1963: Victor Feguer, by the feds

ExecutedToday.com ^ | March 15, 2013 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

This date marks half a century since the hanging of Victor Feguer — the last man executed by the federal government in the 20th century. (And the last executed in the state of Iowa, period.)

A drifter holing up at a Dubuque, Iowa, boarding house, Feguer phoned up a random doctor claiming a woman needed medical attention.

Think about that the next time someone gets nostalgic for house calls.

Dr. Edward Bartels showed up only to be kidnapped by Feguer, and eventually murdered in Illinois. Feguer was picked up in Alabama, trying to sell the doctor’s stolen car; his motive for the whole affair was just to get whatever drugs the luckless physician had with him.

The cross-state crime spree put Feguer’s case in the hands of the feds. (It was not, however, a “Lindbergh Law” case, since Feguer was on the hook for capital murder independent of the kidnapping.)

Although Feguer spent his prison time at the federal lockup in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he was transported back to Iowa for execution — because that state’s penitentiary had a gallows available.....

[17th Miss Regt]

because that state’s penitentiary had a gallows available.....

There's gallows all around, growing everywhere!

[A strike]

I’ve got your FauxiMengeleGates right here baby, am I right? am I right?
(channeling Larry David’s superlative genius )

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

my father made house calls in snowy cCleveland in the sixties.

[IAGeezer912]

The penitentiary is now closed and they were giving tours a couple of years ago. The tour guide showed us the corner of the prison where the gallows was.