August 16, 2022 • 47 mins
On today’s episode I have the pleasure of speaking with history professor and author Aaron Goings.
Aaron’s latest work titled, The Port of Missing Men, is an in depth look into the life and legend surrounding Billy Gohl the charismatic, controversial and infamous labor organizer of the Sailors Union of the Pacific.
After being convicted for the murder of a good friend, Billy was unjustly credited with the murder of dozens of port workers and was branded by the press as The Ghoul of Grays Harbor.
Aaron’s book looks into this bizarre slice of history and attempts to untangle the complicated story of big business, organized labor, citizen committees, and shady detective agencies in pursuit of the truth behind the multitude of dead bodies known as the “floater fleet” that clogged the frigid waterways of Gray’s Harbor, Washington in the early 1900’s.
More than just a true-crime novel, The Port of Missing Men exposes the brutal treatment sailors and loggers suffered at the hands of lumber barons and ship owners in the early Pacific Northwest extraction economy and details the heated and sometimes violent clashes between pro-union and anti-union forces.
Aaron’s book exposes a class system of income inequality that persist even today and serves as a poignant reminder that the fight for fair pay, safer working conditions and basic workers’ rights is far from over.
The Show Notes
The Port of Missing Men
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295747415/the-port-of-missing-men/
Powell's Books
https://www.powells.com/
Union Home Plus helps union members save money when they buy, sell, or finance their home.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joe Cadwell (00:10):
Welcome to Grit Nation. I'm Joe Cadwell, the
host of the show, and on today'sepisode, I have the pleasure of
speaking with history professorand author Aaron Goings.
Aaron's latest work titled ThePort of Missing men is an in
depth look into life and legendsurrounding Billy Gohl, a
charismatic, controversial andinfamous labor organizer of the
Sailors Union of the Pacific.
After being convicted for themurder of a good friend, Billy
(00:33):
was unjustly credited with amurder of dozens of Port workers
and was branded by the press asthe ghoul of grays harbor.
Aaron's book looks into thisbizarre slice of history and
attempts to untangle thecomplicated story of big
business, organized labor,citizen committees and shady
detective agencies in pursuit ofthe truth behind the multitude
(00:54):
of dead bodies known as thefloater fleet that clogged the
frigid waterways of graysharbor, Washington in the early
19 hundred's. More than just atrue crime novel, The Port of
missing men exposes that brutaltreatment sailors and loggers
suffered at the hands of lumberbarons and ship owners in the
early Pacific Northwestextraction economy and details
(01:16):
the heated and sometimes violentclashes between pro union and
anti Union forces. Aaron's bookexposes a class system of income
inequality that persists eventoday and serves as a poignant
reminder that the fight for fairpay safer working conditions and
basic work rights is far fromover. After this episode, be
sure to check out the show notesfor more information about Aaron
(01:41):
goings in his book, afford amissing man. And now on to the
show. Aaron Goings Welcome toGrit Nation.
Aaron Goings (01:53):
Hey, thanks so much for having me. Good to talk
to you, Joe.
Joe Cadwell (01:57):
Yeah, thank you so much, Aaron for taking your time
to be on the show. Today. I'mreally excited to introduce you
to my listener audience. You arean author of a book that I
recently finished called theport of missing men Billy Gohl
labor in the brutal times in thePacific Northwest. And for those
who don't know Billy Gaul story,it's an interesting story, a
(02:18):
fella who was once considered tobe perhaps the the first or
largest serial killer inAmerica. Seems like maybe
there's upon reading your book,there's a little more to the
story that has deeper roots inlabor history. And before we get
into your book, and Billy goal,Aaron, what got you interested
in writing a book about laborhistory and Billy's story?
Unknown (02:38):
Right? So thanks so much for asking me asking me
that. So I'm a historian. I workin teach history and research
history. And growing up in aworking class family of blue
collar family on Washington'scoast, I always very interested
in the working class experience.
And growing up in a workingclass family, it's kind of hard
(03:01):
to escape the reality of class,you see it all over the place.
You see it in conditions facedby working people, including me
and my family, versus those whoown say, factories etc. and
other bits of business. And sowhen I was in college, first
generation college studentworking class college student
(03:21):
was fairly turned off by thetraditional story of history,
which is often to this day isstill a very top down story,
elite white men and their heroicacts. So I picked up first
Howard Zinn's famous people'shistory. And from there, I went
on Learn learned about thewobblies very prominent here in
(03:45):
the Northwest. And more and moreI saw my story reflected, I saw
the working class majority'sstory reflected and I, at that
point, really, when I was in myearly 20s, until now, my main
goal professional goal personalgoal is to research and write
and tell working class storiesworking class history, because
(04:10):
it's a very different story thanthe one you get from the news
media. From most textbooks andthe like, and this I thought the
Billy Gohl story, because it hislife is fairly well known in the
Northwest that this was a greatopportunity to reach a larger
than usual audience with laborhistory book. Yeah,
Joe Cadwell (04:35):
For sure. And you know, in reflection on the the
captains of industry, theRockefellers and the and the
Carnegie's and those type ofpeople, they are sort of
idolized, but there are a lot ofbad sides to what they had
accomplished as well. And a lotof that holds true today. And I
think we just recently back withthe Occupy Wall Street, got a
(04:55):
fresh taste of what incomeinequality was all about. And so
in writing your book, whichcenters around Grays Harbor, and
Aberdeen, Hoquiam area, therewas the huge division of wealth
back in the early 1900s. And whydid that division of wealth
become so prominent,
Aaron Goings (05:16):
the roots of of that inequality really have a
lot to do with the nature,nature of industrial capitalism.
So whether you're in PacificNorthwest, where the largest
industry by far almost the onlyindustry in the late 19th, early
20th century, or certainly thelargest, by far is lumber,
whether you're talking aboutmining, whether you're talking
(05:37):
about steel mills, or largescale plantation agriculture,
the owners of of those firms,the owners of logging camps,
they had such incredible power,they had real control over the
political parties, both theRepublicans and the Democrats,
(05:59):
they had a lot of say, in thelaws that were passed, they had
a lot of control over police andnewspapers that often only
presented their story, reallyturning employers into heroes.
And then anytime workersorganize, anytime workers fought
(06:21):
back, they would be met withviolence in one form or another,
whether that was mass arrests,whether it was the passage of
anti union legislation, whichwas very common in Washington
state where I am, and in Oregon,and many other western states,
essentially making it illegal tobelong to certain kinds of labor
(06:43):
organizations. And that powerthat employers had a century
ago, is, and I think you weremaybe hinting at this a bit, we
can see it reflected in the 21stcentury as well. I do think for
a lot of people who had maybekept their head buried in the
sand, it was occupy that reallymade that gross division of
(07:07):
income inequality, wealthinequality, really obvious, and
we couldn't deny it any longer.
Joe Cadwell (07:14):
So it's a pretty age old story, but it's really
in the context of your book,again, the port of missing men,
which focuses on Billy Gaul, whowill get into as a labor
organizer. He got involved withthat, not not representing the
lumber industry, folks, but thepeople that were actually
transporting a lot of the cutlumber out of the Grays Harbor
(07:38):
port, which at the early 20thcentury was the largest producer
of timber in the world, is thatcorrect?
Aaron Goings (07:45):
Right. So today, Grays Harbor is if it's known
for anything, I think it'sperhaps as the hometown of
nirvana or as the rainiest placein the contiguous United States.
But a century ago, Aberdeen andHoquiam were some of the largest
cities in the Pacific Northweston both were top 10 largest
(08:06):
cities, and they producedbillions and billions of board
feet of lumber that was shippedout of what became the port of
grays harbor out of Aberdeen outof Hoquiam. And it was the
largest lumber port in the worldfor decades on end. And of
(08:26):
course, for that to happen.
Workers need to put the lumberon the ships and workers need to
transport that lumber on theships. So we're talking about
the importance of longshoremanlongshore workers as well as
sailors and they representedthis important choke point.
Although there's only 100 200longshoremen and sailors at any
(08:49):
one time in places like Aberdeenand Hoquiam. During mobility
goals, lifetime, they had thepower that they could exercise
and did exercise to shut thatport down and really stop, stop
the transportation of cut lumberand thus stop the acquisition
Joe Cadwell (09:12):
of wealth, inordinate wealth for those
lumber barons. And this all cameabout right after 1906 when San
Francisco caught on fire, Ithink 80% of the city had burned
to the ground, there was a greatdemand for building materials.
And here just up the coast isHoquiam. All this wealth of wood
can be shipped down there andpeople were making a lot of
(09:34):
money, who owned the rights tothe forest to do the logging who
owned the ships for thetransportation but the people
that weren't making the money,were those sailors and that's
where again, Billy goals rolecame in. He was looking to get
livable wages and livableworking conditions for the
sailors. And a lot of peopletook offense to that
Aaron Goings (09:55):
anytime there's a disaster. There are people with
power who are looking And toprofit off of that disaster,
whether it's an earthquake and afire, as in San Francisco,
whether it's the pandemic, inour own time, unfortunately, but
it was 1906, this devastatingearthquake and fire that just
level San Francisco. And in theaftermath of that, there was, of
(10:18):
course, a reconstructionproject. And for that
reconstruction, people in SanFrancisco needed cut lumber. And
the main source of that cutlumber was going to be the
Northwest. And to get it there,and to get it there by just an
incredible amount of shipsneeded to transport it.
