USA > California > Contra Costa County > The history of Contra Costa County, California > Part 18
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Martin Gersbach was a German by birth, some thirty years of age, who, by industry and frugality, had accumulated a little money, some
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three or four thousand dollars, it was said, and had been a lessee of the place where he had lived with his family, and where he was murdered, for something more than a year. His wife was a woman of about the same age, of German parentage and American birth. The paramour- murderer, Nash, alias William Osterhaus, was a man about the same age, also of German parentage and American birth. By the woman's statement, Nash was engaged by her husband about Christmas, 1872, to work on the place, and he soon began to pay her some improper atten- tions, which she slightly resented at first, but soon began to accept and encourage. When the character of the subsisting intimacy became ap- parent to her husband, he became enraged, and threatened to procure a divorce; but as he did not move in the matter further, they plotted to kill him, first dosing him with croton oil, given one day when he com- plained of being sick, then trying to have him take arsenic to counteract the effects of the oil, and then by putting laudanum in his coffee, which he would not drink after the first taste. They then tried to dispose of him by saturating his pillow with chloroform, but without avail. Nash then determined to pick a quarrel with Gersbach for the opportunity it might offer of killing him, but was unable to arouse his resentment. Finally, on the night of the murder, as she stated, after the woman and her husband had retired to bed, Nash, who occupied a room upstairs, called for Gersbach to come up there. Gersbach, instead of complying, rose from the bed on which he was lying, with his clothes on, and hur- ried out of the house. As he did so, Nash came downstairs with a pistol in each hand. He ran out after Gersbach, and she heard six shots fired in quick succession. She then heard a low groan, and, on going to the door, met Nash, who said Martin was shot. Just then he groaned. Nash at once took a hammer from the kitchen, went out to where Gersbach lay, and she heard several blows of the hammer on his head. Nash then returned and said he had finished him. He told her he would go over and tell Roland, a neighbor, he had killed Martin in self-defense, but just as he was about to go Martin groaned again. Nash went out to where he lay, and she heard heavy dull blows given; then Nash returned to her and said he had finished him with an axe. Then Nash went off to carry his report of the death of Gersbach, and when he returned, before morning, said he would have to leave. He changed his bloody clothes, took about thirty or forty dollars that belonged to his victim, and went
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away. Such was the woman's statement. The officers found the blood- stained cast-off clothing of the murderer, his pistol with six empty chambers, and the blood and hair-clotted hammer in the room he had oc- cupied, and spots of blood about the floor. Near the spot where the body of his victim fell they found the other pistol, fully charged.
After the murder Nash went to the house of a neighbor named Muir, a few hundred yards distant from that of the murdered man, and called him up. Muir's dogs made such threatening demonstrations that he re- mained some little distance off. The barking of the dogs was so furious that Muir could not distinctly hear what he said, further than that Gers- bach had been killed, and he therefore went over with Nash, or fol- lowing him, and found the wounded man still alive. Muir requested Nash to help him carry the wounded man into the house, but he refused to do so, and while Muir was gone for other help, as we understood, Nash changed his clothes, and left the place. The murdered man lingered until August 4th, and was sufficiently conscious during a portion of the time to give intelligent directions for the care of his boy and his prop- erty affairs by a friend, and to clearly designate Nash as his murderer.
After more than a week's hunt night and day among the hills, follow- ing up the scent of every reported straggler, and in almost every in- stance finding they had been on the trail of the wrong man, and while Sheriff Ivory and his staff of officers were still scouring the hills and valleys for Nash, a telegram was received from Governor Booth with the information that he had been captured at Battle Mountain, Nevada. Under-Sheriff Hunsaker immediately dispatched a courier to find Sher- iff Ivory, and telegraphed to the Battle Mountain justice that he would start for the prisoner immediately, inquiring at the same time if he had a description of Nash and was sure he had him. A reply was received from the justice later in the evening that he had the description and the prisoner acknowledged himself the man. The courier sent for Ivory found him above Danville, shaping his course toward Tassajara. He at once returned homeward, and with all speed made his way to Battle Mountain. Nash was duly tried, found guilty May 1, 1874, and sen- tenced to imprisonment for life.
