The Dead Files (2011–…): Season 4, Episode 4 - The Ax Murder House - full transcript

Subs created by: David Coleman.

Someone's saying there
wasn't anywhere to run.

Serial killer pops in my head.

I said, if you're here,
open this door now.

I don't like it. I just
want to be out of here.

He wound up murdering his own mother.

- And how'd he do that?
- With an ax.

Oh, [Bleep] It's time for me
to live here with my family.

This guy is saying,
make sure they're dead.

Make sure. Make sure.

It's really bad in here.



My name is Amy Allan.

Something is not right.

I see dead people.

This person might have
been a serial killer.

I speak to dead people.

You get those chills.

And they speak to me.

He is darkness. He is evil.

But there's only one way to
know if my findings are real.

I think she broke her neck.

I rely on my partner.

I'm Steve Di Schiavi. I'm a retired
New York City homicide Detective.

You telling me the truth?

And I know every person,
every house has secrets.



I think the Devil is down here.

It's my job to reveal them.

Who the hell would do this?

But Steve and I never speak...

We never communicate
during an investigation.

Until the very end.

Who is he looking to kill?

We uncover if it's
safe for you to stay...

You need to get out of here right now.

Or time to get out.

It was like endless darkness.

Amy and I work the same case,
but from two different angles.

I interview living witnesses and uncover
buried secrets from the property's past.

While Amy communicates with the dead.

Every once in a while, Amy and I get called
in to investigate a well-known location.

This is one of those times.

I'm in rural Iowa, heading over to
the infamous Villisca ax murder house.

Now, here's what Amy and I
both know going into this case.

June 9th, 1912.

Six members of the Moore family,

and two young girls who will be spending
the night with them as house guests...

Walk back from the church
along a country road.

Around 9:30 P.M. they arrive home.

The following morning,
they will all be found dead.

All murdered by a swing
of an ax to the head.

Despite countless theories
and two sensational trials...

No one has ever been brought to justice.

And the Villisca Ax Murders remain on of
the world's most horrific unsolved crimes.

But here's what Amy doesn't know...

We've actually been called in by a guy
that leads tours in the ax murder house.

He thinks something has followed him
home and is terrorizing his family.

He sounds pretty concerned, and I'm
hoping Amy and I can help him out.

Even though Amy knows
where she's going...

I still have to cover anything
that may influence her findings.

But what she doesn't know,

is that she'll also be walking
the client's home next door.

So, it's important I take my time
there to remove any leading information.

In my opening, I met this
woman who's here with me.

Okay.

She's all disfigured,
and she is very angry.

Uh, about everything.

She feels responsible.

Uh, because she either let
someone in or let them stay.

But I hear from someone else that
it's actually her husband's fault.

This doesn't feel right.

John, so this is the actual house
where the murders took place.

- Exactly.
- Okay.

- You don't live here, though?
- No.

I live right next door, where the neighbor
that found the bodies used to live.

- Okay. Now, what do you do?
- I do the history tours.

We'll tell people about what happened
going into the trials afterwards.

Okay.

But pretty soon, as I started
spending a lot of time here,

I thought, in my head,
I'm gonna solve this case.

And, you know, once I really
started delving into it...

I've become obsessed with it.

John, let me ask you,
why'd you call us in, then?

I'm concerned that something
over here followed me next door.

I have a wife, a
13-year-old, a 4-year-old...

And we're getting scared at some
of the things that's happening.

So, what kind of things are
you experiencing at your house?

There's a lot doors
opening and closing, uh...

The back aches, the neck aches.

And I would hear growling noises,
scratching noises, things like that.

So, were you experiencing stuff here first,
and then it start happening at your house?

Yeah, I started experiencing
things here first,

and that's what really drew me into it.

I thought, wow, is this
stuff really happening?

Okay. What are you
hoping we can do for you?

If something's following me home from
work at my house, I don't want that there.