(10:39):
Employers needed to rev upproduction rep, rev up
transportation, and they sawmoney signs that a shipping
owners that captains, the ownersof Mills, they saw the
opportunity to rebuild SanFrancisco and line their own
pockets. The workers though,whether we're talking about
(11:00):
building trades, in SanFrancisco, whether we're talking
about longshoreman, whetherwe're talking about sailors,
like Billy Gaul, and his and hisco workers, they weren't
automatically going to improvetheir condition. In fact, they
were going to have to fight andin some cases die to get a
(11:20):
living wage, you know, doing thelabor necessary to rebuild San
Francisco. And Billy goal was atthe center of that.
Joe Cadwell (11:29):
All right, so let's go let's now focus in on Billy
goal, infamously known as theghoul of grays harbor, we'll
find out why in a little bit.
But where did Billy goalactually come from?
Aaron Goings (11:39):
So Billy is an immigrant from Germany and came
to the United States in the late19th century, he was part of
this massive flow of millionsand millions of immigrants to to
the United States during thelate 19th and early 20th
century. And he also representedthis group of Northern Europeans
(12:00):
who dominated Pacific shipping.
In fact, almost all PacificCoast sailors, like Billy were
Germans, Scandinavians, fins,and the like. Virtually no
native born Americans performthat work. It was one of these
jobs that many considered to betoo dirty, too difficult, too
(12:20):
dangerous. It had very littleappeal to most people. And so
immigrants ended up doing it.
And Billy came to the UnitedStates, and traveled as a
sailor, but also performingother types of migratory labor
across the Pacific coast fromAlaska to San Francisco. And he
(12:42):
was one of these millions ofmigratory workers who in many
ways built the modern AmericanWest, who built the roads did
the mining who who cut the treeswho did the farming, and who
transported those goods by 1900,Billy's living in a boarding
(13:02):
house along with other sailorsin San Francisco, dozens of
German and Scandinavian sailors.
And it was in that in that jobin those living conditions that
he has, by the early 20thcentury emerged as a fairly
prominent as a fairly importantvoice for for organized labor in
the Bay Area, which was and isthe home of the sailors union of
(13:26):
the Pacific, as well as the WestCoast longshore workers that set
the it's always been the centerof maritime unionism.
Joe Cadwell (13:37):
And then he ended up in Aberdeen in the early
1900s. And when he got there,again, taking that reputation,
that experience he had, hebecame sort of a business agent
for the sailors union of thePacific in Aberdeen, didn't he?
Aaron Goings (13:52):
Right, so after years of working on on ships,
and often loading and unloadingthose ships on imports, where
there were always longshoreman,he was elected by the Union as a
whole to be the unionrepresentative in Aberdeen and
we're talking about 1902 1903.
So Aberdeen and Hoquiam werejust being carved out of the
(14:17):
forest carved out of the mudcarved out of the river side,
and starting to become importantindustrial centers. So right at
that time, right as the city ismoving from being a village into
one of the largest cities in thePacific Northwest, Billy is
elected by his colleagues tobecome the union agent, and he
(14:39):
settles there in 1903. Right atthis time when Aberdeen and
Hoquiam are becoming importantindustrial cities. This
transition is very important forfor Billy's life because he had
spent many many years enduringsome of the most unspeak COBOL
conditions really truly violentconditions on ships as wage
(15:03):
laborer aboard ship. It enduredcertainly violent captain's
violent first mates who beatsometimes killed sailors who
shanghaied. So they would kidnapsailors because the conditions
aboard ships are so bad. And heendured shipwrecks. So he
brought those experiences thoseclass experiences as a worker as
(15:24):
a working class immigrant to hislife as a union official. And as
a business agent, he basicallyprovided the sailors for the
ship owners for the captain. Soin order for a ship to sail out
of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, theyneeded to be supplied with union
(15:45):
labor. And so Billy had, againhad this important choke point.
If captains if ship owners hadreputations for violence, for
cruelty for being bad employersfor shorting workers, he could
and did refuse to provide themwith sailors refuse to man the
ships. And that, of course, isgoing to antagonize the ship
(16:11):
owners and the lumber millowners. And they're often the
same same people who need theseships and need workers to in
order to make money.
Joe Cadwell (16:25):
So as Billy was, was standing up backing his
sailors, you know, he pushedback and he said, Look, if we're
going to subject our people toworking on these very dangerous
conditions, let's at leastimprove their living conditions
and prove the humanity of thework they're doing. Try to give
them a little bit more money.
And the folks that had that allthe power all the money and all
(16:46):
the wealth said no. And so Billyused the strength of his union
and his connections to basicallyshut down the port, as you said,
and stop that flow of money tothose folks and they didn't like
it. So they employed some unionbreaking firms to look into what
was going on here and see whatwe can do to get rid of this
Billy gold fella.
Aaron Goings (17:07):
Right. So I think probably your listeners, if
there's one company in Americanhistory that's as notorious or
infamous as any other for itsanti unionism. It's the
Pinkerton Detective Agency, themost notorious anti union agency
in American history. Theyprovided detectives, undercover
(17:29):
agents, to to break unions.
Well, in the late 19th century,in the American West, in
particular, a second agencyemerged, there were there were
several of these agencies. Butthe second largest, was an
agency called the fielddetective agency. It actually is
formed by Pinkerton, and thefields become just not as famous
(17:49):
for sure, but they do the exactsame thing. They provide
detectives, to mine owners, tofactory owners, to local
officials, to essentially bustup unions. That's right to bust
unions,
Joe Cadwell (18:06):
there was no detective work being done. It
was a union busting businessmodel.
Aaron Goings (18:11):
Absolutely. And quite often, they would work
hand in hand with arm strikebreakers. And so in the 1906
strike that you mentioned, thelocal police are refusing to and
incapable of breaking thestrike. And so local employers,
dentists, lawyers, smallbusinessmen, they are sworn in
(18:33):
essentially as vigilantes. Andthen these strike breaking firms
that promised they could get1000s of workers anywhere in the
United States within 48 hours.
They're very efficient strikebreakers, they would provide
these arm strike breakers andduring the 1906 strike, like in
so many other strikes, thosestrike breakers, often operating
(18:56):
hand in hand with the detectiveshand in hand with the Pinkertons
murder to unionists, which isagain, unfortunately very common
in American labor history.
Joe Cadwell (19:09):
So aside from murdering people that are
standing up for themselves, whatother tactics that they use
Aaron to try to break up thestrikes, right.
Aaron Goings (19:18):
So it varies over time. One tactic is to get a
large group of vigilantes and toround up the so called
troublemakers and rat and deportthem from town that happened in
Aberdeen and hopefully inneighboring towns quite often.
It would happen as often is notto immigrant groups who had
(19:40):
started to stand up for theirrights. So 1906 1907 a group of
Italian road builders wererounded up and shipped out
1911 1912 The same thing happenswith Greek and Finnish workers.
And then beyond this, the ethnicelement to it quite commonly, it
(20:01):
would just be a massive roundupof any labor agitator, they
would be picked up, not put injail just shipped right out and
then refused entry. That that'sone option, the perhaps better
known option is for thesePinkertons for these Thiele
agents to infiltrate a union, orsay a left wing workers
(20:24):
political party, SocialistParty, Communist Party, and to
stir up trouble and to thenproduce reports that they would
send to their employers lyingabout the activities of the
workers. And this, althoughtoday, 100 years later, many
(20:46):
people know that this happened.
And 100 years ago, many peopleknew that that happened.
Unfortunately, the Pinkertons inthe field agents and other
strikebreakers had very goodreputations in the eyes of the
Chamber of Commerce in the eyesof newspapers. So anything that
these pinker temps that thesestrikebreakers do is painted in
(21:09):
the most positive lightimaginable. They're often cast
as heroes in the Seattle Timesin the Oregonian, in the
Centralia Chronicle and locallyfor me the Aberdeen daily world
and all the other localnewspapers these people whose
job it is to destroy unions arecast as heroes standing up to
(21:32):
darkness that dark, the RedScare in the light.
Joe Cadwell (21:38):
So again, the the money control the media, the
media painted the picture thatthese were, you know, folks
doing the right thing and thatthose strikers were in the wrong
and we just need to get back tobusiness the way it was. So, so
how did Billy goals survive allof this?
Aaron Goings (21:55):
Unfortunately, he didn't for that long, but for
several years, he did what somany union activists did. He
relied on numbers. He relied onthe reality, which was that
Aberdeen and Hoquiam were amongthe most heavily organized the
(22:15):
most had among the highest uniondensities of anywhere in the
Pacific Northwest. And he wasenormously popular among those
people. He was elected twice aspresident of the Grays Harbor
Labor Council, which again, notonly is he being elected by all
the Pacific sailors, US Pacificsailors, so 1000s. He's also
(22:36):
been elected to serve as therepresentative of 1000s of local
unionists, as their voice towrite letters to the newspapers
and stand up. So for years, hehad this tremendous backing of
fellow unionists and they, theytreat him like like a hero. He
(22:57):
gets arrested on severaloccasions that for violently
attacking strikebreakers forleading strikers in sort of like
Gangs of New York style warfareagainst strikebreakers,
Joe Cadwell (23:10):
using the tactics of the strikebreakers on them on
themselves.
Aaron Goings (23:14):
Yes, absolutely.
And that's something that yousee throughout the early 20th
century is you see, strikersworkers, Unionists arming
themselves to fight on thestreets against strikebreakers
against police, and the like. Sohe was enormously popular,
easily the most popular, bestknown, best respected union
(23:37):
leader in again, the place thatin some ways had the strongest
labor movement in the Northwestalong with Seattle, and a few
other places,
Joe Cadwell (23:50):
and then became the beginning of the end for Billy
Gaul, when he met someone namedPatty McHugh, who I think was
one of those field detectiveagency spies. He was a bar owner
who befriended Billy and beganto concoct a story about Billy's
involvement and killing of oneof Billy's best friends, Charles
Hedberg. What can you tell usabout that?
Aaron Goings (24:11):
So after years of the sailors union, along with
other maritime unions reallyfighting for workers rights, of
course, after the real highpoint of labor activism, the
1906 maritime strike, but then,after several years of Billy
refusing the ships owned by andoperated by notorious captains,
(24:36):
a group of business owners cometogether and we know some of
their names we know. BankerWilliam Paterson who was also
the head of the Chamber ofCommerce, head of the Elks club,
one of the most important andwealthiest employers in the
Pacific Northwest, him and a fewothers form Citizens Committee
(24:56):
and people familiar with laborhistory in the north. West
sorry, in the American West andthe wider United States, that
term will ring a bell, just likePinkertons, just like
strikebreakers. Because thecitizens committees came
together, they were employerswho came together to figure out
(25:17):
strategies to deal with whatthey would call the labor
problem. They sometimes wouldcall themselves citizens
alliances, and in fact, therewas a national organization of
citizens alliances, so theywould communicate with each
other, they would send eachother lists of problematic
workers who need to beblacklisted. So in Grays Harbor,
(25:37):
this group of employers, theydecide who's going to be the
next mayor. They wanted someonewho was pliable, they wanted
someone who they could control,someone who would appoint anti
labor police chief, and policeofficers who they could control.
And they raised about $10,000 tohire several field agents, to
(26:00):
come to Aberdeen and Hoquiam.
And to get to know Billy and toinfiltrate his union activities
that they started to refer toalmost as a mafia. They started
to paint this narrative thatthese union activists were
corrupt, violent mafia stylepeople, it's in some ways it's
(26:21):
similar at a smaller level towhat would happen with the
Teamsters and later, laterdecades, so
Joe Cadwell (26:29):
they started drumming up false charges on
Billy like, they said, theybrought him in saying, Hey, you
stole a bicycle. And it turnsout the bicycle was was actually
his own and they kind of gotlaughed out of court and then
they they trumped up somethingelse on him and that one got
dismissed. But then the Charleshad Berg murder was sort of the
first of many nails in hiscoffin, it seems like
Aaron Goings (26:50):
right so Charles had bird was a working sailor
like Billy he. He lived withBilly for some time, Billy and
and his wife Bessie goal. Butbeyond that, he also lived in
one of these Riverside shacks,along the CHE hatless and the
wish car rivers, they're inAberdeen and these shacks alone
(27:11):
are kind of interesting becausesailors as migratory workers,
they are essentially homeless,when they're not working,
especially if they can't affordroom and board. So Billy and
some other sailors constructedthis, these small cabins along
the river sides for sailors andhad bird lives there. Well, what
(27:35):
happens in late 1909, early 1910Is that Charles Hedberg again,
one of Billy's good friends,disappears. And the field agent,
this Patti McHugh goes to thechief of police in Aberdeen, and
his Thiele agent tells the chiefof police that Billy had
(27:57):
confessed to killing this guyCharles Hedberg, his friend, his
his probably best friend. So abody turns up in a local
waterway in early 1910. Billy isthen arrested because there's
this accusation from thisPinkerton agent that Billy had
(28:18):
done it and now there's a bodyand a body that's unexplained.
Billy is put in jail, inAberdeen, and at that moment,
early 1910, Intel he's convicteda few months later, and all the
way up to the present. There'sheadlines produced the story
produce. Not only that Billykilled Charles had bird, but
(28:43):
that he had run a murder ringworse than what we would know
today, uh, the kinds of crimescommitted by Ted Bundy and the
life that he was one of theworst serial killers in American
history. So they take thisaccusation from a union busting
(29:03):
private detective, and theexistence of a dead body
floating in the in the riverarrest. Billy, and then local
newspapers. Ken cocked thisstory that Billy had killed
dozens, possibly hundreds ofpeople, every crime that had
been committed in Grays Harborwhich like so many areas of the
(29:27):
so called Wild West did have avery violent history did have a
lot of you know, young peopledying too soon. But those all
get placed at Billy's door getpinned on him, right. And it's
It's this incredible bit ofnarrative creation because this
place that had gotten areputation as the port of
(29:51):
missing men as my books calledbut also this place with a
almost worldwide reputation as atough place like view like men.
Other Western cities, all ofthat violence, all of that
danger gets placed on oneperson. So in the aftermath of
Billy's arrest, the city cityelites can claim fit Aberdeen
(30:15):
that Hoquiam are now safe placessafer visitors safe for tourists
and investors. It's anincredible bit of narrative
creation.
Joe Cadwell (30:24):
So I'll stop you right there. And because from
what I understand from readingyour book that the body was
never quite identified as beingCharles hatteberg that the
sailors in the hundreds came tothe morgue to see this body that
was found that they claimed wasCharles Hedberg, and none of
them could identify that body asCharles had Bergen that Billy
(30:45):
Gould was not given access toproperly identify this person.
So there's no true evidence thatthat the body that they found
was truly Charles had Berg's.
Aaron Goings (30:56):
Right. And I think that this is a very important
point you just made andsomething that I think listeners
need to try to wrap their headsaround here. There's a dead body
that had been floating for sometime on first underwater then
floating in a waterway. It'sbrought to the morgue, and city
officials identify it as beingCharles Hamburg, the only people
(31:19):
who had no Charles had burnedours, fellow workers, the
sailors, as well as his verygood friend, Billy Gaul. The
sailors are initially refusedaccess to see the body. But
there's a lot of them and theyforced their way in. And they
say that's not Charles Hedberg,Billy Gaul, his very good friend
(31:40):
is not able to identify him,he's not able to be led out of
jail to go identify or notidentify the body. So local
elites do identify it ashatteberg. And I admit there's a
chance who is his body. But it'squite a leap to suggest as so
(32:03):
many people have, that not onlyis that his body, but that his
best friend kill them. But allthose youth union activists then
lied. And then also Billy wasresponsible for all the deaths
that had ever happened in thisarea. The Union even went so far
as to refuse union burial tothis body. So they are really
(32:25):
taking it to the limit. They'restanding with their comrade,
their leader, their electedofficial, illegal and saying,
that is not Charles Hamburg, howwould you local elites, local
police possibly know who thatperson is.
Joe Cadwell (32:40):
And so, again, this friend of the working class this
advocate for for workers rights,a person who stood up against
the tyranny of these lumberbarons is now being proposed to
be that the mass murder of somany other people he was
standing up for, and as yousaid, it's a very dangerous
environment, the loggingindustry dangerous being a
(33:03):
sailor at sea being dangerousbeing a longshoreman all
dangerous occupations. And itwasn't made any less dangerous
in Aberdeen and Hoquiam. Bybasically the living conditions
there were unlit streets, therewere canals and waterways that
the saloons would butt up rightagainst you. And it wasn't
uncommon for sailors to be whatsailors are and, and get have a
(33:23):
little too much to drink falloff in the middle of the night
and end up in the frigid watersof the Pacific Northwest and
drown. And so hence the floaterfleet came, came to be known,
but they're now trying to saythat Billy goal, you know, a
friend of the working class isresponsible for this, he would
rob these people he would thenexecute them. And I understand
that even concocted a story thathe had a trapdoor in his office
(33:45):
that he pulled a lever andthey'd splash into the river
below his office place. Is thattrue?
Aaron Goings (33:50):
Yeah, that's part of the story and that, like this
trapdoor that he would disposeof bodies. That's a very
interesting piece of this story.
Like so many because in theyears prior to his arrest, Billy
became something of a temperanceadvocate, he began to argue that
there were these dozens ofsaloons in Aberdeen and
(34:12):
hookworm, and there were thereabout 50 and that the worst of
them would prey upon workers,you know, these workers who
support him elect him that he'sfriends with, and that they
oftentimes saloon owners andlocal, whatever local ruffians
would rob and drug local workersand then drop them in to the,
(34:35):
into the river. So Billy hadbeen making these accusations
against some saloon owners whowere themselves a very powerful
local group. And he outrightaccused some of the saloon
owners in letters to the editorof taking advantage even killing
workers and it's interestingbecause the narrative they get
(34:57):
has remembered, really flips iton his head. And he is
remembered as the person who didthat even though he was the one
who is trying to get some of theworst saloons, some of what he
called dives to be shut down.