In the case of Mary Gersbach, the jury, after three days' and nights' deliberation, failed to agree. She was again tried, with a like result in December, 1874. The case dragged its slow length along up until No-
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vember 9, 1875, when District Attorney Mills applied to the Supreme Court for peremptory writ of mandate and review in the case of Mary Gersbach, which was denied. On Wednesday, November 17th, she was discharged from custody on her own bond of five thousand dollars.
HOMICIDE OF GEORGE MUTH .- The village of San Pablo was the scene of another bloody murder ; the date was August 10, 1873. The victim in this case was George Muth, a young German, who had lived some years in the vicinity, and was generally liked and respected. He was killed by Henry Ploeger, also a German, who lived usually in San Francisco, but for some years during part of each season had been engaged in hay- pressing, and had been so employed in San Pablo at the time of the slay- ing. He had, some time back, it is said, sold a hay-press to Muth, and was displeased with him because he had engaged in business rivalry with him. On August 10, 1873, both parties were at the village, and both had been drinking, though it was a very unusual thing for Muth to do so. Ploeger had made threats against Muth, and the latter, just as Ploeger was about to mount his horse, crossed from the opposite side of the road and laid his hand on his (Ploeger's) shoulder, asking him what he was threatening him for or what had he against him, or some question of such purport. Ploeger instantly drew his pistol and shot him through the heart, killing him instantly. Ploeger claimed that he antici- pated an attack with a pistol when he drew his, and that the shooting was unintentional. The bystanders, however, did not seem to have been impressed with such belief, and were inclined to execute summary jus- tice on the spot, regarding it as an act of unprovoked and wanton mur- der. The prisoner was held by the officers and safely taken to the jail at Martinez, November 27, 1873. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years imprisonment in the State prison.
KILLING OF RAMON CHAVIS .- A native Californian half-breed named Ramon Chavis was shot by Constable John Wilcox on August 23, 1874, at San Pablo. It appears that the deceased had been at the house of Wil- cox, drinking and quarreling during the evening, and Wilcox had sev- eral times been obliged to intervene to stop fights in which he had en- gaged. Before the shooting Wilcox had retired to bed, but was called up by some one who said that deceased and some one else were killing
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somebody. Wilcox got up and partially dressed himself, took his pistol and went out, to find Chavis and another partially drunken man charg- ing their horses and riding over a man they had thrown down in the road, who was a half-demented person residing in the place. Wilcox commanded them to desist, when Chavis rode off a few yards, wheeled his horse and charged on him. When within a few feet Wilcox fired, and Chavis fell with a shot under the eye-socket. The coroner's jury found that the homicide was justifiable.
MURDER OF AH HUNG .- The salient facts in this case are as follows : The deceased, Ah Hung, some two months previously opened a new laundry at Pacheco, and subsequently took Ah Sing into partnership re- lations. There was also a Chinese boy, Ung Gow, employed in the estab- lishment. They all retired as usual on the night of January 16, 1876, Ah Hung sleeping in an inner apartment, Ah Sing in an outer room, on a table, and the boy, Ung Gow, on the floor under the table. About day- light the boy was awakened by a noise, and heard Ah Hung exclaiming that he was killed. He ran into the room and saw Ah Sing attempting to haul him off the bed and chopping him with a hatchet. The boy at- tempted to pull Ah Sing away, but he turned and struck at him with the hatchet, inflicting one or two cuts, saying that he would kill him too. Ung Gow ran out to escape him, and went directly to the other wash- house, up the street, to give the alarm and find protection, but was re- fused admittance and driven away. He then went to Tiedeman's place and reported what had occurred. Constable Henry Wells was the first to visit the scene of the homicide, and there found the deceased in the front apartment, still with life enough remaining to make some moans of suf- fering, and most horribly hacked. He survived but a few moments. From the appearance of the place it was evident that the dead man had made a fearful struggle for life after being mortally wounded, the floor and walls were marked with bloody hand-prints, showing where he had endeavored to regain his feet, while blood-clots, and even pieces of bone from his skull, lay about the floor and on the walls. The murderer was captured and had on his person clothing and money, together with a purse, all identified as the property of the deceased. April 19, 1876, Ah Sing was tried, convicted of murder in the second degree, and was sen- tenced to forty-five years imprisonment in the State prison.
