Teacher believes he's solved century-old homicide

Daniel P. Finney
Anthony Garza has researched the 1917 cold case homicide of police officer George Mattern which happened along Third Street in downtown Des Moines. Garza, shown in 2014, is holding a copy of The Des Moines Register’s story about the shooting.

Anthony Garza is a middle school art teacher by trade, but he could justifiably add amateur historian, detective and author to his resume.

Garza has spent parts of the past two years researching the unsolved killing of Des Moines Police Officer George W. Mattern, who died in May 1918.

I wrote about Garza a year ago when his quest seemed stalled. At nearly 100 years old, the case was already iceberg cold. Records were hard to find. Clues were scarce.

But Garza continued to dig. And now the south Des Moines resident who teaches in Carlisle believes he's solved the case, or at least reached the most logical conclusion possible given the time and absence of harder evidence.

He's shared his findings in a series of well-written posts on the Des Moines Police Department's Facebook page. Garza tells the story gracefully in six chapters, the most recent posted in early June with a wrap up planned later this month.

His dramatic revelation of who he believes shot and killed Mattern was unfortunately hijacked by the hateful comments of people who were ranting about the officer-involved shooting at Merle Hay Road and Urbandale at the same time his post went live.

One of the commentators, whose Facebook account identifies him as Jeremy Henderson of Joshua, Texas, wrote: "Who cares about that cop? I hope to see more stories on cops gunned down who have killed innocent people."

Henderson was wearing a gold Christian cross on a chain around his neck in his profile picture. He must have heard different stories about Jesus than I did in Sunday school.

At any rate, Garza is using the Web for something constructive.

He's spent countless hours and some of his own money tracking down historic maps, court records, cemetery logs and family genealogies in hopes of making an impact on the Mattern case, the only Des Moines police officer death in the line of duty that remains an unsolved homicide.

A photo of slain Des Moines Police Officer George W. Mattern hangs in the Des Moines police museum. Carlisle teacher Anthony Garza has spent months researching the unsolved homicide from the early 20th century and believes he’s identified the killer.

George W. Mattern walked a downtown beat on Aug. 7, 1917. He heard gunshots in the 300 block of Locust Street. They came from a bar that stood approximately where the big green umbrella sculpture sits today.

Moments earlier, a man walked into a bar and ordered a drink. When the bartender went to serve it, the robber pulled a gun and demanded cash. As he fled, he ended up shooting it out with Mattern and another officer.

A bullet struck Mattern in his belly and lodged in his spine. Mattern survived and even returned to work for a time.

But eventually illness overcame him and he died May 12, 1918. The cause of death was peritonitis — an infection caused by the robber's bullet.

Three men were questioned in the case. One of them was a man named Chester Scott. A year before the shootout downtown, Scott robbed a lounge at 419 E. Walnut St., across the street from the current Beechwood Lounge.

Scott ordered a grilled sandwich — which was called an electric sandwich in the parlance of the time, Garza wrote. When the cook turned to make the sandwich, Scott, who was only 19, robbed the place.

Scott eventually pleaded guilty and received a 10-year suspended sentence. He was paroled under the supervision of a local clergyman.

The unidentified robber who shot Mattern about six months later used the same criminal method: the distraction of ordering something before springing the robbery.

The bartender identified Scott as the man who held up the place. Scott fit the description offered by other witnesses: male, slight build, medium height, about 20 years old.


Garza believes Scott killed Mattern. He was already on parole for the lounge robbery. This robbery would mean serious, hard prison time. Scott lived near the bar at 1517 E. Walnut St. The residence is still there, across the street from Capitol View Elementary School.

Garza admits there will never be total certainty in the Mattern case.

"Absent a written confession discovered in a musty Des Moines basement or some other pulp fiction plot device, a conclusive answer to the identity of Mattern's killer will forever be elusive," Garza wrote.

Des Moines police have no evidence for cases prior to the early 1950s. Fires, floods and storage space take their toll.

But coming up with the prime suspect isn't the really special thing Garza has done here.

Here is a man who took it upon himself to seek answers when everyone who had any direct involvement in the case is long dead.

Garza visited every alley, every house or vacant lot associated with the case. He stood and tried to stare back through time to find an answer to the killing of one of Des Moines' earliest protectors who died defending the capital city.

The really special thing Garza has done here is dig hard for a deeper understanding of his community. The further events become from the present, the harder they are to visualize. The people who lived in those times are more difficult to empathize with.

I've been fortunate enough to have many great conversations with Ken Quinn, the former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, about the Vietnam War, the horrors wrought by Pol Pot and Southeast Asians immigrating to Iowa under former Gov. Bob Ray.

Quinn is 73. He lived those times. But Saigon fell two months before I was born. I only know them from history lessons and the fractured lens of popular culture.

Garza is way beyond that with the Mattern case. He reached back a century to a Des Moines where horses competed with automobiles on city streets, where factories billowed black coal smoke into the sky throughout the day and family homes stood where today's handful of high-rises tower.

He genuinely feels for Mattern, his family and even the family of the suspected killer. He knows as much about them as likely anyone alive today. He's visited their graves and reached out to their living relatives.

I've said this before about Garza, but it bears repeating: Teachers often emphasize the need to be lifelong learners.

For the perfect example of a man who lives that maxim, look no further than the art room at Carlisle Middle School on any school day.
