Only Murders on the Harbor

n the quiet coastal community of Grayland, Washington, a man suddenly disappeared, and the explanation that followed raised more questions than answers.

In August 2008, 62-year-old Kenneth Hutchison was last seen at a picnic with his longtime companion, Sherry Hamm. The following days brought troubling conversations with neighbors, unusual requests, and a growing suspicion that something terrible had happened inside their home at Roamer's Roost Trailer Park.

It would take nearly a week before authorities uncovered the truth behind Hutchison's disappearance.

Join Kaydee as we revisit the investigation, examine the events leading up to Hutchison's death, and uncover how a series of witness accounts and unexpected discoveries brought this case to light.

Because in a small coastal community, even the darkest secrets can't stay buried forever.

Sources & Further Reading

The following sources provide additional information about the case and the legal proceedings involving Sherry Hamm.

1. Washington State Court of Appeals – Published and Unpublished Opinions Court opinions and appellate records, including information related to Hamm's earlier assault conviction.
2. Washington Courts – Case Search Search Washington court records by party name, including Sherry Hamm.
3. Washington Courts – Odyssey Portal Superior Court case records for Grays Harbor County.
4. Grays Harbor County – Public Records Information about requesting public records related to the investigation.

Additional research: Contemporary reporting and court records concerning the August 2008 murder of Kenneth Hutchison in Grayland, Washington.

Tonight on Only Murders on the Harbor, we examine two haunting Grays Harbor cases connected by water, isolation, and unanswered timelines.

In January 2023, 53-year-old Gerald “Jerry” Beglinger walked away from his stranded vehicle near Porter Creek Campground and was later found dead in a nearby creek. Investigators stated that foul play was not suspected, but many questions surrounding his final hours remain unanswered.

Then we revisit a chilling 2009 case involving Teri Dascher and John Phillip Stapp, who departed from Westport aboard a 25-foot sailboat bound for the South Pacific. Days later, Dascher’s body washed ashore near Grayland while debris from the vessel scattered across the coastline. Stapp was never found.

From remote forest roads to dangerous Pacific waters, this episode explores how quickly people can disappear along Washington’s coast—and how some stories leave behind more questions than answers.

Sources:

• The Chronicle — “Sheriff’s Office Investigating After Grays Harbor County Man Found Dead in Creek”
• Fern Hill Funeral Home — Obituary for Gerald “Jerry” Eugene Beglinger
• Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office — Statements cited in media reporting
• Kitsap Daily News — “Family of Drowning Victim Left Heartbroken” Kitsap Daily News article
• Chinook Observer — “Woman’s Body Found Near Grayland, but No Trace of Companion” Chinook Observer article
• The Seattle Times — “Body That Washed Ashore in Grayland Identified” Seattle Times article

In this episode of Only Murders on the Harbor, we revisit a decades-old missing persons case from coastal Washington that unfolded during a powerful winter storm. A routine evening quickly turned into a mystery that has remained unsolved for more than forty years. Through timelines, witness accounts, and historical reporting, we explore the events of that night and the questions that still remain.

Sources:

• The Doe Network. (n.d.). Case file: Tyler Jennings Inman. Retrieved May 3, 2026, from https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/mp-main.html?id=157dmwa
• The Daily Herald. (1982, December 22). Windstorm turns wrath on county, Sound area. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1028805415/
• The Spokane Chronicle. (1982, December 22). Search underway for missing toddler. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/567275804/
• The Columbian. (1982, December 26). Reward offered for missing Aberdeen boy. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/816544251/
• The Daily Herald. (1982, December 25). Mother tries reward in hunt for missing son. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1028805990/
• The Kitsap Sun. (1984, May 18). Psychic ‘sees’ boy in river. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/875310667/
• The News Tribune. (1985, February 1). Milk cartons to be sold in state bearing missing youths’ photos. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/736677134/
• The Olympian. (2016, December 28). Tyler Inman disappeared 34 years ago. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/702079259/
• The Resource Center for Cold Case Missing Children’s Cases. (2019, August 19). Tyler Jennings Inman. https://rcccmcc.com/2019/08/19/35-wam-tyler-jennings-inman/

In the early 1900s, the rivers of Grays Harbor were more than just waterways—they were the center of work, community, and survival. Among those who lived and worked on the water was William “Billy” Charley, a fisherman, father, and one of the most well-known log rollers in the region.

