August Schroeder was dead.

His widow, Dora, had found the prosperous forty-one-year-old farmer hanging in their barn on a summer morning in 1900 in rural Iowa. He left no note, but all Dora could figure was suicide.

The pair had married a decade earlier. August, a German immigrant, was more than a dozen years older than Dora. They had three children – two boys and a girl – ages 9, 7, and 5 at the time of their father’s death.

After discovering her husband's suspended body, Dora cut it down and summoned his brother, Adolph. Friends and neighbors found August’s taking of his own life curious, and certain things didn’t sit right with Adolph either.

For one thing, August was in his stocking feet – no shoes to be found in the barn – and the bottoms of his socks were clean. How could he have walked through the wet and muddy yard between the house and the barn without getting his socks dirty?

Adolph also noticed marks around his brother’s throat, which he felt were inconsistent with hanging and more of an indication that he had been manually choked.

Finally, the joist from which his brother had hanged had a deep indentation, deeper than would have resulted from August hanging himself, and more like rope being pulled over it with a steady weight attached.

These suspicions resulted in Dora being indicted for her husband’s murder, but August’s live-in hired hand, another German immigrant named Charles Rocker, testified in her defense, and she was released.

Charles would also come under suspicion. At the time Dora had made her gruesome discovery, Charles was reportedly in his room, sleeping off a bender from the night before, but when Adolph Schroeder had roused him, he smelled no liquor on Charles’s breath.

Although they had no proof, Adolph and another brother, Fred, suspected Charles of playing a part in their sibling’s death, and they accused him of it. Charles was arrested, and it was now Dora's turn to come to his defense. At the preliminary hearing, she reasserted her belief that August had taken his own life, and the investigation ultimately resulted in Charles’s acquittal due to insufficient evidence.

Opinions of Dora were mixed. Some found her testimony so convincing that they felt she had nothing to do with the crime, or if a crime had even been committed. Others, including her brothers-in-law, believed her to be complicit – that she loved the similarly-aged Charles more than she loved her older husband and had helped plot the latter’s murder.

Shortly afterwards, Charles went to South Dakota, where he purchased a farm on Dora’s behalf, using money she had received from August’s life insurance policies. Charles also filed an unsuccessful false arrest and defamation suit against August’s brothers, requesting $10,000 for damages to his character.

Dora and her children followed Charles to South Dakota, and Adolph and Fred Schroeder traveled there to determine if she and Charles were living together. The trip confirmed their suspicions, and a shotgun-wielding Charles chased them from the property. Dora and Charles eventually married and had a baby of their own.

All the while, Adolph and Fred stayed hot on Charles’s trail, leaving no stone unturned in their continued search for evidence against him.

During his preliminary trial, Charles had stated he was a single man, but the Schroeder brothers discovered he had been twice married – once prior to leaving Germany and again in Minnesota without the benefit of divorce from his first wife. He also had four children by his second wife, who he also had not divorced. This information led to Charles being arrested for perjury.

With Charles behind bars, Dora wrote a letter to authorities, stating that, although they had been happily married for a time, Charles eventually became an abusive husband and father. After their daughter was born, he had wanted to throw the infant down a well, and he began cruelly mistreating Dora. He also got angry with one of his stepsons and struck him on the head with a monkey wrench. The blow fractured the little boy’s skull, almost killing him.

Dora and Charles frequently fought about Charles’s mistreatment of his stepchildren and his associations with women of ill repute. After he struck his stepson with the wrench, another argument ensued, and Charles went to town and got drunk.

Dora said Charles returned home at 2 AM the following morning and came to bed. Both of them slept restlessly as Charles muttered and moaned and tossed and turned. Finally, he sat upright in the bed and struck Dora, bloodying her nose. Still asleep, with his eyes closed tight and his hands around her throat, he declared, “August, you ‘blankety-blank,’ I’ve got you now.” Dora’s screams awakened him, but he soon returned to sleep.

Although still shaken and frightened the next morning, Dora said she asked Charles for an explanation, but he denied the previous night’s events and threatened her, telling her she talked too much and should keep her mouth shut. But Dora persisted and asked him again later in the day what he had meant by “getting August.” She recounted that Charles then confessed to murdering him, provided her with the details, and, after placing a revolver to her head, threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone.

According to Dora, August and Charles had attended a farmer’s picnic together and afterwards visited some saloons. On their return, Charles provided August with a bottle of whiskey mixed with chloroform and morphine that Charles had purchased from a drug store earlier that day. They reached home in the wee hours of the next morning, and Charles put up the horses and assisted a semi-intoxicated August into the house before returning outside. August went to bed but complained about not feeling well. Dora had been waiting up for him, and after serving him some coffee, she turned in as well. As the poisoned whiskey began to take effect, August became sick and went to the porch, where he vomited. Charles had anticipated this, and he joined August on the porch and gave him more of the whiskey. Drowsy and nearing unconsciousness from the chloroform and morphine, August sat down on a beer keg. Charles then took him by the throat and choked him to complete unconsciousness or perhaps even death. He also placed a chloroform-saturated handkerchief over Dora’s face while she was sleeping so that she would have no awareness of what had transpired. Charles then wheeled August to the barn in a barrel cart, tied a rope around his neck, and hoisted him to the rafters to make his death look like a suicide.

Following Dora’s statements, Charles was indicted for first-degree murder, but in a surprising turn of events, she was indicted as well. A grand jury felt she had aided Charles, and there were even reports that she had confessed to helping hang August’s body, but in the end, the state chose not to prosecute her.

Charles’s trial revealed that there had been preexisting enmity between him and August Schroeder. Charles had reportedly been infatuated with Dora, and the two fell in love, became intimate, and frequented dances together. As a result, August claimed Charles had invaded the sanctity of his home.

A physician testified that, based on the condition of August’s body, he did not believe he had committed suicide. He believed that marks on August’s throat and back were consistent with Dora’s story of him having been choked and his body carried on a cart. Additionally, August’s features indicated death by poisoning rather than hanging.

The prosecution was able to prove that Charles had purchased chloroform and had asked for doped whiskey at two saloons.

But the most damning evidence was Dora’s testimony that Charles had confessed the murder to her.

At the trial’s conclusion, the jury convicted Charles and sentenced him to death – ironically, by hanging. His case was appealed to the state supreme court, and a half hour before his execution, he was given a stay.

In 1906, Charles was granted a new trial on the basis of some prejudicial things that had occurred in his original trial, but he was once more found guilty of first-degree murder. This time however, he escaped the gallows altogether and was sentenced to life in prison. A subsequent appeal was unsuccessful and his conviction and sentence were upheld.

In 1913, an attorney who was sympathetic toward Charles and his case started an unsuccessful movement to have him pardoned.

Finally, in 1919, Charles Rocker escaped from the penitentiary. It was the last recorded trace of him.

Moral of the story: If you talk in your sleep, it’s probably best to sleep alone!