The year of 1972 was barely two days old when a Midwestern war veteran would be shot to death for no apparent reason whatsoever.
It was the evening of Saturday, January 1st: New Year’s Day. Fifty-five-year-old Edwin Harry Jacobs, who had served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II, was spending some time with his brother Richard and a few friends in Clinton, Iowa. Richard purportedly dropped Edwin off in front of his apartment building on 4th Avenue at a little past ten p.m.
Sometime later that night, several residents in the vicinity of the Izaak Walton league clubhouse phoned police to report that they had heard gunshots coming from the nearby woods. When officers arrived at the scene early on the morning of January 2nd, they discovered the dead body of Edwin Jacobs lying on the side of the road near a parking lot. He had been shot twice in the head and once in the chest with a .22 caliber firearm. There were no obvious indications that the victim had fought his attacker.
The murder weapon was never found, a motive was never established, and despite an extensive investigation, no solid leads were ever produced. Authorities are still baffled as to who assassinated the mild-mannered veteran and why.
Crime Immemorial 