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Billy Gohl - The Ghoul of Grays Harbor
18 Plays6 days ago
The Ghoul of Grays Harbor… or a union leader caught in the crossfire of power and politics?
This week we dive into the chilling legend of Billy Gohl, the man accused of turning Aberdeen into the “Port of Missing Men.” Was he a calculated killer… or the victim of a ruthless takedown?
⚓ Waterfront secrets
🌫️ Disappearances in the fog
📰 Media frenzy & myth-making
👇 What do you think? A killer, a takedown, or something in the middle?
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode includes references to abuse, trauma, and death. Listener discretion is advised.
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💌 Got theories or personal cult encounters? Email us at BTevergreens@gmail.com or DM on Instagram @BTEPodcast
Full source list and supplemental materials are available on our website at Beneaththeevergreens.com.
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Episodes that touch on fear, mystery, or the unknown can sometimes stir up difficult feelings. If you’re dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, or any other mental health challenge, please know there is support available and people who want to help.
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Call or text 988 any time for free, confidential support from trained counselors. - Crisis Text Line:
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You deserve care, understanding, and support. Reaching out is a sign of strength.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Milestones
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Beneath the Evergreens, where murder, mysteries, and mayhem lurk in the shadows of the Pacific Northwest. I'm Jess. And I'm Anna. From haunted forests and unsolved disappearances, to true crime cases buried deep in the moss and the mist, we're digging into the dark secrets hiding under the evergreens. Each episode will explore real cases, eerie encounters, and the legends that keep the Pacific Northwest up at night.
00:00:26
Speaker
So grab your flashlight. lock your doors and join us beneath the evergreens. Welcome everyone.
00:00:53
Speaker
everyone Welcome, welcome. Anna, do you know what episode number this is? Is it lucky number 16? No, we're at 21 already. This be episode 21.
00:01:06
Speaker
We're at 21. Not including the bonus episodes that we've done. Time is flying. I know. I think this is the most committed I've ever been to any hobby ever.
00:01:18
Speaker
Same. I was just looking at a bunch of half done crochet projects that I have and I was like, it is amazing that I've kept up on this podcast. like I'm so proud of myself.
Listener Shoutouts and Humor
00:01:29
Speaker
oh I also have a couple shout outs. Absolutely. Yeah. So we have ah Todd and Leanne who started listening and have subscribed to our newsletter online and have left some nice comments. So thank you guys so much for listening.
00:01:44
Speaker
Thank you guys. Yes. And then I also have someone who's been on our Instagram, liking all of our posts and that's Danny Zuko. So thank you so much. Thanks, Dani.
00:01:55
Speaker
Yeah, I know. That's amazing. i know. I'm like, oh, i feel the love. I feel the love. So yeah, they're just, thank you guys for for participating it and liking our show. I do have one more shout out. um yeah This is a repeat shout out, but our littlest listener, um Mr. Simon, thank you for listening. I hope Our voices lull you into a lovely nap so you can give your parents a bit of a break.
00:02:19
Speaker
But no, he is lovely. And um yeah, he loves our podcast. And of course, loves listening listening to his his and lovely voice. So it's amazing. Dulcet tones that come from Anna. I love it.
00:02:34
Speaker
Love little baby listeners. So yeah, have all your kids listen to this. Although maybe not the murderer episodes. We don't. Yeah, I do worry. We're raising um a bunch of really odd children.
Fascination with True Crime
00:02:47
Speaker
who like are somehow like calmed by true crime which I don't love for humanity hey I remember when I was like real little watching reruns of unsolved mysteries and ah molar and what is that show um the x-files and all of the creepy shows so you know i turned out fantastic clearly so all the creepy kids galore speaking of creepy kids i have fallen in love with a serial killer you texted me this i'm gonna be honest my first reaction was like this is not out of the realm of possibilities for je I am a bit concerned until you sent a photo. Then I was like, okay, we're good.
00:03:34
Speaker
We're good. Yeah. yeah Not actually in love and love, but man, this man is hot. And I don't usually think that about murderers. And I feel like I'm morally obligated to find them disgusting, but he's pretty, um I'm going to put a picture on the, on the Instagram so people can also see, but he's kind of hot.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I can't get past them. I'm honestly, you've tainted my initial view of him. Like, I feel like you showed me him like randomly without being the, I'm in love with a murderer. And you being like, oh shit, do I need to go like oh help her? Like get her out of some situation? I need bail money? Like what is happening?
00:04:10
Speaker
I was honestly, I went back to the, the Hillside Strangler episode that we did with the girl that was like going to go stage some other murder to pretend that was now. And I was like, i Jesse can be committed.
00:04:23
Speaker
I'm going to have to intervene. Like, let me pack my bag right now. listen I was just having this conversation where if I like you, I'm extremely loyal and i will go to the ends of the earth regardless of my you know mental health. And I do sometimes wonder.
00:04:42
Speaker
I do sometimes wonder. Morally, I feel like I wouldn't be able to draw the line, but you never know. um I think that we know. I think that um you have surrounded yourself with really great people that are going to be like, hey, Jess, maybe we don't do that.
00:04:56
Speaker
Pull the reins, okay? I get that, but let's channel this somewhere else. Oh, but I also was listening to another podcast.