And you're exactly right abouthow dangerous the Pacific
(35:21):
Northwest was logging was easilythe most dangerous job in the
West. Dozens of people would bekilled per year in that sawmills
were one of the most dangerousloggers, longshore workers also
very dangerous and most of thelocal deaths were industrial
cause of what we might callindustrial accidents, industrial
(35:44):
violence, those who didn't diefrom that quite often stumbled
off the streets into thesewaterways on a you know, a cold
winter night after drinking toomuch.
Joe Cadwell (35:57):
And it's not a stretch of the imagination by
any means to go from Billy goldto Billy ghoul ghoul of grays
harbor. And that was, you know,again, construct of someone's
imagination, at least accordingto Billy himself who said that
this sounds like it's the youknow, the imagination of Pulp
Fiction writers, and he deniedthe accusation of killing his
friend Charles had Berg butsuppose they had an accomplice
(36:20):
and this accomplice wasaccording to what I read in your
book coerced into makingconfession that Billy actually
did do the murder. What can youtell us about John Klingon
burger?
Aaron Goings (36:29):
So John klinkenberg, like almost all
Pacific Coast sailors was aScandinavian immigrant. He was
one of these people like CharlesHamburg, who was very close
friends with Billy and he, inearly 1910, left Aberdeen on a
lumber ship heading to Mexico,he was down in Mexico, local
(36:53):
officials in Aberdeen, contactthe captain of the ship down in
Mexico and say, Hey, we thinkklinkenberg might have
information, grab him. And so inMexico, Klingenberg, tries to
quit, and tries to leave theship, but he's not allowed to
leave the ship. He is insteaddrugged and kidnapped by the
(37:16):
captain of a vessel and broughtback to Aberdeen and Hoquiam
where he is then interrogated byone of a couple different
possible men who very whobasically offer if he will
testify against illegal sayingthat illegal, killed Charles had
(37:38):
heard that he will not beprosecuted. So they kidnap a guy
in Mexico bring in to GraysHarbor, he's then interrogated
without a lawyer. Oh, yeah,there's no there's no lawyer
involved in this. And quitelikely, the person who
interrogated him was one ofthese Pinkertons, who were
(37:58):
known, just absolutely so wellknown for their violent
behavior. And so they coerce aconfession out of klinkenberg,
he does end up testifyingagainst Billy cool. And then he
then himself, John klinkenberg,is put on trial, at which point
(38:19):
he says this whole thing is aput up job. So, again, I want to
emphasize that there's certainlya possibility that Billy girl
killed one person, but I wrotethis book, because there's
something else going on here.
There's very clearly a group ofpowerful people who saw Billy as
(38:39):
an enemy, and went to greatlengths to silence him. But
these links that they went to,are not unheard of, in fact,
union activist the country andthe world over have been
assassinated. They've beenimprisoned. They've been
deported. This is just one partof that story.
Joe Cadwell (39:03):
And so wrapping up the story about Billy Gaul,
though he did get sentenced tolife in prison, hard manual
labor, and after beingsentenced, I think it was seven
years later he passed away in ain the penitentiary is that, is
that correct? 17 years later, 17years of hard labor.
Aaron Goings (39:22):
So he is sentenced to life in prison at the
Washington State Penitentiary inWalla Walla. His wife Bessie,
who was always by his side, whohad helped with his defense, she
moves to Walla Walla as well tobe near to him. They divorced a
couple years later, but heultimately is declared insane,
(39:44):
and then dies in a prisonhospital in eastern Washington
in 1927.
Joe Cadwell (39:52):
Wow. That's horrible. And yet the myth
continues today a quick searchon YouTube you can find all
sorts of conspiracy theories.
worry type videos out theretouting the ghoul of grays
harbor legacy and continuing toadd more fuel to that what
appears to be not a verytruthful story,
Aaron Goings (40:11):
right. And I think that this story, and I picked it
up, it's one of several laborhistories that I have written
that I intend to write during mylife. But this story is so stood
out to me because it speaks tothe importance of power and the
importance of, of class, and,and of activism, and not just
(40:33):
activism by workers, but byactivism of employers. We see it
today. And then the supposedlyprogressive Northwest, with
Amazon with Starbucks, etcetera,doing anything they can to bust
unions, that's been the case,since the beginning of Euro
American settlement in in thenorthwest, is that those in
(40:57):
power will coordinate, and theywill use the state when
necessary to harm workers. Andthis story stands out to me,
because so many people haveheard of Billy Gaul. And there's
so much on the internet aboutthe so called Google of grays
harbor, they seem to be verydismissive of the reality of his
(41:20):
life and the reality of whatAmerican history is.
Joe Cadwell (41:24):
So being a professor of history and someone
who's involved with the thelabor movement, what do you what
do you think we can learn Aaronfrom our somewhat bloody past?
And what people listening rightnow? What is the takeaway after
reading your book? Where shouldwe go from here?
Aaron Goings (41:40):
Well, I think that I try to always take a couple of
lessons out of this. And one ofthem, just to reiterate, what I
said is that United States, likethe rest of the world is, is
divided in a variety of ways.
One of the main ones is byclass, and those who own
factories, those who those whohave a great deal of wealth,
(42:01):
those who have high incomes,they are always organizing, they
have tremendous political power,tremendous media power, and they
know each other they act, theymeet together, they have
organizations like the Chamberof Commerce, like the Business
Roundtable, they of course actthrough, you know, political
parties.
Joe Cadwell (42:24):
And we're talking real quick, Aaron, not not this
the general business owner, Imean, we're, you know, a lot of
the listeners here are workingfor, for construction companies,
perhaps that, you know, it's alot of them have humble
beginnings, but we're talkingabout the people, the
multimillion dollarcorporations, the billion dollar
corporations, that conglomeratesout there that are truly
controlling the narrative thatcan change policy that can
(42:47):
affect the bottom line of theworking middle class of this
country. Those are the peoplethat we're addressing, not not
necessarily the, you know, thestartup construction companies.
Unknown (42:56):
I mean, I think the the locally rich is organizing, and
its own its own ways, but no, Imean, there's, there's an awful
lot of small business owners,who are just struggling to get
by what I'm talking about,again, are those who run the
show those Bezos, etc, thepeople who have access to the
(43:16):
White House, to the governor'soffices, the senators, et
cetera, they have tremendouspower, and they're always
organizing. My takeaway frommany years, studying labor being
involved with the labor movementin different ways, is that
they're if they're alwaysstruggling, if they're always
(43:37):
collaborating, if they're alwaysworking together, we better do
it too, because they're going totake care of themselves. And all
we have is each other. And whatworking people have is numbers.
Employers have money. Employershave a lot of power workers have
the power of the vote. The voteYeah, certainly part of it, and
(43:58):
then the potential of thestrike. And if 100 years ago,
120 years ago, these the workersof the world came together and
fought back and formed unions inthe face of danger. I think that
that's a real inspiration forwhat working people can do
today. And I'm constantlyimpressed, especially in the
(44:22):
last few years by what'shappening at Starbucks, what's
happening at Amazon. It'shappening all over the country,
and what's going on all over theworld that workers are fed up,
and they want a piece of thepie. And they're figuring out
old strategies, and it's beenmighty impressive.
Joe Cadwell (44:39):
Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of blood has been spilt over
the years to get us to where weare now. And it's slowly being
eroded. If we do not stay onguard, it can it can be eroded
and it has been eroded. But weneed to be able to recognize
that and begin to push back SoAaron, this has been a fantastic
conversation. Where can peoplego to find more about you and
(45:01):
your work and more importantly,the new paperback release of the
poor of missing men.
Unknown (45:06):
Yeah, thanks, Joe. This is quite the good timing here.
In mid-July, the paperbackversion of the The Port of
Missing Men has just releasedfrom the University of
Washington Press, a press thatis actually the workers there
are unionized, which is a bitrare for academic presses.
(45:27):
Beyond that can find the bookanywhere online. I always
encourage people to go toPowell's can order a book from
Powell's get it from a unionizedbookstore, then it's a unionized
press, a unionized bookstore, itcan be delivered to your house
by unionized postal serviceworkers. And then if you want to
know more about me, I tweetsometimes about the labor left
(45:49):
at Red Harbor, that name there'sred harbors a book that I'm
working on my next project.
Joe Cadwell (45:56):
Fantastic. I'll make sure to add all that to the
show notes. Well, Aaron, thishas been a great conversation.
Thank you so much for taking thetime to be on the show today.
Aaron Goings (46:05):
Thank you so much, Joe. It's been a real pleasure.
Joe Cadwell (46:08):
My guest today has been Aaron Goings author of The
Port of Missing Men. To divedeeper into this topic, be sure
to check out the show notes forthis episode, or visit the grid
nation website at Grit Nationpodcast.com. Please consider
sharing the show with a friend,family member or anyone else you
think may get something out ofit. If you haven't already done
so please take one minute toleave a review on Apple podcast
(46:31):
or Spotify really does matter.
