The Enigma Series ~ Volume 4The Enigma Series ~ Volume 4The Enigma Series ~ Volume 4The Enigma Series ~ Volume 4

The Enigma of

Polly Parrott

An Iowa City Original

Teenage Runaway · Grocery Store Clerk · Army Deserter · Bricklayer

Gardener · Snake Handler · Liveryman · Mobster

Steeplejack · Bootlegger · Cattle Rustler · Convict · Rodeo Cook

Laundry Foreman · Republican · Democrat · Communist · Truck Driver

Night Watchman · Cemetery Superintendent · etc.

Timothy C. Parrott

© 2011 by the author

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THE ENIGMA OF POLLY PARROTT:

AN IOWA CITY ORIGINAL PUBLISHED BY: TIMOTHY C. PARROTT 1128 SPRUCE ST. IOWA CITY, IA 52240-5723 e-mail: timoshka@aol.com website: http://www.omegatranslationservices.com Copyright © 2011 by Timothy C. Parrott All rights reserved

ISBN 978-0-578-07831-1 Printed in the United States of America by InstantPublisher.com

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Contents

Acknowledgments 4 Dedication 5 Prologue 7 Chapter I: Birth and Boyhood 1894-1910 9 Chapter II: Go West, Young Man! 1910-1914 21 Chapter III: You’re in the Army Now 1914-1915 33 Chapter IV: ’Til Death Do Us Part 1915-1918 41 Chapter V: Meet Me in St. Louis 1918-1921 57 Chapter VI: Capers with Capone 1921-1928 65 Chapter VII: Welcome to ‘The Big House’ 1928-1932 81 Chapter VIII: Legalized Kidnapping! 1932-1935 89 Chapter IX: Public Enemy to Public Servant 1935-1947 105 Chapter X: King of the Castle 1947-1959 121 Chapter XI: Swan Song of a Parrott 1959-1971 129 Epilogue 137 Appendix: Early Johnson County Roots 143

Notes 151

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Acknowledgments

Over the course of the last thirty-five years, I have intermittently researched the history of the Parrott family, and a good deal of time was devoted to collecting anecdotes and documentation concerning the life of my grandfather, Charles F. “Polly” Parrott II. I was fortunate enough to know several individuals—most of whom are now deceased—who were personally acquainted with Polly in his younger years and thus were valuable sources of information.

My father, Charles F. Parrott III (1917-1989), as the oldest son of Polly Parrott, was a goldmine of information concerning Polly’s activities from the mid-1920s until his death. My mother, Lois B. Parrott (1923-2006), although she did not marry into the family until 1943, was another valuable source, since she became one of my grandmother’s closest confidants and thus was privy to many firsthand accounts of Polly’s early life. In addition, she was herself an eyewitness to many of the post-1943 events related in this monograph.

Polly’s sister, Viola M. (Parrott) Teig (1906-1993), also provided a wealth of information as well as many of the family photographs reproduced here. Another frequent con-tributor of primary source information, whose worthy con-tributions simply cannot be overlooked, is Kenneth Parrott (1931-2010), the family storyteller par excellence. I am grate-ful to them all for sharing their sometimes humorous and sometimes horrific memories of Polly Parrott.

Finally, I also wish to thank friend and local historian Bob Hibbs, who—over a couple long and enjoyable lunches at the Pizza Ranch—encouraged me to record Polly Parrott’s unique and colorful story for posterity. Bob has also provided a multitude of helpful suggestions along the way, not to mention several of the historical Iowa City images found within this volume.

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Dedication

Dedicated to the memory of Polly Parrott’s great-great-great-grandfather, John Parrott, the progenitor of the Parrott family in America. As a teenager, he stole “one holland shirt…of one William Wilson” and “one holland shirt…of one John Clark,” both thefts having occurred in Holborn, England on April 2, 1735. Court records indicate that John Parrott was found guilty of the charges two weeks later and was sentenced to be transported to the Colony of Maryland.

Following his conviction, he was held at Newgate, the most notorious of London’s prisons, for some eight months to await his transportation. However dismal he may have imagined his years in America would be, his time at Newgate undoubtedly represented an even worse punishment. The boy had, in fact, entered “hell above ground”—one of Newgate’s best known appellations. In addition to the various physical discomforts of imprisonment—filth, hunger, torture, and the constant threat of disease—prisoners such as the young John Parrott were also subjected to the corrupt social environment that festered there, surrounded by some of England’s most hardened criminals.