Wilhelm Gohl's Early Life and Travels
00:05:06
Speaker
It's Wine and Crime. So I have three shout outs for this particular episode. It's a podcast, Wine and Crime, because they're fantastic. Ghoulish Tendencies. And then the book, Port of Missing Men by Aaron Goings.
00:05:18
Speaker
But when I was listening to ryan Wine and Crime, they were comparing Goal, who is who we're talking about today, to Caillou. Like an old version of Caillou. Because his face is so round. Wait, what?
00:05:30
Speaker
What?
00:05:33
Speaker
oh my god and i was like i was dying laughing i was dying but now now that they've said this i can't unsee it so it's it's dimmed the shine a little bit but i'll still commit still hot he does have a very specific look i feel like i feel like you hang around any like strength gym long enough you're gonna find someone that kind of looks like that mostly just bald men with like some facial hair and some capacity with some bulging muscles don't know about that sometimes there's a little extra fats might have to go hang out in the coming days all right are you ready to jump let's do it okay so a child was born in 1873 one
00:06:22
Speaker
just Just the one. and And this was in Germany. what Birthright must be crazy.
00:06:32
Speaker
It is Germany. I don't know. I don't know what was going on. but I'm going to cut that out. That's not okay.
00:06:40
Speaker
Well, this child's name was Wilhelm Johann Hermann Gohl.
00:06:47
Speaker
That's a fucking name. Am right? That a name. The pronunciation, though, I i heard Quail. It's probably like Wilhelm Johann Hermann Hall. Yes. I heard Quail, though, and I was like, what did she say?
00:07:01
Speaker
You know, I do slur my words, which is concerning because I'm not even, like, drinking or on any drugs. I'm so sober in my life. It doesn't make sense why I slur my words.
00:07:13
Speaker
That's neither here nor there. So with a name like that, though, I feel like you have to be either infamous or famous. You have no choice. You have to be yeah famous.
00:07:26
Speaker
Well, that's ah pretty much the extent of what we definitively know about the first 20 years of his life. Just thought he was born. No, he was born and that was his name. ah
00:07:40
Speaker
So it was seriousialized theorized that Goal attended school until the age of 12 before entering factory work in Germany. This is rapid industrialization time in the US and Germany. And with that industrialization came people having to work like 14 hour days in really unsafe working environments. Kids are working. There's no labor laws. Oh gosh. Yeah. Not a fantastic time. And this is also where we see this huge disparity in between poverty and the elite class, right? So the leads are getting richer because these factories are making things more efficient. They're able to sell things a little bit more, but the people working in factories aren't making a lot of money. They're working a lot.
00:08:26
Speaker
If you get hurt, what in 1890, 25,000 Americans died biowork-related incidents Oh my God. A snapshot. And it's probably more because there was not a lot of record keeping about this. Oh yeah. And like, yeah, you're not going to report it. Like if it was like something that wasn't like explicitly like a, like a deathly injury, you know?
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah. If they didn't like fall off a work equipment or something. But ah today in, or in 1990, 6,000 people died from work related incident, which is still a lot.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah. I, That is crazy. i feel I feel like even since the 90s, though, we've made a lot of improvements to things. like I mean, we've both come from the manufacturing sector. and like yeah there's like Safety is definitely the biggest priority. And like you can't do anything if it's not safe. like You are blocking things off. And everyone has like stop work authority now.
00:09:18
Speaker
Yeah. I feel really lucky that we live in this particular time because I was looking at some of the pictures of dock workers and stuff. And They were wild. They were wild out there.
00:09:30
Speaker
Fearless, too. But also during this area ah or this era, the ideas of Karl Marx oh started coming up. Like socialism, working class equality, socialism.
00:09:42
Speaker
all of that stuff. And one person who was kind of in the middle of this and like sinking this in, and a very impressionable age was Wilhelm goal. Okay.
00:09:53
Speaker
So he really identified it with this and he decided that he no longer wanted to work in a factory. He was going to strike out on his own and go to the Yukon and become a minor. Oh, okay.
00:10:05
Speaker
So he's over in the Yukon, he's doing his thing and it doesn't quite work out. Damn. So he changes his name to William Gole to make it easier for people of the Americas to pronounce his name. And he heads down to San Francisco.
00:10:18
Speaker
And at this point, he's in his like late teens, early 20s. Again, i was really young. yeah Yeah, very young. He's not. Yeah, there's not a lot about his his age or and there's there's not a paper trail, if you will, of what he was doing. He was just kind of here, there and everywhere. Yeah.
00:10:35
Speaker
But he becomes a sailor. He works largely out out of france San Francisco. And life at sea was pretty brutal. So once you're on the ship, there's no days off. You're forced to work.
00:10:46
Speaker
Your conditions are probably not the best. You're not sleeping on a regular schedule. There's often... violence from captains out to sea there's often shackling and imprisonment if you get scurvy or something like that and you get a little crazy they're just like kind of shackling you down it's not great there's also a large shanghai situation happening at this time where people are you know waking up on a ship after a night of drinking and are just forced into labor good lord which is crazy
00:11:19
Speaker
And then despite all that, there's also this large probability that your ship is going to sink. Hmm. Whether due to bad weather, a fight with pirates, like there, this is not an infrequent occurrence. And in fact, goal himself survived after his vessel nearly sank. Luckily they were able to pull into a port called gray's Harbor in
Union Efforts and Personal Life
00:11:42
Speaker
Aberdeen, Washington. Oh,
00:11:44
Speaker
Yes. And that is where he decided that he was going to settle. He had nothing but the clothes on his back, but he was like, this is where I'm going to be. Thinking Aberdeen today and what I imagine Aberdeen was back then, sounds very, very different.
