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10 Infamous Serial Killers That Are Connected to Iowa

Iowa being a relatively small state has not been exempted from harbouring and producing some of the notorious serial killers. These serial killers have continued to be the topic of news, true crime tv shows, pop culture, books, podcasts and even in the entertainment industry. They have left tragic and terrifying marks in the history of Iowa just in the way they committed their murder in a ruthless manner. They all had a similar motive behind the murder of their victims. They are either killed for financial gain, for the thrill, anger or sexual reasons. Most of the serial killers were captured and were exposed to severe punishment by the law.

Therefore, in today’s article, we are going to look at the ten notable serial killers who were either born and raised in Iowa, lived in Iowa at one point or one of their victims was from the state of Iowa.

1. John Wayne Gacy

A mugshot of John Wayne Gacy. , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

He was also known as 鈥楾he Killer Clown,鈥� because he used to perform at the children鈥檚 hospital and charitable events as 鈥淧ogo the Clown.鈥� Few people knew that he lived in Waterloo, Iowa.   Earlier on, John had been arrested and jailed for 8 months at the Anamosa State Penitentiary for sexually harassing teenagers. However, in 1970 John was released on probation and he still committed several crimes including killing 33 teenage boys and young men who he also raped. John was executed by the command of the court.

2. Robert Hansen

Robert Hansen also known as the 鈥淏utcher Baker鈥� was a well-known serial killer with ties to Iowa. He was actually born in Iowa in Estherville on February 15^th, 1939. He used to work at his father’s bakery in Pocohantus Iowa. It was at this time that he grew a dislike for women because the girls in school did not find him attractive. He burnt down Pocohantus school to declare his revenge. Robert was imprisoned just for 20 months at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. After he was released, Robert moved to Alaska, where he ended up kidnapping, raping, and killing at least 17 women. He was sentenced to life in prison and died of natural causes in 2014.

3. Robert Ben Rhoades

Robert Ben Rhoades also dubbed the “Truck Stop Killer,” was born in 1945 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He eventually became a long-haul trucker after being discharged for being involved in a robbery. While working as a trucker, Robert committed many high crimes which involved targeting sex workers and hitchhikers. He was convicted of 3 murders but he is still suspected of killing 50 women between 1975 and 1990. Robert is currently serving his life sentence in Illinois.

4. Robert Spanger

While born in Des Moines, on January 10, 1933, Robert was raised in Ames, Iowa. Robert married his high school girlfriend Nancy whom he later murdered with their two teenage children, and made it look like Nancy had committed the murders and then later killed herself. As if that wasn’t enough, Spanger went on to kill his third wife Donna by pushing him off a cliff at the Grand Canyon in 1993. He later stated that the incident was just an accident. He was eventually arrested and he confessed to all of the murders. He died of cancer in 2001 while serving his sentence in federal prison.

5. Charles Ray Hatcher

Charles grew up facing a lot of traumas. He was born to a father who was physically abusive and alcoholic. He was also bullied at school and Charles saw his brother die with his own bare eyes when he was six. All these traumas might have been the cause of his mental illness. Charles became a sociopath and a sexual abuser who ended up murdering 16 people, mainly children, between 1969. He was eventually arrested after a knife fight in Des Moines under an alias (Richard Clark). He confessed to all the 16 murders including a man named James Churchill whose body was found buried near Davenport, Iowa. In 1984 he was sentenced to life in prison. He later killed himself while serving his sentence in the Missouri State Penitentiary.

Read this article on the 10 serial killers that were never caught here

6. Tommy Carroll

Tommy Carroll was a  boxer and he fought in France during World War 1 before becoming a criminal. He committed a number of crimes in the Midwest including in Iowa where he was arrested for theft in Council Bluffs. After his parole in March 1923, Tommy joined other professional criminals like the Dillinger gang and they together robbed a bank over $30,000. In 1934, he was killed in a firefight with police in Waterloo, Iowa after severally escaping from the authorities with his wife.

7. Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal raped, abused and ate up 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He spent four years of his childhood in Ames, Iowa where his father was pursuing his studies. He killed his first victim who was a hitchhiker when he was only 18 years old. He was later arrested and sentenced to sixteen terms of life imprisonment for the crimes he committed in 1978. In 1994, Jeffrey was beaten to death by a fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Rortage, Wisconsin.

8. Gayno Smith

Gayno Smith was a heinous murderer who killed six of his family members in Iowa between 1961 and 1962. Three of the victims were his own children. He was born in Iowa in 1938 and all of his crimes were done in Iowa. He had previously lived in Denver before moving back to Iowa after encountering difficulties. On May 16, 2005, Gayno died from heart problems at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where he had been transferred shortly before his death.

9. Jake Bird

Jake Bird was an American brutal murderer who killed a mother, Bertha Kludt, 53, and her daughter Beverly Kludt, 17 with an axe in Tacoma Washington in 1947. Jake Bird claimed that he had killed 44 people in different states including Florida, Iowa and so much more. He was also linked to 11 other killings that had been unsolved. Bird was sentenced to death and executed by hanging.

10. Randy Kraft

A mugshot of serial killer Randy Kraft. , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Randy Kraft also referred to as Scorecard killer is a mass murderer who raped, tortured and murdered 16 young boys between 1972 and 1983. Kraft is also suspected in the rape and murder of 51 other young men and boys. It is believed that all the 67 victims are boys between the ages of thirteen and thirty-five. He was dubbed the Scorecard killer because the police found a notation list with 61 statements on a scorecard with mysterious references to his victims during his arrest. Actually, there was one notation on the scorecard that referred to a teenage U.S. Marine from the state of Iowa. He was convicted in 1989 and he is currently on death row.

Check out this article on the 10 notorious Oregon serial killers here