Spine-Chilling Murders in the Quad-Cities: Spine-Chilling Murders, #2

By Nick Vulich

Spine-Chilling Murders in the Quad-Cities is a collection of true-life stories - most of them rescued from old newspaper accounts published over 100 years ago. Only a few of the events in this book have ever made it into print, except maybe in musky-old county histories. Even then, they are lucky to rate a paragraph.

Cities covered include Davenport, Bettendorf, Muscatine, and Clinton, Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline, and Silvis, Illinois.

Stories include:

 

The murder of Herman Peetz by his former friend, Walter J. Hill, in Rockingham, West Davenport, Iowa.

 

When Anna Kilduff shot and killed her husband John at the Bar Fish and Oyster Market on Brady Street in Davenport.

 

The Black Hand killing of Beni Scatura on West Third Street in Davenport by Joe Campanelli.

 

The story of how Irene Dolph shot and killed her husband, Fritz, in Lyons, now Clinton, Iowa.

 

A pair of shootings in the Silvis Railroad Yards in the early 1900s. Dan Chasteen killed Special Officer Hugo Alvine, and Alfonanso Petrone fell victim to the Black Hand.

 

Ethel Collicott was murdered at the River-to-River Garage on Davenport's Main Street during an attempted robbery. His killer Norman O. Luce was captured nine years later in Plattsburgh, New York.

 

Lulu Bennett whacked her neighbor Mary Mason over the head and killed her over a racial slur.

 

Manuel Rocha killed his friend Harry Carey with an ax on Brown Street in Davenport.

 

Rudolph Brandenburg's stepfather Claus Muenter was a mean drunk who constantly abused Brandenburg's mother. One day Brandenburg snapped, and unloaded seven rounds from his Colt Automatic into Muenter, then turned the gun around and beat his head with the butt of his revolver.

 

Maria Mota and her lover, Antonio Silva, murdered her common-law husband, Pedro Medjia in the boxcar settlement outside of Walcott, Iowa, so they could run away and get married.<

 

Fred Smith shot and almost killed Davenport Policeman Henry Janssen on a routine burglary call. After he was caught, Smith said he didn't want to be taken in with a gun in his pocket.

 

Maurice Meyer killed Rose Gendler and tossed her warm body over the Rock River bridge in Moline, Illinois three days before Christmas in 1932. He said she took a fall on the ice and he disposed of the body rather than face questioning. The coroner said she didn't die until her body hit the ice below the bridge.

 

Read them now, if you dare!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Vulich
• Release date: Jan 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393485216

Book preview

Spine-Chilling Murders

in the Quad-Cities

Copyright © 2020 / 2023 Nick Vulich

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Table of Contents

When Would You Kill?

A Case of Self-Defense

I Had to Do It

Black Hand Atrocities in the Quad-Cities

A Killing in Lyons, Iowa

Mexican Boxcar Settlement Murder at Walcott, Iowa

Murder in the Rock Island Railway Yards at Silvis, Illinois

Death at the River-to-River Car Dealership in Davenport

She Called Me A Black Bitch, So I Killed Her

I Told You It Was My Husband

Sooner or Later, They Catch Them

Davenport Policeman Henry Janssen Shot on Duty

Is Thirteen an Unlucky Number

Friday the 13th Cop Killing in Davenport

Sack Murder Victim – Rose Gendler

Bloody Rock Island

Tattooed Woman Found Dead on Credit Island

Research Methodology

About the Author

Footnotes

When Would You Kill?

Walter J. Hill cursed the day he rented his house to Herman Peetz. The two men had been best friends at one time, but those days were long gone. Peetz did not appreciate anything Hill had done for him.

A year ago, Hill rented his house to Peetz for next to nothing, and how did he repay him? With a bill for some petty work that he had done in the backyard.

No. It wasn’t right. He would show Peetz.

Hill bought a .38 caliber revolver and 50 rounds of ammunition, then told his neighbor, H. E. Ashcraft, that he would get Peetz. 

Less than a week later, Hill shot Herman Peetz dead in his backyard at 423 Pearl Street in Rockingham (now the west end of Davenport).

In retrospect, the reasons for the shooting seem petty or inconsequential. 

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Walter J. Hill received a 25-year sentence for shooting and killing his one-time friend, Herman Peetz, at his Rockingham home. (The Daily Times. November 25, 1918)

Hill leaned a ladder against Peetz’s house and dragged a roll of tar paper up to the roof. Then he went home to get a hammer and nails. He discovered Peetz had taken the ladder down and tossed it in the yard when he came back.

Hill walked back to his house, reached into his pocket, and drew his gun. He rested it on his left arm to steady his aim and squeezed the trigger. Peetz fell to the ground.

Hill went into the house, changed clothes, and walked toward the Rockingham Car Line. Police arrested him a short distance away at the corner of Nevada Avenue and Rockingham Road. He told Officers Martin and Cuervorst that he was headed to the station to turn himself in.

Peetz was taken to Mercy Hospital in Davenport, where he died two hours later. The bullet had entered his left temple and tore through his brain. 

None of it made much sense. The men were long-time friends.

