The Iverson Children Tragedy (1903) - A Fun-Sized Felony

On a quiet Sunday in October of 1903, ten-year-old Hoga Iverson noticed something wasn’t right.

His sister had gone inside… and never came back out.

What followed was a chain of events that no child should ever have to carry: a train ride alone to find his father, a doctor turned away at the door, and a journey in the dark that would end in a discovery too devastating to comprehend.

Inside a small cottage in Pacific Grove, three children lay still—while their mother insisted nothing was wrong.

When the truth finally emerged, it came with a chilling explanation: a claim of supernatural forces… and a tragedy that would shake an entire community.

In this Fun-Sized Felony, Monica tells the story of the Iverson children—a case of family, faith, and a night that ended in unimaginable loss.

Transcript

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What do axes, trains, and children have in common? You're about to find out in this fun-sized felony. Welcome back to Forgotten Felonies. I'm Monica, and this is a fun-sized felony. Before we begin, no felony is ever fun. I call it fun-sized because the story is short, not because the crime is light or trivial. On Sunday, October 25, 1903, 10-year-old Hoga Iverson had been playing out in the yard with two of his three siblings. The Iverson family lived in Salinas, California. The patriarch of the family was Louis Iverson, and he worked as a machinist in the shops of his uncles, the Iverson brothers. Louis's wife, Catherine Jorgensen Iverson, had just taken all four of the children with her to their cabin in Pacific Grove. They had been there for only three weeks when tragedy struck. Hoga's older sister, Louisa, was 11 years old. Then there was six-year-old Harold. And inside the house with their mother, Catherine, was their tiny baby sister, seven-month-old Marie. Hoga saw Louisa go inside the house, and after a while, he wondered why she hadn't come back out. Hoga went inside the house and saw that his sister was lying on the floor. On the bed, quite still. He noticed how odd it was that she was completely motionless. Her eyes were open and staring into nothingness. He put his hand on her cheek and then he asked his mother what was wrong with her. She is not well today. Do not disturb her. Hoga insisted on staying beside his sister, knowing that something was certainly wrong. Finally, his mother told him, 'Your sister has a fever. Go and tell your father.' Hoga, just 10 years old, got on a train headed for Salinas. Apparently, according to the Gonzales Tribune, Mr. Iverson was expecting the whole family. Not just Hoga. When Hoga arrived, he told Mr. Iverson that Louisa was sick and she wouldn't even move her eyes. That greatly concerned Mr. Iverson, and he sent a message to a doctor over in Pacific Grove. Dr. E. M. Ritchie received the message. At 7 o'clock that evening, Dr. Ritchie arrived at the cottage. Mrs. Iverson had seen him approaching the house, so she stepped outside to meet him. He told her why he was there, you know, repeating that Louisa was sick. And she assured him there was a mistake. You know, there's no illness in the home at all. You're free to go. And so Dr. Ritchie left. It was 10 o'clock that evening when Mr. Iverson got word back from Dr. Ritchie. He told Lewis that he'd spoken with Catherine and she said everything was fine. Something felt wrong to Louis, though, so he asked Dr. Ritchie if he would go back to the house and make sure to actually lay eyes on the kids. Dr. Ritchie said he didn't. He thought that was really his duty. And so he wasn't going to do that. So Louis Iverson, he got everything prepared, got everything in order, probably called his uncles and said, 'I'm not coming in tomorrow.' And he hopped in a buggy and he drove from Salinas to Pacific Grove. So this was a distance of 20. 4 miles and it took him three hours by horse and buggy. He arrived in Pacific Grove at four o'clock AM on Monday, October 26th, 1903. Louis first knocked on the front door, and then he heard his wife tell him to go around to the back. He did, and he entered the house, and when he was about to kiss his wife hello, she said, 'Don't touch me. Don't put your hands on me. Go and look at your children.' Then she opened the door of an adjoining room that had two beds. On one bed was the body of six-year-old Harold. On the other were the bodies of 11-year-old Louisa and seven-month-old Marie. Lewis was absolutely shocked at the sight of his three beloved children. Of course, he turned to his wife and asked her what happened, and she told him the following. I was called by supernatural forces to give my children to another world. I obeyed because it was beyond my power to resist. She calmly and matter-of-factly told him that, when Louisa had come inside that day, Catherine wrapped her arms around