Chester Louk
Chester Edgar Louk
53 YOA
Oathout Funeral Home
336 S. Clinton Street
Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
April 3, 1962
In 1962, 53-year-old Chester Louk was a scale inspector for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, a job he’d held for 23 years. He lived in Boone, Iowa, with his wife Doris, but frequently traveled for his job.
On April 2, he was in Iowa City, where he spent the night with his married son Jim and his daughter-in-law. The younger Louks occupied an apartment on the second floor of the Oathout Funeral Home at 336 S. Clinton Street. Another young married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sheppard, had a separate apartment there, as well.
A little before 1:00 a.m. on April 3, Louk’s daughter-in-law woke up to an odd noise and thought there might be a prowler. Jim Louk went downstairs and found a sofa on fire in the family room in the northwest corner of the funeral home.
Courtesy photo Iowa City Postcard History by Bob HibbsAs he ran up upstairs to warn his wife, father and the Sheppards, there was what he described as a “whoosh” and smoke and flames broke through the stairwell from the basement.
Chester Louk carried buckets of water to put out the blaze but it was an impossible task. Unfamiliar with the building, he became confused trying to escape.
Firemen arrived quickly, finding the two or three blocks north of the funeral home engulfed in smoke. They located Chester Louk near a window overlooking the attached garage at the rear of the funeral home, carried him out, and tried unsuccessfully to revive him. His cause of death was suffocation.
The other residents escaped, although Mrs. Sheppards’s hair caught on fire and she suffered first and second degree burns on her hands trying to put it out.
The total damage to the funeral home was $75,000 from two separate fires, one on the ground floor and the other in the basement.
This was the fifth fire in Iowa City within 48 hours.
Early Sunday morning, April 1, someone piled hymnals and church literature in three ground-floor locations inside the Christian Church and set fire to them. About 1:30 a.m., a passerby saw drapes on fire and called the fire department; damage was limited because of her quick action.
At 2:57 a.m., six blocks away, police patrol spotted flames at the English Lutheran Church, where fires had been set in the basement and in front of the altar. The total loss was $100,000.
About 3:30 that morning, a street flare containing kerosene was thrown through a window of the Dickerson Motor Company.
Not long after, a fire started in a blanket in a car parked by the University of Iowa Union but burned itself out.
Panic set in. Residents feared Iowa City was home to a “fire bug.”
Citizens Band groups and other civilian organizations set up patrols, and guards kept watch at Mercy Hospital and public school buildings.
The blazes were investigated by all the official power that could be gathered. Iowa City Fire Chief Francis Shimon and Deputy State Fire Marshal John Hanna worked with Johnson County Sheriff Albert Murphy and his Deputy Don Wilson. Iowa City Police Chief Emmet Evans, Lt. C.H. Snyder, and Sgt. Paul Hoffey investigated for the city. Budd Huffman of the National Board of Fire Underwriters assisted.
The investigators quickly declared the fires arson. In all the structure fires, faulty electric wiring, overheated furnaces, and electric motors were ruled out, as were spontaneous combustion and carelessness.
There were no pour patterns indicating accelerants or black smoke, indicating use of petroleum-based products.
Authorities considered a religious connection, as two structures were churches and the funeral home contained a chapel.
They concluded, however, that the locations were targets of opportunity attacked in the early morning hours to avoid detection. The two churches and funeral home were public and open most of the time, although not occupied continuously.
Scores of people were questioned and some were given lie detector tests.
A 17-year-old boy claimed he was sleeping on a back pew at the Lutheran Church and ran out when he saw someone set the altar fire. It was determined he was in custody at the time of the funeral home fire and he was released to an Iowa City hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
Another boy was picked up at the scene of the funeral home fire because his hair was singed, although it was later proved that happened while he was burning brush the previous weekend. He claimed to see a man run out of the funeral home, but changed his story three times before admitting he made it up to get publicity.
Over a 13-month period in 1962 and 1963, 16 arson fires were set in Iowa City.
On April 19, a mattress burned in a basement storage area of University Hospitals. On April 25, a fire in a large trash chute caused smoke damage at 107 South Clinton Street. On May 4, a fire was discovered at the rear entrance of the Sears Roebuck store. On July 31, a fire destroyed a wall at Bob’s Barber Shop.
What seemed like a lull in the fires was ended on December 29, 1962, when five small fires were started in the Campus Hotel linen room, causing minor damage. On December 22, a fire broke out in a deserted upstairs hallway at 1029 ½ South Riverside Drive.
Like the earlier fires, all these were started using “natural means,” rather than flammable liquids.
In early May of 1963, Jefferson Hotel short order cook Ronald J. Moravis, who had a history of run-ins with the law, was arrested for setting the Campus Hotel fires. He was sentenced to prison in 1965.
Police said he was a suspect in the previous fires; however, he was not arrested for them.
No one was ever charged in the Oathout Funeral Home fire and murder of Chester Louk.
The partially burned funeral home was redeveloped as the Rebel Motel, then became offices, and finally was razed after severe tornado damage in 2006.
Courtesy photo Ancestry.comChester Edgar Louk was born November 29, 1908 in Hardin Township Greene County to Mabel Nellie Wenner and Earl Ellsworth Louk. He had four siblings: Margaret H., Marvin K., Weldon L., and Dwight E. Louk. He married Doris Elaine Edson, and they had two sons, Clyde Earl Louk and James Newton Louk.
Questions and information about the unsolved 1962 arson homicide of Chester Louk should be directed to the Iowa City Police Department at 319-356-5275, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office at 319-356-6020, or to Iowa Cold Cases via the Contact form.
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