Officer Spilcker succumbed to wounds suffered three weeks earlier when he attempted to arrest two robbery suspects at Lucas Street and 11th Street.

On January 10, 1915, information was put out to officers regarding a drug store robbery at 1036 Rutger where the victim druggist was bound and robbed of $12 and a quantity of heroin and other drugs. Officer Spilcker saw two men, John Endicott and Fred Tracy going west at Eleventh and Lucas. Officer Spilcker stopped and questioned the men regarding the robbery. As Officer Spilcker searched Tracy, Endicott shot him with a .32 caliber browning pistol.

Both suspects were captured in Alton, Illinois. When the men were returned to Missouri they were identified by Officer Spilcker and provided written confessions, attributing their compelling desire for drugs as their motivation. They were both sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Officer Spilcker, 31, served on the police department for four years and was survived by his wife, Lulu, and two children. Interred: Friedens Cemetery, Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri.