The Apron in the Shack: Murder of Erma (Irma) Vivian Caldwell 1924

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By Nancy Bowers
Written March-April 2020

On the late afternoon of Sunday, September 28, 1924, two hunters were stalking game along the Iowa River south of the Chicago Great Western Railroad Bridge two miles east of Marshalltown.

It had been a pleasant and normal autumnal outing until they spotted something unusual snagged in the roots of a tree whose branches extended out over the water.

When they got closer, they could see the object was the body of a woman. They notified Marshall County authorities, who reported to the scene.

The small woman pulled from the water was nude except for suede slippers, silk stockings, and a corset. She was badly decomposed and there was no indication of who she was. At first, authorities were not optimistic she could ever be identified.

However, Marshall County Bailiff Bert Goodale was able to trace the woman’s shoes to the shop which sold them and then to a Marshalltown cobbler who had recently repaired them.

☛ The Victim Identified ☚

The gruesome discovery answered a lingering missing person question and ended a lengthy search. The hunters had discovered the body of Erma Vivian Caldwell — one day after her twenty-seventh birthday.

Erma Caldwell was a divorced mother of five small children who worked as a waitress in Marshalltown. She was last seen leaving her rooming house at 105 East Church Street with two men about 7 p.m. on Tuesday, August 19 nearly six weeks earlier.

Those who saw her when she left the residence said she wore a gray or tan chiffon dress and possibly carried a yellow sweater, despite the warmth of the mid-August day.

After this sighting, Erma Caldwell seemingly disappeared. A statewide search for her by law enforcement yielded no results.

Erma’s ex-husband, Harry Caldwell –- a brakeman for the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad — was believed to be living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 75 miles to the east.

Local newspapers reported that he had been married and divorced three times, twice to Erma, and had been arrested several times for non-support of his children. Caldwell could not be located.

☛ The Apron in the Shack ☚

During the following days, investigators searched an abandoned shack along the Iowa River near the spot where Erma’s body was caught on the tree roots. Inside the dilapidated structure, they discovered a woman’s apron draped over a chair.

Investigators told local newspapers that they suspected Erma had rendezvoused at the shack near the river with another woman and two men “to stage a party.”

Because heavy drinking was likely a factor in the party, authorities speculated that Erma’s death was caused by the effects of alcohol, although no one tried to account for how she got into the river.

☛ Rumors and Speculation ☚

Theories ran rampant among the public and in newspapers. Had Erma drunk herself to death? Had she taken her own life? Had she accidentally fallen into the swift water? Was she pushed into it? Was she murdered and thrown in? Did the current dislodge and carry away her dress and sweater or was she partially clothed when she entered the water?

Newspaper headlines like one in the Ames Tribune — “No Evidence Found to Prove Foul Play: Woman Is Believed to be Victim of Acute Alcoholism” — helped to influence the public’s opinions and fuel confusion.

☛ The Apron Is Identified ☚

Harry Caldwell learned his ex-wife’s body had been found and traveled  voluntarily from Cedar Rapids to the Marshalltown Police Station, assuming officers would want to know any information he might have.

Newspaper accounts at that time stated Caldwell was not a suspect in the eyes of investigators and had no information about Erma’s death. He was presumed to be absent from the Marshalltown area when she disappeared because of his work schedule for the railroad.

Also, Harry claimed he lost all track of Erma after he divorced her.

Caldwell was shown the apron recovered from the river shack and acknowledged it belonged to his ex-wife. Although one newspaper wrote that the apron had been identified as the one Erma was wearing when last seen leaving her rooming house, another newspaper quoted other witnesses who said she was not wearing an apron.

Harry Caldwell and Erma’s brothers Harry and James Somers declared they were satisfied with the investigators’ identification of the body as their ex-wife and sister.

☛ The Sweater and the Apron ☚

Questions lingered about the apron and the possible yellow sweater.

“Was [the apron] . . . planted?” asked the Cedar Rapids Republican, noting:

“The apron now is practically eliminated as a direct clue in the mystery. The police believe probably that Mrs. Caldwell visited the shack prior to August 19 and left an apron there.

But it is just as probable the . . . apron was taken to the shack after the disappearance of Mrs. Caldwell, and was ‘placed’ to draw the police into the building as the scene of a party and remove suspicion from shacks further upstream [where foul play may have occurred].

The failure to find the yellow sweater and . . . her dress have caused police to believe Mrs. Caldwell met with foul play and did not commit suicide . . . . [It is just as reasonable to suppose] that she left the apron in the shack the night of August 19 and ended her life in the river.”

The same newspaper noted that investigators had ruled it impossible to walk directly to the Iowa River from the shack without crossing a creek, which was as wide in some spots as 20 feet due to high waters in mid-August of that year. The only way to have gotten to the river was to return to the main road which led to the Chicago Great Western Railroad Bridge.

