DECEMBER
On
December 2, 1924, 40-year-old John “Jack” Fong was stabbed to death in his business, the Kee Quong Laundry, at 214 Fourth Street in Sioux City. His wounds were inflicted in a symbolic pattern, suggesting he was the victim of Asian organized crime.
Click here to read “Chinese Tong Ritual.”
Jack Fong’s tombstone
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On the night of
December 5, 1901, 23-year-old Chelsea Night Marshal Rolland P. “Rollo” Smith came upon three safecrackers planning to rob a local bank. They shot Smith at pointblank range on Station Street near the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad tracks. The investigation uncovered multiple suspects who seemed drawn from the pages of a Damon Runyon story.
Click here to read “Trio of Thugs.”
photo by Colette Harrison
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Thaddeus William “Thad” Mitchell, the 44-year-old President of the Consolidated Taxi Company, ran a “party taxi” during Prohibition to help patrons locate and consume illegal alcohol. On
December 7, 1922, he was shot in his Cadillac by unknown customers on St. Joseph Avenue near 20th Street close to the City Detention Hospital — a.k.a. the “Pest House” — in Des Moines.
Click here to read “Deadly Taxi Party.”
Thaddeus Mitchell
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On
December 9, 1869, Jesse Skinner Wilkerson, a 38-year-old Fremont County farmer and Civil War veteran, was bullied, beaten, and kicked in the Cummings Saloon in Hamburg by four men trying to swindle him out of hogs he had brought into town. Wilkerson died on
December 12, 1869 of his injuries. The men responsible were not held accountable by the justice system.
Click here to read “Bullied and Bantered.”
location of Hamburg, Iowa
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Thirty-seven-year-old Louis Friedman was shot to death during a botched robbery in his Sioux City grocery store at 300 Pearl Street on
December 12, 1930. The colorful list of suspects included a radio minister and a former major league baseball player.
Click here to read “‘Stick ‘em up, Louie.’”
Louis Friedman
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On
December 12, 1936, the body of 50-year-old service station owner Charles O. “Charlie” Shamblen was found on the railroad tracks west of the Burlington Depot in Malvern. Authorities believed Shamblen was knocked unconscious and left on the rails to be run over by a train to simulate an accident.
Click here to read “Staged Scene.”
Charles Shamblen
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When 26-year-old farmhand Andrew Hart arose at dawn on
December 13, 1896 to start the fires for breakfast, he surprised an intruder who opened fire, killing him. The Hart family lived on the Myron Woodard Farm in Washington Township near LaMoille in Marshall County.
Click here to read “The Tramp at Breakfast.”
photo by thoran
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Donald Amos Nervig, the 52-year-old co-owner of a Des Moines auto parts store, was last seen getting out of a car at 2nd Street and Hoffman Road near the Firestone Tire and Rubber plant close to the city limits on
December 15, 1965. His body was found in a snow-covered ravine at 7380 6th Avenue on January 26, 1966. He had been struck with an ax or hammer.
Click here to read “Cold Night Out.”
Donald Nervig
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Mary Berniece Lange, a married 37-year-old mother of three and a clerk in the Burlington Municipal Court, disappeared on
December 17, 1970 after attending an employee Christmas party and having a clandestine rendezvous with a lover. Her body was found two days later in Long Creek along Agency Road in Des Moines County. She was bludgeoned and thrown into the water, where she drowned.
Click here to read “Long Creek Close to Home.”
Mary Lange
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Twenty-six-year-old farmhand Joseph Hair was bludgeoned with the roller from a harvesting machine on
December 18, 1888. He died the next day. Authorities believed the homicide was a case of mistaken identity and that the killer meant to target the farm’s wealthy owner who always carried large sums of money.
Click here to read “The Wrong Man.”
location of Avoca, Iowa
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On
December 19, 1903 on the Henry and Amanda Slifer farm in Melrose Township of Grundy County, 21-year-old farm wife Kate Poleen Slifer died of chloroform poisoning while lying in bed beside her husband Will, who was tried and acquitted of her murder. Will and his supporters contended that Kate, depressed about a skin condition known as Vitiligo, took her own life.
Click here to read “The White-Spotted Woman.”
Kate Slifer
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In mid-December of 1895, Holstein, Iowa, resident Leopold Glatzer traveled to Sioux City to retrieve money from his brother. He was last seen on
December 19, 1895 freely spending cash. Not long afterwards, his body was found in a boxcar in the rail yards in what looked like an attempt to make murder appear to be suicide.
Click here to read “Boxcar Hanging.”
location of Sioux City, Iowa
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Leon E. Groves, a 40-year-old Des Moines optometrist and part-time taxi driver, was robbed and shot by a fare at the corner of SE 18th Street and Scott Avenue on
December 22, 1951.
Click here to read “Cab in the Snow-Filled Ditch.”
location of Des Moines, Iowa
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On
Christmas Eve of 1901, 35-year-old Charles Johnson was stabbed during a mob altercation outside his saloon at the corner of East Fifth and Court Avenue in Des Moines; he died the next day. The men involved rioted because the victim refused to treat them to a holiday drink.
Click here to read “The Christmas Eve Brawl.”
photo by Katie Lou
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On
Christmas Day of 1876, Henry Stephens, a 66-year-old Taylor Township farmer in Benton County, walked home along the tracks from Vinton, where he had sold some horses. He was accosted, robbed, and pushed to his death off the railroad bridge over Mud Creek.
Click here to read “Christmas Day Death on Mud Creek.”
photo by Colette Harrison
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Mary E. Gilfillan, a 30-year-old waitress at Osceola’s Howe Hotel, was found shot to death in the pump house at the Chicago Burlington Quincy Railway Depot on
December 26, 1896. The victim, who was estranged from her husband, was rumored to have had an assignation with a lover that night.
Click here to read “Corpse in the Pump House.”
location of Osceola , Iowa
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Thirty-eight-year-old Judith I. Reed died at the home of a friend in Charlotte, Iowa, after being injured by an unknown woman during a quarrel outside a Goose Lake tavern on
December 27, 1974.
Click here to read “Outside the Welcome Inn.”
photo by Michael Kearney
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On
December 28, 1924, “Smitty” Smith, a 25-year-old brick mason and Minnesota resident, was murdered and robbed by a man named “John,” a fellow rider of the rails. His body was found in a burned-out strawstack in the rail yard at Merrill in Plymouth County after the suspect fled on a train. Cause of death could not be determined.
Click here to read “65 Cents.”
location of Merrill, Iowa
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Carster Henry “C.H.” Wessel, a 68-year-old Clinton County farmer, was shot to death on
December 31, 1890 or during the early hours of January 1, 1891 near the Teeds Grove Post Office as he returned from a celebration.
Click here to read “‘Thick Veil of Mystery’ On New Year’s Eve.”
Iowa Tombstone Photo Project
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