Marin County Deaths

Transcribed by Betty Wilson

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MURDER OF KARL HERMAN KOHLER
            William A. Dever was committed to the 
State Prison about two years ago, on a charge of larceny.  In an evil hour for 
all parties concerned, he was assigned to the worksho0p of the California 
Furniture Company of which Herman Kohler was foreman.  Kohler seems to have been 
a man not entirely without faults.  He had his own ideas of workshop discipline, 
and lived up to them.  To how great an extent he aggravated Dever can never be 
definitely known, as the matter rests alone upon the testimony of Dever himself. 
 But certainly there must have been some provocation, as it is not reasonable to 
suppose that a helpless convict would strike down his overseer, unless laboring 
under the sense of wrong.  This much is certain, that Kohler frequently chided 
him for his mechanical incapacity and on one occasion reported him as a fit 
subject for discipline.  During all this time Dever was more or less an invalid. 
 He claimed that he was utterly unable, by reason of his infirmities, to perform 
manual labor.  That Kohler continually hounded him on to do what he could not, 
that he menaced him with corporal punishment and so irritated him that finally, 
flesh and blood could stand it no longer.  On the other hand it was shown on the 
trial that Kohler, though somewhat severe, was not more so than the 
circumstances demanded, and that so far as the work went he had assigned to 
Dever the lightest employment in the room, namely, sand-papering the furniture.  
On the day of the murder, February 6, 1879,�following Dever�s own account, 
Kohler approached his bench examining the work of the morning.  Not being 
pleased with the inspection, he discharged a volley of abuse and left with the 
remark:  �You ________ mutton-head.  I�ll have you fixed this time.�  He had 
walked away a short distance when Dever, in an uncontrollable fit of passion, 
sprang upon him, felling him to the ground with a hammer, and striking him twice 
as he lay prostrate on the floor.  Kohler�s skull was fractured in two places.  
He lingered for three or four days, and died.  The trial developed evidence 
about as follows:  Messrs. Bowers and C.B. Darwin appeared for the people and H. 
Wilkins for the prisoner.  The case was vigorously conducted on both sides, but 
the result was a foregone conclusion.  Whatever palliation there might have been 
was swallowed up in the great necessity of an example to check the spirit of 
convict insubordination.  And after an absence of a few minutes, the jury 
returned with a verdict of murder in the first degree.  The law�s delay at 
length provided unavailing and the day for carrying the sentence into effect was 
finally fixed for January 16, 1880.  Influential men at the East, including 
Speaker Randall, interested themselves to obtain executive clemency, but to no 
purpose.  In jail, the conduct of Dever was various.  He made several efforts to 
escape, two of which nearly succeeded.  At times he had been 
(NOTE:  Page 256 missing, including conclusion of this article.)

History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, 
Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, 
Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880