And if you have left a review orrating thank you so much. I
really do appreciate it. Asalways, thank you for your
continued support. And untilnext time, this is Joe Cadwell
reminding you to work safe, worksmart and stay union strong.
Unknown (46:50):
Not to be too much Captain Obvious here but I've
always been impressed byapprenticeships at building
trades do and I know thatperhaps more active than others
at like reaching out toincarcerated people, but just in
general, like offering thisimportant opportunity to you
(47:11):
know, to have a halfway decentlife. And I mean, man, it's it's
so good that you all do that.
Welcome to Grit Nation. I'm Joe Cadwell, the
host of the show, and on today'sepisode, I have the pleasure of
speaking with history professorand author Aaron Goings.
Aaron's latest work titled ThePort of Missing men is an in
depth look into life and legendsurrounding Billy Gohl, a
charismatic, controversial andinfamous labor organizer of the
Sailors Union of the Pacific.
After being convicted for themurder of a good friend, Billy
(00:33):
was unjustly credited with amurder of dozens of Port workers
and was branded by the press asthe ghoul of grays harbor.
Aaron's book looks into thisbizarre slice of history and
attempts to untangle thecomplicated story of big
business, organized labor,citizen committees and shady
detective agencies in pursuit ofthe truth behind the multitude
(00:54):
of dead bodies known as thefloater fleet that clogged the
frigid waterways of graysharbor, Washington in the early
19 hundred's. More than just atrue crime novel, The Port of
missing men exposes that brutaltreatment sailors and loggers
suffered at the hands of lumberbarons and ship owners in the
early Pacific Northwestextraction economy and details
(01:16):
the heated and sometimes violentclashes between pro union and
anti Union forces. Aaron's bookexposes a class system of income
inequality that persists eventoday and serves as a poignant
reminder that the fight for fairpay safer working conditions and
basic work rights is far fromover. After this episode, be
sure to check out the show notesfor more information about Aaron
(01:41):
goings in his book, afford amissing man. And now on to the
show. Aaron Goings Welcome toGrit Nation.
Aaron Goings (01:53):
Hey, thanks so much for having me. Good to talk
to you, Joe.
Joe Cadwell (01:57):
Yeah, thank you so much, Aaron for taking your time
to be on the show. Today. I'mreally excited to introduce you
to my listener audience. You arean author of a book that I
recently finished called theport of missing men Billy Gohl
labor in the brutal times in thePacific Northwest. And for those
who don't know Billy Gaul story,it's an interesting story, a
(02:18):
fella who was once considered tobe perhaps the the first or
largest serial killer inAmerica. Seems like maybe
there's upon reading your book,there's a little more to the
story that has deeper roots inlabor history. And before we get
into your book, and Billy goal,Aaron, what got you interested
in writing a book about laborhistory and Billy's story?
Unknown (02:38):
Right? So thanks so much for asking me asking me
that. So I'm a historian. I workin teach history and research
history. And growing up in aworking class family of blue
collar family on Washington'scoast, I always very interested
in the working class experience.
And growing up in a workingclass family, it's kind of hard
(03:01):
to escape the reality of class,you see it all over the place.
You see it in conditions facedby working people, including me
and my family, versus those whoown say, factories etc. and
other bits of business. And sowhen I was in college, first
generation college studentworking class college student
(03:21):
was fairly turned off by thetraditional story of history,
which is often to this day isstill a very top down story,
elite white men and their heroicacts. So I picked up first
Howard Zinn's famous people'shistory. And from there, I went
on Learn learned about thewobblies very prominent here in
(03:45):
the Northwest. And more and moreI saw my story reflected, I saw
the working class majority'sstory reflected and I, at that
point, really, when I was in myearly 20s, until now, my main
goal professional goal personalgoal is to research and write
and tell working class storiesworking class history, because
(04:10):
it's a very different story thanthe one you get from the news
media. From most textbooks andthe like, and this I thought the
Billy Gohl story, because it hislife is fairly well known in the
Northwest that this was a greatopportunity to reach a larger
than usual audience with laborhistory book. Yeah,
Joe Cadwell (04:35):
For sure. And you know, in reflection on the the
captains of industry, theRockefellers and the and the
Carnegie's and those type ofpeople, they are sort of
idolized, but there are a lot ofbad sides to what they had
accomplished as well. And a lotof that holds true today. And I
think we just recently back withthe Occupy Wall Street, got a
(04:55):
fresh taste of what incomeinequality was all about. And so
in writing your book, whichcenters around Grays Harbor, and
Aberdeen, Hoquiam area, therewas the huge division of wealth
back in the early 1900s. And whydid that division of wealth
become so prominent,
Aaron Goings (05:16):
the roots of of that inequality really have a
lot to do with the nature,nature of industrial capitalism.
So whether you're in PacificNorthwest, where the largest
industry by far almost the onlyindustry in the late 19th, early
20th century, or certainly thelargest, by far is lumber,
whether you're talking aboutmining, whether you're talking
(05:37):
about steel mills, or largescale plantation agriculture,
the owners of of those firms,the owners of logging camps,
they had such incredible power,they had real control over the
political parties, both theRepublicans and the Democrats,
(05:59):
they had a lot of say, in thelaws that were passed, they had
a lot of control over police andnewspapers that often only
presented their story, reallyturning employers into heroes.
And then anytime workersorganize, anytime workers fought
(06:21):
back, they would be met withviolence in one form or another,
whether that was mass arrests,whether it was the passage of
anti union legislation, whichwas very common in Washington
state where I am, and in Oregon,and many other western states,
essentially making it illegal tobelong to certain kinds of labor
(06:43):
organizations. And that powerthat employers had a century
ago, is, and I think you weremaybe hinting at this a bit, we
can see it reflected in the 21stcentury as well. I do think for
a lot of people who had maybekept their head buried in the
sand, it was occupy that reallymade that gross division of
(07:07):
income inequality, wealthinequality, really obvious, and
we couldn't deny it any longer.
Joe Cadwell (07:14):
So it's a pretty age old story, but it's really
in the context of your book,again, the port of missing men,
which focuses on Billy Gaul, whowill get into as a labor
organizer. He got involved withthat, not not representing the
lumber industry, folks, but thepeople that were actually
transporting a lot of the cutlumber out of the Grays Harbor
(07:38):
port, which at the early 20thcentury was the largest producer
of timber in the world, is thatcorrect?
Aaron Goings (07:45):
Right. So today, Grays Harbor is if it's known
for anything, I think it'sperhaps as the hometown of
nirvana or as the rainiest placein the contiguous United States.
But a century ago, Aberdeen andHoquiam were some of the largest
cities in the Pacific Northweston both were top 10 largest
(08:06):
cities, and they producedbillions and billions of board
feet of lumber that was shippedout of what became the port of
grays harbor out of Aberdeen outof Hoquiam. And it was the
largest lumber port in the worldfor decades on end. And of
(08:26):
course, for that to happen.
Workers need to put the lumberon the ships and workers need to
transport that lumber on theships. So we're talking about
the importance of longshoremanlongshore workers as well as
sailors and they representedthis important choke point.
Although there's only 100 200longshoremen and sailors at any
(08:49):
one time in places like Aberdeenand Hoquiam. During mobility
goals, lifetime, they had thepower that they could exercise
and did exercise to shut thatport down and really stop, stop
the transportation of cut lumberand thus stop the acquisition
Joe Cadwell (09:12):
of wealth, inordinate wealth for those
lumber barons. And this all cameabout right after 1906 when San
Francisco caught on fire, Ithink 80% of the city had burned
to the ground, there was a greatdemand for building materials.
And here just up the coast isHoquiam. All this wealth of wood
can be shipped down there andpeople were making a lot of
(09:34):
money, who owned the rights tothe forest to do the logging who
owned the ships for thetransportation but the people
that weren't making the money,were those sailors and that's
where again, Billy goals rolecame in. He was looking to get
livable wages and livableworking conditions for the
sailors. And a lot of peopletook offense to that
Aaron Goings (09:55):
anytime there's a disaster. There are people with
power who are looking And toprofit off of that disaster,
whether it's an earthquake and afire, as in San Francisco,
whether it's the pandemic, inour own time, unfortunately, but
it was 1906, this devastatingearthquake and fire that just
level San Francisco. And in theaftermath of that, there was, of
(10:18):
course, a reconstructionproject. And for that
reconstruction, people in SanFrancisco needed cut lumber. And
the main source of that cutlumber was going to be the
Northwest. And to get it there,and to get it there by just an
incredible amount of shipsneeded to transport it.
(10:39):
Employers needed to rev upproduction rep, rev up
transportation, and they sawmoney signs that a shipping
owners that captains, the ownersof Mills, they saw the
opportunity to rebuild SanFrancisco and line their own
pockets. The workers though,whether we're talking about
(11:00):
building trades, in SanFrancisco, whether we're talking
about longshoreman, whetherwe're talking about sailors,
like Billy Gaul, and his and hisco workers, they weren't
automatically going to improvetheir condition. In fact, they
were going to have to fight andin some cases die to get a
(11:20):
living wage, you know, doing thelabor necessary to rebuild San
Francisco. And Billy goal was atthe center of that.