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KILLING OF JOSÉ ARRAYO .- A bloody affray occurred on March 2, 1877, about three-quarters of a mile from Walnut Creek, when José Arrayo was stabbed by Ramon Romero, who was at once arrested. Ar- rayo died on the 10th of March, and Romero was committed on the charge of murder, for which he was tried, found guilty November 23, 1877, and imprisoned for life in the State prison.
KILLING OF JAMES MILLS .- On June 18, 1877, a young man named Mills was fatally stabbed in an affray with P. B. Martin. It would ap- pear that ill-feeling had existed for some time between the parties, which culminated in a fight on the day named. Mills died on June 24th, and Martin was arrested, tried, and on April 20, 1878, found not guilty.
KILLING OF GEORGE MITCHELL .- At an early hour on February I, 1878, it was rumored about Antioch that George Mitchell, an old resi- dent of that town, was not to be found, and there was a strong suspicion that he had been murdered. About half-past ten o'clock on Thursday night he accompanied William Brunkhorst to his residence on Front Street with a lantern, the night being dark and stormy. Mitchell was duly sober and told Brunkhorst on parting that he was going to Dahn- ken's saloon on the wharf, where he slept, and retire for the night. Car- son Dahnken had closed the saloon. In about fifteen minutes after Mitchell left Brunkhorst a pistol-shot was heard on the wharf by sev- eral parties, but it seems no one went out to ascertain the occasion of the shooting. Dahnken, who slept in the rear of the saloon-building, said he also heard the breaking of a lantern, the broken glass of which, together with several spots of clotted blood, was plainly to be seen upon the wharf. It was believed from the circumstances that Mitchell had been murdered and thrown into the river from off the wharf. Poles were brought and a moment's search proved that such was the case. The dead body of Mitchell was brought from the water and a bullet- hole or knife-wound found on his left side over the heart. Suspicion at once fastened upon William Hank, a German, in charge of the schooner "A. P. Jordan," which had been lying at anchor a few miles down the river. Hank had been in town on Thursday, drinking freely, exhibited a pistol, and was once during the day prevented from shooting at a man in Martin's saloon. Shortly after the shooting Hank went into Gordon's
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saloon and told the bar-keeper that he had just killed a man on the wharf, his (Hank's) clothes being at the time quite bloody, with his nose, face, and lips scratched and bleeding. Going out of the saloon he fired at some dogs, and finally went to Dahnken's hotel and entered the room of Joseph Parker, a boarder. Parker awoke and finding a strange man in the room inquired what he wanted ; Hank said he was a stranger in the house and wanted a room. He finally slept upon a lounge in the sitting-room, where his pistol was found in the morning by Dahnken. While search was being made for Mitchell on Friday morning, Hank left the wharf in his sailboat for his schooner. As soon as the body of Mitchell was found, Constable Pitts, with two Italian fishermen, started in pursuit with a boat and overtook him. Pitts got into his (Hank's) boat, and on being told that he (Pitts) was an officer come to arrest him Hank leaped overboard. He was handcuffed by the constable while in the water, taken into the boat, tied, and brought, shivering with cold from his voluntary bath, to Antioch. George Mitchell was an English- man, forty-seven years of age, and had lived in Antioch and its vicinity since 1859. On April 24, 1878, Hank was tried and acquitted. Immedi- ately after trial, and ere he had left the court-room, he was joined in matrimony to Mary Augusta Raymond, who was present during the proceedings and watched the case with eager interest.