00:12:03
Speaker
think I've been to Aberdeen and – well, I've driven through Aberdeen because that's how you essentially get to Ocean Shores. I feel like everyone has driven through Aberdeen on the way to Ocean Shores, but no one stops in Aberdeen.
00:12:13
Speaker
But no one stops in Aberdeen. And when you drive – you can tell at one point this was – They have some beautiful buildings. like Yeah. You could tell it was a thing. But then today you're like, hmm, I don't know if I want to stop in Aberdeen. No. Said with love, but it's a little crusty. I feel like mean so the only time I've stopped in Aberdeen is to like hit up a Starbucks or grocery store for snacks on the way to Ocean Shores. or Or gas. Yes. Or to see Kurt Cobain's childhood house.
00:12:40
Speaker
Did that one. Kurt Cobain. Do you like his music? um I like a handful of Nirvana songs. Do you ever get when you listen to music, it puts you like in a mood? Oh, yeah. I feel like Nirvana puts me in a, I don't know, depressed mood. And I'm like, I can't, I can't listen to this for too long.
00:12:59
Speaker
I got to stop. It gets, it's on one of my, my, so every meet that I do, I do like a hype playlist of like songs that are like really giving like a zone to lift. And right now Nirvana is on there. So it like kind of gets me like a little bit amped.
00:13:12
Speaker
So I can't listen to dr all the time or else I'm just like, well, you're like, I fucking lifted theridge but the bridge! I kind of love that.
00:13:26
Speaker
So yeah, he ends up in Grace Harbor and he's got nothing but the clothes on his back but despite this He makes a name for himself. Good for him.
00:13:37
Speaker
And he's able to really put down roots in the community. And by 1904, like, he's very much involved in labor organizations and really trying to make workplace safety better for those around him.
00:13:50
Speaker
So he's really trying to unionize like all of... essentially the coast of Washington state, particularly looking at sailors. So in 1903, goal became the local agent of the sailors union of the Pacific sup, which is probably the coolest union name I've ever heard. Yes. so And ah by 1904, he was elected as a union officer in Aberdeen. So I got to give you a little background on what Aberdeen is like right now. Yeah.
00:14:23
Speaker
It is pretty volatile, right? So it's a rapidly growing town. okay It's one of the majors major harbors in Washington state at this time because we pretty much have direct access for lumber.
00:14:39
Speaker
There's a sawmill right there. it's It's a huge, huge port. And I mean, when you think of logging and you think of sailors, particularly in this time, it's a whole bunch of single men.
00:14:53
Speaker
That have to work for like six months at a time with no breaks. And when they get a break, it's like balls to the wall. Like you're doing everything under the sun that you can think of. And that was very much echoed in what the downtown of Aberdeen looked like.
00:15:11
Speaker
There were like 37 bars along the waterfront. dickp Which is crazy for a small town. Yeah. um but small town And then above these and almost every single one were brothels or some type of dance hall or some, something of that nature.
00:15:27
Speaker
And it was quickly noted that Aberdeen was probably one of the worst ports to stop in because it was just grimy boarding houses were not being put up fast enough. So people were putting like shacks along the waterfront to live in. Like, odd People were getting pickpocketed all the time. There was fights everywhere. And kind of in the middle of all of this was Billy Goal.
00:15:50
Speaker
Oh. And he, it was said that he never started any fights, but he sure as hell finished all of them. And I think what's kind of funny is that we don't necessarily know what he looked like, but there's some references in papers and stuff ah that give descriptions. And what is kind of imprinted on people's brain is that this was like a six, two guy that was huge barrel chested, took no shit from no one from anyone But when you read, like, newspapers and stuff, I think he was, like, 5'7". Oh, my God.
00:16:23
Speaker
And he just had his ego and, like, his charisma was so much that people were like, oh, this guy's got to be tall and large and in charge. But he's actually on the shorter side. Like, shorter than I am.
Controversial Leadership and Allegations
00:16:36
Speaker
Interesting. Was that more, like, medium height for that time, though? No. Okay. I don't know, though. Because I can't imagine there was that many, like... too many like six foot tall men walking around when it's like i think that was when food is more scarce yeah yeah definitely i think it's anomaly especially if you're working in a factory at 12 oh yeah I'm not feeling like you're getting the nutrients that you need to really go robust. And then when you go to the Yukon again, I'm not sure your food sources are really secured down like that. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with that.
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah. And it's, but yeah, scurvy. I don't know. So anyways, there's this, there's this, Knowledge of goal is that he's not somebody that you necessarily want to mess around with. Like he will handle his business if he has to. um It's best not to, you know, entice him into showing him your fists because he will throw down.
