Saginaw Police Department, Michigan
End of Watch: Wednesday, July 16, 1924
Age: 33
Tour of Duty: 3 years
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: July 16, 1924
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: Not available
At 3:40am, in July 16, 1924, a beat patrolman on Gratiot Street. heard the sound of gunshots in the vicinity of Genessee and Bullock Streets. About the same time, a man coming out of 308 Greenwich St. noticed a man running down the sidewalk. He also noticed this man was not wearing a hat.
Other officers searching the area found Patrolman John Schmiegel lying on the ground at the rear of Johnson's Store on Bullock Street. Patrolman Schmiegel had been shot several times and was deceased. His service revolver was missing. A man's straw hat was found at the scene. It was assumed that Patrolman Schmiegel was checking the rear of the store and came upon a burglar who overpowered the officer killing him with the officer's own weapon.
Several promising leads were followed including that of a man who left town for Canada the morning after the murder. He was never found by Canadian authorities. In 1931, the four bullets that were removed from Patrolman Schmiegel's body were sent to the Detroit Police Crime Lab for analysis. The lab concluded that the bullets were fired from a .38 Iver Johnson revolver, not the officer's weapon. In 1939, police received a letter from a man who had been charged with selling bootlegged liquor to a couple state police informants. During a quarrel, this man heard one of the informants say he had Patrolman Schmiegel's weapon. The letter writer claimed to have seen the weapon when it was taken from its hiding place. Both informants were interviewed by police, but the gun was never found.
The investigation into the death of Patrolman Schmiegel went on for sixteen years before it was termed inactive.
Patrolman Schmiegel had been employed with the Saginaw Police Department for three years.