KILLING OF JOSÉ REYES BERRYESSA .- On Monday evening, May 20, 1878, near the crossing of West Main and Castro streets, in the town of Martinez, José Reyes Berryessa, a native of California, made an assault upon Louis Kamp, in resisting which he shot and killed his assailant. It appears that Kamp was passing along the street toward the bridge car- rying a pail of water, when Berryessa approached and addressed him angrily in Spanish, Kamp answering him in the same language. Berry- essa then assaulted him with violent blows of his fists, causing him to drop his water-bucket, then grappled and threw him repeatedly and vio- lently, either with his fist or with a stone cutting his face and causing a copious flow of blood. Just then Constable Gift's attention being at- tracted to the affray, he ran up, pulled Berryessa off, and command- ing the peace, told them they were both under arrest and must go with him before the justice. Kamp said he would go, but Berryessa defied the officer insultingly, and immediately renewed the assault upon Kamp,
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striking and again throwing and falling upon him and hitting him with a stone while down. Gift again pulled him off, but he struggled free, making threatening demonstrations toward Kamp, who was then upon his feet, according to the testimony, backing away while drawing a pis- tol from his right hip pocket, which he presented and fired just as Ber- ryessa, in breaking from Gift's hold to reach him, was turned partially sidewise, some ten or twelve feet from him, and shot into his right side just below the nipple. Berryessa stooped, placed both hands on the wounded part, walked to the sidewalk from near the middle of the street, sat down, and in a few seconds expired. The verdict of the cor- oner's jury was that the killing was justifiable.
DEATH OF AN UNKNOWN MAN .- The Contra Costa Gazette of March 22, 1879, has the following : "We mentioned last week that the body of a man, some time dead, was found on the afternoon of the 13th inst., on Hyde's ranch, about four miles south of Cornwall station, and that Cor- oner Hiller had gone up to hold an inquest. Following is the verdict of the inquest: 'We, the jury summoned to inquire into the cause of the death of a man found on the 13th day of March, 1879, lying on the ranch of F. A. Hyde, caught in the fence dividing the lands of said Hyde and W. E. Whitney, having viewed the body and heard the tes- timony presented, on our oaths do say, that from the evidence we sup- pose his name to be Levy Gish, aged about thirty years, nativity un- known, and that he came to his death some time in the first part of March, 1879, the exact date being unknown and that his death was caused by violence, but by whose act is to the jury unknown. Hyde's Ranch, March 14, 1879. Signed : A. A. Hadley, B. K. Walker, Thomas Prichard, Wm. Fahy, Lewis H. Abbott, John Tepe, W. J. Whitney, Jo- seph McCloskey.'The body was that of a man apparently between thirty and thirty-five years of age, about five feet seven or eight inches in height, with fine brown hair, curling in small curls all over his head, and reddish mustache, no beard, dressed in light-colored cassimere pants, dark-brown striped calico shirt, with undershirt made of flour- sacks having the brand of the Kern River Mills, hickory outside shirt, old boots with tops cut off, and no coat on body. The body, with a bul- let or bludgeon wound on the back of the head, was found lying on the west of the fence dividing the land of Hyde from the land of W. E.
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Whitney. Both feet were through between the pickets, apparently caught while he was endeavoring to get over the fence. The body was lying partially on the left side, with the left arm bent up under it and the right arm extending upward and in front of the face, the sleeve of the shirt drawn up over the hand. About twenty-five feet from the body, along near the fence, there were signs of a struggle, the ground being torn up and a great deal of blood on it and some hair from the head of the deceased on the pickets. Some four or five feet from the fence lay a pair of new gray blankets with a great deal of blood on them, and near them an old coat very much wrinkled and a great deal of blood on it and curls of hair similar to that on the man's head and on the blanket. Near the head of the body lay a pair of blankets similar to the others, but clean, rolled up and not tied, a black felt hat, and a letter from Abram S. Gish addressed to Levy Gish, Ellis Station, dated October, 1870. Over the fence about twenty feet from the body was an account of sales of wheat and a letter dated March 6, 1871, from Bryant & Cook, Commission Merchants, San Francisco, addressed 'Levy Gish, Ellis Station.' The body had evidently been lying there six or eight days.
"Constable Erwin, of Point of Timber, has since been at Martinez, where Mr. Hiller has the effects found with the body, and has identified the pants, and from the description is satisfied that the man is one whom he arrested February 25th, with two others, for burglarizing Peter Swift's house near Point of Timber, and found in his possession five letters directed to Levy Gish, Ellis, and Moore's Landing. The men were taken by Erwin to Antioch and lodged in jail there, and the same night broke out and decamped. Erwin also identifies the coat as one that was worn by one of the companions of the deceased when arrested, but the coat then worn by him was of a better style and quality. The probability is strong, therefore, that the dead man was one of the three fugitive burglars, who received his death wound at the hands of his companions, or some other unknown person or persons, within a short time after their escape from the Antioch lock-up. It could hardly have occurred immediately after, as the ground where the body was found had been marked when wet, in the death struggles of the deceased, and it did not rain until several days after their breaking out on the morning of February 26th. It may therefore be inferred that they remained
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somewhere concealed in the neighborhood for possibly a week or more, there being no way of determining when the supposed murder was com- mitted further than that, from the condition of the body, it could not have been less than eight or ten days before the remains were discov- ered, and it must have been after the rains of the first week in the month had softened the hard dry ground.
