1936 Powder House Blast

1936 Powder House Blast. . On a cold 1936 New Year's Eve about 160 yards west of this spot, there occurred a dramatic and unlikely attempt to commit murder. At 9:35 p.m. a large powder storehouse exploded. Inside were 310 25-pound kegs of powder, over 3000 pounds of dynamite, and an unconscious man. The explosion blew a crater in the earth 25 feet deep and 50 feet in diameter. Hundreds of windows were broken within a 40-mile surrounding area, the blast was heard more than 60 miles away, and it registered on seismographs in California., The explosion was the result of a bizarre chain of events that began when Helen Sieler, a 25-year-old woman living in Sioux City, Iowa, became the companion of a paroled California convict, Floyd H. Parker. Parker introduced her to gang members Lee Bradley and Harry "Slim" Reeves, ex-convicts, and to barkeeper William Nesbit., The four men conspired with a Sioux City jewelry wholesaler to stage a burglary of his business place. He was to remove jewels and cash from his store vault, the men were to fake a burglary, the jeweler was to collect on his insurance, and all were to share. When the sham burglary was botched and the police became suspicious, the gang split up with Parker and Sieler heading for Omaha. A week later Parker sent Nesbit a telegram demanding money. Fearing that Parker might reveal their scheme, Bradley, Reeves, and Nesbit picked up Parker and Sieler and drove to Sioux Falls, arriving on December 31., That evening the five rode together to the Larson Hardware powder house located on the Fred and Freda Dawley farm three miles east of Sioux Falls. Nesbit and Parker helped Bradley break into the building, while Reeves and Helen Sieler remained in the car. After Bradley attacked and felled Parker, Nesbit ran to the car and brought Sieler to the powder house. The men then beat her with a hammer and shot her several times. Believing that Parker and Sieler were incapacitated, Bradley, Reeves, and Nesbit dumped the badly wounded pair in the powder house, lit a 10-foot-long fuse tied to a stick of dynamite, and made a hurried getaway. However, the fuse burned slowly enough to allow Helen Sieler time to escape from the building and crawl some distance before the five tons of explosives detonated., Neighboring farmers Ed and Sheldon Lacey discovered Helen Sieler lying in a ditch over 100 yards away from the crater. The main force of the blast had blown over her, sparing her life. Although doctors at the Moe Hospital in Sioux Falls later discovered eight bullet wounds in her body, she survived and recovered., Any question of whether Parker had died in the explosion was resolved in late February when Fred Dawley found a blackened human finger at the blast site. A city lab technician was able to ink and roll a fingerprint, and it matched a print of Parker's on file. Bradley, Reeves, and Nesbit eventually were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.