A murder trial in western Iowa is set to begin today. The case combines a casino, a camper, a carnival sideshow, a love triangle and two murders, one committed in front of a crowd not far from the nation’s Strategic Air Command. The Pottawattamie County trial of 49-year-old Michael Gunther begins today (Tuesday) in Council Bluffs. He’s already been convicted in Nebraska of shooting a sideshow worker in front of a crowd at a carnival in Bellevue Nebraska in May 2004, not far from Offut Air Force Base. Gunther admitted in court he killed the man, saying it was because he’d had a relationship with carnival owner Sally Kennedy. Prosecutors say shortly before that the same evening, Gunther had killed Kennedy, fatally stabbing her in the R-V she lived in, which was parked at the time at Bluffs Run Casino in Council Bluffs.
