USA > California > Contra Costa County > The history of Contra Costa County, California > Part 19
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playing and weeding. At half-past four on Friday morning Langbhen got up and prepared breakfast for his nephew, as was his wont, and after the latter left for Antioch with a load of strawberries he went to the field to work; soon after his children followed him. At about eight o'clock Langbhen was seen by Max Klein, a neighbor, who was at the time cutting potatoes in his barn, a few rods from the Langbhen resi- dence, to tie the shoe-lace of the little girl. He was then seen to take the two children to the adjacent tules ; soon after he was observed coming out of the tules without the children, and walking rapidly toward his house. Immediately after he reached it, Mrs. Langbhen rushed out in an excited state, throwing up her hands in despair, and talking excitedly in German. This was followed quickly by the discharge of a gun. The neighbors naturally enough rushed to the scene. Fleckaman, a next-door neighbor to the Langbhens, reached the house first, and entering it he beheld a horrible sight. Langbhen was leaning against the wall, almost doubled up, and dead, with a double-barreled shotgun grasped firmly in his hands and the muzzle in his mouth, with his toe against the trigger. The charge had passed into the unfortunate man's head and spattered his brains all over the room. After partly recovering from the shock a search was begun for the children, who were missing. About an hour later the two were found by a Portuguese gardener, lying dead side by side in the tules, not far from where Langbhen had been seen to emerge. The little girl's skull had been smashed with a heavy blunt instrument and her throat cut from ear to ear, severing the jugular vein, and a piece of flesh had been cut out of one of her hands. The boy's body bore no marks of violence, excepting that his head was nearly severed from the trunk. Near the bodies were found the apron worn by Lang- bhen at the time he slaughtered his children, and the heavy bludgeon with which it is suposed he beat in the skull of his little daughter. Both articles were covered with blood. The throats of the little ones are sup- posed to have been cut with a scythe blade or some similar instrument, as in each case the frightful wound had been inflicted with one blow. But no such weapon, or any other corresponding to it, could be found, although a most careful search was made in the neighborhood."
MURDER OF A CHINAWOMAN .- A Chinawoman was stabbed and killed by a Chinaman named Ah Yen on September 27, 1879, at Antioch. On
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examination it appeared that the man who killed her, and another Chi- naman, who claimed to own the woman, having bought her for one hun- dred and eighty dollars, came to Antioch together three or four weeks previously from one of the mountain mining districts. What the rela- tionship of the parties was, or what the provocation for the murderous assault, whether hatred, jealousy, revenge, or suddenly aroused anger, was not made clear by the evidence adduced at the examination. Ah Yen was tried, convicted of murder in the second degree, and sentenced to twenty-eight years in the State prison.
KILLING OF THOMAS SHERIDAN .- A serious affray occurred on June 12, 1880, in Moraga Valley, which resulted in the death of Thomas Sheridan, a young man of eighteen or nineteen years of age. The diffi- culty occurred on land lying south or southeast of the Moraga Rancho, claimed as being in the Sobrante grant, but supposed to be public land, and occupied as such for ten years past. Upon a quarter-section of this land, with consent, or upon bargain with the original squatter claimant, S. S. Kendall, an old resident of the Moraga Valley, had cut a quantity of wood. Whether the original claimant had technically lost his right or not is a matter of dispute, but the land for the last year or two had been claimed and occupied by John Sheridan and his family. Kendall being a cripple, having a few years before suffered the loss of a leg, and antici- pating some opposition in removing the wood, engaged a neighbor, T. B. Fulton, and a negro named Charles Mingo, to load and haul it away. These men went out for the purpose armed with a breech-loading rifle and a revolver. On undertaking to load the wood Mrs. Sheridan came out and forbade them doing so. She was followed by Sheridan, armed with a hatchet, Thomas Sheridan, with a double-barreled gun, and a man named Gleeson, with a single-barreled gun. As the statements go, Sheridan attacked Fulton with the hatchet, striking him several times upon the head and inflicting some severe cuts. Gleeson also struck him once or twice with his gun. Mingo, holding his rifle in one hand, seized Sheridan with the other, and endeavored to drag him off Fulton. Thomas Sheridan, at a distance of a few yards, leveled his gun at Min- go, and walked around, approaching nearer, to get in range to shoot him without danger of shooting his father, Mingo meanwhile endeavor- ing to keep the father as a shield between himself and the son. The lat-
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ter, however, gained a position of advantage where Mingo saw that he would have a clear shot at him. Mingo then hastily dropped the barrel of his own rifle to range with the breech at his hip and fired, the ball entering the abdomen of young Sheridan and causing his death within half or three-quarters of an hour.
