Tommy Lee McConkey

Homicide

Tommy Lee McConkey
38 YOA
2929 E. University
Des Moines, IA
Polk County
Case # 1975-30748
August 27, 1975

Case summary by Nancy Bowers

Courtesy Google Street View

The former Sondy’s Lounge at 2929 E. University in Des Moines; today, it’s a Valvoline Instant Oil Change.

Wednesday, August 27, 1975 was a rainy and cloudy end-of-summer day in Des Moines, with Labor Day closing in.

That afternoon, 38-year-old Tommy Lee McConkey of Altoona was fixing the back door of Sondy’s Lounge at 2929 E. University Avenue, a major street which only a few days earlier had been packed with cars headed to the nearby Iowa State Fair.

When McConkey went to his pickup truck to get some materials about 4:25 p.m., an unknown person drove up in a car and shot him point blank. The bullet entered McConkey’s left cheek, injuring him critically.

He was taken to Mercy hospital, where he died Thursday, August 28.

There seemed to be no motive for the crime, and McConkey’s wallet and money were intact.

In November of 1975, 25-year-old former Des Moines resident George Douglas Frank was arrested in St. Louis in connection with the murder. After a witness to the shooting failed to identify him in a line-up, however, Frank was released in early December.

Courtesy photo findagrave.com

Tommy McConkey was buried in Lowman Cemetery in Runnells.

Services for McConkey were held on Sunday, August 31 at the Rising Sun Church of Christ in Pleasant Hill; he was buried in the Lowman Cemetery in Runnells.

Tommy Lee McConkey was born October 3, 1936 in Polk County, Iowa, to Phylena May Ferguson and Hervey “Herb” Edward McConkey. He had one brother, Hervey, Jr., and three sisters — Mary and Betty McConkey and Phyllis McConkey West. He was survived his wife Sharon and two children.

The McConkey family suffered another terrible loss only a few years before Tommy was shot when Herb, a contractor, and Phylena, a real estate agent, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their Polk County home when Herb left their car running in an attached garage on May 5, 1972.

Question and information about the unsolved If you have any information concerning the unsolved 1975 murder of Tommy Lee McConkey should be direct to the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4864 or to Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.

Sources:

• “Arrested, released,” Muscatine Journal, December 6, 1975.
• “D.M. Shooting Victim Dies,” Des Moines Register, August 29, 1975.
• Des Moines Police Department.
• “Died after shot at lounge,” Ames Daily Tribune, August 29, 1975.
• Funeral notices, Des Moines Register, August 30, 1975.