John Parrott’s name appears on a list of fifty prisoners taken from Newgate on December 9, 1735 to prepare for transportation. He sailed aboard the ship John to Annapolis, where he was sold into servitude. Following the expiration of his term of service, he was married on April 8, 1751 to Naomi Shepard at St. Margaret’s Protestant Episcopal Church, a short distance north of Annapolis. After fathering seven children between 1753 and 1764, John Parrott died in rural Anne Arundel County, Maryland in 1767.

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Charles F. “Polly” Parrott II (1894-1971) Photo taken in 1961.

This and all other illustrations used in this volume are from the author’s collection, unless otherwise specified.

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Prologue When my grandfather, Charles F. “Polly” Parrott II,

was laid to rest in 1971, he was publicly remembered as a former superintendent of Oakland Cemetery, who had faithfully assisted virtually hundreds of local families during their times of sorrow between 1947 and 1964, as well as a respected member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, who often spent his free time cheering up dispirited hospital patients. However, behind the scenes, numerous less-than-flattering or even scandalous anecdotes about Polly Parrott circulated among longtime residents of Iowa City.

During my school years, this was especially apparent to me after Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, when local families gathered and typically exchanged colorful stories from the past. Almost without fail, at least one tale involving my grandfather would surface during these holidays, and when school resumed, I would be confronted by fellow students with comments and questions. After Thanksgiving break in 1971—just days after Polly’s burial—I recall a particular student, barely able to contain himself, stopping me in the hall at City High to ask: “So what was your grandpa in prison for?” Unfazed by my classmate’s “start-ling” revelation and associated smirk, I calmly responded, “Which time?” As the student in question—having been caught a bit off guard by my reply—pondered his next move, I nonchalantly proceeded to my next class.

The aim of this fourth volume in The Enigma Series is to dispel the outright false tales of my grandfather’s life, confirm those stories which are true, and uncover yet other anecdotes that have remained hidden until now. It is not without a measure of trepidation that I undertake this task, as Polly Parrott currently has well over 150 living descendants, any number of whom may take exception to my well-intentioned endeavor.

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Throughout the course of my investigation over the last thirty-five years, I’ve heard tales of bootlegging, cattle rustling, and affiliations with everything from organized crime to the American Communist Party. Using these seemingly fanciful tales as the basis of my research, I turned to a variety of source materials in an attempt to prove or disprove their accuracy. I have spent countless hours reading back issues of Iowa City newspapers, searching Johnson County court records, interviewing numerous relatives and acquaintances of Polly Parrott, as well as corresponding with officials at the National Archives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.1

Although I have heard most of the stories presented here since childhood, it was not until I actually began writing my grandfather’s biography that I realized how interrelated many of these anecdotes are. I, of course, had always heard this family lore in bits and pieces and in no particular sequence, so, when I began assembling this wide array of reminiscences into chronological order, the causes of various events and the motivations for various behaviors—which had formerly eluded me—soon became startlingly clear. A single anecdote, related at a random family gathering in isolation, may provide a fleeting moment of amusement or even sustained laughter, but without the larger context, it really doesn’t provide much information in terms of telling a particular subject’s life story or painting an authentic picture of his personality. Hopefully, the following presentation of the family stories that have been passed down to me, supported by years of additional research in various archives, will provide the reader with exactly that: an accurate and unbiased portrait of my grandfather—the infamous Polly Parrott.

Timothy C. Parrott October 12, 2010

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Chapter I 1894-1910

Birth and Boyhood

During the early 1890s, Polly Parrott’s father, Charles Frank Parrott I, was a likeable, young grocery clerk in the establishment of J. L. LeFevre, at 129 South Dubuque Street in Iowa City,2 as well as a volunteer firefighter, having been a member of Sawyer Hose Company No. 2 since 1890.3 Frank, as he was generally called, was a son of one of Iowa City’s old Methodist Episcopal settlers and—much to the consterna-tion of his recently widowed mother—had fallen head over heels in love with a German Catholic girl, who had first captured his attention while driving her sulky through the streets of Iowa City. Rumor had it that she was, in fact, the first female sulky racer in the entire State of Iowa.4

Charles F. “Frank” Parrott I, circa 1887

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The sulky racer in question, Mary Magdalena “Lena” Schmitt, was fiercely independent and one of Iowa City’s most popular young ladies. In November of 1892, her city-wide popularity was affirmed in an account of the St. Mary’s church bazaar:

Much interest was taken in the voting for the various articles awarded the popular contest-ants, each receiving a large number of votes. The diamond ring was voted Miss Emma Harvat, the competitors being Misses Lena Schmitt and Clara Lucas…5