KILLING OF MANUEL SIBRIAN .- Manuel Sibrian was shot and killed with a pistol by Narciso Miranda on July 1, 1880, at the place of the latter's residence in the San Ramon hills, about a mile southwest of Alamo. Both men were native Californians of Mexican descent, Miran- da living in the hills on adjoining claims of supposed Government land, though also claimed by Carpentier as part of the Sobrante grant. It is said that there had been bad feeling for a long time between Miranda and the deceased, arising from disputes as to the rightful claim of the latter to the land he had been occupying. As we are informed, the land was taken up on pre-emption claim some years ago by Miranda's father, who had since died, and who permitted Sibrian to temporarily occupy it when he had nowhere to put his family, after having been obliged to leave a residence property he had previously occupied. On the part of the Miranda family, it is asserted that Sibrian, since their father's death, has wrongfully claimed and insisted on retaining possession of the land as his own. On the day mentioned, at the meeting that resulted in his death, he went to Miranda's house in anger and made an attack upon him with a club, to which Miranda responded by shooting him sev- eral times in the abdomen with a revolving derringer pistol. Miranda was duly tried, convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to one year and one month's imprisonment in the State prison.
KILLING OF LOUIS FARRERI .- A series of affrays occurred on the night of March 19, 1881, at Nortonville, between Italians and persons of other nationalities employed about the coal mines there, in one of which an Italian named Louis Farreri received a blow upon the head from a slung-shot, club, or stone that resulted in his death a few hours after the occurrence. From what we learn in relation to the matter, it appears that a considerable number of Italian laborers had been em- ployed in the mine, cutting out coal, at less than the usual rates of com- pensation, thus creating an unfriendly feeling between them and the
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regular miners of other nationalities there employed, but which had not prior to this occurrence led to any personal collisions. Recently, how- ever, a number of miners of rough habits had arrived at Nortonville from the north coast mines and had shown a disposition to engage in personal affrays with the Italians, and, from such evidence as had been elicited, they are presumed to have been the assailants in Saturday night's encounters, of which there were several prior to that in which Farreri received the fatal injury. This occurred about midnight, when, as testified by another Italian who was with the deceased, they were as- sailed by half a dozen or more persons and Farreri knocked down, while the witness took flight. Farreri was found shortly afterward by a countryman lying in a partial stupor upon the ground where he had fallen. On being aroused, he complained of violent pain in the head, but was able to walk, and his countryman attended him to the gate of his residence, after seeing him enter which he left him. A little later an- other countryman passing noticed him lying upon the stoop of the house moaning. He assisted him into the kitchen and urged him to go to bed ; but Farreri said his head hurt him very much, and he would rest where he was. Thinking he was only affected by drink, and would soon sleep off its effects, the man left him there, without awakening the wife or children of the sufferer. Still later, another Italian passing the house and hearing the groans, entered the kitchen and found Farreri upon the floor complaining that his head hurt him. Mrs. Farreri was called up, and she thought he was affected by drinking. After her countryman left, Mrs. Farreri remained in the kitchen with her husband until he fell into a doze, and appeared to be sleeping without suffering much pain, when she returned to her bed, about three o'clock, but on awakening about daylight and going to him she found him dead. In the absence of Coroner Guy, a jury was summoned, an inquest held on Sunday by Justice Wall, and a verdict found of death from natural causes and "the visitation of God." District Attorney Chase went up on Monday, and at his instance a jury was summoned and inquest held by Coroner Guy. The testimony of Doctors Leffler and Wemple, given upon a post-mor- tem examination, went to show that the skull of the deceased had been fractured by a club, stone, slung-shot, or some other heavy, dull weap- on, and that death was caused thereby. Many other witnesses were ex- amined, but no testimony found by which the act could be fixed upon
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any particular person or persons, although some six or eight had been arrested on presumption of implication in the assault, all of them re- cent comers to the place from the north coast, and a verdict was found that the deceased came to his death from a skull fracture, caused by the blow of some instrument in the hands of some unknown person. The deceased is said to have been a generally quiet and well-disposed man, who left a widow and four children unprovided for.
