Mark Murders

On October 31, 1975, the Leslie Mark family was murdered in cold blood. Leslie, Jorjean and their two children were found dead in their home, all with gun shot wounds to the head and heart. One week after the murder, Leslie’s brother Jerry and his girlfriend were arrested for the quadruple homicide and held on a 200,000 bond.

This case shocked the Cedar Falls community. No one thought that the Jerry Mark they knew was capable of such a monstrous act. The person they knew was something quite different then the charges presented. Mark was a popular guy in his hometown of Cedar Falls, Iowa. His family was well known, his personality was engaging, and he was a very smart person. Jerry was the second oldest in a family of four boys whose family trade was farming making them quite wealthy.

This past week in class we were able to sit down with prosecutor Dave Dutton and author Scott Cawelti to further examine this mind baffling murder that took place in a town that was seemingly safe. The two, having extensive knowledge on the case, were a tag team of filled with facts that supported the some-what controversial case. Mark was convicted of the murders solely off of circumstantial evidence, which is hard to do. Although, the evidence that was pointing Jerry to the crime was extremely convincing and there was just too many ironic occurrences for it not to be fact.