the murders remain unsolved.

That brings me to another Iowa murder, maybe not as famous, but equally cruel and memorable.

During the early morning hours of Nov. 1, 50-years ago this week, Leslie Mark and his wife, Jorjean, both 25, and their two small children, Julie, 5, and Jeff, 21 months, were shot in the heart and head while they slept in their rural farm home near Cedar Falls.

A few weeks earlier, Leslie Mark, his father, Wayne, and brother, Jerry, had met at the family homestead to discuss the future of the family farm.

Wayne’s cancer had returned and he was updating his will to make sure the family farm business would continue to be successful.

He wanted input from Leslie, who had taken on the role of assisting in all aspects of the family farm, and Jerry, who had shown an interest in the farming operation earlier in life, but had since moved to Berkeley, California.

According to reports, the meeting became tense when Wayne announced his decision to divide the family money equally between Leslie, Jerry and their two brothers. He also announced at the time that Leslie and his wife would take over the farming operation, as they had invested both time and money into the farm.

Just three weeks before the murders, Leslie and Jorjean and their children packed up their belongings and moved to the family homestead. Wayne and his wife, Dorothy, moved to a smaller home nearby where Wayne could continue gardening as his health allowed.

During the investigation detectives learned that rare 38 caliber bullets were purchased at a gun shop in a California town near where Jerry lived.

The bullets were those supposedly used in the murders.

The gun store clerk identified Jerry as the person who purchased the bullets. Many other clues led detectives back to Jerry, including a motorcycle cross-country ride that landed Jerry in the Midwest.

Detectives also discovered that a shed on Jerry’s property where the gun had been stored had supposedly been broken into.

Just 10 days after the murder, Jerry Mark, was arrested and charged with the four murders. Jerry was later tried and found guilty.

I first learned of the Mark murders in a book entitled “Brother’s Blood: A Heartland Cain and Abel,” by Scott Cawelti, a now retired University of Northern Iowa English professor, who attended Cedar Falls High School and knew Jerry Mark.

It may have been my local doctor who told me about the book. Debbie ordered it for me, and I dove right in, becoming enthralled with the story as it unfolded.

Cawelti was a presenter at the 2014 All-Iowa Writers’ Conference that my wife, Debbie, and I host each fall.

He talked about the book, the Mark family and the murders. It was a fascinating presentation. You dared not to blink because you might miss something.

Jerry was a Peace Corp volunteer, a lawyer, 4-H leader, vice president of his Cedar Falls High School senior class of 1960, and the one student who was most likely to succeed in life.

Jerry Mark remains in the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison where he is serving four consecutive life sentences, all while making numerous appeals for three decades.

To learn more about the murders, including information compiled from an interview with Jerry Mark, check out Cawelti’ book.

It is available through Amazon.

Have a great week, and always remember that “Good Things are Happening” every day.