WATERLOO -- A piece of lead from a fatal gunfight more than 50 years ago found its way back to Waterloo.

The mangled projectile, believed to be a bullet from a police revolver, was pulled from a suspected cop killer about a month after a shooting in 1956. The intention was to forward the evidence to prosecutors in Waterloo.

But the piece remained in an Iowa Department of Corrections vault in Fort Madison until a few months ago when it was discovered.

"It apparently got misplaced," said Sgt. Robert Hewitt with the Waterloo Police Department.

In the fall of 2007, Hewitt received an envelope with the bullet, a medical report detailing the operation to remove it and a letter dated February 1956 from the county attorney at the time, K.L. Kober.

Kober wanted to preserve any evidence received from Robert Cooney, who killed officer William Mehlhorn. Cooney was paralyzed when other officers returned fire.

Hewitt was assigned the task of figuring out what to do with the projectile.

"It's a murder trial, and we usually keep evidence from all the murder trials," Hewitt said.

Cooney, however, pleaded guilty to gunning down the officer and died years ago in prison. In the passing decades, the bullet went from evidence to artifact.

Ultimately, the police department decided to donate the piece to the Grout Museum of History and Science.

The Grout doesn't have any immediate plans to display it because the museum is undertaking an extensive renovation project. Even so, Lorraine Ihnen, collection curator, said she is always glad when city workers think about preserving historical items they come across.

Hewitt said he knew little about the shooting when he began reading the case file to collect information for the museum.

"The more I read it, the more interesting it got," he said.

Though it was 50 years ago, Hewitt was amazed at the similarities between police work then and now.

"I thought it was interesting that, though they didn't have the modern technology, the (handheld) radio, the 911, their job was the same then as it is now," he said. "They still documented everything the way we do today. You'd think 50 years ago it was pretty archaic the way they did things, but it really wasn't."

Hotel burglary

Mehlhorn, 32, was a father of four who supplemented his police salary by delivering milk.

Cooney, 37, was a U.S. Navy veteran who had lived in Independence and Council Bluffs, according to Courier archives. He had been arrested for burglaries to downtown business in 1952, according to archive information. He had just been released from prison, said David Susong, a retired Waterloo police officer involved in the gunfight.

Shortly before 3:30 a.m. Jan. 14, 1956, police received a phone call that someone was trying to break through the back door of the Martin Hotel at 514 Sycamore St.

Susong and his partner, officer Kenneth "Andy" Anderson, were near South Street when they heard traffic on their car radio.

Mehlhorn and his partner, officer Duane Murray, responded from the police station, then on Lafayette Street, and arrived first.

Murray got out on Sycamore Street and went to check the alley behind the Martin Hotel. Mehlhorn went to the front alley near the President Hotel off Park Avenue.

Mehlhorn spotted Cooney and attempted to arrest him, according to a stipulation of fact Cooney later signed. The two fell to the pavement during a scuffle.

"Somehow this Cooney got Mehlhorn's gun, and he got shot with his own gun," said Kober, who practices law in Waterloo.

Seconds later, Susong and Anderson pulled up, not knowing Cooney had killed Mehlhorn and was carrying the officer's weapon. Mehlhorn carried a .357-caliber Colt revolver.

"He was running up from where there used to be a little alley there," said Susong, who was closing on him from about 10 to 15 feet away.

Anderson noticed the handgun and shouted a warning.

"He went to fire at me, and I had my gun in my hand. Some way or another, he grazed my hand when he shot at me," Susong said.

Susong went to the ground and his .38-caliber service revolver skidded down the sidewalk.

"They think that bullet shot at me went through the left rear fender of the squad car, through the tire and out through the rim," Susong said.

Susong had a minor wound. Anderson stepped up and unloaded six bullets in Cooney.

"One in the mouth, one broke his arm, and I can't remember where all the others were. They all were in him. And I think Murray shot him twice with a shotgun," Susong said.

During the exchange of lead, Cooney fell to the ground but continued to fire until he dropped the .357, according to a police department account.

Mehlhorn was found near the curb on Park Avenue in front of the President Hotel, according to police.

Paralyzed

A Martin Hotel employee identified Cooney as the man he saw ransacking the cash register behind the desk. He allegedly took $57.45.

Cooney was paralyzed from the waist down by the shooting. He was transferred to state prison to await trial.

On Feb. 9, 1956, a doctor at Fort Madison removed one of the projectiles from his body during a 16-minute operation.

Cooney initially told the court he had been drinking at taverns in Waterloo and had purchased a bottle of whisky from a bootlegger. He said he didn't remember the burglary or killing the officer, according to accounts in archives.

His defense attorney later said Cooney had lived at the Martin a few years prior and was accustomed to using the back door. He suggested his client was in a "confused condition" and was following an old pattern when he tried to enter, archives show.

Cooney ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was wheeled into the courtroom on a hospital bed for the hearing.

Prosecutors agreed to the charge and a 25-year prison sentence because he was no longer a threat to the community and because doctors didn't expect him to live beyond five years as the result of a urinary tract infection.

He lasted six years and died in 1962 from natural causes in the Iowa State Penitentiary.

Conclusion

Exactly how Cooney snatched Mehlhorn's pistol remains unclear, and it isn't know if the officer went into the struggle with the weapon drawn. Susong suspects the equipment used at the time played a role.

"Back then they carried those old holsters, cavalry holsters," he said.

Susong said the large scabbards with protective flaps offered a distinct disadvantage for officers.

"If you're wrestling with me, it's easier for you to get a hold of the gun than it is me," he said. "I think what happened, he just overpowered him and got that gun away."

Police now spend more time training in weapon retention techniques, Hewitt said. Officers are also equipped with safety holsters that are difficult for anyone but the officer to access.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.