I want a safe, happy home, and to really
just get on with the rest of my life.

So, why don't you show me what's happening
here, before we go over to your house.

Follow me.

Mm.

What's wrong?

I'm just hearing someone saying...

"There wasn't anywhere to run".

What's going on?

I just feel a lot...

Of pain right here. I can't breathe.

So, this is where Ina and Lena Stillinger
were found, the two overnight guests.

Wow. Okay.

So, what's going on in here?

A lot of nausea, feeling sick,
neck hurting, back hurting.

Do you feel this when
you're away from the house?

No.

Walk outside gone. Instantly.

Wow.

In this room, I've heard
a lot of loud growling.

And not animal growls.

This was kind of a growl, gasp,
moan combined, if that makes sense.

From a human?

The growl did not sound human.

The gasp and moan afterwards
sounded very feminine.

You don't think that has
something to do with the fact

that you know two little
girls were murdered in here?

Like, maybe it's something
you might've imagined?

No. It was definitely loud and real.

Okay.

There's two females...

Maybe 8 or 9.

One of them likes to scare people.

She growls.

She's like, sometimes I like to go...

Like that, she says.

And I think they would hear her
and feel her before they saw her.

Okay.

And with them, I'm getting pain here.

Oh, a lot of pain here.

Oh.

This was the home of Mary Peckham, the

lady that found the bodies that morning.

Okay. What are you
experiencing in this house?

My wife had just went to work,
my daughter was at preschool.

And I hear, "John"! And it startled me.
I jumped and I looked around, and nobody.

I looked out the window
and you could see her

car going up the street.
There was nobody here.

It wasn't anybody outside
trying to get your attention?

No. I looked all around the house.

Okay.

And there was one time, I took
the door and I latched it shut.

And, just on a whim,
I said, Mary Peckham,

or anything to do with the axe murder
house, if you're here, open this door now.

And then it slammed open.

Really? Was anybody home?

No, I was alone.

John's story sounded a
little too convenient.

So, I started looking for any signs
that he might be stretching the truth.

But as far as I could
tell, he wasn't lying.

I mean, it's got to be pretty
tough on the whole family, right?

Yeah. I don't want anybody in
this house scared of anything.

And, at one time, I actually just
padlocked the door shut coming up here.

Because it all centers
around up here, it seems like.

Okay.

A lot of the dead people from
next door come here... live here.

Any idea why?

They feel happy.

They're able to be together.

The older woman from outside...

She's trying to talk to a person here...

- Okay.
- But she's throwing a fit.

Like, she is going [Bleep] crazy.

The second this woman steps into this
room, she becomes filled with rage.

She's had it with the living, and all
of her anger is directed at one man.

She's saying, you're a guilty
[Bleep] and you know it.

I had a couple friends stay the
night, they all slept in here.

And the next morning, one said that he
woke up to an old woman's distorted face...

Just right above his.

He was pretty terrified and he
said he'd never sleep up here again.

Has anybody else in the
house seen this woman?

Uh... my daughter has talked
about a woman she's seen.

Okay. And what does she describe?

Right when we moved in, she
started talking about Hattie.

I said, who is Hattie? She
goes, that's the woman upstairs.

How do you talk about
ghosts to a 4-year-old?

Right. I'm gonna hit you with a
question that you may not like.

Now, what if Amy comes in and she
says, listen to me, you need to move.

It's just not that easy. We
can't just pick up and move.

And kind of the way I
see it, I often wonder

is it fate that I'm supposed to be here?

Could be that it's time for
me to live here with my family.

Okay.

The woman, she's definitely doing
some creepy [Bleep] around here.

Like what?

You know, somebody's seen an
apparition of her many times.

But it's not normal,
she doesn't look normal.

What does it look like?

She's messed up. Like...

Like all...

Weird.

I'm pretty [Bleep] sure
she's haunting these people.

So, Martha, I was talking to John
and he said that you own this place.

