Missouri Ax Murder House

LaBinnah Bistro Investigation

By

Larry Wilson 

            My first investigation, with Gary Hawkins, was at the location of the former LaBinnah Bistro restaurant, at the corner of Center and North Fifth Street in historic Hannibal Missouri. This was a very intriguing location to investigate due to the history of the building itself.

This is a very infamous location in that it is connected to Hannibal’s famous unsolved Stillwell Murder case which occurred in December, 1888.As the story goes the building was owned by the former mayor of Hannibal W.A. Munger. Amos J. Stillwell, Munger and the town’s doctor Dr. Joseph C. Hearne were playing Euchre at the mayor’s house on the evening of December 30 1888.

The rumor has it that the doctor and Stillwell’s wife Fanny were having an affair. After the card game that evening Stillwell and his wife returned home and went to bed. Sometime during the night Fanny awoke to see a dark figure standing over the bed with an ax. The dark figure called out, “Is that you Fanny?” before swinging the ax and severing the head of Amos Stillwell.

            Mrs. Stillwell was later seen in her nightgown running around the neighborhood knocking on doors seeking help. When the police arrived the bloody scene had been cleaned up by Mrs. Stillwell and several of the neighbors.

            The next year Fanny and the Doctor were married. The Stillwell murder was still unsolved by authorities, but the gossip around town was that the doctor and Fanny were in cahoots, and had murdered Amos Stillwell so that they could be together.

Most towns’ folk were convinced that both Fanny and the Doctor were guilty of the murder and would harass Fanny and the Doctor with taunting statements like “Axe me no more questions.” Eventually the doctor was tried but was acquitted by a jury which consisted of several of his friends. In later years it was reported that during a family argument Dr. Hearne threatened Fanny with, you guessed it, an axe.

            In more recent years the Munger home became the location for the LaBinnah Bistro Restaurant and Social Club located downstairs and Hazel& Kirks Coffee Bar which was located upstairs.

At the time of the investigation, the Bistros owner had relocated the restaurant to the Rockcliffe Mansion in Hannibal which he also owned. He was in the process of selling the building where the Bistro had formerly been located. The owner was aware, that Gary and paranormal investigator and independent film maker Paul Robinson were interested in doing an investigation and film for a documentary that Paul was in the process of making on Haunted Hannibal locations.

Since the owner wasn’t sure if the buildings new owner would be as receptive to allowing a paranormal investigation he contacted Gary which gave us the opportunity to investigate the location before the sale was complete.

Also located above the second story of the restaurant, is a living area that had been used as an apartment and recently rented to a lady from New Orleans. She rented the living area, until being frightened by what she saw one evening. What the tenant witnessed was a translucent figure moving hurriedly across the dining area. She watched the figure turn into a glowing blue dot before disappearing. This frightened her so much that she moved out. Weeks later a guest took a picture of the front of the building and in the picture looking out the front door glass was a figure similar to what the former tenant had seen.

Read about this, and other adventures of paranormal investigator Larry Wilson, in Chasing Shadows -Second Addition.