Drawing from newspaper accounts, census records, and Quinault Tribal documentation, this episode explores the life of Billy Charley and the events surrounding his death in 1917.

On the night of September 1st, Charley was on a fishing boat in the Hoquiam River with another man. What began as an evening of drinking ended in a physical altercation—one that would later become the focus of a criminal case in Grays Harbor County.

The historical record provides a general outline of what happened that night, but leaves important questions unanswered. With no direct witnesses to the final moments and conflicting details in the accounts that followed, the case would rely heavily on testimony and limited evidence.

More than a century later, Billy Charley’s story remains preserved only in fragments—newspaper coverage, census entries, and brief mentions in the historical record—offering a glimpse into both his life and a case that was never fully resolved.

Sources: The Tacoma Daily News (October 17–18, 1917); Aberdeen Herald (July 7, 1910); Quinault Tribal census records.

In this episode of Only Murders on the Harbor, we explore the mysterious death of Deputy Sheriff Carlton Mason Stearns, a cold case that has puzzled Grays Harbor County for nearly a century.

Born in 1894 in Deer Lodge, Tennessee, Stearns grew up facing tragedy and loss, including the early deaths of several half-sisters. By his teens, he was working in Hoquiam sawmills, later holding jobs in printing, retail, and trucking. In 1914, he married Edna McNamara and settled in Tacoma, building a life and family while rising through local law enforcement ranks.

By 1931, Stearns was Chief Criminal Deputy in Grays Harbor County, involved in enforcing Prohibition-era liquor laws and investigating local crimes. On a March night in 1936, he was sent to the remote Copalis Beach to check on thefts and burglaries at vacation homes. Hours later, his body was found on the highway under circumstances that shocked the community: a gunshot wound to the head, evidence of a struggle, and a missing service revolver.

Initial reports labeled the killing a murder, yet decades later, unpublished accounts and family manuscripts suggest a far murkier story. Questions remain about what truly happened that night: Was it a targeted attack? Was Stearns’ death connected to his law enforcement work? Or did darker, more personal forces play a role? The truth may never be fully known, but his story endures as one of the Northwest’s oldest unsolved law enforcement mysteries.

Today, Stearns is honored as an officer who died in the line of duty, yet the debate over his final moments continues—making this story part history, part legend.

📚 Sources

• The Daily Herald, March 10, 1936 — “Deputy Sheriff’s Body is Found in Road at Copalis” https://www.newspapers.com/image/1026097233/?match=1&terms=Carlton%20Stearns
• The Olympian, March 18, 1936 — “Award Posted for Deputy’s Slayers” https://www.newspapers.com/image/801902832/?match=1&terms=Carlton%20Stearns
• The Tacoma News Tribune, March 11, 1936 — “Mystery in Copalis Death Case Grows” https://www.newspapers.com/image/733396718/?match=1&terms=Carlton%20Stearns
• Officer memorial profile: https://behindthebadgefoundation.org/rollcall/stearns-deputy-carlton-m/
• Anderson, Rick. “The Deputy in the Road” (Seattle Weekly) — historical feature & manuscript analysis

Season Two of Only Murders on the Harbor opens with one of the most disturbing cases to emerge from Grays Harbor County, Washington. This episode examines the life and violence of David Allen Gerard — and the victims whose stories might otherwise have been forgotten.

Raised in Aberdeen, Gerard’s early life was marked by instability, isolation, and escalating aggression. Over time, his relationships became increasingly volatile, with a documented history of domestic violence that, in hindsight, revealed a much darker pattern.

Throughout the 1980s, several young women disappeared or were found murdered across rural western Washington, including Carin Connor, Connie Rolls, Roberta Strasbaugh, and Tracy West. While none of these cases have been definitively linked to Gerard, similarities in victim profiles, locations, and circumstances continue to raise questions.

