NEED TO KNOW

• James Scott has served over 30 years in prison for allegedly sabotaging a Mississippi River levee during the Great Flood of 1993
• University soil scientists testified the levee was destined to fail naturally — it was one of more than 1,000 that broke during the flood
• The landowner who testified against Scott collected an insurance payout that depended on the breach being classified as vandalism, not a natural disaster

WEST QUINCY, MO (TDR) — On the evening of July 16, 1993, the West Quincy levee along the Mississippi River gave way. Water poured through and swallowed roughly 14,000 acres of Missouri farmland, destroyed more than 100 buildings, triggered a gas station explosion, and severed the only bridge crossings for 200 miles. It was one breach among more than 1,000 that summer during what the U.S. Geological Survey would call the most costly and devastating flood in modern American history.

But authorities didn’t blame the weather for this one. They blamed James Scott, a 23-year-old Burger King employee from Quincy, Illinois, with a criminal record that included arson. Prosecutors argued Scott deliberately damaged the levee so floodwaters would strand his wife on the Missouri side of the river, freeing him to drink and party without interruption.

Freedom-Loving Beachwear by Red Beach Nation - Save 10% With Code RVM10

Scott was convicted under an obscure 1979 Missouri statute making it a crime to intentionally cause a catastrophe. He remains the only person in state history convicted under that law. He has been behind bars for more than three decades, with a parole hearing scheduled for July 2026.

The question that has followed the case ever since: Did one man with a handful of sandbags cause a catastrophe, or did a community searching for someone to blame find the easiest target?

The Flood That Broke Everything

The Great Flood of 1993 was not a single event — it was a months-long disaster that stretched from April to October across nine states. Abnormally wet conditions dating back to fall 1992 had saturated soils across the Upper Midwest. By summer, the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers had swollen to levels not seen in modern record-keeping.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE THE DUPREE REPORT

The numbers were staggering. The National Weather Service reported that 78% of non-federal levees failed or were overtopped. Fifty people died. Approximately 54,000 were evacuated. More than 50,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. The USGS estimated losses between $15 billion and $20 billion. At least 75 towns were completely submerged.

The West Quincy levee had been patrolled and reinforced by volunteers, National Guard units, and Army Corps of Engineers personnel throughout mid-July. An inspection at 6:00 p.m. on July 16 — roughly two hours before the breach — found no problems. The river had crested a foot or two below the levee top earlier that day.

By 8:20 p.m., a small stream of water appeared through the levee. Within minutes, the breach widened so dramatically that a large barge from the Mississippi was sucked through the opening and slammed into a nearby gas station, igniting an explosion. The Bayview Bridge was knocked out of service for 71 days.

How Suspicion Fell On Scott

Scott had been among the volunteers sandbagging the levee. When WGEM-TV reporter Michele McCormack arrived at the Bayview Bridge to cover the breach, Department of Transport workers pointed to a man standing nearby who had been first on the scene. That man was Scott, and he volunteered for a live interview, telling the camera he had spotted a weak spot and tried to reinforce it with sandbags.

Law enforcement officers who watched the broadcast grew suspicious. Scott’s clothing appeared too clean for the labor he described, and he was not wearing the required life vest other volunteers had on. More critically, they knew his record — including two arson convictions, one for burning down his elementary school in 1982 and another for setting multiple fires in 1988.

When questioned a week later, Scott couldn’t keep his story consistent. During a third interview, he admitted to removing four or five sandbags from one part of the levee, claiming he moved them to shore up the weak spot he’d seen.

“My town was in trouble. The folks in Quincy and in West Quincy were about to lose everything. That’s why I went down to that levee. I had no plans to hurt anything. They needed help, so I helped.” — James Scott

But in the same interview, he acknowledged the trouble he was in.

“I didn’t mean to cause a problem but I did … I’m up shit creek.” — James Scott

The investigation turned on a statement from Joe Flachs, an old friend of Scott’s, who told authorities that Scott had told him before the flood he planned to break the levee to strand his wife Suzie, who worked as a waitress at a truck stop across the river in Taylor, Missouri. Other witnesses subsequently came forward saying Scott bragged about breaking the levee at a post-flood party.

