Francis John Rafferty
Homicide
Francis J. Rafferty
58 YOA
Dubuque, IA (Dubuque County)
Case # 6400326
February 8, 1964
Case summary by Nancy Bowers
Shortly after midnight on Saturday, February 8, 1964, 53-year-old Gretta S. Rafferty returned home from work and found the body of her brother, Francis John Rafferty, 58, in the apartment they shared in Dubuque, Iowa.
His hands, feet, and legs were bound with telephone wire ripped from the wall and his mouth and nose were covered with electrical tape. He had choked on regurgitated food and died of asphyxiation.
Rafferty had been known to keep a large sum of cash hidden in the apartment. However, he had transferred that money to a bank in the autumn of 1963.
The murder was investigated by Dubuque Police Captain Byrne O’Brien and detectives Gus Ferkers and William Johanningmeier. Richard Strasburg of the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation assisted Dubuque authorities. Numerous suspects were questioned, but no one was arrested.
The tape, wire, and other evidence from the apartment were sent to the FBI Lab in Washington, D.C., for examination. Results were not made public.
Francis John Rafferty was born in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1906, the first child in a second generation Irish Catholic family. His parents were John Francis and Sarah Boyle Rafferty. After his father died, John and his siblings Gretta, Lenora, and Roland lived with their mother on Locust Street. The sisters and brother worked in the Dubuque packing plants and John was a laborer at Carr, Adams and Collier Company, one of the world's largest woodworking businesses. Francis and Gretta never married and, as the other family members passed away or left home, remained together.
The case has been cold for nearly 50 years. Likely, Francis John Rafferty was killed during a robbery motivated by greed, one of the single most common reasons for murder.
Resources:
Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation
“Dubuque,” Mason City Globe-Gazette, February 8, 1964.
“Probe Death At Dubuque,” Des Moines Register, February 11, 1964.
Page last updated: March 6, 2010
