The Last Death Penalty Case in Iowa History

Iowa is one of 23 states (along with Washington D.C.) that have abolished Capital Punishment. However, that wasn't always the case.

The last time the state of Iowa performed the Death Penalty within its borders was in 1963. The practice would be banned statewide two years later, although there have been several efforts to bring it back in recent years.

Victor Feguer was executed at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison after being convicted of a truly heinous act. A crime that has been largely forgotten in the decades since.

Get our free mobile app

Who Was Victor Feguer?

Feguer, a drifter, arrived in Dubuque, Iowa, in the summer of 1960 and rented a room at a boarding house. Soon after arriving, he phoned Doctor Edward Bartels, claiming that a woman needed medical attention. When Dr. Bartels arrived, Feguer kidnapped him, drove him into Illinois, and killed the doctor with a single gunshot to the head.

-Encyclopedia Dubuque Website

Feguer then fled the state and a nationwide manhunt ensued. He was eventually captured a few days later in Montgomery, Alabama. Feguer had attempted to sell the victim's car to James Alford, who thought he was suspicious because the car had out-of-state license plates but no title.

It is believed that Victor Feguer targeted Dr. Bartles because he wanted to gain access to the physician's wide array of drugs he would carry with him while treating patients. Feguer was initially held at the Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas before being extradited to the Fort Madison Prison in Iowa.

Not only was Feguer the last person put to death in the state of Iowa, but he was the last inmate to be executed on the federal level in the U.S. before the moratorium on the death penalty. It would be another 38 years before another prisoner was put to death by the federal government when Timothy McVeigh died by lethal injection in 2001.

To learn more about Victor Feguer and what his last meal was on death row, check out the video below.

Story Sources: Encyclopedia Dubuque Website, Capital Punishment History Wikipedia Page