"It will be remembered by our readers that we mentioned the arrest last week of four tramps by Constable Gift, at the Granger's hay-barn, on suspicion that they may have had something to do with the burglary of Blum's store and safe, but as nothing was disclosed that would war- rant their being held in custody they were turned loose. Now, from the description and other circumstances, Erwin is confident that two of these persons were the same that he arrested for the Point of Timber burglary and placed in the Antioch lock-up with the man since found dead. The coat worn by one of the men arrested here Erwin is confident was the one worn by the deceased when he made the arrest at the Point of Timber, and the coat found near the body, which is now in the keep- ing of Coroner Hiller, Erwin identified as one worn by one of the other persons he arrested and lodged in the Antioch lock-up, allowing them, after search, and taking from them a dirk and pocket knife, to retain a bag containing clothing, and among other articles a blouse similar to one which these tramps, while held in jail here, gave to one of the pris- oners confined there awaiting trial. On these circumstances and other facts, which it may not be judicious to mention here, the inference is justified that two, if not all four, of this tramp party, are implicated in the murder, and warrants have been issued for their arrest."
The Antioch Ledger of March Ist had the following report of the ar- rest and escape of the burglars : "Three tramps, who gave their names as John Sullivan, Charles Williams, and William Dency, broke into Peter Swift's house, situated near the Salt Pond, Point of Timber, about nine o'clock Tuesday morning, and appropriated to their own use a suit of clothes, a quantity of food, and sundry other articles. Swift was absent at work in the field. Missing the property shortly after, he procured a warrant from Justice Cary, and Constable Erwin overtook and arrested the parties near the Point of Timber schoolhouse. They were brought to Antioch Tuesday evening and confined in the town jail, to await trial the following morning. Erwin visited the jail premises at
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midnight and finding his captives secure, retired, but in the morning dis- covered that the trio had departed. Though thoroughly searched when placed in confinement, they had cut off a two-inch plank about a foot above the floor, pried it off and were free. It is evident the cutting was not done with a knife, but was evidently the work of a chisel or small hatchet. It is also apparent that they were furnished the necessary im- plements by outside parties. A knot-hole in one of the planks had been enlarged from the outside so as to admit of an instrument two inches in diameter. In answer to letters addressed to them for information re- lating to Levy Gish, presumed to have been a resident of that vicinity, Coroner Hiller has learned from the postmaster and constable at Ellis that the person is now living in San Diego County, from whence a letter written by him on the 5th inst. has been received at Ellis. They informed Hiller that the cabin Gish formerly occupied was recently broken into and rifled by tramps, who are presumed to have taken away the letters addressed to Gish which were found by Constable Erwin when he made the arrest at Point of Timber and those found near the dead body on Hyde's ranch, and which led the jury to presume that the name of the deceased was Levy Gish, who, as now appears, is doubtless alive and well in San Diego County, while some other name belonged to the dead and probably murdered man."
MURDER OF LANGBHEN .- The following particulars relating to this tragedy, which occurred near Marsh Landing on May 16, 1879, are an excerpt from the San Francisco Bulletin: "The tules in the vicinity of Antioch were the scene of a horrible tragedy last Friday morning, con- sisting of the murder of two children, aged respectively six years and four years, by their father, and the latter's suicide. Some six weeks ago he took up his quarters on a vegetable ranch owned by his nephew near Marsh Landing, a place about five miles from Antioch. Langbhen and his family were fresh from Faderland. They were quite industrious people, the most affectionate relations existing between husband and wife and between parents and children. For the want of anything better to do, Langbhen worked on his nephew's farm, cultivating small fruits and vegetables, which the nephew took to Antioch and sold. The nephew boarded with the family. While working in the fields Langbhen was usually accompanied by his two children, who whiled the time away in
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