Infamous Iowans

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brett108

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May 1, 2010
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Tulsa, OK
Living in Iowa can drive one to do some heinous things. I wonder if they were ISU FB fans? Most were in the era where I suspect a lot of fans were contemplating violence.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
So, they must have been in Ames from 1962-66. Well before my time. Jeffrey was born in 1960 so he was 2-6 years old while in Ames. Probably tough to spot a cannibalistic serial killer at kindergarten recess.

View attachment 92889
Unless he was always gnawing on the other kids arms while playing football or basketball.
 

Morty52

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Aug 19, 2012
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Urbandale, IA
When Dahmer was arrested, my buddy's Mom did a TV interview. She happened to mention that her son had actually had done some babysitting for the Dahmers. When word of his Dahmer babysitting activity made it back to the large company he worked for at the time, his voicemail blew up! Everybody in the company wanted to talk to him about Dahmer. I think the notoriety of him being Jeffrey Dahmer's babysitter probably hastened his inevitable move to the head of the class.
 

HFCS

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Aug 13, 2010
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LA LA Land
I think the hammer killer in Sioux City would have been pretty infamous if it hadn't happened a week before 911. All the national news was in town then just went away instantly. Even people in Sioux City don't remember it because it was understandably all about 911 soon after.

Any death is tragic but killing a house full of kids with a hammer is off the charts horrific and it took something like 911 for the town/state and even maybe the country to move on so fast. 20th anniversary just passed and again...20th anniversary of 911.
 
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MJ29

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I think the hammer killer in Sioux City would have been pretty infamous if it hadn't happened a week before 911. All the national news was in town then just went away instantly. Even people in Sioux City don't remember it because it was understandably all about 911 soon after.

Any death is tragic but killing a house full of kids with a hammer is off the charts horrific and it took something like 911 for the town/state and even maybe the country to move on so fast. 20th anniversary just passed and again...20th anniversary of 911.

I don't even remember this, so I went to look up the story after reading your post. Horrible.
 

Clone83

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Mar 25, 2006
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Sioux City native George Koval became an infamous, world-renowned Soviet spy only after his death.

This is the Nov. 11, 2007, front page NYT article -- decades after the fact -- which announced the startling news to the world (gated):

An American 'regular guy' was a Russian top spy - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
... Atom spies are old stuff. But historians say Koval, who died last year in Moscow and whose name is just coming to light publicly, appears to have been one of the most important spies of the 20th century. . . .

... "He had access to everything," said Kramish, who worked with Koval at Oak Ridge. "He had his own jeep. Very few of us had our own jeeps. He was clever. He was a trained GRU [Soviet military intelligence] spy."

That status, he added, made Koval unique in the history of atomic espionage, a judgment historians echo.

Washington has known about Koval's spying since he fled the United States shortly after the war, but kept it secret. . . . .


Related NYT article, Nov. 12, 2007 (gated) -- the first two paragraphs quoted below were also at the top of the article quoted above:

A Spy’s Path: Iowa to A-Bomb to Kremlin Honor - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
... On Nov. 2, the Kremlin startled Western scholars by announcing that President Vladimir V. Putin had posthumously given the highest Russian award to a Soviet agent who penetrated the Manhattan Project to build the atom bomb.

The announcement hailed Dr. Koval as “the only Soviet intelligence officer” to infiltrate the project’s secret plants, saying his work “helped speed up considerably the time it took for the Soviet Union to develop an atomic bomb of its own.”

Since then, historians, scientists, federal officials and old friends have raced to tell Dr. Koval’s story — the athlete, the guy everyone liked, the genius at technical studies. American intelligence agencies have known of his betrayal at least since the early 1950s, when investigators interviewed his fellow scientists and swore them to secrecy. . . .


His Wikipedia entry:
George Koval - Wikipedia
 
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Cymon

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Apr 10, 2006
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I wonder how John Wayne Gacy lived only 6 blocks from my house growing up and I fit his target demographic. Weird things happen right under our noses.
Gacy had a couple of kids while married in Waterloo. I used to see his son in a bar in Cedar Falls from time to time.
 

StClone

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Dec 17, 2009
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Wisconsin
Holy hell, I never knew Dahmer lived in Ames for four years growing up (while his Dad got his PhD).



View attachment 92884
I knew this! My wife has a PHD. (Piled High in Death). She's read so much on unsolved crimes, especially murders and serial killers,it's driving me to an early grave. I caught her taking notes!

Anyway here is one recently she gave to watch as I was shrink-wrapped to a chair with my eyes glued open:
 
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BCClone

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Not exactly sure.

20eyes

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Sioux City native George Koval became an infamous, world-renowned Soviet spy only after his death.

This is the Nov. 11, 2007, front page NYT article -- decades after the fact -- which announced the startling news to the world (gated):

An American 'regular guy' was a Russian top spy - The New York Times (nytimes.com)


Related NYT article, Nov. 12, 2007 (gated) -- the first two paragraphs quoted below were also at the top of the article quoted above:

A Spy’s Path: Iowa to A-Bomb to Kremlin Honor - The New York Times (nytimes.com)


His Wikipedia entry:
George Koval - Wikipedia
Central High represent!
 
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HFCS

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Aug 13, 2010
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I don't even remember this, so I went to look up the story after reading your post. Horrible.

I was living there back home after college for a bit when it happened. 911 just completely wiped it away even from the local memory.
 
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