KILLING OF PATRICK SULLIVAN .- Patrick Sullivan, who lived with his family on the Wildcat branch of the San Pablo Creek, left Oakland on Monday evening, March 28, 1881, in his wagon, and never reached his home. Alarmed by his protracted absence, his family and friends in- stituted search for him Tuesday morning, and his dead body was found riddled with buckshot, and one arm around the axletree of the wagon, several hundred yards below the road near the creek. From appearances it was concluded that after being shot he fell forward over the front of the wagon and grasped the axletree in an unconscious dying effort, the horses breaking from the road and running (dragging the body) to the place near the creek where the wagon was found. The firing had been heard by some of the people living in the vicinity the previous evening, and foot-tracks were found about the place in the road where it was evident the fatal shot was delivered, and from the direction of these tracks and the fact that there had been a long existing feud between himself and the deceased, suspicion led to the arrest of a neighbor named Robert Lyle, in whose house was found a double-barreled shot- gun. An inquest was held on the body by Deputy Coroner Livingston, and a verdict found on Thursday that the deceased came to his death from a gun-shot wound inflicted by some person unknown to the jury. Lyle was taken down from the jail on Friday, April Ist, for examina- tion at San Pablo, on accusation of the murder. Sullivan left a wife and seven or eight children. Lyle was held to answer and trial set for April II, 1881, when he was discharged.
KILLING OF SHERIDAN .- The circumstances of the case as related are: That the Sheridan boys, sons of John Sheridan, living in Grizzly Cañon, found that one of their goats had been killed by a coyote, which had partaken of the flesh to the satisfaction of its hunger, but probably
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would return to feast upon the carcass, when they hoped by lying in ambush to shoot the plunderer of their flock. Accordingly, on the even- ing of May 11, 1881, they invited a neighbor, Michael Hennessy, to join them, and went out about dusk, taking a position behind a bush some thirty yards more or less from the carcass of the goat, John Sheridan, the elder of the brothers, having a rifle, and Daniel C., the younger, a boy of fourteen years, having no weapon. They were soon afterward joined by Hennessy, with a double-barreled shot-gun. Hennessy selected an ambush position for himself some little distance from that occupied by the boys, and directed the younger one, who had no weapon, to go to a tree on the top of the ridge behind and above his position, where he could have a good outlook over the ground, and if he saw the coyote to make a signal. Hennessy then took the position he had chosen, and, after lying quietly in wait for nearly half an hour, heard a rustling in the grass or brush on his left, and looking in that direction, at a dis- tance of some twenty or thirty yards, saw a moving object that he took to be the head of a coyote peering warily about, as if suspicious that danger might be lurking near for him. In the belief that it was a coyote, Hennessy raised his gun, but lowered it to assure himself of the posi- tion of the supposed animal, and, without the most distant thought that the boy was anywhere in that direction, raised his gun again and fired. The poor lad instantly cried, "It's me you've shot ! I'm killed !" Hen- nessy exclaimed, "My God, John, I've shot Connie! Run for help !" and ran immediately to the wounded boy, took him in his arms, and held him until some neighbors called by the brother came, when they carried the lifeless body to the house. The boy survived only ten or fifteen minutes after Hennessy reached him, but never spoke again after exclaiming that he had been shot and killed. The jury of inquest found in accord- ance with the facts, that the killing was purely accidental.
