1882
McCook was platted in 1882 when the railroad extended to this point.
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FILE 266 / 10 March 2022 / 168 MIN / full
We're gonna go to McCook, Nebraska; it's in Red Willow County, in southwestern Nebraska. about 0:05:05
McCook was platted in 1882 when the railroad extended to this point.
about 0:08:03The town was named in honour of Alexander McDowell McCook, a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War.
about 0:08:47Its early slogan was 'the magic city'.
about 0:06:23The slogan was later changed to 'the okay city'.
about 0:06:38McCook was platted in 1882 when the railroad extended to this point.
about 0:08:03The town was named in honour of Alexander McDowell McCook, a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War.
about 0:08:47Its early slogan was 'the magic city'.
about 0:06:23The slogan was later changed to 'the okay city'.
about 0:06:38In the 1960s the slogan became 'it's all here'.
about 0:06:58In the 1970s it was 'McCook the American Experience' and then 'Nebraska's hotspot'.
about 0:07:09The current slogan asks anyone with ideas for town slogans to call Mayor Johnson.
about 0:07:21Red Willow County was formed in 1873.
about 0:10:08The county is named for Red Willow Creek, a mistranslation of a Dakota Indian name that actually meant Red Dogwood Creek.
about 0:10:1277.1%
Biggest faith: Catholic residents, 34%
about 0:16:03White 91.5% · Black 0.3% · Asian 0.4% · Hispanic 6%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
▲ about 20% above
Violent crime
▼ under half
Three-bedroom one-bath house
about 0:19:57"about 20% above"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2022 about 0:25:29
"under half"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2022 about 0:25:55
"7,500"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:15:17
"36.6"
Comparison: "about normal". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2022 about 0:15:26
"91.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:15:46
"0.3%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:15:46
"0.4%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:15:54
"6%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:15:54
"2%"
Comparison: "about 3% in the rest of the country". No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:17:11
"77.1%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:16:03
"34%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:16:14
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:16:47
"$40,372"
Comparison: "normally about $58,000". No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:17:20
"forty percent"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:17:28
"77.9 out of 100"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:17:44
"44 out of 100"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:17:48
"$124,900"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:17:51
"about $620 a month"
Comparison: "less than half the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2022 about 0:18:14
"$115,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:19:57
"$325,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:20:35
2.3 / 5 · average of 3
“Very cozy small town and great for families; happy to have been raised there; the only problems are the lack of diversity that comes with every small town, but bigger cities do not have the same sense of community.”about 0:11:04
“The most boring town in all of America; nothing to do but Walmart and a movie theater that gets new films three weeks late; not many good food places, Fuller's is okay but has a lot of druggies; the rest is McDonald's, Subway and Arby's, and Runza is disgusting with flies inside.”about 0:11:52
“The people are backwards, racist, abusive and generally uneducated; a Confederate flag at Walmart, barking dogs left outside all winter, lifted trucks with the mufflers removed, rude police, and people having to delete college credentials to get menial jobs.”about 0:13:16
McCook, Nebraska, is a small town of about 7,500 people in Red Willow County in the south-west of the state. It was laid out in 1882 when the railroad reached the area and was named after Alexander McDowell McCook, a Union Army general in the Civil War. In 1973 Edwin Hoyt, 56, and his wife Wilma, 57, lived on the family farm near Culbertson, just outside McCook. Edwin had been born near Culbertson in January 1918 and graduated from McCook High School in 1935, where he played football. He worked as an unlicensed plumber for the Valls Plumbing Company; Wilma worked as a salesperson at DeGraffs department store. They had five children: Roger, known in the family as Whitey, Donna, Kay, Stanley and Herbert.
Born in April 1928 in Danbury, Nebraska, he had been a county commissioner and Red Willow County assessor and was by then foreman of a State Department of Roads crew in McCook.
In March 1973 the es and Kay travelled to Kansas City and to Salina, Kansas.
In August 1973 the Hoyts travelled to Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and then flew to Germany to visit their son Stanley, who was in the Air Force. They returned on 20 September. On the evening of 23 September they hosted a family dinner at the farm, cooking ham, and at about 7.30 p.m. took a call from their son Herbert, a sailor in Charleston, South Carolina.
Because his shoulder was injured he decided to dismember the bodies rather than carry them, using a butcher knife and an axe in the laundry room.
Kay raised the alarm on 24 September when her parents did not answer the phone. A neighbour, Jerry Myers, found the farm empty, with the car gone, the ham pan soaking and the beds unslept in. Kay and her sister Donna flew over the farm and then let themselves in. The family reported the Hoyts missing, but the state patrol and the county sheriff found no evidence of a crime. The car was found at the hospital and a patrolman, Jack Sexton, noticed the front seat was set for a much shorter driver. The family hired the private investigator Robert Sauden on 1 October.
On 3 October a farmer, Dean McWiety, found a human foot in the water at the dam at Harry Strunk Lake, and more body parts, including a female arm with rings, were recovered over the following days. Sauden confronted Kay on 11 October and she told him about the affair. A listening device was later planted in the house, and the es were heard saying they should have removed the rings.
September 1973 / the basement of the home, McCook, Nebraska
As told in the episode, on 10 March 2022.
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
home
about 0:40:49hospital
about 0:53:30business
about 0:38:04business
about 0:40:03school
about 1:51:47school
about 0:37:00police
about 0:45:56business
about 1:25:48business
about 1:07:22body found
about 2:18:17other
about 2:13:45other
about 2:12:28school
about 0:37:25landmark
about 1:34:46landmark
about 0:21:09home
about 1:55:49school
about 2:22:32