The article suggested that the body might have been thrown off the bridge and carried down steam — Erma’s dress and sweater being ripped off in the current — until it was caught on the tree roots.

The family, the public, and the media were wary. “The case reeks of suspicion of foul play,” wrote the Fairfield Daily Ledger.

☛ The Coroners Jury ☚

An inquest was held and Dr. James Henry Bouche, the Marshall County Coroner, presented details discovered during his autopsy to a three-person jury.

The official Death Certificate, signed on September 30, 1924, recorded two lines in the spaces for cause of death:

“Asphyxiation (Drowned).”

“Cause Unknown.”

Sparse files still remaining in the Marshall County Sheriff’s office designate the death as a “murder.”

According to the Ames Daily Tribune, “While foul play was suspected, there was no evidence found to prove it.”

Erma’s body was released to Purcel and Purcel undertakers and buried in Marshalltown’s Riverview Cemetery.

☛ Exhumation Is Ordered ☚

One persistent claim, spurred on by a single newspaper article, was that Erma was poisoned before being thrown into the river and, therefore, died on shore.

In mid-October, Marshall County Sheriff J.R. Meekins ordered Erma’s body exhumed. The lungs and stomach were removed and sent to the State Lab at the College of Medicine at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City.

☛ Examination Of Lungs ☚

Erma’s lungs were examined by Dr. F.W. Mulsow of the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology. On October 24, 1924, he wrote to Sheriff Meekins:

“After examining the lungs very thoroly [sic] and several sections from them I have come to the following conclusions.

1. There are cellular elements to be seen in the lungs except those in the cartilage.

2. There is sufficient air in the lungs to float them in water. This may have formed by decomposition or may have been retained in the lungs even in case of drowning.

3. I have found several small pieces of sand in the lungs. I am enclosing the largest one . . . . There are also a few pieces of vegetable matter [such] as pieces of grass, weeds etc.

The presence of sand and other foreign vegetable material is very suggestive of drowning. It is my best judgement [sic] that Irma V. Caldwell died from downing.

I have spent considerable more time on this than I had intended it should take but it seemed necessary under the circumstances to find plenty of foreign materials in the lungs.”

☛ Was She Poisoned? ☚

Wilbur John Teeters, Dean of the College of Pharmacy at the Medical College in Iowa City, carefully examined Erma’s stomach and reported to Marshall County Sheriff J.R. Meekins on October 21, 1924:

“A chemical analysis shows that [the stomach] did not contain any mineral poison such as Arsenic, Mercury, Lead or Antimony. Chemical tests did not show any indication of Alkaloidal poison such as strychnine. Decomposition was well advanced but if poisons were present, in my judgment, they would have responded to chemical tests.

My judgment, therefore, based upon analysis is that no poison was present. It should be stated, however, that there are a few poisons not generally known that under the conditions of decomposition could not have been found. The likelihood of them being used is extremely small.”

It is of interest to note that no report was made of finding or not finding alcohol in Erma’s stomach.

☛ Conclusions Announced ☚

On November 10, 1924, Sheriff Meekins announced to the media and the public that it was the conclusion of the State University of Iowa medical experts that Irma had not been poisoned and that she went into the Iowa River alive and had drowned.

Erma was reinterred in Green Mountain Cemetery in Green Mountain, Iowa, the home of her parents.

☛ Erma Vivian Somers Caldwell’s Life ☚

Erma was born to Arthur Hugh and Frances Root Somers on September 27, 1897 in Oakland in Franklin County, Iowa, where her father was a carpenter.

She had five brothers and one sister: James Selkirk Somers, Harry Lee Somers, Esbond “Ebon” Arthur Somers, Milo Clyde Somers, Agnes Belle Somers Tuffree, and Robert Orville Somers.

In front of Polk County Judge Hugh Brennen in Des Moines on September 18, 1914 — when she was not quite 17-years-old, although the marriage license lists her as 18 — Erma married Charles Harry Caldwell (known as “Harry”), a 23-year-old railroad brakeman who had previously been married and divorced. He was born March 13, 1891 in Booneville, Iowa, to Amanda Baird and Allen Albert Caldwell.

According to his WWI and WWII Draft Registrations, Harry was five-nine, weighed 170, and had brown eyes and brown hair that was slightly balding. His complexion was described as “ruddy.”

At the time of the 1920 census, Erma and Harry lived in a home they owned at 703 East Linn Street in Marshalltown with their daughters Shirley Lorene, Fern Ilene, and Evelyn, ages one year through three. Another daughter, Marjorie Jean, known as “Marge,” was born later that year and a son, Wayne, arrived in late 1922. Not long afterwards, the Caldwells divorced.

Then on August 20, 1923, when Erma was 26 and Harry 31, the Caldwells remarried in Marshalltown in a ceremony performed by Congregational minister B.J. Rhodes. At that time, they lived with their children at 610 Railroad Street.

