When I was younger, I spent a year working for a big box retail chain. One day, I noticed that one of my fellow employees (we’ll call her Mary) wasn’t feeling well. She was elderly, and I went over to see how she was doing. I ended up sitting with her for an hour or …
In the early 1900’s, a Nebraska schoolteacher visited an unspeakable atrocity upon the students under her care in Sarpy County. Or did she? Sources ‘Holly Hatchet’ scared all but two pupils away. Sioux City Journal, 8/30/1983 Body Found in Brush. The Lincoln Star, 12/24/1903 Quintanilla, James. Hatchet House and the Killer Teacher. http://www.designinglife.biz Lefevers, …
Jeffery McCain was going to school. Jeffery, or Jeffy, as everyone called him, loved school, especially reading. Books allowed him to visit places that he would have never dreamed existed outside of the boundaries of Sarpy County, Nebraska. His favorite was an oversized atlas called Lyteman’s Guide to World Geography, which was full of colorful …
An early December blizzard chilled Iowa to the bone. It still wasn’t as cold as the heart of a father seeking vengeance for his daughter. But did he know the entire story? Sources All Iowa is in Grip of Blizzard. The Evening Gazette, 12/5/1925 Winter Holds Entire State in Icy Grasp. Iowa City Press-Citizen, …
The rain began to fall steadily across Iowa. The weather was warm for early December, hovering right around the 40-degree mark. All morning long and into the afternoon the rain came, as people did their chores and shopping, or watched it out the windows at school or work. Toward the afternoon, the winds began to …
Malone, Iowa, is perhaps the best hidden town in Clinton County, Iowa. In 1921, it also played host to one of the darkest deeds ever committed there. https://media.blubrry.com/kitchentablehistorian/p/api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/23298389/download.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
No expects to see a life-sized hippo along an Iowa roadside. A deer, raccoon, or even a coyote? Sure. But never a hippo. Everyone who drives down Highway 30 between DeWitt and Clinton in Clinton County can’t help but see it. A leftover relic of a since-defunct landscaping business, the hippo has become a definitive …
If you had just spent eight years in prison, would you return to a life of crime? If you did, but got caught, what would you do to keep from going back behind bars? Today, we explore the story of Paul and Everett Schroeder, two Iowa brothers who went to desperate lengths to escape justice …
Paul Schroeder ran through the repair shop, trying to avoid the hail of bullets flying towards him. He raised his revolver, firing blindly. Paul wasn’t really trying to hit anything, but rather keep the police from shooting at him. If he hit one, though, it would have probably been all the better. If Paul hit …
In 1921, a former newspaper editor and a barber decided to rob a bank in rural Iowa. Expecting little resistance, the two expected an easy score. They should have quit while they were ahead. https://media.blubrry.com/kitchentablehistorian/p/api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/22444681/download.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
