What began as the reported illness of a Keokuk County farmer in October 1903 soon turned into one of southeast Iowa’s most talked-about murder investigations.
William F. Lewis, a 49-year-old farmer living near Sigourney, became sick and died at his Benton Township home after spending a day bedridden. Initially, a coroner’s jury ruled his death was from natural causes. However, rumors circulating through the community quickly raised doubts.
As questions mounted, authorities ordered Lewis’s body exhumed. Testing revealed significant amounts of laudanum, a powerful opium-based drug, in his stomach. Investigators later learned that Lewis’s wife, Belle, had purchased laudanum shortly before his death. The discovery intensified suspicions, especially after she sought to collect on a $2,000 life insurance policy.
Adding to the intrigue were reports of a close relationship between Belle Lewis and Ira Glasford, a farmhand whose own wife had died unexpectedly less than two years earlier. Rumors of a romantic relationship fueled speculation that the deaths could be connected.
A Keokuk County grand jury eventually indicted Belle Lewis for first-degree murder. Her trial in early 1904 attracted widespread attention, with prosecutors presenting evidence that she purchased laudanum and allegedly administered medicine to her husband shortly before his death. Witnesses also testified about her relationship with Glasford.
The case took a dramatic turn when medical experts examined Lewis’s remains and discovered he suffered from a serious disease affecting the base of his brain. One physician testified that Lewis’s condition was so severe that death may have been imminent regardless of any poisoning.
Following that testimony, prosecutors asked that the charges be dismissed. A jury quickly returned a not guilty verdict, and Belle Lewis walked free. Just two months later, she married Ira Glasford and received the insurance money, renewing public speculation about what really happened on that October day in 1903.
Source: Nancy Bowers, Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases.
