Strange and Dreadful Things

If history is made up of small stories, then some of them fall off and disappear, like table scraps. Come and sample a few of these forgotten tales.

In the early 1900’s, a Nebraska schoolteacher visited an unspeakable atrocity upon the students under her care in Sarpy County. Or did she?

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?

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.

Paul and Everett Schroeder had just spent eight years in prison. Returning to a life of crime, they quickly found themselves on the run. Their escape not only caused them to clash with police, but led them into the heart of a Midwestern blizzard.

In 1921, two men roared into the middle of Long Grove, Iowa to rob the Stockman's Savings Bank. What unfolded in the next half hour became the subject of a local legend that endures to this day.

The murder of the Spencer family was one of the worst crimes to ever take place in Clark County, Missouri. Justice had to be done, but no one knew what lengths people would go to in order to make that happen.

Willis James was just going to work in 1877. Instead, he found himself part of what would become one of the most horrendous and infamous murders in Missouri history.

George Scott was a loving family man. All of a sudden, he became convinced that his wife was trying to kill him. The drastic steps he took to take care of that would shock his close-knit neighborhood to its very foundations. 

In 1927, William Coffey was a middle-aged newlywed on top of the world. His wife's family began to suspect that something wasn't quite right with him when they hadn't heard from her. While they thought he was a con man, they had no idea about the frozen secrets he was keeping.

In 1943, Naomi Cheney was murdered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Six years later, her father, Frank Cheney, Sr., committed a sudden act of violence that no one could understand when he snapped in Birmingham.

Mabel Moore and William Stewart each lost a spouse in the early 20th Century. They also had hidden connections that would drive their drastic actions to cope with that loss miles and years apart.

16-year-old Augusta Bartz was murdered in 1892. Even though her killer, Herman Boek, shotgunned her in the middle of a road in broad daylight, he later claimed that although he had intended to commit murder, he had shot Augusta by accident. Come and learn the strange and tragic story this week at the table.

We all love ghost stories, but not all of them should be believed. Decide for yourself as I tell you some of my own encounters with the beyond, both real and imagined.

In 1933, William Kelly made a horrific decision. He would spend a lifetime haunted by the memories of things he could never undo.

The desecration of human remains and burial sites are regarded as taboo by our society. Regardless, it still happens, and more often than you think. What kind of person would commit such acts? Come and see.

When Indiana police heard that Leonard Grubb had killed a man, they definitely wanted to hear more. Haunted by the victims ghost, Leonard happily confessed, leading to one of the strangest stories in Indiana history.

   Some relatives are unwelcome at Christmas. Some are rude. Some look down on you. Some are unwelcome because they’re already dead. In 1937, Henry Nead committed a horrible crime because he said a dead man told him to do it.  

When Iowa policemen arrested a robbery suspect in 1947, they thought they had just apprehended the thief responsible for numerous area break-ins. They didn’t suspect that they had just caught a notorious and uncommon criminal.  

In 1924, Cora Raber was a young woman who found herself in an undesired position. But she had resolved the issue, and was going to get married. Or so she thought. What happened to the Would-Be Bride?    

Charles Strelow couldn’t watch over his hidden fortune all the time, so he bought a dog. Trained to be vicious, it looked like the end when Charles left the farm. But fate intervened. What happened to the hermit’s sentry?  

Charles Strelow lived as a virtual hermit. For decades, there were stories of a small fortune hidden on his Nebraska farm. In 1925, authorities were shocked to discover that the legend was true.    

Even familiar noises can seem odd in a new house. In 1887, one woman tried to explain away the mysterious footsteps she heard as natural. But when the strange man started to appear, she knew otherwise.  

Carl Albright was in his mid-twenties, with his whole life ahead of him. All that came to an end when his charred remains were found near a Nebraska highway in 1924. What happened to Carl Albright?    

Locals suspected that something was off when Harry Singer started selling his boss’ belongings. Never would they have guessed the truth. What had happened to the Wesley family, and what did Singer know about it?