These 5 Evil Killers Walked Among Iowa Folk Leaving Their Dark History To Haunt Us

Serial Killers have walked among our rich Iowa soil, and they have left their dark history within our towns. Although they might not have committed all of their crimes here, they still stained our precious state with their evil acts. Here are 5 killers that have left their dark history in Iowa.

1. John Wayne Gacy (The Killer Clown)

John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown."

Little did you know this creepy clown once lived in Waterloo Iowa. He managed a string of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants and was convicted for committing several sexual assaults. As part of his court-agreed procedure, he moved to Illinois and would go on to carry out the heinous acts he is infamous for.

Now you will think twice when going to a KFC in Waterloo!

There is a documentary on Netflix about Gacy called "Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes."

"Never-before-heard audio from the interrogation of serial killer John Wayne Gacy threads through this chilling look at his 1970s murder spree, as new interviews with investigators and survivors, bring the horror of his crimes into full focus." -Netflix

2. Tommy Carroll

Thomas Leonard Carroll was an American bank robber and Depression-era outlaw. A boxer-turned-criminal, he committed numerous robberies during the 1920s and 1930s as well as being a longtime member of the Dillinger gang.

During his time as a criminal, committing a slew of crimes in the midwest, he lived in Iowa for a while. Carroll was arrested for larceny in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and remained in jail for nearly four months. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment, he spent a year in the Anamosa state reformatory before his parole in March 1923.

In 1934 he died in Waterloo Iowa. He was killed in a firefight with police after evading authorities for weeks with his wife.

3. Charles Ray Hatcher

Charles Ray Hatcher was an American serial killer who confessed to having murdered 16 people, mostly children, between 1969 and 1982.

Hatcher was arrested under an alias (Richard Clark) in Des Moines after a knife fight. He spent time in several mental health facilities and was released to a Davenport Salvation Army shelter.

Hatcher penned a crude map that led searchers to the remains of 28-year-old James Churchill, buried on the grounds of the Rock Island Army Arsenal, near Davenport, Iowa. In 1984 he was sentenced to life in prison. He killed himself while being held in the Missouri State Penitentiary.

4. Robert Hansen

Robert Christian Hansen, known in the media as the Butcher Baker, was an American serial killer. Between 1971 and 1983, Hansen abducted, raped, and murdered at least seventeen women in and around Anchorage, Alaska; he hunted many of them down in the wilderness with a Ruger Mini-14 and a knife.

This serial killer was born in Estherville Iowa at Coleman Hospital in 1939. He grew up in Pocohantus Iowa and worked at the bakery his father owned. This town is where he developed his hatred for women as the girls in school did not find him attractive.

He eventually got married, but during his marriage, he burnt down a Pocohantus school bus to claim his "revenge on the school." His wife left him while he was incarcerated. Years later he remarried, had two kids, and moved to Alaska where he committed several more crimes including theft, murder, and rape.

It is estimated that Hansen had more than 30 victims and was given the title "Butcher Baker Hansen" for his acts of abducting and hunting down women in the wilderness.

5. Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who committed the murder and dismemberment of seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991.

It was just before his fourth birthday that Dahners father, Lionel, had moved to Ames, Iowa so that he could focus on his Ph.D. in Chemistry, graduating in 1966. He graduated with a Master of Science degree from Marquette University in 1962 when Jeffery was two. They lived in what was then called the Hawthorn Apartments, but Cyclones today know it as Frederiksen Court.

Currently trending on Netflix is the Jeffrey Dahmer documentary.

"From the Emmy award-winning creator of American Crime Story comes Dahmer - Monster: the Jeffrey Dahmer Story. The series examines the gruesome and horrific true crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer and the systemic failures that enabled one of America’s most notorious serial killers to continue his murderous spree in plain sight for over a decade." -Netflix

We can only hope that no more serial killers will make their way to the state of Iowa ever again.