He was born in San Francisco, California and graduated from Lowell High School in 1930.
He was in the United States Army as a special agent of the Counterintelligence Corps from 1942 to 1946, and entered as a private.
He was an Assistant United States Attorney and chief of criminal division of the Northern District of California from 1953 to 1958.
He was the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California from 1958 to 1959.
[3] Schnacke was nominated by President Richard Nixon on September 10, 1970, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California vacated by Judge George Bernard Harris.