00:17:30
Speaker
But after he got accepted as the... elected union officer, he was trying to clean up his image slightly because his responsibilities included finding sailors jobs, securing the housing for everyone, acting as a translator. I think this was super important because he could speak German and English. So he's able to to work as a translator. He also represented sailors in courts, arranged funerals and death benefits, and you know refusing to supply men to abusive ships. That was also his number one priority.
00:18:03
Speaker
um He was also a prolific writer, which I found very interesting for someone who was 12. Yeah. Very John Hamilton. Jim Handles. What is Hamilton? Alexander Hamilton is what I was trying to say.
00:18:19
Speaker
That's fine. Moving on.
00:18:24
Speaker
ah um In fact, he helped ah draft the resolution for the Washington State Federation of Labor. And what this did was essentially when people would try to unionize, they would go out on the in front of the buildings and have a picket line and and try to not go to work and say, hey, you need to pay me fair wages. And businesses would just go to the courts and say, hey, I need you to give me an injunction where no one can be out outside of my building. And if no one's coming to work, I'm just going to fire them right there.
00:18:54
Speaker
And it was granted the majority of the time. In fact, 4,000 between 1880 and 1930 were granted. that That's a lot. Wow. But essentially, he was able to put into law that this couldn't be done and specifically in Aberdeen. At least that's what I was reading.
00:19:12
Speaker
Okay. And so he's he's a aggressively fighting for workers' rights. Yeah. And... While he's doing this, he also may you know dive into drinking a little bit and as a way of networking, if you will. course, course. Like we all do. ah when he when he's doing this work and and trying to network and taking people to dance halls, he ended up getting a little too drunk. Yeah.
00:19:40
Speaker
Boozing up with all of his boys. He ends up meeting... this woman and it's the jury's out if she was a prostitute or if she was a dance hall worker but regardless he got a little too fresh one night with her and she clocked him in the jaw but he falls down and and then he she starts kicking in the ribs essentially telling him like hey that was and inappropriate and he fell in love at love at first punch Oh, my God.
00:20:09
Speaker
And in 1905, he married Edith Bessie Hager in Montesano. And Bessie is what she went by. And by all accounts, this was a very fiery, dramatic, and deeply affectionate relationship.
00:20:22
Speaker
Sounds like it. Of course, because why not? But... They actually grew to to very much love each each other, love each other very, very much. Bessie actually saved William's arm from being amputated in a severe blood infection by, like, staying up 24, pretty much 24 hours a day, like, cleaning his wound, making sure it wasn't going septic, like.
00:20:45
Speaker
Damn. Damn. He should have lost his arm and they attribute Bessie and her, you know, making sure he was fine to him being able to keep his arm. And it's still functioning as it should, which is pretty crazy. Yeah.
00:21:01
Speaker
So as I kind of alluded to Grace Harbor, not a not a great place to be necessarily. It's definitely not family friendly. But Goal was on the path to to unionize everything. And so he was actually able to increase yeah yeah ah unions between 1903 and 1910 by 300%. Wow. And it said by 1905, every vessel that left from San Francisco and ended in Grays Harbor and vice versa was manned by a union ship.
00:21:35
Speaker
And he ensured this by doing things like... shooting at other boats if they were not you yeah not union led there was one boat the centralia it was said that the captain of this boat well they were for the sailors were for sure not union okay but it was said the reason why they weren't union is because the captain just shanghaied some some sailors put them on a boat and made them work for them and then they they were pulling into grace harbor
00:22:08
Speaker
The Union sailors
Murder Accusation and Trial
00:22:09
Speaker
that were of the Grays Harbor under Gull's command were really not a fan of this and decided that they were going to just take control of the boat from the captain.
00:22:19
Speaker
And so Gull and all those Union friends just jumped on board, disregarding police fully. Jumped on the boat. The captain freaks out a little bit and tries to shoot at the people.
00:22:34
Speaker
Goal pulls out his own revolver, shoots it into the sky, and then points it at the man and essentially is like, do it again and I'll take your life. Isn't it? And the captain's like, whatever. And there's so many union members there. He's just, I'm going to just back off. And they were able to replace the the the workers that were ununionized with unionized workers. To which I say, what happened to the non-union workers?
00:23:00
Speaker
I mean, i guess if they didn't want to be there in the first place, maybe they can start trucking back home or like become part of the union and leave. i don't know. Hopefully. but That's crazy.
00:23:11
Speaker
Yeah, there was also like a lot of tension within the unions when he first took over. In fact, there was a lot of racism that was going on. So tensions between the Greeks, Finns, and Americans...
00:23:24
Speaker
which one could argue all are Americans, but whatever. So there was a lot of issues going on there. And particularly when it came to unions, like no one could agree on anything. And in fact, there was one union meeting that got so bad that Billy had to send the person away. He said, Hey, you're, you're doing too much. You need to leave the room. We can't have you here.
00:23:45
Speaker
Wow. And the sailors were pissed. Because, like, you kicked me out of the union. So we waited outside the meeting hall with a knife. And as Billy's leaving, stabs Billy in the arm.
00:23:59
Speaker
Who? Somehow... Oh, I keep saying Billy. But William at this point... His name is still William at this point. Stabs William in the arm. Somehow, William is able to disarm him. Probably because the knife is sticking out of his arm. And capture him. And and let's police...
