The Nastiest Saloon in Iowa: Murder, Prostitution, and Corruption in the Heartland

"Wickedest place in the wickedest section of Des Moines" --Des Moines Register

In the first decades of the twentieth century, saloon proprietor Erastus Wallace Scott of Des Moines--with his cousins in the infamous Carter Gang--operated a campaign of murder, fraud, corruption, and prostitution from his bar on East Court Avenue. In 1908, the local paper denounced the neighborhood as "given up almost entirely to houses of prostitution. At one end stands a notorious saloon, the scene of many crimes, even murders, and for years a harbor for criminals and a plotting place for the evil minded."

That reviled enterprise was none other than Scott's seedy shack of sin. Initially, Scott gained the most notoriety, due to a slaying, numerous assaults, and sex trade associated with his establishment. But a subsequent murder brought cousin Will to the forefront. A land fraud scheme involving all three Carter brothers followed, including grand theft and even more deaths.

Authors David and Rose Donovan recount the long-forgotten story of a crime family's nefarious reach beyond the red-light district.

David Donovan is a retired lawyer and amateur genealogist. He practiced law most of his career for an international firm based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and spent half a decade as general counsel for the Washington, DC NFL franchise. Rose Donovan is a retired journalist, having worked for decades as a reporter and editor for suburban newspapers in the DC area and later the Washington Post. They have three children and two grandchildren. David and Rose now live in a small town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, not far from where Rose's ancestors landed in America in the 1650s, and where David serves as a Town Commissioner. This is their first book.