Joe Cadwell (11:29):
All right, so let's go let's now focus in on Billy
goal, infamously known as theghoul of grays harbor, we'll
find out why in a little bit.
But where did Billy goalactually come from?
Aaron Goings (11:39):
So Billy is an immigrant from Germany and came
to the United States in the late19th century, he was part of
this massive flow of millionsand millions of immigrants to to
the United States during thelate 19th and early 20th
century. And he also representedthis group of Northern Europeans
(12:00):
who dominated Pacific shipping.
In fact, almost all PacificCoast sailors, like Billy were
Germans, Scandinavians, fins,and the like. Virtually no
native born Americans performthat work. It was one of these
jobs that many considered to betoo dirty, too difficult, too
(12:20):
dangerous. It had very littleappeal to most people. And so
immigrants ended up doing it.
And Billy came to the UnitedStates, and traveled as a
sailor, but also performingother types of migratory labor
across the Pacific coast fromAlaska to San Francisco. And he
(12:42):
was one of these millions ofmigratory workers who in many
ways built the modern AmericanWest, who built the roads did
the mining who who cut the treeswho did the farming, and who
transported those goods by 1900,Billy's living in a boarding
(13:02):
house along with other sailorsin San Francisco, dozens of
German and Scandinavian sailors.
And it was in that in that jobin those living conditions that
he has, by the early 20thcentury emerged as a fairly
prominent as a fairly importantvoice for for organized labor in
the Bay Area, which was and isthe home of the sailors union of
(13:26):
the Pacific, as well as the WestCoast longshore workers that set
the it's always been the centerof maritime unionism.
Joe Cadwell (13:37):
And then he ended up in Aberdeen in the early
1900s. And when he got there,again, taking that reputation,
that experience he had, hebecame sort of a business agent
for the sailors union of thePacific in Aberdeen, didn't he?
Aaron Goings (13:52):
Right, so after years of working on on ships,
and often loading and unloadingthose ships on imports, where
there were always longshoreman,he was elected by the Union as a
whole to be the unionrepresentative in Aberdeen and
we're talking about 1902 1903.
So Aberdeen and Hoquiam werejust being carved out of the
(14:17):
forest carved out of the mudcarved out of the river side,
and starting to become importantindustrial centers. So right at
that time, right as the city ismoving from being a village into
one of the largest cities in thePacific Northwest, Billy is
elected by his colleagues tobecome the union agent, and he
(14:39):
settles there in 1903. Right atthis time when Aberdeen and
Hoquiam are becoming importantindustrial cities. This
transition is very important forfor Billy's life because he had
spent many many years enduringsome of the most unspeak COBOL
conditions really truly violentconditions on ships as wage
(15:03):
laborer aboard ship. It enduredcertainly violent captain's
violent first mates who beatsometimes killed sailors who
shanghaied. So they would kidnapsailors because the conditions
aboard ships are so bad. And heendured shipwrecks. So he
brought those experiences thoseclass experiences as a worker as
(15:24):
a working class immigrant to hislife as a union official. And as
a business agent, he basicallyprovided the sailors for the
ship owners for the captain. Soin order for a ship to sail out
of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, theyneeded to be supplied with union
(15:45):
labor. And so Billy had, againhad this important choke point.
If captains if ship owners hadreputations for violence, for
cruelty for being bad employersfor shorting workers, he could
and did refuse to provide themwith sailors refuse to man the
ships. And that, of course, isgoing to antagonize the ship
(16:11):
owners and the lumber millowners. And they're often the
same same people who need theseships and need workers to in
order to make money.
Joe Cadwell (16:25):
So as Billy was, was standing up backing his
sailors, you know, he pushedback and he said, Look, if we're
going to subject our people toworking on these very dangerous
conditions, let's at leastimprove their living conditions
and prove the humanity of thework they're doing. Try to give
them a little bit more money.
And the folks that had that allthe power all the money and all
(16:46):
the wealth said no. And so Billyused the strength of his union
and his connections to basicallyshut down the port, as you said,
and stop that flow of money tothose folks and they didn't like
it. So they employed some unionbreaking firms to look into what
was going on here and see whatwe can do to get rid of this
Billy gold fella.
Aaron Goings (17:07):
Right. So I think probably your listeners, if
there's one company in Americanhistory that's as notorious or
infamous as any other for itsanti unionism. It's the
Pinkerton Detective Agency, themost notorious anti union agency
in American history. Theyprovided detectives, undercover
(17:29):
agents, to to break unions.
Well, in the late 19th century,in the American West, in
particular, a second agencyemerged, there were there were
several of these agencies. Butthe second largest, was an
agency called the fielddetective agency. It actually is
formed by Pinkerton, and thefields become just not as famous
(17:49):
for sure, but they do the exactsame thing. They provide
detectives, to mine owners, tofactory owners, to local
officials, to essentially bustup unions. That's right to bust
unions,
Joe Cadwell (18:06):
there was no detective work being done. It
was a union busting businessmodel.
Aaron Goings (18:11):
Absolutely. And quite often, they would work
hand in hand with arm strikebreakers. And so in the 1906
strike that you mentioned, thelocal police are refusing to and
incapable of breaking thestrike. And so local employers,
dentists, lawyers, smallbusinessmen, they are sworn in
(18:33):
essentially as vigilantes. Andthen these strike breaking firms
that promised they could get1000s of workers anywhere in the
United States within 48 hours.
They're very efficient strikebreakers, they would provide
these arm strike breakers andduring the 1906 strike, like in
so many other strikes, thosestrike breakers, often operating
(18:56):
hand in hand with the detectiveshand in hand with the Pinkertons
murder to unionists, which isagain, unfortunately very common
in American labor history.
Joe Cadwell (19:09):
So aside from murdering people that are
standing up for themselves, whatother tactics that they use
Aaron to try to break up thestrikes, right.
Aaron Goings (19:18):
So it varies over time. One tactic is to get a
large group of vigilantes and toround up the so called
troublemakers and rat and deportthem from town that happened in
Aberdeen and hopefully inneighboring towns quite often.
It would happen as often is notto immigrant groups who had
(19:40):
started to stand up for theirrights. So 1906 1907 a group of
Italian road builders wererounded up and shipped out
1911 1912 The same thing happenswith Greek and Finnish workers.
And then beyond this, the ethnicelement to it quite commonly, it
(20:01):
would just be a massive roundupof any labor agitator, they
would be picked up, not put injail just shipped right out and
then refused entry. That that'sone option, the perhaps better
known option is for thesePinkertons for these Thiele
agents to infiltrate a union, orsay a left wing workers
(20:24):
political party, SocialistParty, Communist Party, and to
stir up trouble and to thenproduce reports that they would
send to their employers lyingabout the activities of the
workers. And this, althoughtoday, 100 years later, many
(20:46):
people know that this happened.
And 100 years ago, many peopleknew that that happened.
Unfortunately, the Pinkertons inthe field agents and other
strikebreakers had very goodreputations in the eyes of the
Chamber of Commerce in the eyesof newspapers. So anything that
these pinker temps that thesestrikebreakers do is painted in
(21:09):
the most positive lightimaginable. They're often cast
as heroes in the Seattle Timesin the Oregonian, in the
Centralia Chronicle and locallyfor me the Aberdeen daily world
and all the other localnewspapers these people whose
job it is to destroy unions arecast as heroes standing up to
(21:32):
darkness that dark, the RedScare in the light.
Joe Cadwell (21:38):
So again, the the money control the media, the
media painted the picture thatthese were, you know, folks
doing the right thing and thatthose strikers were in the wrong
and we just need to get back tobusiness the way it was. So, so
how did Billy goals survive allof this?
Aaron Goings (21:55):
Unfortunately, he didn't for that long, but for
several years, he did what somany union activists did. He
relied on numbers. He relied onthe reality, which was that
Aberdeen and Hoquiam were amongthe most heavily organized the
(22:15):
most had among the highest uniondensities of anywhere in the
Pacific Northwest. And he wasenormously popular among those
people. He was elected twice aspresident of the Grays Harbor
Labor Council, which again, notonly is he being elected by all
the Pacific sailors, US Pacificsailors, so 1000s. He's also
(22:36):
been elected to serve as therepresentative of 1000s of local
unionists, as their voice towrite letters to the newspapers
and stand up. So for years, hehad this tremendous backing of
fellow unionists and they, theytreat him like like a hero. He
(22:57):
gets arrested on severaloccasions that for violently
attacking strikebreakers forleading strikers in sort of like
Gangs of New York style warfareagainst strikebreakers,
Joe Cadwell (23:10):
using the tactics of the strikebreakers on them on
themselves.
Aaron Goings (23:14):
Yes, absolutely.