00:24:19
Speaker
take him away instead of doing any retribution or whatever. And this is how he kind of gained people's respect is because he was able to, regardless of the situation, stay calm, cool and collected and, and move forward. And he's making some big gains. I mean, he pretty much unionized all of Aberdeen ah and coordinated that with San Francisco was in works with Tacoma and Spokane and And Seattle.
00:24:45
Speaker
Spokane was more of the loggers, so he really got invested in other. love how you saw the look on my face. That doesn't make sense. Water in Spokane, what? Water?
00:24:57
Speaker
No, actually, ah he Really focused loggers, sailors, and sawmill workers. But also, he unionized a whole bunch of women workers that worked in laundry.
00:25:10
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Which I thought was kind of cool. Yeah. But he was very racist, so. Oh. Yeah. There's that. um Which is not great. So, yes, he's able, he essentially unionized, like, the whole West Coast. So, everyone is working together. There's death benefits like they've never seen before. There's health benefits. Everyone's doing their thing. And this is really pissing off the elites.
00:25:35
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's really pissing off the elites. They're not happy about this. And... Also at this time, there there seems to be some swirling of rumors that Goal is actually more like a mob boss than a union leader.
00:25:51
Speaker
So on the surface, he seems like this fantastic guy. He's doing all these union work. He's really fighting for people's rights. But there's also these stories that ah ah in part of his union duties, he set up a savings plan.
00:26:07
Speaker
bank essentially in the union hall and also a post office. Okay. And because sailors would be working for months on end and pull, when they would pull into port, they would get all of their salary for those months in it. Like at that time, like a large chk of money. And because Aberdeen was so unsafe and bars across the waterfront would like essentially drug your drink, you'd fall asleep and you'd wake up with your pockets empty or you'd wake up in the river my God. Yeah, it was a crazy time. um
00:26:41
Speaker
The union, he wanted to make sure that everyone you know had their pay, but everyone was safe. So you would land in Aberdeen, you would get your paycheck, and you'd immediately go to the union office and store your money there for like a small fee. And Goal was kind of in charge of that savings account.
00:26:58
Speaker
Gotcha. It was sad. that when these sailors would come and they would to deposit of their money, goal would start to ask like, Hey, do you have any family in the area?
00:27:09
Speaker
Is anyone expecting you home? Oh, my God. And when they would say no or when it was kind of evasive and they they couldn't really come up with someone would miss me, he would essentially shoot them in the face. Oh, my God. Steal their money and throw them down the trash chute, which the union office was conveniently located right up against Indian Creek.
00:27:32
Speaker
And so the trash chute just would empty into the water. And these men would float away. I'm sorry, but what is it about unions and like mobsters? Like think like Jimmy Hoffa.
00:27:44
Speaker
Like why is there such. Yeah. Like there's such a strong tie between like unions and then just organized crime. Like I like i don't know. Because when I think of union, I'm like, yes, pro worker. I really appreciate that. But then when you think of the people at the top, you're like.
00:28:01
Speaker
Yeah. Is this a good. i hope it's a good thing. I don't know. um In fact, this was such a large, people showing up in the water was such a large problem that Abernene was known to have something called a floater fleet.
00:28:20
Speaker
I don't love the name of that.
00:28:24
Speaker
I, when I first read it, I was like, like in the water, but then really thought about it more and i was like, wow, that's actually really morbid. If you start to get known as a floater feet, like you have a floater feet, that's, yes that's a bit much.
00:28:38
Speaker
And then it was late. Aberdeen was later notated as, um, the port of missing men because there were so many people going missing.
00:28:50
Speaker
that And they they had no idea where they were going. They started talking about the port of missing men. And it was... There was this narrative coming that this was actually the doing of goal. And if someone disagreed with him, he would just kind of off them with his union workers. They would just handle business.
00:29:09
Speaker
But... he was really into making sure there were strict meeting procedures, um, loyalty to his union contacts, mutual aid benefits between, between ports. And it really seemed from the outside that, and for, for, ah for his union workers that he was doing what he said he was going to do. In fact, when the elites of Aberdeen started saying, Hey,
00:29:32
Speaker
police were paying your bills. You need to go to the waterfront and anyone that's unhoused, you immediately arrest them and like send them away. if they, even if they're in a shanty, you got to take it down. And so goal put it ah upon himself and some of the union workers to build nicer looking homes across the waterfront for people that were unhoused. So ah again, it's kind of like that mob thing because I do recall,
00:30:00
Speaker
During the Depression, one of the only institutions that would feed people that were hungry was the mob. And, like, so there's this weird... It's like a weird loyalty thing, right? Like, yeah, we're going to help you, but then there's also, like... It's not just, like, helping you to be selfless. Like, there's strings attached to a lot of things.
00:30:22
Speaker
Large strings, yes. But, again, goal is making... Very, like very big enemies. All of the elite businessmen right now are pissed because he he was able to unionize all of these workers. he He was able to get death benefits. He was able to put in some sort of you know laws that you can't – it's not okay for someone to lose their arm at your factory and you do nothing about it. like you You can't
Conviction and Legacy Discussion
00:30:49
Speaker
do that. And so he's really changing the game, and he's he's really – Doing a great thing. Well, this is when the business owners decide that they're going to take over the press. And they start painting William and Goal as a mob leader, a violent radical, a waterfront enforcer, a gang boss. They are the ones that are implanting stories about him just launching bodies into the river.