Although she had lost the diamond ring, Lena could take comfort in knowing that she had lost to a worthy opponent. Emma Harvat (1870-1949) would later become Iowa City’s mayor—the first woman in the nation to hold that office in a city of over 10,000 inhabitants.6

Mary Magdalena “Lena” Schmitt, circa 1892

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While Lena Schmitt had undoubtedly attracted the attention of numerous would-be suitors, she had eyes for none other than the dashing Frank Parrott, and following a lengthy courtship, the two were engaged. As a sign of his deep devotion to his fiancée and her religious beliefs, Mr. Parrott was baptized into the Catholic faith by the Rev. A. J. Schulte on September 1, 1893.7 This act would alienate Frank from his family to some extent, as his mother and brothers were not particularly receptive to welcoming a Catholic into the family, let alone having one of their own convert to Catholicism.8

Five days after Frank’s baptism, he and Lena were married by Rev. Schulte at St. Mary’s Church.9 Although Frank’s family did attend the ceremony, it is said that his mother coolly congratulated her son, while totally ignoring her newly acquired daughter-in-law.10 The newlyweds took up residence at 1106 Prairie du Chien Road—the home of the bride’s widowed mother and twenty-year-old unmarried brother, Nicholas F. Schmitt, who had served as the best man at the wedding.11

Rev. Aloysius J. Schulte (1858-1940)

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Parrott wedding invitation, 1893

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Nicholas F. Schmitt (1872-1956) Best man at the wedding of his sister Lena Schmitt.

A little more than nine months later, on June 15, 1894,

the Parrotts were expecting their first child. The wife, Lena, was confined to bed in the very room where she had been born, but—as fate would have it—things would not go as smoothly for her in 1894 as they had for her mother in 1870.

After Mrs. Parrott had endured many hours of agonizing labor, the attending physician ultimately felt it was necessary to employ obstetrical forceps to speed up the delayed birth, as the umbilical cord had become entangled around the baby’s neck and was endangering its survival.

When the Parrotts’ “instrument baby” was finally delivered, he was a deep shade of blue due to a lack of oxygen.12 This traumatic entrance into the world may, in fact, have resulted in some degree of brain damage and thus could provide an explanation for the sometimes aberrant behavior the Parrotts’ firstborn child would exhibit throughout his lifetime.

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Catherine (Krupp) Schmitt (1836-1912), circa 1901 Granddaughter Anna Aicher (1896-1977) on left,

and granddaughter Dorothy Smith (1896-1983) on right. The baby was officially named Charles Frank Parrott

II, after his father, but his German-speaking grandmother, Catherine (Krupp) Schmitt, would always refer to him as “Carl.” This German nickname eventually caught on and would be used almost exclusively for the first twenty years of the boy’s life and much longer by his closest relatives.13

Carl grew up in his grandmother’s house on Prairie du Chien Road, which his parents had purchased in 1896. Although the property belonged to Carl’s parents, his Grand-mother Schmitt had reserved “the use and occupancy of the dwelling house…during her life time.”14 Carl always de-

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scribed his birthplace as a “log cabin,” which it had in fact been, prior to the extensive remodeling it had undergone.15

Living with his Grandma Schmitt for the first eighteen years of his life, Carl became quite proficient in the German language, and could still recite many prayers in German in his old age. But German was not the only thing his grandmother taught him. She was a strict (some might say Draconian) disciplinarian, and was known to use a buggy whip on the boy when she felt that circumstances warranted it.16 These repeated lashings would have a profound effect on Carl’s later life as a husband and parent, and undoubtedly con-tributed to what modern psychologists would call an “inter-generational cycle of violence.” Carl’s parents eventually had three additional chil-dren—all daughters: Nellie Magdalena (called “Magdalene”), born on November 10, 1903; Viola Mary, born on August 27, 1906; and Lena, stillborn on August 31, 1908. In the summer of 1906, at the tender age of only twelve years, Carl created his first media frenzy. On July 31st, at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, he and a group of friends were on the banks of the Iowa River after enjoying an afternoon swim, when he was bitten by a dog. The injury was serious enough to warrant medical attention, and the following day’s sensational front-page headline read: “MAD DOG IS STILL LOOSE IN NORTHERN PART OF THE CITY.”17 The Iowa City Daily Press reported the incident in some detail:

Carl Parrott, the 12 year old son of C. F. Parrott, was bitten badly by a dog, that may be a victim of hydrophobia. The accident happened near the Iowa river, on the banks of which the boy was standing, late yesterday afternoon. He and some young friends had been in swimming, and the dog, owned by James

