Iowa

Name: The St. Elizabeth Hospital Fire in Iowa
Brand: Mr. Bret Grimes
SKU: 9781467155571
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Only one place in Iowa officially goes by Story City, but the name could fit any town in the state. There’s a reason the RAGBRAI route shifts every year so that cyclists can enjoy the hospitality of different communities, each with a unique tale to tell. Our Iowa books offer a similar sampling of Hawkeye flavor, without the 467 mile bike ride. Solve a murder in Scott County or make some pearl buttons in Muscatine while exploring our Iowa history books from Okoboji and the Iowa Great Lakes to the flagship Younkers store in Des Moines. [View all Iowa books]

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The St. Elizabeth Hospital Fire in Iowa

Paperback

$24.99

Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids

Paperback

$21.99

Unsolved Murder of a Small-Town Iowa Principal and More Heartland Homicides, The

Paperback

$24.99

Murder & Mayhem in Scott County, Iowa

Paperback

$21.99

The St. Elizabeth Hospital Fire in Iowa

9781467155571

$24.99

One of the Largest Tragedies in Iowa History.

On January 7, 1950, a fire erupted at St. Elizabeth's Mental Health Facility for women. The disaster garnered state-wide and national attention as the second largest loss of life in the history of the state and the third largest hospital fire in the nation, to date. The fire, started by a patient, claimed the lives of forty patients and one nurse, while twenty-five patients were rescued. Rescue efforts were hampered by the fact that most patients were locked in their rooms at the time. Bret Grimes recounts the lives of those who fought and survived the ordeal.

Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids

9781467119603

$21.99

Byron C. Hattman sealed his fate when he checked into the Roosevelt Hotel on December 13, 1948. A maid found his body in a blood-spattered room two days later. An investigation linked him to the young wife of St. Louis pediatrician Robert C. Rutledge, who confessed to the brutal attack after trying to poison himself. The scandal made national headlines and seemed like an easy case for the Linn County court. That is, until new evidence changed the story completely. Reporter and author Diane Fannon-Langton uncovers the truth and compiles the complete details of the Hattman slaying for the first time.

Unsolved Murder of a Small-Town Iowa Principal and More Heartland Homicides, The

9781467172103

$24.99

Historic Crimes from the Hawkeye State

The 1895 death of Price V. Evans, the brand-new Osage High School principal, sparked a two-month “Was it suicide? Was it murder?” debate in Iowa. The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette proclaimed, “There has not been another tragedy in the history of Iowa that has called forth such bitter sentiment and been the cause of so much unseemly and wordy strife.” Osage authorities ruled it a suicide—despite being shot three times—while his hometown of Williamsburg declared murder. The Evans case, still unsolved today, leads this deep dive into not just one but four murders that rocked small-town Iowa over the course of a decade. Author Deb Nicklay explores the heart-wrenching rural cases that gripped an entire state.

Murder & Mayhem in Scott County, Iowa

9781625859761

$21.99

The infamous criminal history of Iowa’s oldest county takes center stage in this true crime account of murder, robbery, and mayhem.

Scott County, Iowa has a rich and venerable history. It is where the Blackhawk Treaty was signed. It’s where the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River was built. But Scott County has a dark and history as well.

Travel down Utica Ridge Road, where young Grace Reed paid the ultimate price for spurning the affections of a local farmer. Enter the bedroom of Margaretha Nehlsen, who poisoned her children with chocolate candies. Hear the tale of Harry Hamilton, a former policeman turned career criminal who played a key part in the most notorious bank robbery in Scott County history . . .

Learn about these stories and more as Murder & Mayhem in Scott County, Iowa explores the darker side of this midwestern County and its shocking, unlawful history.