Yes, I do. My husband and I,
Darwin, purchased the house in 1994.

Let me ask you a question,
did you guys know that

this place might've had some
paranormal stuff going on?

No. When we purchased
it, we purchased it simply

because of the historical
value that it had.

Do you think, maybe all these
paranormal groups coming through

may be stirring some
stuff up in the house?

The paranormal groups like to tell you that
perhaps the paranormal activity started

when we restored it back to
what it looked like in 1912.

Because a lot of the people that
had lived here in the modern world,

didn't seem to experience anything.

Are you worried about
the guests that come

through here, or the
people that work for you?

- No. No, I'm not.
- No?

- Not worried about what's going on here?
- No.

This is a little bit of a
different situation here.

Usually, go to people's homes, where they
live, and my partner gives them advice.

What if she suggested that
you stop doing the tours here?

I would listen to what you had
to say, I'll take it to heart...

But I probably will not
discontinue what I'm doing.

She says, like, they deserve it.

They deserve to suffer,
or they deserved to suffer.

And I'm like, well, why?

She's like, this is what
they get. They deserve it.

She's adamant about this.

The angry woman I met outside
is furious with the living here.

She wants them to experience the
same pain she feels all the time.

I mean, she's definitely about
wanting someone to suffer.

But they better not think that
she's kidding, because she's not.

So, Kristy, I was talking to John, and
he said you also give tours here yourself.

- Yes, I do.
- Okay. And you've had experiences?

Yeah, I have. I've had many.

Are you okay? Because
you seem a little on edge.

I... I don't like being upstairs.

I've had many experiences
up here, and it's...

- It makes me very uncomfortable.
- Can you tell me about 'em?

Yes. I was doing a tour and um...

I heard footsteps coming
up the stairs behind me.

There was nobody else downstairs,
everybody was upstairs.

- Okay, so you heard footsteps coming.
- I heard footsteps coming up.

I ran through that bedroom
screaming into here.

And um...

This one guy followed me in and he
said, I heard those footsteps, too.

- He didn't know why I took off running.
- Anything else?

Well, one time I got my hair ruffled.

- Okay.
- And another time, I was touched.

- Was it anything inappropriate?
- Yeah.

- It was?
- Mm hmm.

Kristy, with all you've
experienced in the house,

do you think whatever's
here is dangerous?

Yeah, I think so.

- So, why don't we go, because...
- Okay.

Thanks for even doing this.

So, there's a male in there who's
like, come on in here, you [Bleep]!

Come on in.

I don't feel good.

So much uh...

Commotion and movement and...

Fear and panic and pain.

And there's so...

There's a lot of people in the house.

When all this is... there's
so many people in the house.

All of these people are trapped here.

Especially these three kids.

I know most of the basic facts
about the Villisca Ax Murders.

But in order to help my clients, I need to
speak with the foremost expert on the case.

I need him to tell me what
happened the night that two adults,

and six children were murdered
on the property I'm investigating.

It remains one of the more
spectacular cases in Iowa history.

- There were eight people killed.
- Okay.

You had Joe and Sarah Moore
and their four children.

Here's two of the kids.

And then, there were two
girls visiting that night.

- Okay.
- And they were the Stillinger girls.

Ina and Lena.

Can you just take me back to what
happened leading up to the murders?

Sunday night, the 9th of June,
they all went to church together.

Okay.

They were having a special service, which
was called the children's day service.

They had a guest that night, a
minister, Lyn George Jacklin Kelly.

Never been in Villisca before.

And he was going to later be accused
of the murder and tried for it.

But acquitted.

And then, the eight of
them were going home.

And there's a rumor at least,
that one of the children

thought they saw somebody in the bushes.

I'm seeing this man...

Standing...

In the trees, watching.

He was angry and jealous, and I hear
somebody say that he was very religious.

Then, the next morning, the
next house west from theirs...