The Science That Challenged The Conviction

The prosecution’s theory was that Scott either removed or cut the plastic sheets covering the levee, then burrowed through the sand until water forced its way in. But the case against him was entirely circumstantial — no physical evidence ever placed him at the point of failure.

The defense called two soil-science experts from the University of Missouri system. Professor David Hammer testified there had been 11 or 12 levee failures upriver from West Quincy, and that the breach fit the pattern of a system under catastrophic stress.

“It was number 12 out of 13 in a crest after 90 days of submergence. There were six conditions that were scientifically proven to exacerbate or improve the chance of levee failure. All were present at this particular place.” — David Hammer, University of Missouri

Charles Morris of the University of Missouri-Rolla testified that a last-minute decision to bring in bulldozers to shore up the levee actually weakened its structural integrity. Both experts said the levee was destined to fail regardless of human intervention.

Hammer later described his frustration with the trial process. When he tried to cite a peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Science, the prosecution objected.

“The prosecuting attorney asked, ‘Were you part of the research team?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘It’s inadmissible, your honor. It’s hearsay.’ Well, what kind of a deal is that? If you can’t even cite peer-reviewed scientific literature in a trial like this?” — David Hammer

The jury deliberated four hours before convicting Scott. He was sentenced to life in prison, to run consecutively with a 10-year burglary sentence from Illinois.

The Conviction That Wouldn’t Stay Put

Scott appealed, and in 1997 the Missouri Court of Appeals threw out his conviction — prosecutors had failed to disclose two witnesses who reportedly heard Scott say he had deliberately broken the levee. The ruling cited prosecutorial misconduct.

He was retried in 1998 and convicted again after three hours of deliberation. The life sentence was reinstated.

The Insurance Question

A detail that has drawn increasing scrutiny involves Norman Haerr, then president of the Fabius River Drainage District and the largest landowner directly affected by the flooding. Haerr testified against Scott at trial.

A 2022 Vice News documentary revealed that Haerr did not carry flood insurance at the time. However, because Scott’s conviction classified the breach as vandalism rather than a natural disaster, Haerr was able to collect on his homeowner’s insurance. Had the levee failure been ruled an act of God, as the defense argued, no payout would have been available.

Haerr did not disclose his financial interest in the outcome during the trial.

Scapegoat Or Saboteur?

Prosecutor Thomas Redington maintains the conviction was sound.

“He was convicted by two different juries from two different parts of the state in front of two different judges. The Court of Appeals reviewed his case twice and found that he received a fair trial.” — Thomas Redington, prosecutor

Journalist Adam Pitluk, who wrote the 2007 book “Damned to Eternity” and produced a documentary for the Vice Network examining the case, argues the conviction rests on shaky ground.

“There were no actual witnesses to the crime. The conviction rested largely on alleged admissions by unreliable sources.” — Adam Pitluk, journalist and author

Pitluk has also raised jurisdictional questions. Neal Baker, the police officer who arrested Scott, was a Quincy, Illinois, officer — with no jurisdiction over a Missouri crime.

Scott, now 56, has spent more time in prison than he spent free. From the Jefferson City Correctional Center, he has maintained his innocence for three decades.

“I can’t sit here and prove to you that I did not break the West Quincy Levee. Yet, they never proved at my trial that I did. Because I did not break the West Quincy Levee.” — James Scott

Hammer, the University of Missouri professor who testified at trial, has indicated he plans to pursue a pardon for Scott when he becomes eligible.

With Scott’s parole hearing approaching in 2026, the central tension in this case remains unresolved: If more than 1,000 levees failed during the Great Flood of 1993 under documented conditions that made structural collapse inevitable, what standard of evidence should be required to hold one person responsible for one of them — and does a life sentence match the certainty of that evidence?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from ABC17 News, the Columbia Missourian, KPVI News, Muddy River News, official records from FindLaw, data from the U.S. Geological Survey and National Weather Service, reporting by HistoricFlix, and the WUNC Criminal podcast.

Freedom-Loving Beachwear by Red Beach Nation - Save 10% With Code RVM10