A Confessed Accomplice Turns on the Man Who Ordered Two Killings
In Aberdeen, J. K. Klingenberg admits he killed Charles Hadberg on William Gohl's command — and blames Gohl for a second murder whose body was never found.
ABERDEEN. — Information charging J. K. Klingenberg, formerly donkeyman on the schooner A. J. West and confessed accomplice of William Gohl, with murder in the second degree was filed in the superior court by Prosecuting Attorney W. E. Campbell. First degree murder is not charged, because, it is stated, the evidence against Klingenberg does not show premeditation.
Klingenberg, in his confession, has admitted killing Charles Hadberg, of which crime Gohl was convicted, but said he did so at Gohl's command and because he feared to do otherwise. The murder of John Hoffman, who was slain on the same night that Hadberg met death, is attributed by Klingenberg to Gohl. Hoffman's body has never been found.
“Klingenberg, in his confession, has admitted killing Charles Hadberg ... but said he did so at Gohl's command and because he feared to do otherwise.”
The Gohl case was one of the coast's grisliest — a shipboard killer who, prosecutors said, used a partner to do the work. Klingenberg's deal with the state is the same bargain prosecutors strike today: a lesser charge in exchange for testimony that convicts the man at the top. The missing body of John Hoffman is the detail that still nags.
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