30 feet away, a woman named Peckham...

Noticed that there was no
activity around the Moore house.

That's the house where
my client's living now.

Yep.

Peckham shouted, knocked on
the door, got no response.

She called Joe's brother.

He and Mrs. Peckham walk through
the front parlor to a back bedroom.

Lying in the bed were two figures.

Okay.

On the bedstead behind them,
there were... there was blood.

And they called for the town marshal.

So, he looks around the room,
and the killer has taken a...

A woman's black skirt out of a
dresser and draped it over the mirror.

The ax is leaning
against the south wall.

And it's got blood and hair on it.

They had all been killed
with the back of the ax.

Mrs. Moore, she was the only one
struck with the blade of the ax.

Interesting.

And they were so disfigured, they
were mutilated beyond recognition.

And their faces had been
covered with a piece of clothing.

And then the covers had
been pulled over them.

And leaning beside the ax is a
four-pound piece of slab bacon.

That's odd. Now, was there
any theory about the bacon?

There was one theory, that the killer...

Rolled it into a tube and
used it as a masturbatory aid.

Wow. Serial killer pops in my head.

Mm-hmm.

I just hear crying. A lot of crying.

And I do see somebody being
dragged across the floor.

And I hear a male voice saying, it's
gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay.

This kid knew this guy.

She knows this person
very well, very well.

Okay.

And there was struggling.
What is going on here?

There's, like, physical...

Stuff happening.

Like, there's a man saying,
make sure that they're dead.

Uh, make sure.

Make sure.

There's a man saying, make
sure that they're dead.

Make sure.

There's the woman again.

She says, how can you let them do this?

How can you let them do this?

Aren't they your friends?

Like, she's hysterically crying.

I need to find out what kind of evidence

the cops collected when
they got to the scene.

So, I'm heading to the state capital
to meet with the County Sheriff.

And he said he can tell
me exactly what they found,

and why it led them to narrow down
their suspect list to four men.

- Hey, Joe.
- Hi, Steve. How are you doing?

Thanks for meeting me, I appreciate it.

Now, I wanted to talk to
another cop about this.

I mean, can you take me
through the crime scene itself?

Basically, the crime scene
was quickly deteriorated

by a whole barrage of
people going through there.

It was tainted.

So, you had civilians walking
through the crime scene?

- That's right.
- Wow, okay.

I know this guy Kelly
was arrested and charged.

Reverend George Kelly. He
was one of the four suspects.

The first suspect
would've been F.F. Jones.

Mr. Moore had worked
for him for nine years.

They got into a disagreement over wages.

Mr. Moore went on his own.

And when he left, he took one
of Mr. Jones' biggest customers.

Also, there was the rumor that...

Mr. Moore was having an affair.

With his daughter-in-law.

- F.F.'s daughter-in-law?
- That's right.

Doesn't sound like it was
enough for him to kill six kids.

Well, that's where suspect
number two comes in.

William Blackie Mansfield.

It is rumored Mr. Jones
had hired Mr. Mansfield...

To do his dirty work.

Did they ever bring him
in, charge him, or anything?

He had an alibi. He was actually in
Chicago, Illinois, working, at the time.

Henry Lee Moore.

Well, he looks the
part, that's for sure.

Yes, he does.

He wound up, two years later...

Murdering his own mother and
Grandmother in Columbia, Missouri.

- And how'd he do that?
- With an ax.

- Bludgeoned them to death.
- Okay.

- But, he's arrested and charged, I guess?
- He had an alibi.

The only one that was ever
arrested and charged...

Was reverend George Kelly.

Joe, what wound up leading
the guys to arrest him?

Someone said that they overheard him

talking about the murders when
he was leaving that morning.

He caught the 5:30
train out of Villisca.

And they didn't discover the
murders until around 7:00 A.M.

Well, it was several years
later that they arrested him.

He's the one that was charged.

- But acquitted twice.
- Acquitted twice.