The episode centers on two of the most brutal killings: Elaine “Brooke” McCollum in 1991 and Carol Leighton in 1996. Both women were last seen in Aberdeen before being found along the same remote logging road. Each case involved extreme, rage-driven violence, and despite extensive investigations, both went cold for years.

Everything changed in 1999.

After surviving a near-fatal claw hammer attack in a dairy barn, Frankie Cochran identified Gerard as her attacker. Her survival became the turning point investigators needed. At the scene, Detective Lane Youmans recognized a chilling similarity between the attack and the earlier murders — a realization that led him to reopen the cold cases.

As forensic technology advanced, DNA evidence linked Gerard to both McCollum and Leighton. Yet legal barriers complicated efforts to fully prosecute him. Gerard ultimately entered an Alford plea in Leighton’s murder and is serving time for the attempted murder of Cochran, but questions remain — particularly in McCollum’s case and others that may be connected.

The episode also explores the suspicious 1995 house fire that killed Gerard’s former girlfriend Patty Rodriguez, her two sons, and her mother — a tragedy ruled accidental, but one that continues to raise doubts.

At its core, this episode is about persistence and memory — the work of a detective who refused to let these cases fade, and the lives of the victims who deserve to be remembered.

In Grays Harbor, the past never truly disappears.

Sources

• The Seattle Times (2006). “One-man task force keeps cold cases on front burner.”
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer / Associated Press (2002). “Police find prisoner’s DNA on 2 murder victims.”
• The Daily Herald (2002). “DNA evidence revives probe into savage murders.”
• The Chronicle (2009). “Woman in a Coma After 1999 Beating.”
• The Lineup (2019). “The Woman Who Was Bludgeoned by a Claw Hammer—And Survived.”
• HuffPost (2012). “The Devil You Know: Woman Faked Her Death To Survive Boyfriend’s Attack.”
• Oxygen / The Price of Duty (2018). “Women Murdered on Same Logging Road in Washington.”
• Archival newspaper records via Newspapers.com (Carin Connor, Connie Rolls, Roberta Strasbaugh, Tracy West, Elaine McCollum)

Between 1905 and 1910, Aberdeen, Washington’s harbor became a place where men vanished and bodies surfaced with unsettling regularity. Newspapers called them “floaters.” Locals whispered darker explanations.

In this season finale of Only Murders on the Harbor, we examine the rise and reckoning of William “Billy” Gohl — union leader, labor advocate, and alleged architect of violence along Grays Harbor. As sailors and timber workers disappeared, patterns emerged: disputes over union dues, moonshine debts, and quiet confrontations that ended in silence.

This episode focuses on the murder of Charles Hedberg, whose battered body surfaced in 1910, and the disappearance of John Hoffman, last seen after withdrawing a large sum of money. We follow the investigation, the arrest and conviction of John Klingenberg for manslaughter, and the growing belief that Gohl controlled the waterfront through fear, leverage, and ambiguity.

Inside the courtroom, witnesses described a man whose power determined who worked, who survived, and who vanished. Though evidence against Gohl was often circumstantial, newspapers estimated his responsibility in as many as 50–60 deaths. Even after convictions and Gohl’s life sentence, the questions never stopped. How many men truly died? How many survived by obedience or luck?

Billy Gohl died in prison in 1927, but Aberdeen’s harbor never forgot. His story sits at the intersection of labor history, crime, folklore, and fear — a reminder that water remembers what towns try to bury.

Only Murders on the Harbor will return in Season 2 after a short holiday break, exploring other murders and mysteries tied to the waterfront. Until then, remember: the harbor keeps its secrets — until someone dredges them up.

Sources Used

• Aberdeen Herald (1904–1912)
• San Francisco Call (1906–1910)
• Los Angeles Herald (1910)
• The Tacoma Times (1910)
• The Spokane Press (1910)
• Goings, Aaron. The Port of Missing Men. University of Washington Press, 2020.
• Hughes & Beckwith. On the Harbor. Stephens Press, 2005.
• Lane & Gregg. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Berkley Books, 1995.
• Morgan, Murray C. The Last Wilderness. University of Washington Press, 1955.
• Osborn, Andrew. Face Down in the Wishkah. UW Tacoma, 2013.

