The Mystery of the Missing Draft
A Swiss immigrant looking to buy a farm in Tacoma disappears, leaving behind his tools and unanswered questions about a $660 payment.
Gottfried Eggimann was probably murdered for his money; evidence has come to light that indicates this was the case. The night before he disappeared, Eggimann was in the William Tell saloon, in high spirits because he had received a letter from his wife enclosing a draft for $660. That was the last time he was seen alive. Eggimann had been working with Peter Creso, a farmer from Hillhurst, to purchase property for $2,200. On December 13, Creso went to the Atlantic House to meet him. The proprietor, Fred Portman, said Eggimann had been showing his draft the night before, yet when the bartender went to call him, he was gone. His body was later found in the woods. His acquaintances, including Portman, are skeptical of the suicide theory, noting that Eggimann never owned a weapon and had been making concrete plans for his future.
“The question is: What became of the draft and the letter?”
Unsolved deaths of newcomers in a boomtown are a dark undercurrent of Tacoma’s history. Eggimann’s story speaks to the vulnerability of immigrant laborers who arrived with their life savings in cash or drafts, becoming prime targets in an era of lax banking and transient populations.
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