2. The Villisca Axe Murders (Iowa, 1912)
On a quiet night in 1912, the Moore family and two visiting children were found brutally murdered in their home in Villisca, Iowa. The killer used an axe to slaughter the victims in their sleep. What’s particularly terrifying is that the crime scene suggested the killer lingered for hours, washing the axe and eating food in the kitchen before escaping into the night.
Despite numerous suspects over the years, no one has ever been definitively convicted of the crime, making it one of the most disturbing unsolved murders in American history.