Charles Brown and Charles Kelley

In 1965, the Iowa General Assembly passed a law that abolished the death penalty as a possible punishment; it was signed into law by Governor Harold Hughes. Although there have been a number of attempts to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa, none have been successful. Since Kelley’s executions, prisoners of the United States federal government have been executed in Iowa but no one has been executed under Iowa law.

Another man, Victor Feguer, was executed in 1963, but he was hanged for a federal conviction.

After their appeals failed and governor Norman A. Erbe declined to intervene, Brown and Kelley were both executed at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. Brown was hanged on July 24, 1962, becoming the first man executed in Iowa since 1952. As he walked to the gallows, he said he hoped that "the people will forgive me for what I've done." Brown's last words immediately before dropping through the trapdoor were "God forgive me." He was pronounced dead at 5:05 a.m. CST. Kelley was hanged on September 6, 1962. His last words were "I'm sorry what I did." Kelley was pronounced dead at 5:46 a.m. CST. His last request was for the prison chaplain, Lester Peter, to read the 23rd Psalm. At 21, Kelley became both the second youngest and last person to be executed in Iowa. Among the witnesses to his executions was Vencel, who still had a bullet lodged near his spine. "I'm pretty happy to be here today," he said. "He's got it coming to him. At least they got a trial. The other fellows shot by Kelley and Brown didn't get one."

On February 18, 1961, Brown and Kelley robbed a gas station in Minnesota. They shot the attendant, 17-year-old James Peterson, three times. Two of the shots hit Peterson in the head, and the third likely would've hit him in the heart, but was deflected by a button on his work uniform. Peterson went into a coma, emerged from it a few days later long enough to talk to police, and then went into unconsciousness once more. He would remain in critical condition for more than a month, but survived. Peterson died from complications from his injuries in 2007.

Johnson announced that he would need two weeks to reach his decision, which was considered an usually long amount of time. On June 7, 1961, Johnson sentenced Kelley to death.

In 1956, Kelley was diagnosed with epilepsy after becoming dizzy and falling down. During his murder trial, he testified that he stopped taking medication after about a year. When he was 17, Kelley volunteered for the Marines with his father's permission, but was discharged 17 days later after suffering from a gran mal seizure.

Charles Noel Brown (June 21, 1933 – July 24, 1962) and Charles Edwin Kelley (February 17, 1941 – September 6, 1962) were American spree killers who killed three people and wounded three others in a five-day, three-state rampage in February 1961. The duo, who said they shot the victims to avoid leaving witnesses, were labeled the "Mad Dog Killers". Sentenced to death for a murder committed in Iowa, Brown and Kelley became the second-to-last and last people executed in the state, respectively. Iowa abolished capital punishment in 1965.