Waterloo Daily Courier

A look back at the Diane Gable murder

Editor's Note: This story was written in 1999.

WATERLOO, Iowa --- On May 31, 1964, a pretty 19-year-old west-side Waterloo girl with the now well-known name of Diane Gable, was slain in her home.

The murder of the teen-ager sister of Dan Gable, who would later become a national champion and Olympic gold medalist, has often been referred to as one of the catalysts towards Gable's incredible wrestling career. But at the time, she was known only as a teen-ager who died at the hands of another teen-ager -- one whose parents were well known in the community.

"These were supposedly prominent families in Waterloo -- particularly the Kyle family. It kinda hit like a bomb shell in the local community," remembers William Ball, who was Black Hawk County Attorney in 1964.

Diane Kay Gable was found dead in her home on Easley Street a day and a half later after a neighbor went looking for her when she did not show up for work. Her parents and brother, Dan, then 15, had spent the weekend at Harpers Ferry.

Courier reporter George Saucer was on his daily rounds of the police department early June 2, 1964. He was sitting in the office of Robert Beener, then chief of detectives, going over the weekend caseload, when a call came into Beener's desk.

It was about a body being found in a home. Saucer, who was on deadline for that day's paper, quickly drove to the area, but had little help from police officers at the scene.

"It was in a nice part of town -- all of the homes there had been built in the past 10 years," Saucer recalls.

What he didn't know was whether the case was a murder or suicide, and held out waiting, trying to find out any information on whether he had a story for that day's paper.

Finally, someone came out of the house that wasn't a police officer. Saucer hustled over to him and asked what was going on. Saucer knew then that he was dealing with a murder, and quickly called in to the office.

It was within a few hours that a teen-ager was in custody. His name was John Thomas Kyle, 16, the son of the president of First Federal Savings and Loan Association in Waterloo.

The county attorney, Ball, said Kyle was brought in for questioning by police. But because he was a juvenile, Ball asked that a female juvenile probation officer, Clara Hinde, be brought in.

"We got Clara into it because I felt I didn't want the heavier hands of the detectives in there. I felt she would be a better person to talk to him. It wasn't to my knowledge much of an interrogation." Ball said. In fact Hinde testified at Kyle's degree of guilt hearing later that Kyle confessed while police were on the phone to notify his parents to come to the station.

Kidnapping, Murder and Mayhem: Meeker, Colorado Bank Robbery

I've been battling a stubborn case of bronchitis for a couple of weeks. My writing and everything else has slowed to a crawl. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in and I'll be up and at 'em again shortly. This is a news article from the 1890s in which three robbers attempted to rob a bank in Meeker, Colorado and were gunned down by citizens. Note the difference in reporting in those days. It is believed that one of the robbers is Thomas McCarthy, who aided in robbing banks at Telluride and Delta. Those killed and wounded in the battle between the citizens and the robbers follow: The dead are: Charles Jones, leader of the bandits, aged 45, shot through the lungs and chest; William Smith, robber, aged 21, riddled through the lungs and chest, shot through the heart and a number of other wounds, any of which would have been mortal; George Harris, robber, aged 35, shot through the lungs and chest. The wounded are: W. H. Clark, game warden, bullet in the right breast, not fatal; Victor Dikeman, shot through the arm; C. A. Booth, scalp wound; W. P. Herrick, finger shot off. The robbery was one of the most daring ever perpetrated in the west, occurring as it did in broad daylight and at a time when there were twenty or more people in plain sight. George Rooney, clerk of the Meeker hotel, had stepped into the bank, which is located in the general mercantile store of J. W. Hugus, to make a deposit, and stood talking to Assistant Cashier David Smith. As he turned to leave he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, and glancing up was looking into the muzzle of a revolver. The man with the revolver commanded "Hands up!" At the same instant two shots rang out, and two bullets whizzed by the head of the assistant cashier—David Smith—who threw up his hands. In the meantime the two other robbers had covered the crowd in the store, compelling them to assemble in the centre of the room, and guarding both doorways. Then Cashier Moulton was called, and one of the men said to him: "Open the safe and be quick about it." At the point of his gun he was conducted to the safe, which he opened, and the contents of the drawer, $700, were emptied into a sack the robbers had brought with them. Not a word was spoken, the robbers going about their business with a deliberation that was astounding under the circumstances.

Studies in Iowa history

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Acts and resolutions passed at the ... session of the General Assembly of the state of Iowa

The Palimpsest

Journal of the House of the General Assembly of the State of Iowa