Mrs. Cook and the Klan
eBook - ePub

Mrs. Cook and the Klan

Booze, Bloodshed, and Bigotry in America's Heartland

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Mrs. Cook and the Klan

Booze, Bloodshed, and Bigotry in America's Heartland

About this book

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.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
No, books cannot be downloaded as external files, such as PDFs, for use outside of Perlego. However, you can download books within the Perlego app for offline reading on mobile or tablet. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Mrs. Cook and the Klan by Tom Chorneau in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. List of Illustrations
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
  9. 1. The Hawkeyes from Dixie
  10. 2. The Bridge at Davenport
  11. 3. The Witches of Temperance
  12. 4. A Schoolhouse on Every Hilltop and No Saloon in the Valley
  13. 5. The Martyr of Sioux City
  14. 6. Oily Tongued Sharpers and Swindlers
  15. 7. The Mulct Law
  16. 8. God Hates the Four-Flusher
  17. 9. A Kill Fee
  18. 10. The Suffragists
  19. 11. Last Call in Marshalltown
  20. 12. The Hyphenated Americans
  21. 13. Wet to Dry Again
  22. 14. The Hangings at Camp Dodge
  23. 15. Shootout at the Carbarn Café
  24. 16. America Is for Americans
  25. 17. Comes a Killer
  26. 18. The Investigation
  27. 19. The Prime Suspects
  28. 20. Who Killed Mrs. Cook?
  29. Notes
  30. Index
  31. About Tom Chorneau
  32. Illustrations