Accounts in the book From Buncombe to Twenty-Two 1853-1922 by Paul C. Smith and Lucy Jo
Colby c.
Lyon County Reporter 1975
In July 1900
Adolph Schroeder was found hanging by the neck in his hog house between Rock Rapids and
Doon. This was the start of a sensational murder case which was to run for several years before it was cleared up. The coroner's jury first said that he had come to his death by suicide. Schroeder's brothers were not satisfied and they brought charges against the hired man, Charles
Rocker. The two men had been drinking in
Doon the evening before the body was found. It was established that
Rocker had tried to buy some drugged whiskey in a couple of
Doon saloons, and someone - possibly
Rocker - had bought chloroform from the
Doon drug store. The case against
Rocker was dropped after a preliminary hearing in the court of
Justice of the
Peace Chan Smith.
1903 - The year ended as it had began, with criminal news. Charles
Rocker, who had been mixed up with the death of August
Schroeder three years before, was arrested. He had later married Schroeder's widow and they had moved to near Elkton, S.D. One night he got to talking in his sleep and recounted the events leading up to Schroeder's death and how he had hung
Schroeder in his own hog house. Mrs. Rocker got scared and came to Rock Rapids and told County Attorney
Simon Fisher about what
Rocker had said. Fisher got a warrant, had the man arrested and brought back to Rock Rapids for trial on a murder charge.
In February 1904 the
Rocker case again came to the forefront of the news. Rocker and his wife - the former Mrs. August
Schroeder, had been brought back to Rock Rapids from Elkton, S.D. to face murder charges for killing
Schroeder. After a bitter trial
Rocker was found guilty of murder in the first degree and the jury ordered him to be executed.
In May
Rocker was sentenced to die on June 9, 1905. Appeals were filed for a new trial, and eventually that trial was held at
Sibley. The second trial, at
Sibley did not bring out anything new,
Rocker was sent to Anamosa, but appeals and further court action kept him alive beyond the date set for his execution and he never did pay the supreme penalty - as ordered by the jury of his peers.
1906 - In March, Charles
Rocker, who was charged with the murder of
Adolph Schroeder, was sent back to
Lyon County for a retrial of the case. The execution date had been set, but the supreme court reviewed the case and sent it back for retrial because
Simon Fisher, who was the prosecutor as county attorney, had represented
Rocker earlier when he sued Schroeder's brothers, when they had filed the original murder action against him. The court ordered a change of venue and said it was to be tried in
Osceola county.
In April
Rocker was reindicted and the case went to trial. The case was tried in September, with just about the same evidence as that submitted originally,
Rocker was again found guilty, but attorney's demanded a new trial charging that undue weight had been placed on evidence which was not true. Judge
Hutchinson presiding at the case, agreed with the defence and another new trial was ordered. Rocker remained in custody in the
Sibley jail.
Early in November of 1907 E.C. Roach, who had defended Charles
Rocker in his third trial for murder at
Sibley, filed an appeal in the supreme court, asking that the verdict be thrown out. He claimed the evidence did not sustain the verdict. For example, he said the charge was murder by hanging, while the evidence showed that
Schroeder had died of chloroform.
1908 - The
Rocker case which had been in the courts for years, came to an end the first week in January, when the surpreme court affirmed the decision reached in the third trial of the case, and
Rocker was to serve a life sentence at Anamosa. The case grew out of the murder of August
Schroeder in 1900. Rocker was finally brought to trial for the crime, was found guilty in district court three times. The first time he was sentenced to death, but the sentence could not be carried out because of an appeal to the surpreme court. The supreme court ordered a new trial, and the results of that trial were thrown out for technical reasons. The third trial, held at
Sibley under a change of venue went against
Rocker, but the jury recommended life imprisonment, which the judge agreed to. The decision was appealed but it was finally upheld.
Post War Years - February 6 (1919 ?) word was received that Charles
Rocker had escaped from the penitentiary at
Fort Madison. Rocker had been convicted after several trials and appeals, of the murder of August
Schroeder, prominent
Lyon County farmer, on June 30, 1900. Efforts had been underway to get him pardoned.