William Gohl (February 6, 1873 – March 3, 1927) was a German-American alleged serial killer who, while working as a union official, allegedly murdered sailors passing through Aberdeen, Washington. He allegedly murdered for an unknown period of time and was a suspect in dozens of murders until his capture in 1910. Spared from the death penalty by a request for leniency by the jury, he was sentenced to life in prison at Walla Walla State Penitentiary where he died in 1927 from lobar pneumonia and erysipelas complicated by dementia paralytic caused by syphilis. Recent scholarship has cast significant doubt on the veracity of the accusations against Gohl, with historian Aaron Goings arguing that the numerous bodies discovered in Grays Harbor were the result of accidental deaths caused by unsafe conditions on the docks and in the timber industry, and that Gohl was unjustly blamed for these deaths by influential local businessmen hoping to do away with a powerful figure in the local labor movement. Occupation and alleged murders Little is known about Gohl's early life though at one point as an adult, he went to the Yukon chasing gold. He was unsuccessful, and on his return to Aberdeen he took on work as a bartender. During this time it was alleged that he may have been responsible for numerous murders. The bodies of migrant workers were found after washing up on the shores, robbed of any valuables or money they were known to have. Gohl is alleged to have started a fire which burned a saloon in Alaska. It is also alleged that a "Jacob Miller" and wife had "vanished" while living in a cabin owned by Gohl on Laidlaw Island (near Westport, Washington). In March 1912, a human skull was found buried near the cabin owned by Gohl; another skull had previously been found near the same spot on a beach and was thought to have been of "Red" Miller who had "disappeared" and was believed to have been a victim of Gohl. Gohl was employed as a union official at the Sailors' Union of the Pacific. Before this he had been employed as a bartender after returning broke from the Yukon. Already an accomplished criminal, Gohl was accused of being responsible for many of the large numbers of deceased migrant workers that were found washed up on shore during his tenure as a bartender, as well as a