And so, the case is still open today.

There was a deal, and it went wrong.

There are four men involved.

I did hear, um, like...

Conspiracy [Bleep].

Like, a cover-up.

These men had marks on them.

Scratches and...

I just hear men talking to each other
about making sure that it's done.

Not everyone was supposed to die.

Now that I know that Reverend Kelly went
on trial for the Villisca Ax Murders.

I'm meeting a crime historian
who is going to explain to me why

there was no justice for the
victims of this brutal crime.

This was the room where
Reverend Kelly stood

trial twice for the Villisca Ax Murders.

- So, what happened with the first trial?
- The first trial ended in a hung jury.

So, what went wrong?

The state had a pretty strong case.

There was, of course,
a confession by Kelly.

- This is it?
- Yes.

What was he saying?

He heard the voice of God.

Telling him to slay utterly,
and it went on in this vein.

Wow.

What other evidence did
they have against him?

They had what was
called the bloody shirt.

A couple of days after the murders,

he took one of these white shirts
to the laundry in Council Bluffs.

We have a confession.

We have two credible witnesses
who say he talked about the murders

before the bodies were
even found, on the train.

We've got a bloody T-shirt.

To me, it sounds like
a pretty decent case.

So, what went wrong?

Kelly was a pathetic figure.

He was a very small fellow
and he was a minister.

This is the Bible Belt
after all, and uh...

Ministers don't go around
killing kids with an ax.

So now, what went wrong
on the second trial?

The second trial was just, essentially, a
rerun that was done rather halfheartedly.

The prosecution, in fact, did not even
use the confession in the second trial.

One of these men was really
cool with doing this torturing.

He's a little guy.

Probably my height,
but really thin, pale.

Uh, his face is weird.

He's a little crazy dude.

During my walk, I saw a group of
men conspiring to commit murder.

I'm having a sketch artist
draw one of the killers.

He had a very oval kind
of shape to his head.

He was very thin.

His hair, definitely,
was dark and greasy.

Next, I had him sketch the angry woman

screaming at a living
man in the other house.

And there's a bed, and
there was a person sleeping.

And this lady...

Was at the end of the bed.

And her face is rage.

Is this what you saw?

Yes.

Now that Amy and I have
completed our investigations.

We're ready to reveal our findings to each
other and our clients for the first time.

Well, Amy, this is an unusual case
for both of us, because we both had a

little bit of knowledge of the tragedy
that had happened in this house.

Now, what you don't know is that
we were actually called in by John.

Now, John's a tour guide here.
He actually lives in that house.

He thinks something may have followed
him home, and it's terrorizing his family.

Now Kristy here works as a tour guide, as
well, and she's terrified in that house.

She doesn't want to leave, but she's
afraid to come into this house and work.

Now, I'm curious, Amy,
coming into this case,

how much did you know
about what took place here?

I knew that there was a mass
murder that had been committed here.

Of a family, two children were visiting.

That it occurred at night,
that it was done with an ax.

And that's about it.

Okay.

So, with that, I'm gonna turn it over to
Amy, and she can tell us about her walk.

So this walk, for me, was
absolutely overwhelming.

Like, I could not believe that
pretty much everybody is still here.

And when I showed up on the
location, I felt a lot of pain.

Like, having a hard time
breathing and severe back pain.

John, you had mentioned to me about
headaches and pain you go through.

Being in the house, certain
places, certain times,

extreme nausea, neck pain, back pain.

Come out of the house, completely fine.

Yeah, mm-hmm.

I have trouble breathing sometimes.

It feels like someone's
standing on your chest.

One of the strongest
entities I met was this woman.

She's pretty short, pale,
and she was very spiteful.

Angry, and she made me feel...

The initial pain.

The other thing is, she would
go back and forth about blame.

She feels responsible because she
either let someone in or let them stay.

But I hear from someone else that
it's actually her husband's fault.

