Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Wednesday, July 17, 2024
The Boy Murderer. More from the Iowa Almanac in a Moment. Aloha! Attached at the Island. Right here in Iowa. Hi there. Auntie Peterson joined Kerry Dolphin and I as we host the annual Tate and Dotty Cummins Memorial Pineapple Gala to benefit Camp Courageous. It's Friday, August 16th at 6 p.m. at the Double Treat Convention Center in downtown Cedar Rapids. Enjoy a Hawaiian dinner, live in silent auction and more. Two view auction items or for tickets simply go to kibcoryges.org and we'll see you there. John Elkins and his wife were killed on their Clayton County farm in the early morning hours of July 17th, 1889. Mr. Elkins was shot with a rifle while Mrs. Elkins was beaten with a stick. Eleven-year-old John Wesley Elkins discovered the bodies and with his infant sister in his arms reported the gruesome scene to neighbors a few miles away. The governor offered a $500 reward for the arrest and capture of the person responsible. And from the start, suspicion focused on John Wesley's older brother, who had been at odds with his father. John Wesley showed no emotion about the deaths, which many thought curious. He told authorities he was sleeping in the barn that night and didn't hear a shot or any other noise while his father and stepmother were brutally killed. Ten days after the murders, John Wesley confessed. He said he had some difficulty with his father the night before, and shortly after 2 a.m. he took a rifle that had been hanging in the family's home and shot his father in the head. To cover up the crime, he then clubbed his stepmother to death and made the whole thing look like unknown robbers were involved. He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to the Iowa State Penitentiary before he had reached the age of 12. He spent a dozen years in prison, but by 1902 there was a feeling that his incarceration at such a young age was itself illegal. The parole board voted against his release, but the Iowa legislature intervened, passing a bill approving a pardon. And the now 23-year-old John Wesley was released. He wound up moving to Minnesota and graduated from college with honors. He later married and died in 1961 in California, having lived into his mid-80s. That was something denied his father and stepmother when 11-year-old John Wesley Elkins murdered them in their sleep on this date in 1889. And that's Iowa Almanac for July 17th. Follow us on Twitter @IowaAlmanac. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff Stein.