This article recounts the story of Phillip Heincy and his son William Heincy – the first and only father-son pair executed by the state of Iowa. They were hanged on the same gallows on August 26, 1898, for the murder of a shopkeeper named Robert W. Lee. The content is for educational and historical documentation only, based on court records, contemporary newspapers, and historical sources. It does not aim to glorify violence or advocate for crime.
Father and Son Executed on the Same Gallows: Phillip and William Heincy
Iowa has a long history with capital punishment, spanning more than 100 years – from the early days of settlement in the 1830s until 1965, when the death penalty was abolished. During that period, 46 men were executed. No women were executed in the state’s history.
Among those 46 men, there is one case that stands apart: the execution of Phillip Heincy and his son, William Heincy – the first and only father and son to be hanged together on the same gallows in Iowa.
This is their story.
1. The Crime: A Missouri Murder
The Heincy family lived across the state line in Missouri. Phillip Heincy, the father, was an older man with a reputation for being difficult and quarrelsome. His son, William, was a young man in his twenties – described by those who knew him as easily influenced by his father.
On September 4, 1897, the two Heincy men traveled across the border into Iowa. Their destination was the small town of Hamburg, in Fremont County. Their target was a shopkeeper named Robert W. Lee.
The motive was robbery. According to later testimony, the Heincy men believed that Lee carried a significant amount of money on his person. They planned to kill him and take his cash.
They found Lee alone in his store. What happened next was brutal. The father and son attacked the shopkeeper, beating him to death. They then robbed his body and fled back across the state line into Missouri.
But they did not get far.
2. The Investigation and Capture
The murder of Robert W. Lee shocked the small community of Hamburg. A man had been killed in broad daylight in his own store – a place where customers came and went, where neighbors gathered. The idea that such violence could happen in their town was terrifying.
The local authorities launched an investigation. Suspicion quickly fell on the Heincy men. Witnesses had seen strangers matching their descriptions in the area. Physical evidence linked them to the crime scene.
A warrant was issued. Law enforcement officers crossed into Missouri and apprehended both father and son. They were brought back to Iowa to stand trial for first-degree murder.
3. The Trial: Justice or Vengeance?
The trial of Phillip and William Heincy took place in Fremont County. The evidence against them was substantial. Witnesses placed them near the scene. The prosecution argued that the murder had been premeditated – that the father and son had planned the robbery and the killing together.
The defense attempted to argue that William had been acting under the influence of his father. They portrayed the younger Heincy as a follower, not a leader – a young man who had been led astray by his domineering parent. Phillip, by contrast, was presented as the mastermind, the instigator, the one who had planned the crime and carried it out with cold determination.
The jury was not persuaded by these distinctions. Both men were found guilty of first-degree murder. Both were sentenced to death by hanging.
4. The Execution: August 26, 1898
The date of execution was set for August 26, 1898. The location was the county jail in Sidney, Iowa – the seat of Fremont County. A gallows was constructed specifically for the double hanging.
On the morning of the execution, a crowd gathered. Public hangings were still the norm in Iowa in 1898, and spectators came from miles around to witness the event. Estimates of the crowd size vary, but it was large enough that authorities had to take precautions to maintain order.
Phillip and William Heincy were led from their cells to the gallows. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, the father appeared resigned to his fate. The son, however, reportedly showed signs of distress. His youth – he was in his twenties – made his impending death seem all the more tragic to some observers.
The nooses were placed around their necks. The trapdoor was released. Both men fell.
They died within minutes of each other. Father and son – executed on the same gallows, on the same morning, for the same crime.
5. Aftermath: A Unique Place in Iowa’s History
The execution of Phillip and William Heincy was the 29th and 30th executions in Iowa’s history. It would not be the last – 16 more men would be hanged in the state before the death penalty was abolished in 1965.
But the Heincy case remains unique. They are the only father and son to be executed together in Iowa. No other family relationship – no brothers, no cousins, no uncles and nephews – has ever been represented in the state’s execution records.
The case also raised uncomfortable questions about culpability and influence. Was William Heincy as responsible for the murder as his father? Or was he a young man who had been led down a dark path by an abusive or domineering parent? The jury decided that he was fully responsible. But the question has lingered in the historical record.
6. Iowa’s Death Penalty: A Long History
Iowa’s experience with capital punishment began in the territorial days of the 1830s. The first execution in what would become Iowa took place in 1834, when a man named Patrick O’Connor was hanged in Dubuque for murder.
Over the next 130 years, 46 men were executed in the state. The methods evolved over time: early executions were by hanging, often in public. Later, the state switched to electrocution, and finally to lethal injection before the death penalty was abolished.
The last execution in Iowa took place in 1963, when Victor Feguer was hanged for the kidnapping and murder of a doctor. Two years later, the state legislature abolished the death penalty. Iowa has not executed anyone since.
7. Comparisons: Other Father-Son Executions in American History
The Heincy case is rare, but not entirely unique in American history. There are a handful of other cases where fathers and sons were executed together – often for the same crime.
In 1865, a father and his two sons were hanged in Washington, D.C., for their role in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Mary Surratt, the mother of conspirator John Surratt, was also executed – though her son escaped.
In 1954, a father and son were executed in Mississippi for the murder of a shopkeeper. Their case, like the Heincy case, involved a robbery gone wrong.
But in Iowa, the Heincy case remains the only father-son execution. It is a grim distinction that has never been repeated.
8. The Unanswered Questions
More than 120 years after the Heincy executions, historians still debate certain aspects of the case.
Was William Heincy truly as guilty as his father? Or was he a victim of circumstance – a young man who followed his father’s orders and paid the ultimate price?
Was the evidence against them as solid as the prosecution claimed? Or were there weaknesses in the case that the jury never fully considered?
Did the Heincy men receive a fair trial? In an era when defendants had fewer legal protections, and when public opinion could influence juries, it is worth asking whether justice was truly served.
These questions may never be answered definitively. The records are incomplete. The witnesses are long dead. What remains is the fact of the execution: father and son, hanged together on the same gallows.
9. The Legacy of the Heincy Case
The story of Phillip and William Heincy has largely faded from public memory. It is not taught in Iowa schools. It is not commemorated in museums or historical markers. It is a footnote in the long, grim history of capital punishment in the state.
But for those who study the death penalty – its history, its controversies, its human costs – the Heincy case is a reminder of the weight of the state’s ultimate punishment.
Two men died that morning in Sidney, Iowa. They were father and son. They died for a crime they committed together. And they died together – on the same gallows, at the same time, by the same rope.
10. A Unique Tragedy
The execution of Phillip and William Heincy is a unique chapter in Iowa’s history. It is the only time a father and son have been hanged together in the state. It is a reminder that the death penalty does not only take individual lives – it takes lives that are connected by blood, by family, by shared guilt.
Iowa has not executed anyone in more than 60 years. The death penalty is a relic of the past, a practice that the state abandoned in 1965. But the graves of the 46 men executed in Iowa – including the Heincy father and son – remain as a reminder of a time when the state believed that taking a life was the only way to do justice.
Phillip and William Heincy died on August 26, 1898. They are buried in unmarked graves somewhere in Fremont County. No headstone bears their names. But their story endures – a dark and tragic footnote in the history of capital punishment in the Hawkeye State.
Primary Sources:
Fremont County Courthouse records – Trial of Phillip and William Heincy (1897–1898)
Contemporary newspaper reports – Sidney Herald, Omaha World-Herald, Des Moines Register (1898)
Iowa Department of Corrections – Historical execution records
Death Penalty Information Center – Iowa capital punishment history
State Historical Society of Iowa – Archives of Fremont County executions