Bonnie Parker, left, and Clyde Barrow, leaders of the notorious Barrow gang, were pursued by the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation in 1933.
DES MOINES, Iowa – On April 9, 1921, the Iowa Legislature bestowed authority in Attorney General Ben Gibson to establish the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, a centralized law enforcement agency specializing in providing cost-free support to local law enforcement agencies.
From these humble beginnings, with just a handful of agents and a budget of $37,000, the bureau has grown into the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), which provides a full spectrum of criminal investigation services from investigative field operations to forensics analysis to support to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.
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On a clear late November afternoon two days before the start of the Wisconsin deer season in 1937, Royal Nettleton, 29, a Nicolet National Forest junior forester, climbed a tree.
He was creating a map of the area and wanted to orient himself by looking for the tallest landmark in the area, the Jones Dam fire tower the newest of 16 observation towers recently built on the Nicolet when he heard two rifle shots in quick succession. The first was accompanied by the whine of a bullet; a second bullet tore through his upper right thigh leaving an 8-inch hole and Nettleton yelled out “you shot me” as he fell 8 feet to the ground. In agony, blood spattering the snow, he cried out for help but there was only one other person within the sound of his voice and there would be no help.