The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest

by Aaron Goings

In the early twentieth century so many dead bodies surfaced in the rivers around Aberdeen, Washington, that they were nicknamed the “floater fleet.” When Billy Gohl (1873–1927), a powerful union official, was arrested for murder, local newspapers were quick to suggest that he was responsible for many of those deaths, perhaps even dozens—thus launching the legend of the Ghoul of Grays Harbor.More than a true-crime tale, The Port of Missing Men sheds light on the lives of workers who died tragically, illuminating the dehumanizing treatment of sailors and lumber workers and the heated clashes between pro- and anti-union forces. Goings investigates the creation of the myth, exploring how so many people were willing to believe such extraordinary stories about Gohl. He shares the story of a charismatic labor leader—the one man who could shut down the highly profitable Grays Harbor lumber trade—and provides an equally intriguing analysis of the human costs of the Pacific Northwest’s early extraction economy.

Genres: History, True Crime

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 26, 2020

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Less of a murder mystery and all of a labor history of Grays Harbor during the turn of the 20th century. Very well researched.

[Tahlia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy shit

[Chris Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely well-researched work of history, that fills a massive gap in the scholarship on the early 19th century Pacific Northwest. Goings essentially exposes the fact that Billy Google, long-considered a prolific serial killer, was not a killer at all, and was in fact framed by anti-labor forces who opposed his powerful Union leadership. The intro and conclusion will give you the gist of the argument, and the rest of the chapters are relatively dense and slow reading; great scholarship doesn’t always translate into page-turning prose. Still, I’d give the is four stars for the truly original and groundbreaking historical research on the part of the author.

[Savannah Gunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for work, but it was honestly pretty interesting! If you’re wanting to know more about unions in the early 1900s or you just want to hear the story of Billy Gohl, a union leader who was thought to have killed over 100 people, then you might like this! It’s not a massive page turner, but I didn’t find myself bored. Goings casts doubt on Gohl’s reputation as a serial killer, instead showing that he probably didn’t kill anyone at all.

Very educational 🤓

[Hal Schrieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this work of labor history which looks hard at the mythmaking around Pacific Northwest identity and how scapegoating labor organizers for social problems in the early 20th century allowed timber and railroad bosses to consolidate power in early colonial extraction economies that still shape our forestry and fishing industries today.

Pushing back against true-crime sensationalism and taking a hard look at "the ghoul of Grays Harbor", Goings points out that there is no evidence that Billy Gohl, a shop steward for stevedores in the bustling timber ports of Aberdeen, killed any of the men he was accused of murdering. Rather, the "floater fleet" in Aberdeen's waters was probably produced by a combination of press-gangs gone wrong in local taverns, unsafe docks at night, rampant alcoholism, and interpersonal violence between isolated, desperate working men without community. Because Gohl, who confronted scabs and fought back against strikebreakers and who was enormously popular within working mens' community, threatened the power of bosses, he had to go. Blaming him helped manage social unrest related to the high death rate -- though, as Goings pointed out, the deaths didn't stop after Gohl was sent to Walla Walla. While Gohl is the entry point into this world and the hinge on which the story turns, this functions as a broad social history of white working class PNW residents-- including their heroism (standing up to sailing captains who would keep men in indefinite forced labor) and villainy (rampant racism: Gohl, while not a serial killer, advocated banning all Asian laborers from all of Washington). The human portraits that emerge, as well as the picture of money-run media of the early 1910s, helps us understand police brutality and attacks on labor today. I grew up in Olympia; this story helps me know more about the place I knew which I was not taught.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story about an Aberdeen legend. A lot of back history helps explain some of the goings on.