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Hezekiah "Hez" Rasco was a quiet, industrious, charismatic farm boy, the fourth son of nine children born to James Henry Rasco and Lucinda Pearson, in Fremont County, Iowa. Hez was considered quite handsome, both as a child and later as a man. His hair of deepest black was a stark contrast to his steel-blue eyes and fair complexion. He was said to have had an equally charming personality which garnered him a "stand in everywhere," according to later accounts of his nature given by his older brother Lee. Hez's mother, Lucinda, died of consumption in 1886, when Hez was not yet six years old. She lingered in bed for a year before her death, and her final farewell to impressionable young Hez stayed with him even into adulthood. After Lucinda's death, Henry remained in Iowa, farming for two more years, finally relocating to Nodaway County in Northwest Missouri in 1888.

On October 2, 1896, Katrina "Katy" (Kirch) Baumli was bludgeoned to death in the second-floor bedroom of her rural home two miles southeast of Arkoe, Missouri. Her six-month-old baby, Mary Katherine, lay screaming on the bed nearby as the killer, a fifteen-year-old neighbor boy, struck her over and again with the leg of a wrought-iron stove. Within the week, Arkoe and its neighboring communities would be left reeling over the arrest of Hezekiah Rasco, who confessed to the gruesome killing. What followed would test everyone's patience and the strength of friendships.

Released from his original sentence behind The Walls, the state penitentiary at Jefferson City, Hezekiah Rasco would be left literally holding the reins of a grand larceny conviction in Buchanan County in 1905. He would return to the state penitentiary for two more years, gaining final release in 1907. He returned to Nodaway County and took up the quiet life of a farmer.


"Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man's life."
This quote by Daniel Webster, noted statesman, seems to speak directly to Hez Rasco's life, although it was spoken nearly a century earlier. Was Hez's punishment sufficient for the first of his crimes? Had it been more significant, would the lives of Oda Hubbell and his family been spared? Researching the life and crimes of Hez Rasco has proven an interesting, and sometimes daunting, process, and it is my hope that readers will find the recounting of it equally interesting.
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