This man currently resides on Iowa`s Death Row for the savage murder of two men, a woman and her two small children. What was the root cause of this problem? Yes, you guessed it; drugs. Not being drugged up but the manufacture and selling of it. Honken was convicted, alongside his girlfriend, Angela Johnson, and both were given the ultimate penalty. Naturally, Honken was snarling at the Judge, that he was innocent, never harmed anybody, he (the judge) had a death penalty agenda, Prosecutors were clowns, etc, etc. A jailhouse informant conned Johnson into providing maps as to where the bodies were, and these led Police straight to the graves. You cannot get more convincing proof than that.
Honken was a manufacturer and distributor of Methamphetamine, originally from his home town of Tempe in Arizona, but now operating around Mason City in Iowa. Honken was arrested in March 1993, along with partner, Tim Cutkomp, for distributing Meth, and was facing federal charges. He had two pushers working for him who now were Government informants - Greg Nicholson & Terry Degeus. Nicholson testified against Honken before a Grand Jury. Honken`s girlfriend, Angela Johnson applied for a gun permit in July 1993, which she was granted, and then purchased a firearm.
Greg Nicholson, his girlfriend Lori Duncan,31, her two daughters, Amber, 10 and Kandace, 6, were reported missing on July 26th. The other witness, Terry Degeus, vanished on 5th November 1993. When the trial of Honken came around, as the witnesses could not be located, the case was dismissed in March 1995.
Just under a year later, Federal, State & local cops, executed a warrant on Honken`s home in Mason City, and discovered a Meth lab. Faced with conspiracy to manufacture & distribute, Honken`s partner, Tim Cutkomp, made a deal with prosecutors. In return for a four & half year sentence, he told all about the drug operation and implicated Honken & Johnson in the five disappearances. In February 1998, Honken received 27 years jail. Whilst Johnson was in jail, she confided to another inmate, Robert McNeese, about the murders. He offered to do what he could for her but he deceived her, using the information to his own advantage. It was now October 2000. Johnson had drawn two maps where she said the bodies had been buried. McNeese handed them to authorities, and they located the graves. Nicholson, Duncan & the two children were found in a wooded area of Cerro Gordo County Road, west of Mason City. The body of Degeus was located one mile west of Burchinal, in a farmfield. All the victims had been shot.
In July & August of 2001, indictments for first degree murder were passed on Honken & Johnson, with the prosecutors pressing for the Death Penalty. Two jail witnesses went against them. One was a man with a long criminal record called Ron McIntosh, the other was notorious lawyer, Fred Tokars. According to Tokars, Honken could not stop bragging, wanting to look like a big shot, and told him how they killed the five. The fact that two were children obviously did not perturb Honken, and despite the sort of men testifying for the prosecution, they did have enough evidence to convict the two. Namely, the two maps Johnson drew, which led Police right to the graves. Any sympathy for them? None at all.
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