John Schnellbacker (Schnellbächer)
55 YOA
E. Third and E. Walnut streets
Des Moines, IA
Polk County
March 10, 1913
Late in the day of Monday, March 10, 1913, John Schnellbacker (Schnellbächer) was found unconscious on the sidewalk at the corner of East Third and Walnut streets in Des Moines.
Courtesy photo Goggle Street ViewBelieving he was intoxicated, the police took the 55-year-old man to the police station on a charge of drunkenness. He was identified by papers in his pockets.
When authorities saw that Schnellbacker was in critical condition, Police Surgeons Percy B. Glew and Charles Bartruff worked all night to save his life. He was taken to Mercy Hospital, where he died the next day.
Newspaper reports described the severity of the victim’s injuries very differently.
The Des Moines Daily News reported that Schnellbacker had “a slight bruise on the head [that] indicated he might have fallen on the sidewalk” and that Police Surgeons did “not think the injury enough to have resulted in death.”
However, the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette said Schnellbacker was “suffering from terrible bruises inflicted on [the] head and face,” as well as “cuts about his neck [that] showed that the assailant or assailants had wielded a knife.”
Dr. Daniel J. Glomset of Drake University performed a post-mortem examination and discovered an internal skull fracture. He also found that Schnellbacker was in poor general health.
Little was known about Schnellbacker, except that he was from Marshalltown and had been staying at the East Des Moines Hotel run by 45-year-old Mrs. Alice M. Coggswell. She paid him to carry ashes out of the cellar.
Alice Coggswell said that Henry Franzen from Hanley, Iowa, was also staying in her hotel and that he and Schnellbacker had quarreled.
According to the Des Moines Daily News, on the afternoon of the murder Franzen came up from the cellar and told Alice Coggswell that “he had taken a wallop at ‘Old John.’”
When Alice Coggswell later saw Schnellbacker, she asked if he was hurt and he said he was not; but he acted as if he were intoxicated.
Six hours later, Schnellbacker was found unconscious on the sidewalk and died the next day.
Early in the investigation, Des Moines Police seemed certain an arrest was imminent, but none was ever made.
John Schnellbacker was born in 1858 in Lindenfels, Germany, to Mary and H. Schnellbacker. He and his parents immigrated to the United States in 1879.
For a time, John Schnellbacker farmed in Elk Creek Township of Jasper County. He never married. Polk County Coroner Lee sent word of his death to the surviving family in Marshalltown.
Questions and information about the unsolved 1913 homicide of John Schnellbacker should be directed to the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4864 or to Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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