Behind Bars: The most infamous criminals in Iowa
Learn more about seven of the most infamous criminals to serve time behind bars in Iowa.
Something about criminals and the crimes they committed is so intriguing. They often carry out unthinkable crimes, and yet we are interested in knowing more about who they are and why they did it.
Luckily, the crime rate in Iowa is relatively low compared to the rest of the country. In fact, the state’s crime rate is 25 percent lower than the United States average. And yet, there are some notable people doing time for the crimes they committed right here in our (statewide) backyard.
Read on to learn more about a few of the most infamous criminals serving time in Iowa.
Donald Piper
Donald Piper certainly makes the list. He is currently serving two life sentences for killing two women in hotels in the Des Moines area in 1993 and 1997. It is suspected that he is responsible for other murders (as many as four others) as well, but 36-year-old Patricia Lange and 21-year-old Zurijeta Sakanovic were his known victims. He is an inmate at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera
A more recent Iowa criminal may come to mind for some Iowans as it drew significant media attention. Cristhian Bahena Rivera is serving a life sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary. Rivera, only 24 at the time of his crime, was convicted of killing 20-year-old University of Iowa Mollie Tibbets while she was out for her morning jog in Brooklyn, Iowa. Tibbets had been missing for a month before Rivera was identified as and arrested as a suspect. The investigation and following trial drew lots of attention and political discussion as Rivera was in the United States illegally.
Jerry Lynn Burns
A once cold case turned to a conviction decades later and leads us to another notable inmate of today. Jerry Lynn Burns is currently serving a life sentence at the Anamosa State Penitentiary without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder. He was convicted in February 2020 of the murder of Michelle Martinko. Martinko was killed in December of 1979, at the age of 18 in a mall parking lot in Cedar Rapids. The case was unsolved for more than 39 years, until enhancements in processing and gathering DNA evidence led to the conviction of Burns.
Victor Feguer
While no longer living, another notable Iowa criminal is Victor Feguer, who was the last man federally executed in Iowa (at the Iowa State Penitentiary by hanging) after being convicted of murder and federal kidnapping for killing a doctor from Dubuque. The death penalty was abolished in Iowa only two years later in 1965.
Charles Brown & Charles Kelley
Charles Brown and Charles Kelley were also famed murderers of the 1960s and some of the last people to be executed in the state of Iowa for their crimes. They were held in Fort Madison at the Iowa State Penitentiary after being charged with murdering three people and injuring several others on a three-day, five-state crime spree in 1961.
Gayno Smith
One of Iowa’s most notable criminals and serial killers died while serving six consecutive life sentences for committing five counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. Gayno Smith was convicted in 1962 and died of a heart attack in 2005 at the age of 67. He admitted to having killed five members of one family in the small town of Martinsburg, as well as his own stepmother.
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