OCTOBER
The body of 37-year-old Newton baker Otto H. Samp — who was visiting Des Moines with friends — was found “slashed into ribbons” in the backyard of a house at 618 E. 2nd Street in Des Moines on
October 1, 1916. The home’s residents were arrested for the brutal murder but ultimately released.
Click here to read “Butcher, Baker.”
location of Des Moines, Iowa
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On
October 2, 1893, 58-year-old Sioux City Water Works Engineer John William Rohrer was assaulted, robbed, and shot on the West 4th Street Bridge while returning home after an evening of playing cards with friends. He died in the early hours of
October 3 without identifying his attackers.
Click here to read “‘That Old —.’”
location of Sioux City, Iowa
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On the night of
October 3, 1914, Richard William Huggins, a 49-year-old florist at Sherwood Greenhouse, was shot twice as he walked home from a Waterloo streetcar station near the 600 block of Conger Street. There were reports of a threatening letter, romantic entanglements, and a tall woman wearing “a tango-colored skirt” picking up something near the crime scene.
Click here to read “Leave Town or Die.”
Richard Huggins
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In the early morning hours of Saturday,
October 5, 1895, the body of 47-year-old well digger and stone mason Peter Hendrickson was discovered hanging from the Keokuk and Des Moines Railroad Bridge in Des Moines. Authorities concluded the Sheldahl/Slater area resident was murdered and then hung from the bridge so the death would appeared to be a suicide.
Click here to read “The Well Digger.”
location of Des Moines, Iowa
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On
October 5, 1915, the slashed and mutilated body of 27-year-old Italian emigrant Joseph Busemi was found lying facedown on a seldom-used road near the old Waterloo Paper Mill on the west bank of the Cedar River. All evidence pointed to the Black Hand, a criminal group that threatened and extorted those in the Italian community.
Click here to read “Ancient Vendetta.”
Black Hand symbol
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On
October 7, 1897, 30-year-old transient farmhand John Legall of East St. Louis, Illinois, was shot five times as he slept under the Montgomery Railroad Bridge over the Little Sioux River eight miles west of Spirit Lake in Dickinson County. John Overmiller — his traveling companion who was believed to have killed and robbed him — was never apprehended.
Click here to read “Shot Into Eternity.”
Sketch of John Legall’s body
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Willard “Bill” Woodring
Forty-two-year-old Willard Charles “Bill” Woodring, who ran a prostitution and gambling operation out of the seedy Hawkeye Hotel in Keokuk, and 49-year-old Richard B. Buchanan of Colona, Illinois, were shot to death execution style on October 9, 1960 at the hotel during a botched robbery. A witness has recently come forward who believes he can identify the killer. Click here to read “Brothel Double Homicide.”
Richard B. Buchanan
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A woman calling herself “Lucille Marvin” was found dead from apparent strangulation in a third-floor room at Clinton’s Lafayette Hotel on
October 9, 1937. Investigators discovered she was a conwoman and thief with multiple aliases and a long history of crime and deception who worked the Midwest out of Minneapolis with two companions.
Click here to read “Grifters and Cons.”
Clinton’s Lafayette Hotel
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The body of 22-year-old secretary Lucille Elaine DeVries was found in her burned-out car at her residence at 607 3rd Street NE in Mason City on
October 10, 1962. She was last seen the night before having a meal after finishing a shift at her Frontier Ballroom part-time job.
Click here to read “Burning Murder?”
Lucille Elaine DeVries
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On
October 11, 1903, William F. Lewis, a 49-year-old farmer, died of a laudanum overdose at his Benton Township home southwest of Sigourney in Keokuk County. His wife Belle, who was suspected of having a lover, was tried and acquitted of his murder.
Click here to read “‘Love and Absence of Love.'”
location of Sigourney, Iowa
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Thirty-year-old Fredrich P. “Fred” Widmann, a well-liked Waterloo Patrolman, was shot when he came upon robbers in the alley behind East 4th Street. He had a premonition of danger before starting his late-night shift. After lingering long enough to bid his family and colleagues goodbye, he died on October 11, 1908. Click here to read “’Very Maw of Death.’”