Hill met Peetz in September 1912 when they worked together in the Rock Island Railroad shops. The friendship started to fall apart after Peetz rented a house from Hill. He missed a few payments. After that, they argued over a freshwater pump in the backyard. When Hill didn’t get his way, he told everyone he would get Peetz.

My husband and Hill used to be good friends, Frieda Peetz told reporters. "Before either of them married, they roomed together. 

The trouble started over the moving of a pump. My husband made some improvements about the place and told Hill he owed him $10 for his work. On November 1, Peetz refused to pay his rent because Hill owed him. Hill did not waste any time taking revenge on his old friend. He had the sheriff serve papers on Peetz that required the family to move by November 19.

Frieda told her husband several times that she feared Hill would harm him, but she never thought he would shoot him.[1]

After his arrest, Hill confessed to Police Chief Packey Phelan. 

He leaned a ladder up against Peetz’s house to do some work on the roof. I went back to my porch and got a roll of tar paper...I dropped the paper down a little heavy on the roof, and Mrs. Peetz had a fit. 

I came down off the roof to get my hammer and nails and went over to my house to get them. Peetz came and took my ladder and threw it back towards my house. I said, ‘By God, you put that up, or I will.’ Then Herman Peetz turned a little sideways, to the right, and dropped his right hand to his side.

Hill pulled his gun out of his pocket and fired. The bullet struck Herman Peetz in the head. I think it struck him above the left eye. I saw the blood run from his head while he was lying on the ground. He fell as soon as I shot him. 

Hill said he bought the .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and a case of cartridges at Kunkel’s store in Davenport. He got them for protection because about three or four weeks ago, [Peetz] said that he would knock my brains out.

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Herman Peetz was shot to death at his Rockingham, Iowa home on November 24, 1918, by his landlord, Walter J. Hill. The men were involved in a petty feud over moving a pump and swiping a few tomatoes. (The Daily Times. November 25, 1918)

When he heard the threat, Hill told himself, Two can play that game. I was afraid of Herman Peetz. 

When he shot Peetz, Hill did not know whether he had a gun. He just knew he needed to protect himself.[2]

Mrs. Hill told Coroner Clarence Ebert at the inquest that her husband told her several times that Peetz needed watching.[3]

Except for Tom Hill, the defendant’s brother, all the witnesses testified that Peetz was shot without warning. Tom Hill said, Peetz rushed toward his brother and placed his right hand on his hip as if to draw a gun. That’s when his brother fired.[4]

The Davenport Democrat and Leader said Hill was wanted in Muscatine for bootlegging. He had just returned from Oklahoma and was overheard telling neighbors about the way they kill ‘em off down there.[5] Then, after he bought the gun, Hill bragged to his neighbor H. E. Ashcraft that he would get Peetz.

The papers had a field day explaining that the immediate cause of the shooting was a petty matter which involved a ladder and a roll of tar paper. Of course, there was more to it than that. The shooting grew out of an unfortunate series of events.[6]

Picking the jury was problematic. Some of the jurors proved more difficult than others.

Henry Schroeder threw everyone off when he said that when he read something, he did not always learn something from it. He did not necessarily learn love from reading about it. The same was true with newspaper articles. None of them made a lasting impression on Schroeder.[7] One could only wonder if listening to the witnesses would make an impression on him or if his mind would wander off to another subject?

Another juror, Henry C. Dittman, told attorneys they did not need to worry about him being prejudiced by stories printed in the newspaper. He was not interested in such matters. Thrillers did not interest him.

The main questions the attorneys on both sides asked jurors were: When would you kill the other man? And, At what point would you decide it is kill or be killed?

It was essential because Hill told detectives he feared Peetz and thought he would get him. If that were true, the killing might be self-defense because the law justifies homicide when there is no other way out if a man’s life is in danger.[8]

Eight-year-old Ivan Ashcraft proved to be the most effective witness for the prosecution. He rode into the yard, astride his pony just as the incident unfolded. Ashcraft watched Peetz take down the ladder and carry it over to Hill’s house. Then he saw Hill pull out his revolver. 

He rested the revolver on his left arm to steady it, said the boy, and fired. 

Peetz turned and fell forward. The cigarette he was smoking fell from his lips, and his head landed on it when he hit the ground. Ashcraft said he moved the cigarette to keep Peetz’s head from catching fire, then rode away.[9]

Hill testified that Peetz tried to attack him after returning the ladder, but every eyewitness except his brother swore the shooting was unprovoked. No one saw Peetz try to attack Hill.

Hill then switched tactics.

He said he lived in constant fear of Peetz ever since Peetz told him he killed a man in Germany before coming to the United States. 

The county prosecutor reminded the jury that the murder was deliberately planned and premeditated and was, therefore, a first-degree crime.[10]

On the final day of the trial, Hill changed his plea from not guilty to guilty of murder in the second degree. 

The defense attorney summed up his case and asked for clemency or a light sentence, but County Attorney Henry Jebens would not have it. Instead, he told the jury that there was too much gunplay and too little regard for human life in Scott County. In all my experience, he nearly screamed, I never saw so clear a case of first-degree murder.[11]

Hill is a dangerous character and a menace to society, continued Jebens. Five years ago, he tried to brain his brother-in-law with a hatchet. "This fellow is a bad man and