Operation: Nebraska Author- In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains

The second installment in my 2017 New Year's resolution, Operation: Nebraska Author, took me about as far out of my comfort zone as I can get (I think political writings or philosophy would be the extreme for me) and while I enjoyed it a lot, I don't know that it is a genre that I will continue reading.

In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains by James W. Hewitt is a true crime book about a pair of grisly murders that happened just down the road in McCook, Nebraska in 1973.

Creepy dead hand. I got some strange looks reading 
this in the break room at work.

Just days after Edwin and Wilma Hoyt were reported missing by their family, body parts began washing ashore at a nearby lake. The following investigation delved into the scandalous lives of some of McCook's citizens and revealed the inadequacies of pre-DNA/technology criminal investigating and small-town Nebraska law enforcement.

The investigation, which started with the identification of the body parts using rings that were still on Wilma's hand, quickly turned into an investigation of the Hoyt's daughter, Kay, and her lascivious activities, especially those with Harold Nokes and his wife Ena. What had started as an affair morphed into a mènage á trios, then a violent lover's spat and finally murder.

Harold Nokes eventually confessed to killing Edwin and Wilma Hoyt, dismembering them, and disposing their bodies in Strunk Lake. He swore that his wife, Ena, had nothing to do with the murders besides wrapping the body parts in freezer paper and then helping him throw them from their boat into the lake. With his confession, Harold was convicted and sentenced to life in the penitentiary. Ena was only charged with two counts of wrongful disposal of a dead body.

One thing I really liked about the book was how much time Hewitt spent on the discrepancies between the stories told by Harold (about three different versions between his first confession, his recorded confession, and the interview Hewitt conducted 40 years later) and questions raised by the lack of evidence.

One thing I found frustrating (no doubt from too many years of watching Law & Order and NCIS) was that there was no clear-cut answer to what had happened to the Hoyts. Even with Nokes' confession, there were still too many questions left unanswered. Too many suspicious things left uninvestigated.

I was struck by how lovingly-yet truthfully- he described western Nebraska, McCook specifically.

Hewitt accepting his award at the
Celebration of Nebraska Books.

Rolling hills and weathered canyons eroded by wind and water surround McCook. Too difficult to cultivate, much of the land is used as pasture.

What few trees there are, mostly cottonwoods, line the bakes of the region's streams and rivers. Many of the pastures and canyons are dotted with scruffy red cedars, a tree that most farmers and ranchers view as an invasive pest.

The Republican River, which flows eastward out of Colorado, at McCook is a puny littler water course. Democrates say that it is a toss-up whether the Republican was so named because it was so shallow or so crooked. The water moving down the stream bed past the southern edge of McCook is about thirty feet wide, but it occupies only part of a much wider channel now nearly choked with weeds and grasses.

I discovered In Cold Storage at the Celebration of Nebraska Books where Hewitt was presented with the award for best book in the Nonfiction: True Crime division. I strongly recommend it for any true crime and mystery readers or Nebraska history fans.

Other books by James W. Hewitt:
Slipping Backward: A History of the Nebraska Supreme Court 

You can find Hewitt's books online at University of Nebraska Press, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble in addition to many local bookstores in Nebraska.