Last week, I introduced you to the Anamosa State Penitentiary (ASP) Cemetery and shared some of the stories I uncovered while researching the graves. I hope you’re ready for a few more!
“Until Sane”
One of the more bizarre stories I came across at the ASP Cemetery was about Truman J. Gilchrist. His last name was misspelled on his grave marker. Then I saw on his Find a grave memorial was that he had been committed to ASP for safekeeping “until sane”.
If that doesn’t make you want to dig deeper, I don’t know what would.
Born in 1865 in Iowa to Joseph Gilchrist and Sarah Bushyager Gilchrist, Truman grew up on a farm in Franklin County, Iowa. At age 34, he married Tena Albertena Howard in 1901. They settled in the Hampton area (about 130 miles from ASP) and had two children together.
On the morning of Oct. 28, 1904, Truman showed up at a neighboring farm belonging to the Bushyagers (possibly his mother-in-law’s family) nearly naked and told them he had killed Tena. They rushed to the Gilchrist home to find Tena laying dead in the bedroom, her two little ones alive and well nearby. She had been shot with a double-barreled shotgun.
At first, everyone was stunned. There had been no indication that Truman ever had a beef with his wife. He’d not appeared to be insane. Rumors swirled that Truman suspected in the weeks leading up to the murder that Tena was poisoning him (she was not). He’d supposedly sought help from a doctor. Truman was put in the county jail to await the court’s decision. In the meantime, one article said, the Gilchrist children were being adopted by the Fred Paullus family in Hampton.
In early February, a judge declared Truman insane and he was sent to ASP’s Insanity Unit where he was to stay until he “became sane”. If and when he did , he could be tried for the murder. Truman would remain at ASP for 45 years, never leaving the Insanity Unit. He died there on Aug. 30, 1950 at the age of 85.
Tena is buried in Union Cemetery in Lockridge Township, Iowa. She was 40 when she died. I don’t know what became of their children.
“Recovered”
In the case of Elias Lyons, prison officials deemed him “recovered” from his insanity but he was back at ASP not long after his release.
Born in 1890, Elias Lyons was convicted of larceny in 1911 and sentenced to serve his time at Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison (which closed in 2015). He was later sent to ASP to spend some time in the Insanity Unit. But in 1914, he was deemed “recovered” and sent back to Fort Madison along with 19 other prisoners. He was released from prison on Nov. 22, 1914.
On Dec. 7, 1914, Elias attempted to stop a car to rob its passengers by placing a rope across a bridge road in Burlington, Iowa.
Elias was sent back to ASP where he died on May 19, 1925. He was 34. I don’t know what his cause of death was.
“Interior Decorator Before Prison”
Charles DeForrest Ives only spent the last few months of his life at ASP. But he’d already spent the previous 15 years at another prison. However, from what I can tell, Charles hadn’t always led a life of crime.
Born in Elkhart, Ind. in 1901, Charles was the son of Joseph G. and Helen Van Doren Ives. Charles wed teacher Florence Lake in Des Moines, Iowa in 1923. They settled there and Charles worked various jobs over the next several years, from engineer to painter/wallpaper hanger. The couple had two sons together.
Unfortunately, Charles slid into criminal activity. On Jan. 10, 1931, he attempted to rob a grocery store owned by George Cordaro. He had an accomplice, whose wife was thought to be the lookout. Later, Charles would confess to sheriff Charles Keeling that he and Cordaro had struggled over the gun and “In the scuffle, my gun went off.”
Charles also is noted to have felt bad about what he’d done and said, “Tell them to get the clean sheets ready at Fort Madison,” referring to the Iowa State Penitentiary.
Charles was in a truth-telling frame of mind and went on to confess to six street car robberies and two holdups. He claimed he had only done it because he needed the money. When he went to trial, he plead not guilty to the murder, but was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
However, many suspected there was more to it than that. The lookout, Lela Wiggins, was thought to be the reason Ives had held up the store. The two were thought to be lovers and some felt Ives confessed to protect her from serving time. Her husband, Hoyt, had assisted Ives in several robberies. He was convicted of a different robbery and sentenced to 10 years at Fort Madison. Lela divorced Hoyt while he was in prison.
Charles’ Find a Grave memorial claims he served time at San Quentin in California but I found no record of that. He did his time at Fort Madison. I wonder if he ran into Hoyt Wiggins while he was there. Charles contracted tuberculosis and was transferred to ASP’s hospital unit. He died there on Dec. 20, 1945 at age 44.
His death certificate listed his profession as “interior decorator before prison”.
Charles’ wife, Florence, divorced him and went on with her life. She continued to teach and moved with her sons to Clinton, Iowa. She died in 1985 in Durango, Colo. One of her sons became a doctor and moved to Louisiana.
Misspent Youth
I have more questions than answers concerning my final story. Arthur Fawcett was still a boy when he died, having gone down the wrong path.
Born in England in 1909, Arthur was the son of Thomas Lester Fawcett and Jennie Smith Fawcett. The Fawcetts emigrated to Canada in 1910 then to America in 1911. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, Thomas was working as a miner in Polk County north of Des Moines. Later, he worked laying linoleum.
Sadly, Thomas died on Feb. 25, 1927 from a brain abcess. He was 41. He is buried in Floyd Cemetery in Sioux City, Iowa.
It wasn’t long after that when Arthur’s name started appearing in the Sioux City Journal as the culprit in various car thefts/joy riding incidents. On Nov. 22, 1297 he got fined for a traffic violation. On Dec. 13, 2017, Arthur and a friend were arrested for the theft of seven cars (with which they went joy riding) and charged with larceny of a vehicle. As a result, they went to jail.
Arthur somehow got paroled a few months later. In February 1928, he was arrested again for having tried to sell tires off of a stolen car. Back to jail he went. In May 1928, his sentence was reduced by three months.
I’m not exactly sure what happened after that, but Arthur died at ASP on March 20, 1930. He was only 20 at the time. His death certificate lists his cause of death as cirrhosis of the liver. That’s not something I’ve ever seen in a fellow that young.
We had a brief stop to make in Anamosa before we began out trek back west. Join me next time at Riverside Cemetery.