Overview

On the day she was murdered, Myrtle Underwood Cook boasted to local authorities about new evidence of a major bootlegging ring operating out of the Rock Island train depot behind her house in a small farming town in eastern Iowa. Then, as she sat at her parlor window sewing, she took a single slug through the heart. She was president of the local temperance union; her killing made the front page of the New York Times. The next day her funeral made national news due to the eerie presence of a small army from the Ku Klux Klan, its members donned in full regalia, drawn from three surrounding states. It was September 1925, and Al Capone had just taken over the Chicago Outfit, evangelist Billy Sunday was converting thousands to temperance, and the KKK had just marched on Washington, DC. During its first half century of statehood, Iowa lurched from wet to dry and back eight times before Prohibition was ratified in 1919. And back when Iowa was still a territory, its Black Codes imprinted generations with a legacy of intolerance and racism. Mrs. Cook and the Klan is a true crime investigation that not only sheds new light on Myrtle Underwood Cook’s unsolved killing but also explores the confluence of the social, political, and economic forces that brought the Klan, lawless street gangs, a local mob boss, and the temperance movement together in a small American town.

Full Product Details

9781496235848

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Reviews

“Booze, law, politics, temperance, racism, and organized crime all converged one hundred years ago in Iowa. Tom Chorneau uncovers the origins of how each of these components became engrained in society, making a small Iowa town a microcosm of the broader country, and dooming Mrs. Cook.”—Brian Haara, author of Bourbon Justice: How Whiskey Law Shaped America “Tom Chorneau’s account of a century-old mystery murder also tells an exceptional history of Iowa and the nation emerging around it. Meticulously researched, this sweeping examination of liquor, politics, and Iowa society reveals an unforgettable cast of crooks, bosses, ministers, crusaders, and drinkers.”—Laura and James Wasserman, authors of Who Saved the Redwoods? The Unsung Heroines of the 1920s Who Fought for Our Redwood Forests “Tom Chorneau’s deeply researched book revives memories of the feverish battles in America’s heartland over alcohol and race relations. This is a rich and entertaining history that is essential reading.”—Ray Locker, author of Haig’s Coup: How Richard Nixon’s Closest Aide Forced Him from Office

Author Information

Tom Chorneau spent nearly thirty years as a journalist, including more than a decade as an investigative reporter for the Associated Press and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of three works of fiction, including Victim Eleven.  

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