In mid-June 1916, newspaper headlines across the state screamed, “Great crime at Villisca now solved.” The perpetrator was William Mansfield, an ex-convict, and dope fiend better known in his circle as “Insane Blackie.”
Detectives arrested Mansfield
on June 13 in Kansas City, Missouri.
The key to the case was the ax
murders in Blue Island, Illinois, of Mansfield’s wife, infant daughter, and
mother-in-law and father-in-law. Investigators also placed him in Paola,
Kansas, Aurora, Illinois, and Villisca, Iowa, when those gruesome murders
occurred.
Detective J. N. Wilkerson of
the Burns Detective Agency ferreted out the link.
Unfortunately, the case fell
apart after Mrs. Elmo Thompkins, who claimed to have overheard three men plotting
the Villisca murders, failed to identify Mansfield in court.
The prosecution dismissed the case against William Mansfield on July 21, 1916.
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