 |
| Clara Rosen |
She
never arrived.
At
eight o’clock, her sister called the Rosen home. Clara wasn’t there either. By
midnight, neighbors were searching the streets. Hundreds joined in, moving
through yards, alleys, and empty lots, calling her name.
Around
four in the morning, Clara’s brother Fred Rosen and his friend Otto Johnson
found her body in an empty lot near Dare Street. Her skull was crushed. Her
body had been dragged and left in the dirt. Officer Frank Williams called
undertaker C. T. Sullivan. By daylight, all of Ottumwa knew Clara Rosen was
dead.
Clara
was twenty-nine. Until recently, she had worked as a bookkeeper. For fifteen
years, she was the lead soprano in the Swedish Lutheran Church choir. She was
engaged to be married that spring. Newspapers printed her photograph: neat
hair, a fashionable hat, a respectable young woman. A victim, a town rallies
around.
