In the quiet hours of a Saturday night in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 25, 1911, the life of Deputy Sheriff Clarence Woolman, a 33-year-old Caucasian male, was tragically cut short. He was not a resident of the city, but rather a lawman from Pottawattamie County, merely passing through on official business. His duty on this fateful trip was to transport a prisoner to the State Hospital for Inebriates in Knoxville.
The two had stopped for the night, taking a room at the Kirkwood Hotel at 400 Walnut Street.
As Deputy Woolman slept, the man in his charge, a former police surgeon for the Council Bluffs Police Department, saw his opportunity. In a brazen act, the prisoner removed the deputy's own gun from his pocket. Without a sound to wake the sleeping officer, the prisoner fired three shots, ending the life of the seven-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office. The sudden violence shattered the peace of the hotel, but the perpetrator was not finished with his deadly work that night.
Leaving the scene of the first crime, the former surgeon walked to a saloon located at 3rd and Court Avenue. There, in another senseless act, he shot and killed the bartender. The city was now faced with a double homicide, and the search for the killer began. The suspect was eventually apprehended and brought to trial for his crimes. However, the legal proceedings took a turn that many may not have expected.
The prisoner was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity. Instead of a prison sentence, he was committed to a mental hospital. In a final twist to this tragic story, on January 9th, 1915, the man who had taken two lives in a single night was declared sane and released from the institution, a free man once more. Deputy Woolman was survived by his wife and five children.