00:31:13
Speaker
And this is also when you see and a name change from William, which is what Goal preferred to be called, to Billy. So they're essentially... Really trying to paint this picture, which I really feel kind of echoes what's happening today, where we're using the media in a way like prove a point or to make someone look a certain way that's maybe not accurate. Yeah. And so this is when we're really like the papers are really starting to paint him as as a crime boss rather than a labor leader, someone doing for good. And then the 1906 maritime strike happens. This is when a San Francisco, there was an earthquake in San Francisco.
00:31:52
Speaker
Lumber skyrocketed lumber was like the needs for lumber skyrocketed. Grays Harbor, one of their, one of the major exports is logging, but sailors, longshoremen, loggers aren't seeing any pay raises. They're just being asked to work more.
00:32:08
Speaker
Gotcha. Discontent. So a whole bunch of people. decide to strike and this is when things like the centralia happened where if a ship came into a port and didn't have union sailors on board it was a problem in fact goal set up a kind of system where if you were a captain and you had union sailors you would get a special card with a stamp on it and if you couldn't show this card oh you might not make it out of the harbor oh shit So I think there's some truth to both sides of this story. I think Gold definitely was really passionate about unions, labor rights.
00:32:49
Speaker
But I also think, you know, he could be doing some things that are a little nefarious. um But whatever. so To this point, between 1903 and 1910, there was like over 40 bodies found in the harbor. Oh my.
00:33:07
Speaker
Wow. Quote, unquote, making up this floater feet. ah Floater, floater? Fleet. And the official explanations were, you know, industrial accidents where someone would be walking from boat to boat and they would fall in between and essentially drown. Or drinking was very popular here. And would drink on the job all the time. And if you're drinking very heavily and then you go to some heavy equipment and you're trying to operate it, the likelihood is not going to, you're not, it's not going well. Yeah.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah. And so people would often often fall off docks or wherever and and end up in the water. But yeah. The newspapers tried to start linking this to the nefarious dealings of the union saying that, oh, no, like people were trying to off. I'm like creating this narrative of just like this mob boss again. And this particularly started to happen more and more when – So Billy and his wife, Bessie, decided to move to the elite side of town.
00:34:06
Speaker
Oh. So these people already hate him. Yeah. And then he decides, like, I want to show my union workers that you ah you can have upward mobility in society. Like, if you work hard enough, you you build up your reputation enough, you can make it to the other side of town. So they move somewhere called Broadway Street, which is kind of hoity-toity. Only the elite businessman will be there. and But he can't quite afford it.
00:34:33
Speaker
So he has to rent out rooms, which pisses off the elites even more. Because it's like now we have this boarding house essentially on our street. Yeah. And this is when things like in 1909, Billy was arrested for allegedly stealing a bicycle from one of his neighbors on the street.
00:34:51
Speaker
But then he was able to prove that it was actually his. But while he was going to find his receipt for the bike he purchased, it allowed the police to get onto his estate and search the property, which I find is interesting. And they happened to find a shack with some stolen robes that Billy, they tried to say Billy stole, but he was saying, no, I bought them secondhand. So there's like this back and forth and he, he, he gets, he is arrested.
00:35:20
Speaker
So his boarder, Charles Hadberg, testifies on hit on Billy's behalf saying that, no, those robes weren't his. He bought them secondhand and he was let off.
00:35:31
Speaker
And Gola starts this rhetoric of like, these people hate me. They're doing this out of spite. They're just trying to bring us down because I've been able to unionize and they don't like it. And what's interesting about this is that the business elites actually did hire an agency called the Feel Detective Agency, F-I-E-L.
00:35:52
Speaker
Oh. Which is essentially the Pinkerton Agency. Like it's very similar to that. Oh, interesting. But their whole focus is to infiltrate into unions, break it apart. And if they can't find evidence to break it apart, they will make evidence to break it apart. Oh, my God.
00:36:10
Speaker
And what's interesting is that they hired a former logger named Patrick Patty McHugh and McHugh became posted as a salon keeper, saloon, a salon. Yeah. He cut hair. No, a saloon keeper.
00:36:26
Speaker
and he just happened to become the saloon keeper of a bar that Billy really liked. Okay. Yeah. And Billy considered Patty as a friend. Like they got very, very close. Oh no.
00:36:39
Speaker
And he started telling him some stories and who knows if this is true or not, because this again is a hired agent and Billy is saying things like, it well, allegedly saying things like, I once had these two scabs, which are like non-union workers, um,
00:36:58
Speaker
not want to unionize and that really pissed me off so i put them on my rowboat i wrote them out to sand bank when the harbor was at low tide i forced them out of my boat at gunpoint and they had to stand on the sand pit and then i rode away as the the water was coming back in and they drowned oh my god So he's he's he's saying all these things. He's also saying that he just like, if so he's saying the stories about him putting people down the trash shoe after shooting them because they had money and no family around. Like he's bringing up these stories that could be true, but again, he's getting paid do this.
