Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-05-16

chased by himself at secondhand
store.
Last August A. w. Jakobbsen gave
out some information concerning Gohl
and two detectives worked two
months getting evidence against him.
They were finally taken off the case.
just as they We're beginning to get
results.
Last February, when Gohl was ar
rested for the murder of Hadberg,
the Thiel detective agency sent eight
men to Grays Harbor to work on the
case. The men spent their time in
Hoquiam and Aberdeen picking up
|bits of evidence and when William
GOhl was convicted, Chehalis county
was indebted to the agency for SER
vices, more than $500. The county
found it necessary to draw a special
venire of 800 jurors and for three days
the cost was $3,600
The states witnesses numbered
more than 100 at a cost of $4,000 for
the trial. Special Prosecutor E. e.
Boner received $1,000 for his work,
while attorneys Cross and Hutchin-
son, appointed by the court to defend
GOhl, received 500 each.
The cost of conducting the hunt for
Hoffman's body, special deputies.
bailiffs, cost of keeping witnesses for
three months and other details have
brought the cost of the trial lD to
$4,000.
Now that the trial is over, and con-
victiOn had, it is time the public, that
pays those bills, should be inform
ed to the management, or mismanage-
ment OF the case by the authorities
to whose care is entrusted the lives
and property of the people of Che
halls county. This the Herald will
endeavor to do, without prejudice,
fear or favor. TO properly understand
what is to fellow, it should be re-
menbered that this crime was COM
mitted outside the limits of the city
of Aberdeen, and in Chehalis county,
and that it fell entirely within the
duties of the sheriff of the county to
take charge of it. Aberdeen was und-
er no legal or moral obligation to
spend cent in the case unless called
upon for aid, yet the Aberdeen police
not only assumed charge of the case,
but studiously ignored the sheriff's
office throughout.
Information of the crime came to
the Aberdeen authorities from p. J.
McHugh and Billy Montana, in whom
Gohl had confided the story, and the
exact location of the body given
where it was accidentally found after.
wards. Instead of giving the infor-
nation to the sheriff's office, the chief
of police and an amatuer officer pro-
ceeded to Indian creek looked about
the beach and on top of the water for
the body they had been told was held
to the bottom with so pound anchor;
questioned some men in the vicinity,
who had they been members of the
Gohl gang would have removed the
body-and came home with report
that there was nothing in the story.
Three weeks later, by accident that
might be termed providential, the
body was discovered, in the indentical
spot indicated in the first informa-
ticn given, and was brought to Aber-
deem by the police, who wired news
of the find to the county attorney at
MOntesanO-but never said a word of
it to the sheriff The first informa-
tion of the murder of Charles Had
berg received by the sheriff's office
was the newspaper account of finding
the bOdy-three weeks after the Abb
erdeen police had been informed of
the murder, and decided the inform
ants were lying.
This statement is made after
careful investigation by the Herald,
and was not made public before the
trial lest it interfere with the
course of justice. The police of Alb
erdeen may have had reasons for
their course of action that they con-
Sidpred gOOd and sufficient opd 10
so, they owe it to the public, and
themselves, to make them known.
So far as the Herald knows, Sher-
iff Payette and his deputies are care
full, reliable officers, and the studied
efforts to deprive the county of their
services in so serious a criminal mat.
ter certainly needs explanation. The
Herald will cheerfully grant space for
any explanation of this conduct the
police may chose to offer.