Chief of Police John Albert Struble

John Albert Struble

Chief John Struble was shot and killed by a thief whom he and an officer were attempting to arrest.

Chief Struble and an officer were watching a home, where for the past three nights, a refrigerator on an enclosed porch had been broken into and articles taken. When the suspect entered the porch about midnight, Chief Struble and the officer confronted him. As the officers struggled with the suspect he produced a pistol, shot Chief Struble through the head and fled into the darkness as the officer fired at him several times.

On November 12, 1913, a man arrested in Des Moines, Iowa, for breaking into a boxcar was charged with Chief Struble's murder after he told police that he killed the chief and showed them a scar on his hand that he said came from a bullet fired by the officer. Later he recanted what he said. The suspect was acquitted after a farmer testified that the suspect was with him in Sciota, Illinois on the night of the murder. No other suspects were ever identified.

Chief Struble had served with the Clinton Police Department for 15 months.