00:37:35
Speaker
to do this And so from all of this, citizens are starting to to question the morality that is Billy Goal because all of this is coming out. And then on February 2nd, 1910, two brothers, William and George Lightfoot, discovered a man's body in the mudflats of Indian Creek.
00:37:57
Speaker
Okay. And this man was submerged about a foot and a half in the water and had a 50-pound anchor tied to his body. Oh, my God. So, I mean, he's deep in the water. He's not getting out of that.
00:38:10
Speaker
And it turns out when they get him out of the water that he was shot twice in the back of the head. And this person was Charles Hadberg. The same person that, you know, testified on behalf of Billy to get him out of the situation.
00:38:28
Speaker
Oh, my God. and So Hattberg was dead with the the acre tied around his body and thrown into the shallow waters of Indian Creek, which is also very close to the relation in relation to the union.
00:38:45
Speaker
Billy was arrested the next day. What? But why would he kill someone that like got him out of jail? That is the biggest question. And so this is coming after years of mounting hostility. And by the time charges were filed, much of the you know public had already been primed that this is like a mob but mob boss. Like this is just what he does.
00:39:06
Speaker
But he's finally getting his comeuppance. And they're saying what happened is that people saw
00:39:15
Speaker
Charles walking through town or people saw Charles walking through town and he had just gotten paid. He's going to the union office to, you know, deposit his money as people have already said. And because goal was so powerful, he was able to overpower Hadberg, kill him, take his money and, and throw him in the river.
00:39:40
Speaker
Goal is saying no, Hadberg moved to Alaska. He's in Alaska. I know he was one of my union people. Like he moved to Alaska. Well, it's not like you can really quickly find people in Alaska in there the early 19th. It's 1910. Like there's no, is there even phone lines in Alaska at this point? Like it's the last frontier. Yeah. So I don't know how you're going find somebody. So he's unable to confirm this and no one's able to find him, but it doesn't matter because trial is going so fast. Yeah.
00:40:11
Speaker
And so we're getting testimony in this trial from the labor spy who's being actively paid. Patty, right? Yeah. Okay. Who's being actively paid to disseminate misinformation about Goal. And then John Klingberg, who was supposed to be Goal's co-conspirator in all of these other union shootings.
00:40:37
Speaker
Hmm. So they're saying that Goal and John worked together to kill people to steal their money when they came into the office. And John just so happened to be so scared of Goal that he fled to Mexico and they were able to find him in Mexico and bring him back to testify that Goal was actually a murderer and that he murdered Hadberg.
00:41:01
Speaker
Later it's claimed by John after the trial that he was actually kidnapped by the police essentially beaten up so much that he did a false confession and had to, and was essentially manipulated into implicating goal.
00:41:17
Speaker
Of course he was. Of course he was. It's also a 1910. So I feel like that was just what happened on brand. ah But as this was going on, you know, members disputed that the body's identity identity was Charles. Like they were saying this isn't the person.
00:41:34
Speaker
Also this body was in the water for a couple months. ah so like You really wouldn't be able to tell. ah Yeah. and So they're saying it's not the body. No one is able to actually definitively say this this is for sure Charles.
00:41:47
Speaker
It doesn't matter because Goal gets convicted anyways. Seriously? Oh my god. And they're saying he's lucky that he only got charged for one murder because they're trying to assign 41 murders to him of all the floaters that were found in this in the sea. In fact, some are saying that he killed as many as 126
00:42:07
Speaker
Oh my God. Which is where that like interesting piece of like, what is true and what is misinformation and what is like myth and lore and like the intersection between all of those, particularly in this story.
00:42:19
Speaker
So he's convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He's only not, the only reason why he's not hung is because the union workers all came together and said, this isn't right. He didn't actually do this. And they were able to sway the jury's opinion, which is also crazy.
00:42:36
Speaker
How are the union workers accessing the jurors to yeah sway their opinion one way or another? Yeah. Anyways. So he just gets sentenced to life imprisonment at Walla Walla. State Penetrancy. And Bessie publicly comes out multiple times and says, you know, this was not justice. This was just powerful men orchestrating, orchestrating together to get this leader out of their town because he was able to make huge gains and keep business owners accountable for the the welfare of their employees. yeah
00:43:08
Speaker
And what's also funny is that John Klinberg, who... was saying that Goal did all of this and that he killed this person, was actually later convicted of the same murder.
00:43:21
Speaker
What? Yeah.
00:43:25
Speaker
Which doesn't make sense. None of this makes sense to me. Just screams cover up. Yeah. So Goal was ah served several years in Walla Walla, peditentiary. And in 1923, he was transferred to Eastern State Hospital because he had pneumonia and complications with syphilis.
00:43:41
Speaker
a And he ended up dying there in 1927. So this brings us to the story of Billy Goal right now in in our history.
00:43:54
Speaker
is is on serial killer websites saying that he murdered between 40 to 200 men. He led violent attacks along the waterfront with with a gang. He orchestrated, quote unquote, the floater fleet. And he was one of the you know most prolific serial killers in Washington state. Yeah. i mean, 200 people, that's a lot of people. Yeah.