And that's something that yousee throughout the early 20th
century is you see, strikersworkers, Unionists arming
themselves to fight on thestreets against strikebreakers
against police, and the like. Sohe was enormously popular,
easily the most popular, bestknown, best respected union
(23:37):
leader in again, the place thatin some ways had the strongest
labor movement in the Northwestalong with Seattle, and a few
other places,
Joe Cadwell (23:50):
and then became the beginning of the end for Billy
Gaul, when he met someone namedPatty McHugh, who I think was
one of those field detectiveagency spies. He was a bar owner
who befriended Billy and beganto concoct a story about Billy's
involvement and killing of oneof Billy's best friends, Charles
Hedberg. What can you tell usabout that?
Aaron Goings (24:11):
So after years of the sailors union, along with
other maritime unions reallyfighting for workers rights, of
course, after the real highpoint of labor activism, the
1906 maritime strike, but then,after several years of Billy
refusing the ships owned by andoperated by notorious captains,
(24:36):
a group of business owners cometogether and we know some of
their names we know. BankerWilliam Paterson who was also
the head of the Chamber ofCommerce, head of the Elks club,
one of the most important andwealthiest employers in the
Pacific Northwest, him and a fewothers form Citizens Committee
(24:56):
and people familiar with laborhistory in the north. West
sorry, in the American West andthe wider United States, that
term will ring a bell, just likePinkertons, just like
strikebreakers. Because thecitizens committees came
together, they were employerswho came together to figure out
(25:17):
strategies to deal with whatthey would call the labor
problem. They sometimes wouldcall themselves citizens
alliances, and in fact, therewas a national organization of
citizens alliances, so theywould communicate with each
other, they would send eachother lists of problematic
workers who need to beblacklisted. So in Grays Harbor,
(25:37):
this group of employers, theydecide who's going to be the
next mayor. They wanted someonewho was pliable, they wanted
someone who they could control,someone who would appoint anti
labor police chief, and policeofficers who they could control.
And they raised about $10,000 tohire several field agents, to
(26:00):
come to Aberdeen and Hoquiam.
And to get to know Billy and toinfiltrate his union activities
that they started to refer toalmost as a mafia. They started
to paint this narrative thatthese union activists were
corrupt, violent mafia stylepeople, it's in some ways it's
(26:21):
similar at a smaller level towhat would happen with the
Teamsters and later, laterdecades, so
Joe Cadwell (26:29):
they started drumming up false charges on
Billy like, they said, theybrought him in saying, Hey, you
stole a bicycle. And it turnsout the bicycle was was actually
his own and they kind of gotlaughed out of court and then
they they trumped up somethingelse on him and that one got
dismissed. But then the Charleshad Berg murder was sort of the
first of many nails in hiscoffin, it seems like
Aaron Goings (26:50):
right so Charles had bird was a working sailor
like Billy he. He lived withBilly for some time, Billy and
and his wife Bessie goal. Butbeyond that, he also lived in
one of these Riverside shacks,along the CHE hatless and the
wish car rivers, they're inAberdeen and these shacks alone
(27:11):
are kind of interesting becausesailors as migratory workers,
they are essentially homeless,when they're not working,
especially if they can't affordroom and board. So Billy and
some other sailors constructedthis, these small cabins along
the river sides for sailors andhad bird lives there. Well, what
(27:35):
happens in late 1909, early 1910Is that Charles Hedberg again,
one of Billy's good friends,disappears. And the field agent,
this Patti McHugh goes to thechief of police in Aberdeen, and
his Thiele agent tells the chiefof police that Billy had
(27:57):
confessed to killing this guyCharles Hedberg, his friend, his
his probably best friend. So abody turns up in a local
waterway in early 1910. Billy isthen arrested because there's
this accusation from thisPinkerton agent that Billy had
(28:18):
done it and now there's a bodyand a body that's unexplained.
Billy is put in jail, inAberdeen, and at that moment,
early 1910, Intel he's convicteda few months later, and all the
way up to the present. There'sheadlines produced the story
produce. Not only that Billykilled Charles had bird, but
(28:43):
that he had run a murder ringworse than what we would know
today, uh, the kinds of crimescommitted by Ted Bundy and the
life that he was one of theworst serial killers in American
history. So they take thisaccusation from a union busting
(29:03):
private detective, and theexistence of a dead body
floating in the in the riverarrest. Billy, and then local
newspapers. Ken cocked thisstory that Billy had killed
dozens, possibly hundreds ofpeople, every crime that had
been committed in Grays Harborwhich like so many areas of the
(29:27):
so called Wild West did have avery violent history did have a
lot of you know, young peopledying too soon. But those all
get placed at Billy's door getpinned on him, right. And it's
It's this incredible bit ofnarrative creation because this
place that had gotten areputation as the port of
(29:51):
missing men as my books calledbut also this place with a
almost worldwide reputation as atough place like view like men.
Other Western cities, all ofthat violence, all of that
danger gets placed on oneperson. So in the aftermath of
Billy's arrest, the city cityelites can claim fit Aberdeen
(30:15):
that Hoquiam are now safe placessafer visitors safe for tourists
and investors. It's anincredible bit of narrative
creation.
Joe Cadwell (30:24):
So I'll stop you right there. And because from
what I understand from readingyour book that the body was
never quite identified as beingCharles hatteberg that the
sailors in the hundreds came tothe morgue to see this body that
was found that they claimed wasCharles Hedberg, and none of
them could identify that body asCharles had Bergen that Billy
(30:45):
Gould was not given access toproperly identify this person.
So there's no true evidence thatthat the body that they found
was truly Charles had Berg's.
Aaron Goings (30:56):
Right. And I think that this is a very important
point you just made andsomething that I think listeners
need to try to wrap their headsaround here. There's a dead body
that had been floating for sometime on first underwater then
floating in a waterway. It'sbrought to the morgue, and city
officials identify it as beingCharles Hamburg, the only people
(31:19):
who had no Charles had burnedours, fellow workers, the
sailors, as well as his verygood friend, Billy Gaul. The
sailors are initially refusedaccess to see the body. But
there's a lot of them and theyforced their way in. And they
say that's not Charles Hedberg,Billy Gaul, his very good friend
(31:40):
is not able to identify him,he's not able to be led out of
jail to go identify or notidentify the body. So local
elites do identify it ashatteberg. And I admit there's a
chance who is his body. But it'squite a leap to suggest as so
(32:03):
many people have, that not onlyis that his body, but that his
best friend kill them. But allthose youth union activists then
lied. And then also Billy wasresponsible for all the deaths
that had ever happened in thisarea. The Union even went so far
as to refuse union burial tothis body. So they are really
(32:25):
taking it to the limit. They'restanding with their comrade,
their leader, their electedofficial, illegal and saying,
that is not Charles Hamburg, howwould you local elites, local
police possibly know who thatperson is.
Joe Cadwell (32:40):
And so, again, this friend of the working class this
advocate for for workers rights,a person who stood up against
the tyranny of these lumberbarons is now being proposed to
be that the mass murder of somany other people he was
standing up for, and as yousaid, it's a very dangerous
environment, the loggingindustry dangerous being a
(33:03):
sailor at sea being dangerousbeing a longshoreman all
dangerous occupations. And itwasn't made any less dangerous
in Aberdeen and Hoquiam. Bybasically the living conditions
there were unlit streets, therewere canals and waterways that
the saloons would butt up rightagainst you. And it wasn't
uncommon for sailors to be whatsailors are and, and get have a
(33:23):
little too much to drink falloff in the middle of the night
and end up in the frigid watersof the Pacific Northwest and
drown. And so hence the floaterfleet came, came to be known,
but they're now trying to saythat Billy goal, you know, a
friend of the working class isresponsible for this, he would
rob these people he would thenexecute them. And I understand
that even concocted a story thathe had a trapdoor in his office
(33:45):
that he pulled a lever andthey'd splash into the river
below his office place. Is thattrue?
Aaron Goings (33:50):
Yeah, that's part of the story and that, like this
trapdoor that he would disposeof bodies. That's a very
interesting piece of this story.
Like so many because in theyears prior to his arrest, Billy
became something of a temperanceadvocate, he began to argue that
there were these dozens ofsaloons in Aberdeen and
(34:12):
hookworm, and there were thereabout 50 and that the worst of
them would prey upon workers,you know, these workers who
support him elect him that he'sfriends with, and that they
oftentimes saloon owners andlocal, whatever local ruffians
would rob and drug local workersand then drop them in to the,
(34:35):
into the river. So Billy hadbeen making these accusations
against some saloon owners whowere themselves a very powerful
local group. And he outrightaccused some of the saloon
owners in letters to the editorof taking advantage even killing
workers and it's interestingbecause the narrative they get
(34:57):
has remembered, really flips iton his head. And he is
remembered as the person who didthat even though he was the one
who is trying to get some of theworst saloons, some of what he
called dives to be shut down.
And you're exactly right abouthow dangerous the Pacific
(35:21):
Northwest was logging was easilythe most dangerous job in the
West. Dozens of people would bekilled per year in that sawmills
were one of the most dangerousloggers, longshore workers also
very dangerous and most of thelocal deaths were industrial
cause of what we might callindustrial accidents, industrial
(35:44):
violence, those who didn't diefrom that quite often stumbled
off the streets into thesewaterways on a you know, a cold
winter night after drinking toomuch.