Fred Widmann’s tombstone
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On
October 11, 1880, 42-year-old Washington Township farmer John Ford was ambushed and shot at his property in Buena Vista County near Storm Lake. He died of his wounds on
October 13. A neighbor who previously robbed Ford and was jealous of his success, was arrested and tried twice without a conviction, only to later receive vigilante punishment for cattle rustling.
Click here to read “Stealing Away.”
location of Storm Lake, Iowa
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Price Vincent Evans, the 24-year-old principal of Osage High School, was found shot to death under mysterious circumstances on a walking path near Spring Park on
October 14, 1895. Controversy swirled around whether the death was a murder to cover up something from the past or was a suicide by a troubled young man.
Click here to read “A Splendid Gentleman, a Good Scholar.”
Price Vincent Evans
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Frederick Leonard “Fred” Coste, the 47-year-old Manager of the Family Finance Corporation, was violently stabbed to death and robbed in his office at 312 Second Avenue SE in Cedar Rapids on
October 15, 1959.
Click here to read “Death in a Cubicle.”
Fred Coste
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Thirty-year-old William E. “Will” VandeBrake was shot to death in his business, the Corner Drugstore, at 302 Main Street in Rock Valley on
October 19, 1920. Family members believed the murder was a case of mistaken identity by a killer obsessed with William’s sister-in-law and the wife of the store’s co-owner Bert VandeBrake.
Click here to read “The Wrong Brother?”
William VandeBrake’s tombstone
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Edward “Ed” Moore, a 23-year-old hired hand on the James LeGore farm, was shot and robbed of his money and watch following a fierce struggle along railroad tracks one mile north of Ely in Linn County’s Putnam Township on
October 20, 1898.
Click here to read “Tracks in the Night.”
location of Ely, Iowa
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Officer Pitt McClellan Doxsie, the 34-year-old Independence Night Watchman and Assistant Marshal, was shot by robbers at the rear of a downtown store on
October 24, 1897. He died from his wounds on
October 26. Suspects, including one tough named “Iowa Fred,” were identified and investigated; however, many in town believed those who could have helped solve the case remained silent.
Click here to read “Down in the Dark.”
P.M. Doxsie’s tombstone
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On
October 26, 1860 — 12 days before the Presidential election — 35-year-old Silas McCart was stabbed four times during an intense political disagreement at the home of John A. Mix in Batavia in Jefferson County. Assailant Amos Wimer escaped and later died fighting for the Union cause, making official justice for McCart impossible.
Click here to read “Death by Politics.”
Silas McCart (Ancestry.com)
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Seventy-year-old Ewald Emil “Ed” Bandixen, Jr., a beloved figure in the small community of Folletts in Clinton County, was robbed and shot at his service station along U.S. Highway 67 on
October 28, 1974.
Click here to read “The Good, Gruff Man.”
Ewald Bandixen, Jr.
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On
October 28, 1904, the body of 44-year-old shoemaker Frank Sandquist was found in an outhouse in a Storm Lake alley. Although the coroner’s jury declared the death a murder, great mystery surrounded the method, motive, and suspect.
Click here to read “Struck Down.”
location of Storm Lake, Iowa
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Augusta Kading, 19, was shot twice on
October 31, 1877 as she fiercely protected the family’s possessions and fended off masked home invaders in Belmont Township near Milo in Warren County. She died of her injuries on November 16, 1877.
Click here to read “The Brave Girl.”
Location of Milo, Iowa
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On
Halloween Night of 1902, 26-year-old teamster Walter D. Schenck was providing extra patrol as an Adair City Constable to protect citizens against vandalism. The next morning he was found shot in the head at the gate to his own yard. His clothes were muddy, his money was missing, and his umbrella was found two blocks away.
Click here to read “Halloween Homicide.”
Walter Schenck’s tombstone
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