Time Machine: A confession in 1958

Sorting through old negative files, I came across an envelope with the words “Don Key & Killer Headline.” Inside were two 4-by-5-inch negatives of a man with a wide grin holding a Gazette.

Intrigued, I began researching. It turns out Donald D. Key was one of the few people in The Gazette newsroom in 1958 when a man called to confess he’d killed someone.

Iowa City start

Key was born in Iowa City in 1923. He liked music and competed in state and national music contests in high school, winning awards for his French horn playing.

He enrolled at the University of Iowa, majoring in fine arts, but World War II interrupted his studies. He became an X-ray technician with the U.S. Army in Europe and visited as many European museums as the war and time allowed.

Because of his musical ability, he also played with the 108th General Hospital Band.

Key returned home in January 1945 with the rank of technician fifth grade, or T/5 or Tec 5, a rank that indicates a soldier has special technical skills. A Tec 5 was addressed as corporal.

Key married Patricia Ann Miller of Iowa City in 1947, the year after she had earned a degree in music from the UI. They lived in Evanston, Ill., for the summer and then in Indianapolis for a year, where Key played with the Indianapolis symphony.

They returned to Iowa in 1948 and Donald Key began working on a journalism degree at the University of Iowa. He covered fine arts for the Daily Iowan, the student newspaper, and began reporting for The Gazette in 1949. He earned his journalism degree in 1950, the same year Patricia was named assistant in voice on Coe College’s music faculty in Cedar Rapids.

Key became The Gazette’s arts columnist and an assistant editor in 1951. In his off hours, he was a member of and often a soloist for the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band.

The phone call

Key was one of only a few people in the newsroom when a call came in the morning of Friday, Aug. 1, 1958.

Key answered the phone.

The caller identified himself as William Holland.

Holland, 23, said he wanted to confess that he had killed Fred Hober of Clutier while trying to rob him on a gravel road east of Clutier in Tama County the afternoon of July 24.

“I didn’t mean to do it. I was just nervous and scared when I held the gun on him, and my finger pulled the trigger,” said Holland, who said he wasn’t from Cedar Rapids but had been living in the city for a while.

Holland told Key he was on his way to Rapid City, S.D., when his car had a flat tire on that gravel road in Tama County.

“I ran the car off on the side of the road and flagged down the car coming along behind me. I didn’t know who the man was. Told him I had a flat tire and then pulled the gun on him. All I wanted was his money. Had to have some money.”

Hober, 62, was on his way to his custodial job at Link-Belt Speeder on Sixth Street SW in Cedar Rapids when he stopped for the stranded motorist. According to Holland, Hober offered to take him to the nearest house where he could call for assistance.

Holland went to the passenger side of Hober’s car, but instead of getting in, he pointed a gun at Hober’s head and fired.

When Holland finished talking to Key, he walked into the Cedar Rapids Police Station, turned over his revolver and a box of shells and confessed to killing a man in Tama County.

Tama County Sheriff F.L. “Pat” Flynn arrived at the Cedar Rapids Police Station Friday afternoon and took Holland into custody.

The story

Though the interview was far removed from Key’s typical topics, he quickly wrote a story about Holland’s confession and arrest. The story ran on the front page that afternoon under a huge headline, “ADMITS SLAYING TO GAZETTE.”

Key’s co-workers thought the headline should have read, “Killer sings to music critic.” The composing room obliged and created a mock front page with that headline.

Afterward

Holland was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison at Fort Madison on Sept. 12, 1958. Gov. Robert Ray commuted his sentence to 125 years in 1979, paving the way for Holland to be paroled in June 1981 at age 46.

Five months later, he was arrested on charges of lascivious acts and indecent exposure. He was acquitted, but his parole was revoked because he had used alcohol.

He remained in prison until he was paroled again in April 1987. He died of cancer in 1989 and is buried in an Ankeny cemetery.

As for Key, he moved to Milwaukee in 1959 to become the art editor of the Milwaukee Journal.

Multiple sclerosis forced Key to retire in 1972 at age 59. Instead of the usual retirement gifts, Wisconsin artists donated prints, paintings and sculptures to the Donald Key Collection of Wisconsin Art. The collection traveled to Wisconsin museums until 1978.

Key died in 1996.

Comments: D.fannonlangton@gmail.com

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