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Dolezal, suddenly snapped at the bare foot of the boy, and buried one of its fangs, at least, very deeply. The hole was cut in the left foot, back of the toes, near the top of the instep, on the inner side. The lad went to his home, 1106 Prairie du Chien road, but it was several hours before his parents learned of the character of the accident. They then summoned Dr. Valenta, and Herculean measures were deemed advis-able, as so much time had elapsed. Inasmuch as the frothy mouthed dog may easily have been cursed by rabies, at the time he bit the boy, it was considered advisable to practice excision, as well as cauterizing. Accordingly, the flesh around the ugly wound was cut away, and then cauterizing was done. The boy is doing as well as could be asked today, but there can be no positive knowledge as to the result of the bite for some days—unless the worst should develop earlier. Mr. Dolezal, the owner of the dog, has been trailing the animal since the attack on the lad, and the dog will be shut up and possibly killed if it is captured.18

The mere possibility of a rabid dog on the loose, terrorizing the city, provided rich fodder for the local press, and—based on the exaggerated reports in one newspaper—Iowa City potentially faced a rabies epidemic in the wake of the attack on Carl Parrott:

…When the parties attempted to find the dog it had disappeared and up to the present time there has been no report that it has been

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killed. For that reason residents in the north end are urged to watch all of their dogs carefully and keep them on the premises. Speaking of the conditions here a local physician said: “All of the dogs in the city should be muzzled during the present month in order to prevent accidents of this kind… Something in weather conditions at this time of the year makes dogs go mad more than at any other time. Moreover it is something which will spread like wild fire. One dog, becoming mad and allowed to roam about the streets for any length of time will infect practically the whole neighborhood of dogs and they in turn the whole city.”19

Two days after the attack, the Iowa City Daily Press reported that Carl was “doing well,” but added the ominous observation: “Whether hydrophobia will result or not is a matter for the future to decide.”20 Just one day later, however, the same newspaper reported that the condition of Carl’s foot was still improving and that he did not seem to be facing hydrophobia.21 What had begun as a sensational, front-page story, quietly slipped from the pages of all the local news-papers. The wound eventually healed, Carl never developed rabies, and the fate of Mr. Dolezal’s “mad dog” remains a mystery to the present day.

As Carl entered his teenage years, he developed an uncanny knack for “being in the wrong place at the wrong time” and “hanging out with the wrong crowd.” His perform-ance in school had always been lackluster at best, but now even his attendance was less than stellar. Before long, Carl was unceremoniously expelled from St. Mary's school by Rev. Schulte, who advised the parents that their child was a distraction to his fellow students and nothing more than a Faulenzer, or lazy ne'er-do-well.22

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St. Mary’s School, circa 1908 Courtesy of Bob Hibbs.

The boy's habitual idleness in school was abruptly put

to an end, but the extra free time he gained simply led to the commission of even more offenses outside of school. Without the structure of school or employment, Carl seemed to have difficulty finding activities that didn’t capture the attention of local authorities. From trespass to petty theft, his repertoire grew, as he and the delinquents he ran with wreaked havoc in the streets of Iowa City.

In later years, Carl would tell of various escapades in downtown Iowa City, when he and his associates found it necessary to elude law enforcement officials. Even when caught, he was often given a “pass,” due to his father’s good reputation as a law-abiding citizen and proprietor of the C. F. Parrott & Co. grocery store.23

When Carl and his buddies were about fifteen years of age, a lad of about nine enjoyed tagging along on the older boys’ exploits. Considerably smaller and slower than his fleet-footed friends, he was often the first to be caught and—

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Site of C. F. Parrott & Co., Grocers, circa 1897 College Block Building, 127 E. College Street.

Courtesy of State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City.

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totally inexperienced in such matters—would divulge his accomplices’ whereabouts to the authorities without fail. This young boy would become the State University of Iowa’s first All-American swimmer, a local businessman, and—many years later—Iowa City’s official historian, Irving B. Weber.24

Although Carl’s “crimes” were not of a particularly serious nature, they did—through time—earn him the intense scrutiny of the Iowa City police force. Sensing a profound lack of freedom in his daily life, he eventually grew dis-content and set about devising a plan to seek his fortune outside the confines of Iowa City. His cohorts, however, deemed such a scheme—no matter how appealing—well beyond the realm of possibility, since Carl lacked sufficient funds and would face his parents’ certain rejection of such a preposterous notion.25