User:Geminikiller

sunny way drive murder of 1897

On the now busy street of the ventura avenue, still stands a street by the name of sunnyway drive. This beautiful and once deserted street was founded in 1891 by pioneer John Michael Lewis and his wife Abigale Anne Lewis, it is here that they decide to settle with their four children William Lewis, Blanche Lewis, Richard Lewis, and Nellie Lewis.In the spring of 1893 the lewis family finally finished construction on their eight thousand square foot victorian style home which stood on the end right half of Pioneer street(now Sunny way dr). Being one of the original settlers wasn't what had made the Lewis family famous, nor did their crops or farm, it was the events that had happend on October 27th of 1897. On October 27th of 1897, the Hudson sisters, Eva (9) and Barbra Anne (13), were invited to spend the weekend at the Lewis family home. When the day was ending, the visiting girls and the Lewis family went off to a church up the street at the mission, and came back to the Lewis home at 10:00. They were likely not aware that there was an intruder or intruders inside the attic or coat closet, waiting for them to fall asleep, so they could attack and kill. Once they were asleep, the intruder or intruders took the hatchet from the family barn and went up to the first bedroom to the left, where Mr. Lewis and Mrs. Lewis were asleep(Mrs Lewis was asleep in the bed, and Mr Lewis was asleep on couch on the right side of the room), and hacked them in the throat, head, and torso. The murder went into the children's room and hacked William Lewis (17), Blanche Lewis (11), Richard Lewis (6), and Nellie Lewis (4) in the head throat and torso like their parents. The killer possibly returned to the master bedroom to add more blows to the parents. Afterward, the murderer went downstairs to the guest room where Eva and Barbra Anne were fast asleep, and hacked them in the heads, throat and torso. Barbra Anne may have been killed in a traumatic way. Some of her hair and finger nails had been ripped clean out of her body, and there were burn wounds on her arms. In the morning, their neighbor was suspicious when he had noticed that the Lewis family did not come out to do the morning farm work. Before going to check their house, he fed his chickens and cows and went to knock on their door. The neighbor then called someone to see what was going on. The person got in and returned, saying to call the sheriff, because he saw that the guests and the family inside were murdered. After the years of trying to solve the case, the police and investigators gave up in 1912. The case still remains unsolved to this day and is no longer talked about. Very few people still are aware of this dark history.

SUSPECTS

Random Stranger/stalker/Traveling Serial Killer There is a possibility the murders were committed by random persons, most likely someone passing through town on a train.

Thomas Jones The most promising evidence goes to the theory that Jim mansfield hired Thomas “Blackie” Jones to murder the Lewis family. It is believed that Jones was a serial killer because he murdered his wife, infant twin child, father- and mother-in-law (two years after the lewis family murder crime); committed the axe murders in his family home(now Moor park), four days before the Lewis families crime; and committed the double homicide of Jane Peters and Kathryn Marshall in Washington. The locations of these crimes were all accessible by train, which is a major link. Another important link is that all murders were carried out in exactly the same manner.

However, Jones was released after a special Grand Jury of Ventura County refused to indict him on grounds that his alibi checked out.

Robert Anderson The evidence may have added up against Jones, but there was another man who was thought to be the axe murderer: Robert Anderson.Robert Anderson was convicted of the murder of his mother and grandmother several months after the murders, his weapon of choice being an axe. Ten months before the murders, another similar case occurred in Palm Springs, California. Two other cases followed in Sacramento, California and Astoria,Oregon. All cases were similar enough that the possibility that all were committed by the same person was impossible to dismiss.

HOUSE / FORGOTTEN LEGEND

After the case was declared a cold case in 1912, it was auctioned of to Michael Taylor and his wife June Taylor and their 5 children despite the grizly murders. The Taylors had only lived on the eight thousand square foot victorian style home on pioneer street (now sunny way drive) for about six and a half months before moving out and to never return again, they claimed to have experienced paronormal activity in the home including a women with a hacked up face dressed in white roaming around inside and outside the front of the house, a headless little girl wondering around the barn, voices of children screaming and laughing at times. The Taylor family claimed the home on Pioneer street was the most horifying place they had ever been and would never want to return. Despite no longer living in California the Taylor family still owned the home, until in 1915 the house was randomly burnt down by an unknown substance claiming two more lifes that of fireman John Dickinson and a fire wagon horse. From about 1917 until 1928 people in groupes would gather on the anniversary of the murders in the feild were the lewis family home once stood, some people would claim they felt ghosts presence and some claimed the ghosts legend was a hoax. Some people felt as if they were experiencing the murders them self, as a fear of running and hiding and anxiety of being murdered. On every anniversary of the murders numerous amounts of people claimed to have spotted the hacked face women in white (the same spotted by June Taylor),but was only seen every October 27th around ten o`clock. In 1928 people started to notice that the murder was becoming a legend, and people objected to that so the field surrounding were the home once stood was fenced off and forgotten about and the legend died out and people stopped talking about it. During the 1930`s the street was bought buy the thompson family contractors and the street was turned into a tracking home and still stands to this day.