Political MercuryBook uncovers Des Moines’ darkest secretsIn an inviting and richly reported new book populated with larger-than-life figures cut from the fabric of everyday life in early 1900s central Iowa, the city of Des Moines emerges as the most riveting character. Venereal disease, chiefly syphilis, described at the time as a “scarlet monster” ran so rampant in the state’s capital city that The Des Moines Register in 1908 reported that 80% of the deaths of women in Des Moines were caused by “social” diseases, and that 75% of the men in the city had been affected by STDs. Rose Donovan grew up in Des Moines with but whispers, little confirmed knowledge, about her family, and this most infamous of great grandfathers. Soon, the research and writing of this book rivered into a project revealing a dark underbelly of Des Moines, and Iowa itself, that had been lost to history. That history, lost for more than a century, is alive again in our conversations because of the Donovans’ book.