KILLING OF CHRISTIAN SMITH .- The following article is from the Contra Costa Gazette of July 9, 1881 : "Last Monday morning, July 4, 1881, about 8 o'clock, when the jail cells were unlocked to let the pris- oners out into the corridor for breakfast, Henry Grosser, awaiting trial on charge of murder for the killing of Christian Smith on Marsh Creek in May, did not come out with the others, and one of them looking into the cell, discovered his body hanging from the center ventilating grat-
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ing in the ceiling, or crown sheet. All warmth had left the body, and from facts afterward learned it is supposed to have been hanging there from about midnight. A jury of inquest was immediately organized by Deputy Coroner Livingston, and inquiries as to circumstances of the suicide proceeded with. It was ascertained by examination that the de- ceased had knotted a flour sack of the fifty-pound size tightly around his neck, and, the ends being short after first crossing, to complete the knot, had been laid back and wound with twine to fasten them. Through the collar thus formed the leg of a pair of drawers had been inserted, the ends passed up between and brought down over the grating bars and tightly knotted, the deceased standing upon an empty candle-box to do this, then pushing the candle-box away with his feet, and leaving himself suspended to die by suffocation, as there was no fall sufficient to break the spinal column, and although the hands being free, had there not been great determination to effect the purpose, he could have reached up and unloosed the knot, as there might have been an inclina- tion to do for relief from the choking sensation. But it is not probable that such attempt was made, or some sound of it would have been heard by the occupant of the adjoining cell, who was awake and heard the noise made by the box when, as is supposed, it was pushed from under him upon the iron floor. On hearing this noise the prisoner called to Grosser and inquired if he was awake, but got no response and heard no further sound. When found in the morning, the arms were hanging close to the body and the feet within two or three inches of the floor ..
"Grosser was a German by birth, about fifty years of age, but in appearance ten years or more older. After having been for some years in this country he returned to Germany, where he married and came back with his wife about twelve years ago. They have since had four children, three girls and one boy. The eldest child is about twelve, and the youngest one year of age. They have been living upon Marsh Creek for some three years, and have been well thought of by their neighbors as people of good character and of hard-working, industrious habits. Before moving to that neighborhood they had, either as share partners or employees, business relations with Smith, for the killing of whom Grosser was to have been tried on charge of murder. The land upon which they lived was purchased by Smith, and a deed for one half of it was afterward made to Mrs. Grosser, in consideration, as the Gros-
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sers claimed, of a lot of sheep sold or transferred in exchange to him. The business of farming and stock-keeping on the place at Marsh Creek appears to have been engaged in upon some partnership basis or under- standing between the Grossers and Smith, and there has within the past year grown up difficulties about settlement of the business between them. Smith's family lived at Oakland, but he was frequently at Marsh Creek, and spent considerable of his time at Grosser's. A short time be- fore Smith was shot, Grosser said his wife had informed him that he had made grossly improper proposals and approaches to her, which greatly shocked and enraged him. He then resolved to resent a repeti- tion of such insults should they be offered, and on Smith's next visit to the ranch he armed himself with a pistol, procured for the purpose, and seeing him enter the milk-cellar, he followed to find that he had seized and thrown Mrs. Grosser upon the ground. He thereupon fired ; the shot missed and Smith ran out, but as he passed he fired again, shooting him in the arm. Smith continued running until he fell on receiving another shot in the body, from the effects of which he died two days afterward. Grosser, after calling to a man near by and telling what he had done, ran to a neighboring house, which he entered in a frenzy of excitement and said he had killed Smith. Neighbors were quickly gathered, who re- moved Smith to the house and found Mrs. Grosser upon the milk-cellar floor in a swoon, with her lower limbs exposed below the knees. It was half an hour before she became conscious and was able to relate the cir- cumstances of the assault until the moment of being thrown upon the ground, when she swooned and became unconscious. The statements of the circumstances made by Grosser and his wife were accepted as the truth by the neighbors generally. But rumors soon gained currency that an improper intimacy known to Grosser had subsisted for some time be- tween his wife and Smith, and that the story of the assault upon her had been invented to furnish a reason for killing him in the hope of thus being able to avoid payment of what they owed him. It was upon such testimony as was offered in support of the charge or theory of such a design that Grosser was held for trial on the charge of murder, the case having been set for Tuesday next. All day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent by Mrs. Grosser in company with her husband, and she seemed deeply distressed by the reports reflecting upon her charac- ter and the charges of plotting the murder of Smith. About ten o'clock