- Now, was she one of the murder victims?
- Yes.

- She was?
- Yes.

And there's only one woman
that was murdered in this house.

This is Sarah Moore.

- That look like who you might've seen?
- Yes. Oh, yes.

She lived here with her
husband and four kids.

There was Herman, who was 11.

There was Katherine, who was 10.

And then they had two
other kids, Boyd and Paul.

Seven and five.

Now, you mentioned the
woman you saw was angry.

Yes.

That's interesting because
Sarah Moore was the only

one that was hit with
the sharp end of the ax.

The rest of them were hit
with the back end of the ax.

Really?

So, John, how do you feel
knowing that one of the murder

victims is actually here in
the house, and she's pissed?

Definitely sad.

You know, nobody wants anybody stuck.

What else?

In the downstairs
bedroom there's two girls,

but there was one girl, specifically,
who enjoys interacting with the living.

She tries to get attention.

She tries to talk to people...

And she likes to growl.

The growling that I've heard
is in that exact bedroom.

It was a growl, gasp, moan,
kind of combined all together.

You know that there were the
two visiting Stillinger kids?

- Yes.
- All right.

Those were the two girls that were
murdered in the downstairs bedroom.

This is Lena, who was 11.

This is Ina. She was 8 years old.

Which one do you think
might be the one interacting?

I think it's her.

- Lena?
- Yeah.

She's the most active one, and
wants feedback and reactions.

She wants attention.

So, as far as what
happened, it was really hard

to piece together what
I think are the facts.

There was a lot of chaos going on.

Like, I did hear a man saying that
it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay.

I heard someone else say,
there's no place to run.

And then, I saw her...

Getting dragged across
the room by her leg.

And she had this confused look on
her face, because she knew this man.

And then I heard a male say,
make sure they're all dead.

When I went upstairs,
I saw the woman, Sarah.

She was huddled in the
corner, holding a small child,

and she was screaming, why
aren't you doing anything?

How can you let them do this?

You know. Aren't they your friends?

And the killer was talking
about how something went wrong.

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

His meaning was that not everybody
in the house was supposed to die.

But something went wrong, a deal went
wrong, and this was focused on revenge.

And I believe there
were four men involved.

She amazes me one case after the next I
can tell you I'm always blown away by her.

But I got to respectfully
disagree with her.

I don't see it happening that way.

There were four suspects, though.

Interesting.

First one was a guy
that was Moore's boss.

This guy, F.F. Jones.

When Moore left the business...

He actually took the biggest account
that they had and took it with them.

Yeah. I think that's it.

Also, there was a rumor that J.B. Moore was
having an affair with his daughter-in-law.

Oh, that's why.

But you don't kill six
children over an affair.

The second major suspect was
a guy named Blackie Mansfield.

It was said that F.F. Jones
hired him to kill the family.

But, he had an alibi and he couldn't
have been in Villisca at the time.

So, it was dismissed.

Then you've got Henry Lee
Moore, no relation to the family.

He was a drifter, but nobody could place
him in Villisca the night of the homicide.

Which brings us to
reverend George Kelly.

This guy was in town the
night of the homicides.

He attended the church that the
entire Moore family was at that night.

He's put on trial twice.

First trial was a hung jury.

Second time, he was acquitted.

Now, one of the things
they had on him...

The next morning he gets on the
train at 5:30 in the morning,

and he discusses the murder
that took place at this house.

The bodies weren't discovered
until 7:00 in the morning.

So, how would he know about that?

Second this is, a few days later, he drops
off a bloody T-shirt to a dry cleaner.

And he wrote out a confession.

He puts himself here. Says
he's killed the Moores.

Said God made him do it.

Well, one of the men who was active
in the murders, I met in the barn.

He was short, very thin and pale.

He really enjoyed, like, torturing them.

I got a really quick look at
him, but I did a sketch anyway.

Wow.

Take a look at that.

Wow.