her throat and squeezed. Louis asked, 'Didn't Louisa struggle?' And she said, 'Yes, she tried to get up, but I held her down hard.' Some newspaper articles say that she also attacked 10-year-old Hoga. Perhaps right before he left for the train. Maybe she tried to choke him and he got away. The papers say, you know, even though he had been attacked by her, he didn't tell his dad. Not sure how true that is, because I think, you know, if my mom had been coming for my throat, I'd probably tell my dad. I don't know. So maybe she did. Maybe she didn't. Back to the story. So later, after she'd already strangled Louisa, six-year-old Harold had come inside. Catherine strangled him as well, and then she went outside and got an axe. She came back in and delivered a hard blow to little Harold's head. It was later in the evening that she strangled seven-month-old Marie. When Dr. Ritchie had arrived to check on Louisa, All three of the children were already dead inside the house. Louis Iverson summoned the law enforcement officers in the little town. When City Marshal Rich and and Constable Lee arrived on the scene, Mrs. Iverson became very agitated, and she refused to let them move the bodies. She insisted that the children were not actually dead. Around noon, Sheriff Nesbitt and Coroner Muller arrived from Salinas. They told Catherine that they just needed to take the children to the hospital. They had them treated with an electric treatment. And that's when Catherine became less upset, and she did allow them to take the bodies. The children's bodies were then taken to Salinas, and Catherine herself was taken back to her home in Salinas, where she would stay in the charge of both her husband and the sheriff. When Catherine's father, Peter Jorgensen, was informed of what had happened, he actually fell out of his chair and was unconscious. He was in a coma. For at least two days. He was 70 years old and they didn't know if he was going to recover. But I saw a later article that said he was recovering and, you know, he should be fine. On Tuesday morning, Dr. John Parker and Dr. Elizabeth Cassell went to the family home where they conducted a lunacy hearing. Now back in those days, and you probably know this from hearing other episodes, they usually would arrest someone on a charge of insanity and then take them to the courtroom and they would have a lunacy hearing there with a judge in the room. But this time they didn't do that with her. I have a feeling that they knew she was very insane, like it was obvious. And so they knew she would be found insane. And this was, you know, just a regulation, just, you know, dotting their I's and crossing their T's. So they just went to her house and did it real quick. So they pronounced her insane, and Judge Sargent ordered her committed to the state hospital at Agnews, where they took her that very day. It was also that day, Tuesday, October 27th, that a funeral was held for all three of the little Iverson children. There were two hearses that left H. V. Muller's Undertaking Parlors that afternoon, and they slowly made their way down Main Street, turning up Gabalin Street, and then down Church Street to the Danish Lutheran Church. The church was stuffed to the walls with people, and there were about a hundred more people standing outside that couldn't fit inside. Following behind the hearses came the school children from Miss Potter's classroom. The children marched in double file and they were all crying, knowing that this funeral was the last time they'd ever see Louisa's face. Louisa and baby Marie were buried in a casket together. So the three Iverson children are side by side in two plots in the Oddfellows Cemetery in Salinas, California. Now, there was an article that said that Katherine Iverson had been sick, like mentally, they said, deranged, since the baby had been born. And so I feel like this was probably... a case of postpartum depression with psychosis. So very unfortunate, very sad. I know that Louis Iverson went on to get remarried several years later in 1917. So this tragedy happened in 1903, and it was quite a while before he got married again. And I know that Hoga went on to get married himself in 1913. So when he was about 20... and had three children, at least those are listed on Find a Grave. So anyway, that is my fun-sized felony. For this week. Be sure to check out our social media. Our group is called Forgotten Felonies on Facebook. That's where I post pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't find any pictures for this story. Not any of the kids or anything. When I'm done recording, I will certainly... look more and see if I can find pictures at all. And then I will post them if I can. Next time we will have the second episode of our Edmund Crefield series that we're doing. So be sure to tune back in for that one. This has been a fun-sized felony.