00:44:14
Speaker
But was that true or was that just propaganda set up by, you know, business owners that weren't happy at what he was doing and this field detective agency where they just putting out stuff out there that wasn't necessarily true. Also, Aberdeen was just not a great place. Like people were getting in fights all the time like this. It's it's a rowdy and and violent area. yeah Is it fair to assign all of that to one person? Yeah.
00:44:42
Speaker
But as it stands today, goal is still a killer, convicted killer of one and suspected serial killer of 40 to 200. Wow. story for you.
00:44:55
Speaker
That was really good. i feel like that like that misinformation piece hits so hard, especially now. yeah There's just so many things going on in the media that it's really hard to parse through like what's truth, what's not. And in my mind, it was kind of a newer thing with the access to the internet and just people able to just spout their opinions left and right and people conflating it with fact. But it's interesting to see that like, you know, over 100 years ago, these similar things were happening. We just had to pay a little more for it. So like the wealthy people were able to to pay for information to go whatever direction they wanted it to go. And now, yeah, now anyone can do it.
00:45:34
Speaker
ah Yeah. And I feel like even back then it was even more, it's even more scary because there's not the internet where you can maybe find differing points of view if you so choose. Yeah. It's like you read that and then that is, that is the history now.
00:45:47
Speaker
Exactly. Which is, I don't know, scary to me, but he's also known as the ghoul of Grey's, Grey's Harbor. i forgot to say that. That is now his nickname, his serial killer hashtag. Interesting.
00:46:00
Speaker
So what do you think? do you think he's a serial killer or? I, mean i Don't know. But i would not be surprised, with especially how like poorly unions were taken then and even taken now.
00:46:12
Speaker
There's got to be a lot of framing involved. And I would imagine he probably killed a couple people. like I feel like that comes with the territory. But I also don't think he killed like 200 people. That seems little crazy.
00:46:25
Speaker
I feel like they he's he's a gray area too. I don't think he was the perfect person and I feel like he probably got a little violent, but if he really truly was a mob boss, he's not getting his hands dirty. no He may be actioning things and saying, yes, you go do this, but he's not actually doing it, which doesn't necessarily let him off the crimes, but I don't... Yeah, I don't think he was killing... I don't think he killed 41 people. Maybe here and there, there might have been something, but... Yeah. the Jury's out.
00:46:53
Speaker
I feel like his crime... legacy should not be serial killer it should be like mob boss and like just like general enforcer you know like conspiracy yeah like that kind of thing um embezzlement he was brought quite frankly embezzlement would totally make sense for me oh 100 yeah but uh i also want to like deep dive on this feel detective agency Their whole scope was to essentially break up unions and like just spread in misinformation. That was their whole job.
00:47:26
Speaker
Which I feel like lends itself so much more to this like misinformation theory because if you if people are viewing unions as so much of a problem, you know they're going to spread lies left and right.
00:47:40
Speaker
For sure. For sure. And whos who's to say that they wouldn't go to any lengths to necessary and also contribute to these this floater fleet? Exactly, yeah. yeah i But I had no idea Aberdeen was so such a major port. like i I knew it was kind of big at one time, but is it I don't think it's still that way.
00:47:59
Speaker
I mean, you when you drive through, it's still like the logging remnants, right? and like There's usually like some logging boats in the river, but I feel it's i didn't know it was that bustling. like It was that Aberdeen and San Francisco were used in the same sentence. like That seems ridiculous to me.
00:48:14
Speaker
That's what I'm saying, too. They also had ah like a trolley system. What? thought work Yeah. ah Where is that now? it's I don't know. It's kind of crazy how what time does to specific towns. Like all the ghost towns that we see. I feel like Aberdeen is kind of like... Oh, yeah. You can tell at one time there was a lot of people, but now...
00:48:36
Speaker
Everything's kind of boarded up. If was in the same category for me as like Port Townsend or like Port Townsend could have been the Seattle, you know, but yeah it wasn't like that's that's just as crazy to me as Aberdeen once being like a ah bustling metropolis.
00:48:51
Speaker
I know it's insane. That's all I have for for you today. Awesome. That was a really great story. Thank you. He's very hot. And that's all. That's how I'm going to leave you guys. Oh, my God. Well, this is actually way better than I thought it was going to be. Because when you said serial killer, he maybe isn't a serial killer. He just could be um a crime aficionado.
00:49:09
Speaker
um Still not great for you, but not as bad. Hey, he's a businessman, though. So at least I could be rich for a little bit. Although the syphilis, major downside. Yeah. you wouldn he didn't know know until he died so ah yeah syphilis is crazy man is it still around yes syphilis is it still around in this day and age of modern medicine i feel like that should be eradicated well i feel like it's still gonna find its way around in some capacity but it's like far less like impactful like you're not gonna die from syphilis yeah isn't like chlamydia you can just like you can get rid of it pretty quick yeah yeah like kind of the same thing
00:49:53
Speaker
Interesting. Welcome to STDs 101. what ah if You can go back to high school sex ed.
00:50:02
Speaker
ah Okay, well that's it for today's dive into the dark corners of the Pacific Northwest. If you loved the stories or shivered a little, be sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss what's lurking beneath the evergreens next time.
00:50:15
Speaker
Thanks for joining us on Beneath the Evergreens. We appreciate you diving into the mysteries with us. Until next time, keep your eyes open and your doors locked.