Victor Feguer

Victor Feguer (1935 – March 15, 1963) was a drifter convicted of murdering a young doctor in Dubuque, Iowa. He became notable as the last Federal inmate put to death before the 2001 execution of Timothy McVeigh, and the last individual put to death in the state of Iowa before it abolished the death penalty in 1965.

During the summer of 1960 Feguer arrived in Dubuque, Iowa. Taking up residence in a boarding house, Feguer took a phone book and began calling local physicians in alphabetical order. When he connected with Dr. Edward Bartles he claimed that a woman was in need of medical treatment. Bartles arrived, only to be taken hostage by Feguer and then killed in Illinois with a single gunshot to the head. Feguer was arrested a few days later in Alabama after attempting to sell Bartles' car.

Authorities believed that Feguer had lured Bartles to his death in order to obtain any perscription drugs Bartles might have been carrying. Because he had taken Bartles across state lines, authorities filed Federal charges against him. Feguer claimed that a drug addict from Chicago had killed Bartles, and was in turn killed by Feguer, but no evidence of this drug addict was ever found.

Feguer was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Feguer appealed his death sentence but the appeal was denied. Both Feguer's attorney and Iowa Governor Howard Hughes appealed to President Kennedy for clemency but Kennedy thought the crime was so brutal that a death sentence was warranted and rejected the petition.

As the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas was not equipped to execute prisoners, Feguer was brought up to Fort Madison, Iowa to be executed on March 5, 1963. Over the next ten days he was a model prisoner, giving the guards no reason to complain about him.

For his last meal, Feguer requested an olive with a pit. He hoped that a tree would sprout forth from his grave after burial. He was hanged at dawn on March 15, and buried in the new suit he had been hanged in.

Feguer was the last person put to death in the state of Iowa as Iowa abolished its death penalty in 1965. He was also the last Federal inmate executed until 2001 when McVeigh was executed for causing the deaths of 168 people in his attack on the Murrah Federal Building.

Feguer's death attracted little media coverage at the time. However his status as the last Federal inmate executed led to renewed media interest in the man in the days leading up to McVeigh's 2001 execution.