However, once again, they were not able to work things out between themselves and divorced.

Harry moved to Cedar Rapids, where he continued to work for the railroad, and Erma remained in Marshalltown, waitressing. The couple, according to Harry, lost touch. Harry often missed his child-support payments and would be sought by authorities for the money.

☛ The Family Is Dispersed ☚

After Erma’s murder, the children were split up and the two oldest — Evelyn and Fern — were sent to a local family who essentially used the girls as unpaid labor. Agnela Beaty, a Great-Grandaughter of Erma wrote, “They were adopted to do chores and lived a sad life of abuse. But were still two of the loveliest women.”

Following her mother’s death, Marjorie was taken in by George and Grace (Bivens) Hall of rural Albion, Iowa. Wayne was raised by his mother’s brother, Robert Somers, and took his surname.

☛ Lingering Doubts ☚

Family members report that Wayne (Caldwell) Somers was haunted his whole life by his mother Erma’s death and always believed, as did some other relatives, that his father Harry was involved. When he passed away in 2015 in Marshalltown at the age of 95, Wayne’s obituary mentioned the “unsolved murder” of his birth mother.

Other family members were also suspicious of Harry, especially because he left the region quickly after the murder. He moved steadily eastward across the country, dying in Florida in 1971.

Harry seemed to know his son’s doubts; according to family members, when Wayne was at his father’s deathbed in Florida, Harry called out to him, “I didn’t do it.”

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Please note: Use of information from this article should credit Nancy Bowers as the author and Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases as the source.

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References

• ☛ Angela Beaty, Great-Granddaughter of Erma Somers Caldwell, Personal Correspondence, January -March, 2020.
• ☛ “Analysis Indicates Woman In River Was Alive On Entering It,” Muscatine Journal and News Tribune, November 12, p. 7.
• ☛ “Apron Leads To Identification of Dead Woman,” Sioux City Journal, October 2, 1924, p. 2.
• ☛ “Body of Woman Is Discovered In Trees,” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, September 29, 1924, p. 15.
• ☛ “Body Of Woman Is Found By Hunters,” Dubuque Times-Journal, September 29, 1924, p. 1.
• ☛ “Doctor’s [sic] Finish Examination Of Woman’s Stomach,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 18, 1924, p. 5.
• ☛ “Examine Lungs Of Mrs. Irma Caldwell,” Washington Evening Journal, October 18, 1924, p. 8.
• ☛ “Find Apron of Mrs. Caldwell In Shack,” Creston Daily Advertiser, October 1, 1924, p. 1.
• ☛ “Find Apron of Mrs. Caldwell In Shack,” Creston Daily Advertiser, October 1, 1924, p. 7.
• ☛ “Find Decomposed Body Of Woman In Branches of Tree,” Burlington Gazette, September, 29, 1924, p 1.
• ☛ “Find New Clue In Woman’s Death,” Burlington Gazette, October 1, 1924, p. 1.
• ☛ Findagrave.com.
• ☛ “Finding of Woman’s Body Solves An Iowa Mystery,” Fairfield Daily Ledger, October 1, 1924, p 10.
• ☛ Iowa Death Records, 1920-1940.
• ☛ Iowa Marriage Records, 1880-1940.
• ☛ “Marjorie ‘Marge’ Caldwell Carlson Obituary,” Marshalltown Times-Republican, June, 2000.
• ☛ “Mrs. Caldwell’s Death Caused By Drowning,” Fairfield Daily Ledger, November 11, 1924, p. 2.
• ☛ “Mrs. Caldwell’s Death Caused By Drowning,” Fairfield Weekly Ledger Journal, November 13, 1924, p. 1.
• ☛ “Mrs. Caldwell Was Drowned,” Oelwein Daily Register, November 10, 1924, p. 1.
• ☛ “Mystery Death Investigations Reveal Little,” Cedar Rapids Republican, October 4, 1924, p. 4.
• ☛ “No Evidence Found To Prove Foul Play,” Ames Daily Tribune and Ames Evening Times, October 4, 1924, p. 3.
• ☛ “Police Tracing Apron As Clue,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 1, 1924, p. 1.
• ☛ U.S. Census.
• ☛ “Wayne Somers Obituary”, November 6, 2018, https://www.mitchellfh.com/obituaries/Wayne–Somers?obId=3418276#/obituaryInfo.
• ☛ “Woman’s Body Found In River,” Creston Daily Advertiser, September 29, 1924, p 1.
• ☛ “Woman’s Body Found In River Identified; May Be Murder Case,” Dubuque Times Journal, September 29, 1924, p 2.
• ☛ “Woman’s Body In Tree May Be That Of Rail Man’s Wife,” Muscatine Journal And News Tribune, September 29, 1924 p 7.