Joe Cadwell (35:57):
And it's not a stretch of the imagination by
any means to go from Billy goldto Billy ghoul ghoul of grays
harbor. And that was, you know,again, construct of someone's
imagination, at least accordingto Billy himself who said that
this sounds like it's the youknow, the imagination of Pulp
Fiction writers, and he deniedthe accusation of killing his
friend Charles had Berg butsuppose they had an accomplice
(36:20):
and this accomplice wasaccording to what I read in your
book coerced into makingconfession that Billy actually
did do the murder. What can youtell us about John Klingon
burger?
Aaron Goings (36:29):
So John klinkenberg, like almost all
Pacific Coast sailors was aScandinavian immigrant. He was
one of these people like CharlesHamburg, who was very close
friends with Billy and he, inearly 1910, left Aberdeen on a
lumber ship heading to Mexico,he was down in Mexico, local
(36:53):
officials in Aberdeen, contactthe captain of the ship down in
Mexico and say, Hey, we thinkklinkenberg might have
information, grab him. And so inMexico, Klingenberg, tries to
quit, and tries to leave theship, but he's not allowed to
leave the ship. He is insteaddrugged and kidnapped by the
(37:16):
captain of a vessel and broughtback to Aberdeen and Hoquiam
where he is then interrogated byone of a couple different
possible men who very whobasically offer if he will
testify against illegal sayingthat illegal, killed Charles had
(37:38):
heard that he will not beprosecuted. So they kidnap a guy
in Mexico bring in to GraysHarbor, he's then interrogated
without a lawyer. Oh, yeah,there's no there's no lawyer
involved in this. And quitelikely, the person who
interrogated him was one ofthese Pinkertons, who were
(37:58):
known, just absolutely so wellknown for their violent
behavior. And so they coerce aconfession out of klinkenberg,
he does end up testifyingagainst Billy cool. And then he
then himself, John klinkenberg,is put on trial, at which point
(38:19):
he says this whole thing is aput up job. So, again, I want to
emphasize that there's certainlya possibility that Billy girl
killed one person, but I wrotethis book, because there's
something else going on here.
There's very clearly a group ofpowerful people who saw Billy as
(38:39):
an enemy, and went to greatlengths to silence him. But
these links that they went to,are not unheard of, in fact,
union activist the country andthe world over have been
assassinated. They've beenimprisoned. They've been
deported. This is just one partof that story.
Joe Cadwell (39:03):
And so wrapping up the story about Billy Gaul,
though he did get sentenced tolife in prison, hard manual
labor, and after beingsentenced, I think it was seven
years later he passed away in ain the penitentiary is that, is
that correct? 17 years later, 17years of hard labor.
Aaron Goings (39:22):
So he is sentenced to life in prison at the
Washington State Penitentiary inWalla Walla. His wife Bessie,
who was always by his side, whohad helped with his defense, she
moves to Walla Walla as well tobe near to him. They divorced a
couple years later, but heultimately is declared insane,
(39:44):
and then dies in a prisonhospital in eastern Washington
in 1927.
Joe Cadwell (39:52):
Wow. That's horrible. And yet the myth
continues today a quick searchon YouTube you can find all
sorts of conspiracy theories.
worry type videos out theretouting the ghoul of grays
harbor legacy and continuing toadd more fuel to that what
appears to be not a verytruthful story,
Aaron Goings (40:11):
right. And I think that this story, and I picked it
up, it's one of several laborhistories that I have written
that I intend to write during mylife. But this story is so stood
out to me because it speaks tothe importance of power and the
importance of, of class, and,and of activism, and not just
(40:33):
activism by workers, but byactivism of employers. We see it
today. And then the supposedlyprogressive Northwest, with
Amazon with Starbucks, etcetera,doing anything they can to bust
unions, that's been the case,since the beginning of Euro
American settlement in in thenorthwest, is that those in
(40:57):
power will coordinate, and theywill use the state when
necessary to harm workers. Andthis story stands out to me,
because so many people haveheard of Billy Gaul. And there's
so much on the internet aboutthe so called Google of grays
harbor, they seem to be verydismissive of the reality of his
(41:20):
life and the reality of whatAmerican history is.
Joe Cadwell (41:24):
So being a professor of history and someone
who's involved with the thelabor movement, what do you what
do you think we can learn Aaronfrom our somewhat bloody past?
And what people listening rightnow? What is the takeaway after
reading your book? Where shouldwe go from here?
Aaron Goings (41:40):
Well, I think that I try to always take a couple of
lessons out of this. And one ofthem, just to reiterate, what I
said is that United States, likethe rest of the world is, is
divided in a variety of ways.
One of the main ones is byclass, and those who own
factories, those who those whohave a great deal of wealth,
(42:01):
those who have high incomes,they are always organizing, they
have tremendous political power,tremendous media power, and they
know each other they act, theymeet together, they have
organizations like the Chamberof Commerce, like the Business
Roundtable, they of course actthrough, you know, political
parties.
Joe Cadwell (42:24):
And we're talking real quick, Aaron, not not this
the general business owner, Imean, we're, you know, a lot of
the listeners here are workingfor, for construction companies,
perhaps that, you know, it's alot of them have humble
beginnings, but we're talkingabout the people, the
multimillion dollarcorporations, the billion dollar
corporations, that conglomeratesout there that are truly
controlling the narrative thatcan change policy that can
(42:47):
affect the bottom line of theworking middle class of this
country. Those are the peoplethat we're addressing, not not
necessarily the, you know, thestartup construction companies.
Unknown (42:56):
I mean, I think the the locally rich is organizing, and
its own its own ways, but no, Imean, there's, there's an awful
lot of small business owners,who are just struggling to get
by what I'm talking about,again, are those who run the
show those Bezos, etc, thepeople who have access to the
(43:16):
White House, to the governor'soffices, the senators, et
cetera, they have tremendouspower, and they're always
organizing. My takeaway frommany years, studying labor being
involved with the labor movementin different ways, is that
they're if they're alwaysstruggling, if they're always
(43:37):
collaborating, if they're alwaysworking together, we better do
it too, because they're going totake care of themselves. And all
we have is each other. And whatworking people have is numbers.
Employers have money. Employershave a lot of power workers have
the power of the vote. The voteYeah, certainly part of it, and
(43:58):
then the potential of thestrike. And if 100 years ago,
120 years ago, these the workersof the world came together and
fought back and formed unions inthe face of danger. I think that
that's a real inspiration forwhat working people can do
today. And I'm constantlyimpressed, especially in the
(44:22):
last few years by what'shappening at Starbucks, what's
happening at Amazon. It'shappening all over the country,
and what's going on all over theworld that workers are fed up,
and they want a piece of thepie. And they're figuring out
old strategies, and it's beenmighty impressive.
Joe Cadwell (44:39):
Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of blood has been spilt over
the years to get us to where weare now. And it's slowly being
eroded. If we do not stay onguard, it can it can be eroded
and it has been eroded. But weneed to be able to recognize
that and begin to push back SoAaron, this has been a fantastic
conversation. Where can peoplego to find more about you and
(45:01):
your work and more importantly,the new paperback release of the
poor of missing men.
Unknown (45:06):
Yeah, thanks, Joe. This is quite the good timing here.
In mid-July, the paperbackversion of the The Port of
Missing Men has just releasedfrom the University of
Washington Press, a press thatis actually the workers there
are unionized, which is a bitrare for academic presses.
(45:27):
Beyond that can find the bookanywhere online. I always
encourage people to go toPowell's can order a book from
Powell's get it from a unionizedbookstore, then it's a unionized
press, a unionized bookstore, itcan be delivered to your house
by unionized postal serviceworkers. And then if you want to
know more about me, I tweetsometimes about the labor left
(45:49):
at Red Harbor, that name there'sred harbors a book that I'm
working on my next project.
Joe Cadwell (45:56):
Fantastic. I'll make sure to add all that to the
show notes. Well, Aaron, thishas been a great conversation.
Thank you so much for taking thetime to be on the show today.
Aaron Goings (46:05):
Thank you so much, Joe. It's been a real pleasure.
Joe Cadwell (46:08):
My guest today has been Aaron Goings author of The
Port of Missing Men. To divedeeper into this topic, be sure
to check out the show notes forthis episode, or visit the grid
nation website at Grit Nationpodcast.com. Please consider
sharing the show with a friend,family member or anyone else you
think may get something out ofit. If you haven't already done
so please take one minute toleave a review on Apple podcast
(46:31):
or Spotify really does matter.
And if you have left a review orrating thank you so much. I
really do appreciate it. Asalways, thank you for your
continued support. And untilnext time, this is Joe Cadwell
reminding you to work safe, worksmart and stay union strong.
Unknown (46:50):
Not to be too much Captain Obvious here but I've
always been impressed byapprenticeships at building
trades do and I know thatperhaps more active than others
at like reaching out toincarcerated people, but just in
general, like offering thisimportant opportunity to you
(47:11):
know, to have a halfway decentlife. And I mean, man, it's it's
so good that you all do that.
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