| Notes |
- From The Burlington Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, 4 March 1932. Page 1.
Dentist confesses killing of aged mother.
Argument over money leads to brutal murder.
Reputed confession of son withheld while probe continues. By the Associated Press. Seattle, Wash. March 3.
Police announced late today that Dr. Albert G. McKeown had confessed he killed his 81-year-old mother, Mrs. Rhoda McKeown of Muscatine, Ia., with bare hands in a dispute over money.
Dentist Admits Crime.
After two days of questioning, following discovery of the body of Mrs. McKeown in the basement of his home, the doctor broke down this morning, police said. He had been confronted with extensive evidence. “I killed her,” Sheriff Claude G. Bannick quoted him as saying after he had become quieted. Word of the reputed confession of the dentist was withheld by the prosecutor’s office while details of the case were investigated.
Detective Found Will.
Detectives said they had found a will Mrs. McKeown had made three days before her death. In it, they added, she had revoked a previous will which left the bulk of her estate to Dr. McKeown and provided that he share it equally with an old brother, Dr. A. Royal McKeown, also of Seattle.
They added they learned the elderly woman had drafted new notes to make a $10,700 loan to Dr. Albert McKeown payable to her estate, instead of being cancelled, if she died. The new notes were unsigned.
After McKeown’s confession, Sheriff Bannick said he was allowed to go to bed and was wakened late today.The confession was not announced earlier, the sheriff added, to permit more evidence to be assembled.
McKeown Makes Confession
Sheriff Bannick said Dr. McKeown “went to pieces, blew up and confessed.” In addition to the matters of the new will and the notes on his mother’s loan, cuts and abrasions on his left hand were evidence the officers queried him about, they said. The doctor had contended they were not cuts
(continued on page twelve)
but merely burns accidently received from a flat iron.
During the early investigation of the death, the doctor’s wife was questioned and released after spending a night in jail and the elder brother, Dr. A. Royal McKeown, also was brought into the case.
Affairs Readied Crisis
He had told Deputy Prosecutor Lenhan, the prosecutor said, of his irritation over the over the way in which his younger brother had obtained money from his mother and had said that affairs had reached a crisis between them on the day of her death. A portion of a blood-soaked piece of canvas and a piece of charred note was taken from the furnace of the dentist’s home after the mother was found dead. After explaining he had found her body in the basement, the dentist said he had covered her with the canvas and then threw it into the furnace, and substituted a blanket. His story to authorities was that he believed a marauder had slain her in the basement seeking $5,000 in bonds which he said she was accustomed to carry in her clothing.
Mrs. McKeown came west last December with her younger son from her home in Iowa.
Note: This front page story shared the page with news of the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby.
From Burlington Hawk Eve, Burlington, Iowa, 28 April 1932. Page 1.
Jury excused as state argues with defense over testimony about victim.
By the Associated Press.
Seattle, Wash. April 27.
The jury in the Dr. Albert G. McKeown murder trial was excused today when the state began a fight against defense efforts to show his mother, Mrs. Rhoda McKeown, 81, was mentally unbalanced. McKeown is charged with second degree murder as a result of a fatal beating given her in the cellar of his home here March 1.
Mrs. Martin Jacobson, a neighbor of the McKeowns, was testifying regarding the dead woman’s talk and actions when Prosecutor Robert M. Berrander interrupted with the statement “The first thing we know the defense will be striving to show the old lady deserved to die.”
“That is not true,” retorted Defense Attorney Henry Clay Agnew. Mrs. Jacobson quoted Mrs. McKeown as saying her sons were going to take her into a dark place to murder her. It developed, the witness said, they were taking their mother into a motion picture theater.
The jury was locked up when both sides began an argument on the admissibility of the testimony. The defense effort for force admission of the state’s copy of the dentist’s confession to the beating failed when the court ruled the state need not produce it.
From the Burlington Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, 3 May 1932. Page 1.
Dentist Takes Witness Stand.
Prosecution Confronts Defendant With Sheaf of Letters Written to Mother.
By The Associated Press, Seattle, Wash, May 2.
After being subjected to cross-examination throughout the day, Dr. Albert G. McKeown, Seattle dentist charged with second degree murder for the slaying of his mother, Mrs. Rhoda McKeown of Muscatine, Ia., late today was confronted with a sheaf of letters, he had written to his mother.
Altho the dentist had testified his mother begged him to bring her to Seattle so his brother, Dr. A. Royal McKeown, Seattle physician, could not have her committed to an insane asylum, he admitted authorship of letters, begging the woman to come here.
The dentist when questioned as to why he had attempted to implicate his brother in the killing said the brother “tried to implicate my dear wife.”
Dr. McKeown explained that when he sent for his physician brother after the tragedy he had expected solace and consolation.
Prosecutor Robert M. Burgunder replied with a letter which the dentist admitted writing to his mother in which he referred to the physician as a “thief, a murderer, and libertine.”
From the Burlington Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, 14 May 1932. Page 1.
Two Matricides To Be Sentence Today.
By the Associated Press, Seattle, Wash. May 3.
Two matricides who slew their mothers here on the same night last March will be sentence tomorrow in superior court.
They are Dr. Albert McKeown, convicted of second degree murder for beating to death his mother, Mrs. Rhoda McKeown of Muscatine, Ia., after quarreling over money, and Leslie Barrett, who shot his mother at a drinking party and convicted to manslaughter.
[5]
- Albert G. McKeown
Funeral services for Albert G. McKeown were held today in Santa Monica, California. Mr. McKeown died last Sunday while vacationing in California. He was a former resident of Muscatine County and was the last member of the family for which the McKeown bridge on County road C was named. His occupation was forming from which he retired.
His parents were Parker and Emma Lord McKeown.
Survivors include three children: Forest of Palos Verdes Peninsula, California, Gayle of Kirkland, Washington and Adele Gupsill [Guptill] of Los Angeles. Relatives in this area include cousins, Herman and Andrew Lord and Mrs. Jesse Korte of Muscatine, and Richard Lord of Nichols. Burial took place in California.
The Muscatine Journal, Muscatine, Iowa. Thursday, 23 December 1965
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1886 - 1965 (79 years)
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