Skull in the Ashes: Murder, a Gold Rush Manhunt, and the Birth of Circumstantial Evidence in America

Notes

Notes 1. Death in Flames The chapter title comes from a headline in the Marshalltown Evening Times-­ Republican (METR), February 3, 1897, p. 1. 1. Testimony before the Coroner’s Jury, State of Iowa, Benton County, p. 1. Travelers Archives, reproduced with permission. 2. Testimony, p. 4. 3. Testimony, p. 1. 4. State of Iowa v. Frank A. Novak, pp. 1079, 1119, and 1120. Also, see Testimony , p. 2. 5. Des Moines Daily News (DMDN), May 27, 1899, p. 2. 6. Investigation of Alleged Death of Frank Novak, part 1, p. 1. Two of the five insurance companies (Travelers and the Economic Life Association of Clinton, Iowa) investigated the case, but only Travelers was determined to continue the search for Novak. Travelers Archives, used with permission. 7. METR, February 3, 1897, p. 1. 8. Testimony, pp. 2 and 8. Identification checks were common in the latter part of the nineteenth century. They were typically rented on a yearly basis from special registry companies. If something happened to the wearer, the number could be traced to the issuing company and the person could be identified. The check cost one dollar per year. Novak purchased the check from the Standard Registry Company of Chicago on July 31, 1896, about seven months prior to the store fire. 9. Daily Iowa Capital, February 5, 1897, p. 1. 10. Conversation with Karl W. Fischer Jr., August 11, 2007. 11. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette (CREG), March 5, 1888, p. 4. 12. William J. Tilstone, Kathleen A. Savage, and Leigh A. Clark, Forensic Science: An Encyclopedia of History, Methods, and Techniques. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-­CLIO, 2006, p. 161. 13. Suzanne Bell, Crime and Circumstance: Investigating the History of Forensic Science. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2008, p. 4. 14. Crime and Circumstance, pp. 62–63. 234 Notes to Pages 7–13 15. Kathleen Ramsland, Beating the Devil’s Game: A History of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press, 2007, pp. 90–91. 16. Beating the Devil’s Game, p. 129. 17. Douglas Starr, The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010, p. 19. 18. www.enotes.com/forensic-­science. 19. John W. Tobin, “Murder: A Persistent Pursuit,” Palimpsest 51.10 (October , 1970), p. 417. Also see State v. Novak, p. 1376. 20. Testimony, p. 5. 21. Testimony, p. 4. 22. Testimony, p. 4. Also see Investigation of Alleged Death of Frank Novak, part 1, p. 6, for a description of the fabric. 23. According to the Thiel investigation, W. I. Endicott of the Gazette had asked several of Novak’s friends about him when he met Hasek, who explained to the editor about Novak’s bridgework. It was Endicott who pushed to have Hasek testify at the coroner’s jury. See Investigation of Alleged Death of Frank Novak, part 1, p. 10. 24. Louis M. (or Alois) Hasek eventually went to dental school at the University of Iowa, the first of several generations of Haseks to do so. For more than one hundred years, a Hasek practiced dentistry in the Cedar Rapids area. See the obituary for Dr. Ondrej Hasek, Cedar Rapids Gazette online, October 2, 2009. 25. Testimony, p. 6. 26. Testimony, p. 8. 2. The Bohemian Immigrant’s Clever Son 1. www.preservationiowa.org//downloads/BohemianHD_2.pdf. 2. Luther B. Hill, ed., History of Benton County, Iowa. Chicago: Lewis Publishing , 1910, vol. 2, p. 803. 3. www.travel.cz.guide/73/ndex_en.html. 4. Karel Kysilka, “Emigration to the USA from the Policka Region in 1850– 1890.” Presented at the Genealogy Seminar of the Czech Heritage Society of Texas, Hillsboro, TX, July 31, 1999, p. 1. 5. “Emigration to the USA,” p. 16. 6. Dr. Jan Habenicht, History of Czechs in America. St. Paul: Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, 1996, p. 211. Notes to Pages 13–20 235 7. www.dvoraknyc.org/Dvorak_Trip_to_Spillville.html. The famous symphony was composed in 1893. 8. Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Iowa, Iowa: A Guide to the Hawkeye State. New York: Viking Press, 1945, p. 189. 9. History of Czechs, p. 216. 10. Email correspondence from Michael Gould, May 10, 2007. 11. Hill, Benton County, p. 803. 12. 1880 United States Census. 13. Benton County Historical Society, The History of Benton County, Iowa. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Company, 1989, p. 33. 14. Chicago Times-­Herald, August 28, 1897, p. 1. 15. DMDN, September 11, 1897, p. 1...