The Mysterious Death of Gotlieb Eggimann
A quiet man planning a new life on a farm is found dead in a Tacoma gulch, fueling rumors of a calculated crime.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The mystery surrounding the death of Gotlieb Eggimann, whose body was found in a gulch near Old Town Sunday afternoon, continues to grow. Facts have come to light which indicate that the man might have been murdered. The body was identified by Louis Zehinder, an acquaintance from the Atlantic boarding house. Eggimann had been living there from November 12 until December 7. While he was described as a quiet man who did not drink, his rent went unpaid after November, and he had claimed he was awaiting money from his wife. Eggimann had been working with real estate agent Florian Donuser on Jefferson Avenue to purchase a farm, having already made a down payment. He told Donuser on December 7 that his money had arrived from the East and he would close the deal the following morning. He never appeared, and the ranch owner waited in town for a week. Authorities noted the body showed no obvious signs of foul play, but they suspect a revolver found nearby may have been planted to suggest suicide, and an empty pocketbook could have been replaced to mask a robbery.
“There was nothing in the inspection of the body when found in the gulch to indicate positively that he was not murdered.”
Unsolved deaths in Tacoma's isolated gulches and ravines were a recurring feature of the city's early history, highlighting the dangers of transient life and the vulnerability of those carrying cash for land deals. Today, the city’s struggle with housing stability and public safety continues to make headlines, though the context has shifted from frontier-era land scams to modern municipal growth pressures.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.