John Albert Rose
John Albert Rose
35 YOA
Vinton, IA
Benton County
Case Number: 78-02418
April 21, 1978
In 1978, Iowa native John Albert Rose was living in Chicago, Illinois. For unknown reasons, he traveled to Des Moines on Thursday, April 20, 1978.
A day later and four days after his 35th birthday, his body was found in east-central Iowa, four miles north of Vinton and three miles west of Urbana in Benton County. The closest large city is Cedar Rapids, 25 miles to the south.
Rose was shot in the head.
Before his death, John Rose — a self-professed racist — was attempting to organize a group of men, including African-Americans, who were incarcerated with him in the 1960s. He wanted to form a gang to terrorize and rob drug dealers and other criminals.
However, his white supremacist views and his psychopathic behavior did not go down well with these men.
John Albert Rose was born April 17, 1943 to Elsa Saling and Noel Albert Rose. A brother, Roy, was born in 1954.
Noel Rose was a tree surgeon and a Louisiana naval base forester during WWII. After the war, he performed tree work, as well as plumbing.
The family rented Linden Park, a large historic home on the western edge of the town of West Union, where Elsa Rose was Superintendent of Palmer Memorial Hospital.
John Albert Rose
The family was written about — and John photographed — in a 1957 Cedar Rapids newspaper story about an American Chestnut tree in their front yard, one of only six still existing in Iowa at that time.
At 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday May 24, 1960, a violent act occurred behind the family’s residence.
John told authorities that he was weeding strawberries when his father came outside and told him it was too nice to work.
His dad had a rifle, John said, and began shooting at birds — sparrows or starlings or pigeons, the type kept changing.
When he missed, he gave John the .22 caliber rifle and said to try. Just as John fired, his dad stepped in front of him and was struck.
Courtesy photo Cedar Rapids GazetteThe bullet entered the middle of Noel Rose’s forehead at the hairline and he died four hours later at the West Union hospital where John’s mother was Superintendent.
Although only 17, John was 6-foot-three and weighed 200 pounds. He had served time in the Eldora Boys Training School for shoplifting in Linn County and was on parole.
He refused to take a lie detector test and claimed the shooting was accidental.
John Rose was brought to trial for 2nd Degree Murder in December 1960 after being examined at the Psychopathic Hospital in Iowa City and found competent.
His mother and grandmother stood by him.
Prosecutors learned that John and his father Noel did not get along.
A former classmate testified that John said he had to kill his dad before his 18th birthday so the state would sentence him as a juvenile instead of an adult.
Another acquaintance recounted that John wanted to get back at his dad for burning John’s Nazi flag.
A book titled What You Should Know About Communism was found in John’s room with underlined passages that stated some types of people are expendable.
Fingerprints, shards of glass, and other evidence convinced the jury that John broke out a store room window and shot his father from inside.
Courtesy photo Oelwein Daily CourierHe was found guilty and sent to the Anamosa Men’s Reformatory, where he spent time in the mental health unit.
At the time of his own death, John Albert Rose was survived by his mother and his brother Roy.
His murder remains unsolved. Ironically, there are fewer details known about who took John’s life than about the circumstances of the life he took.
Questions and information about the unsolved 1978 murder of John Albert Rose, should be directed to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office at 319-472-2337 or Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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