Yeah, that definitely
resembles Reverend Kelly.

Oh, yeah. It looks like the same man.

Amy, what do you think? Is this Kelly?

- Yes.
- Okay.

But he's not the only one.

He's just one of 'em.

I agree with her.

Okay.

How did one person control
eight people, and nobody got out?

Mm-hmm.

Anything's possible. I'd never
throw anything off the table.

My experience working homicide tells me
serial killers almost always act alone.

But I've worked with Amy long enough to
know that she see things no one else has.

And if she thinks more than
one man committed those murders,

I can't find any evidence to
prove or disprove her theory.

I am glad that we both agree that this
scumbag was involved in the homicide.

Without a doubt, yeah.

Well, we didn't just come here to
investigate what might've happened here.

But also, he's having issues in his
house, which you also walked, right?

- Yes.
- Okay.

When I was over there, I...

Saw that most of the
family go hang out in there.

It was nice downstairs.

Then, I'm, like, walking up the
stairs and almost when you hit...

The floor, it was just complete anger.

With her.

If I were you, I would be
very careful in this house.

It's pretty intense.

Then, I'm, like, walking up the
stairs and almost when you hit...

The floor, it was just complete anger.

With her.

If I were you, I would be
very careful in this house.

The whole downstairs has always
seemed very peaceful and welcoming.

But the upstairs has always
been full of footsteps and

doors opening and
closing and noises and...

Well, it was so bad he moved his
family from upstairs to downstairs.

When I saw her upstairs,
she's, like, in a blind rage.

She makes it a point to
haunt the living people.

She said that the living
people up there deserve it.

I got that she does direct
her anger towards a male.

And it didn't make sense, because
she blames him for what happened.

Well, John admitted to me that he was
pretty much obsessed about this case.

For me, I felt a genuine
love for this family.

And I thought if I
find out who did this,

then maybe they can be
at peace and be happy.

I felt like I was called to do
that, like I had to figure out...

In my head, who did it, for the family.

So I did a sketch of...

A situation that I
saw at the other house.

And it was of Sarah...

Going crazy.

And yelling.

Looks like she's wigging out.

It's not a good feeling to...

Do something you love, and
trying to do it in a good way.

And have that person angry.

Well, this was a pretty
intense case for both Amy and I.

And you've got to be relieved that
you finally know what's going on here.

Mm-hmm.

But, the big question is, can you
guys live and work here safely?

For that, I'm gonna turn it over to Amy
and see if she can come up with an answer.

What happened here is
absolutely horrendous.

Mm-hmm.

These people, from the
day that this happened.

Have never had any kind of peace.

Not only are they reliving...

What happened to them constantly.

They're also seeing other
people coming and going,

and it's made to be a sideshow.

And it needs to stop.

Because if this continues
to stay a tourist attraction,

I don't think they're
gonna find any peace.

I did speak with the owner, Martha.

And I can tell you after
speaking with her that,

she is not gonna change the
way things are done here.

So, John, would you ever consider
talking to the owner and asking to change,

or do you think it'd be a waste of time?

We don't want it to be disrespectful.

I know Martha's intentions are right on.

She doesn't want it to be disrespectful.

And the way I give my tours, I need
to just delve on the history, you know?

We want to honor the family
and we want to do good.

She had a message to
get through to you on how

to change things, and
you've gotten that.

And that is what's going
to give this family peace.

So you were chosen.

- How does that make you feel?
- Really shocked.

There's a reason I ended up
here, and I never understood why.

I know, John, that you're not in
a position to make decisions here...

On changing things, but are
you gonna do what you can?

Absolutely. We all want
the best for them here.

It'd be nice to enter the house
and not be nervous and scared.

I wish the tours could stop completely.

But I'm encouraged that
John and Kristy promise

to limit the tours to
the history of the house.

It seems to be a story that the
dead in this place want told.

And it should help bring
them peace, at least for now.