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Sunday night Grosser called to Robert Lyle, in an adjoining cell on one side of his, and asked if he could lend him a pencil. Lyle replied that he could, and threw his pencil up through the ventilating grating in such a way that it fell through the grating of Grosser's cell. With this pencil he is supposed to have concluded a writing covering four or five sheets of note-paper, commencing with the date of July Ist. This writing was found between the pages of a magazine or pamphlet in the cell. It is somewhat disconnectedly written, and is without signature. In sub- stance, it is as follows :
"'I herewith make a statement. From what I hear, they are making numerous charges about me and my wife. About the larceny of sheep, when under attachment, I had no reason to suppose I was doing wrong in moving them over the county line. Mr. White and others knew all about the matter. I was attending to the sheep for Smith, and always thought he was a respectable man until of late. The horses and stock were assessed to me and my wife by Smith's request, as he said it would be better to have the taxes all paid together. A year ago last fall Smith requested me to sell the cattle if I could get twenty-five dollars per head for them all around. I told him it would be impossible, they were too poor, and then he told me to do the best I could with them. When he came back from Europe, he was well satisfied with what I had done. I told him about the crop and everything. He thought it best not to sell the grain until it would bring a better price. I gave him an order on Charles Clayton to sell, and understood him to say that he had sold, but don't know as yet what he got, but told me he had the account. When we undertook to settle I knew I owed him. I proposed to let him have the growing crop. He said he would rather not take it, as there was no telling what it would be. I know he has paid out money for lumber and other things. I would have settled with him, but he would not pay half the store bill, as he had agreed. He had boarded with us most of the time last winter, and I had kept no account of it. I had also boarded all the men chopping wood, and had hauled it for him to Brentwood. When we commenced farming together I was to have half his horses, two of them valued at $150 and three others at $60. I had two cows ; one died and the other was with calf. I let him have that one for another, from which I raised a calf until it was a cow. I let them run with his. He had a great many, and I was to have the pick of two from the lot, but he
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took away all the calves and said he would make it right. When we first started with sheep, I had $700 coming to me for which I and my wife had worked, and which I took in lambs at $2 a head. I then turned them over to him and went to work for him at $30 per month. My wife was cooking for herders and shearers when the sheep were sheared at the place where we lived, and sometimes at other places. I worked for him until I moved over to Marsh Creek. In regard to this affair, most any other man would have done the same. I am satisfied my wife never had any improper intercourse with Smith or any other man. I was never in- side a jail until now. I never spent money unnecessarily. All I had I got honestly. I hear they are trying to make out that my wife is a prostitute, which I can't listen to no more-that hurts my feelings so much that I am tired of living.'
"Then follows a statement of small sums due from Smith and himself together to various individuals, and the writing concludes as follows : 'I never, never thought of getting in this trouble a day or two before it happened. I often walked from place to place. I did not know what I was looking for. I am indebted to Mr. Welch $12 for that pistol. I think I am going to a better world. I forgive everybody the same I would take myself. I was too easy (or accommodating) for my own good.'"
CHAPTER XVII
BENCH AND BAR
BY HON. R. H. LATIMER
THE history of the bench of Contra Costa County may be divided into two periods-first, the period from the time of the organization of the State under the constitution of 1849 to the adoption of the constitution of 1879, and, second, the period from the adoption of the constitution of 1879 to the present time.
The county of Contra Costa was organized by an act of the first leg- islature, in 1850, at its first session. This act also established the county seat at the town of Martinez, where it has ever since remained.
The constitution of 1849 vested the judicial powers of the State of California in a supreme court, a district court, county courts, and jus- tices of the peace. The California legislature, in its first session in 1850, vested the judicial powers in accordance with the constitution of 1849, as follows: The State was divided into nine judicial districts, which districts were composed of the several counties, and the county of Con- tra Costa was placed in the Third Judicial District, then composed of the counties of Branceforte, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, and Monterey.
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