The Nastiest Saloon in Iowa

"Wickedest place in the wickedest section of Des Moines” —Des Moines Register

In the first decades of the twentieth century, saloon proprietor Erastus Wallace Scott of Des Moines—with his cousins in the infamous Carter Gang—operated a campaign of murder, fraud, corruption, and prostitution from his bar on East Court Avenue. In 1908, the local paper denounced the neighborhood as “given up almost entirely to houses of prostitution. At one end stands a notorious saloon, the scene of many crimes, even murders, and for years a harbor for criminals and a plotting place for the evil minded."

That reviled enterprise was none other than Scott’s seedy shack of sin. Initially, Scott gained the most notoriety, due to a slaying, numerous assaults, and sex trade associated with his establishment. But a subsequent murder brought cousin Will to the forefront. A land fraud scheme involving all three Carter brothers followed, including grand theft and even more deaths.

Authors David and Rose Donovan recount the long-forgotten story of a crime family’s nefarious reach beyond the red-light district.