Step into the fog of early-1900s Aberdeen, Washington—a boomtown of mills, muddy streets, and a harbor crowded with sailors from every corner of the world. In this episode of Only Murders on the Harbor, we explore the rise of William “Billy” Gohl, the Sailors’ Union agent whose power on the waterfront shaped both labor politics and local legend.

Part 1 traces Gohl’s early activity in the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, beginning with his participation in the State Federation of Labor conference in Spokane in January 1904, where he represented the needs and grievances of deep-sea workers. By April he was elected as the union’s Aberdeen agent, gaining authority over job dispatching and seafarers’ welfare. His office quickly became the refuge of stranded sailors—and the gatekeeper for every man hoping to work the Grays Harbor ships.

But that power bred conflict. Aberdeen’s waterfront was a pressure cooker of rival unions, strikebreakers, labor spies, and restless drifters. Gohl clashed regularly with non-union sailors and company men, appearing in the local courts for fights, threats, and barroom brawls—offenses he typically defended in court and walked away from with fines. He became known for “protecting” his men from wage theft and crooked boarding-house runners, even as rumors spread that he used intimidation as readily as advocacy.

And then there were the disappearances. As early as 1905, bodies—often unidentified sailors—began surfacing in the harbor with troubling frequency. Papers referred to them simply as “floaters.” While no evidence at the time linked Gohl to any death, the pattern deepened his legend. Some townspeople insisted he was a fierce defender of working men; others whispered he used the harbor itself as a weapon against enemies. His union authority, legal entanglements, and the rising tide of corpses created a perfect storm of suspicion.

Part 1 lays the historical foundation of who Billy Gohl was before his arrest: a skilled labor organizer, a combative political actor, and the most influential figure on Grays Harbor’s unforgiving waterfront. Part 2 will follow his downfall, trial, and the transformation of rumor into enduring Pacific Northwest mythology.

Sources:

Spokesman Review (Jan 12, 1904); Aberdeen Herald (Apr 11, Jun 3, Jun 16, Jul 11 1904; Oct 2 1905; Feb 1 1906; Jun 11, Jun 14, Jun 18, Jul 12, Aug 23, Aug 27 1906); Seattle Star (Jun 3 1904); Seattle Union Record (Jan 21 1905); Post-Intelligencer (Oct 17 1905; Jun 7 1906); Tacoma Daily Ledger (Jun 5 1906; Jun 19 1906); Spokane Chronicle (Jun 6 1906); and additional Aberdeen and Tacoma articles from 1904–1906 referencing Gohl’s union activities, court cases, and harbor conditions

We follow the case from the night of the murders through multiple trials, appeals, insanity hearings, political battles, and a series of last-minute legal maneuvers that stretched across nearly four decades.

Witness testimony, forensic details, and court transcripts reveal a chilling crime scene: ten shots fired from a Savage automatic pistol, brutal stabbings, and survivors who barely escaped with their lives. Prosecutor A. E. Graham painted Grassi as an “arch criminal,” claiming ties to violence in Italy, Chicago, and Tacoma, while Grassi maintained his innocence and insisted he did not remember the murders.

Despite a death sentence in 1924, Grassi’s execution was delayed repeatedly by petitions, sanity hearings, and conflicting rulings from multiple courts. Judges, governors, Italian consular officials, and prison doctors all became entangled in the case, which raised landmark questions about insanity, jurisdiction, and the limits of executive clemency.

By the 1950s, the story took an unexpected turn: Grassi—now elderly—sought only to return to Italy. A final sanity ruling allowed his sentence to be reinstated so he could legally be considered for a pardon. In 1959, after 36 years behind bars, Governor Albert Rosellini granted that pardon on the condition that Grassi leave the United States and never return.

He arrived in Viareggio, Italy, in February 1959, welcomed by family and quietly living out his remaining years. Guido Grassi died in 1961 at the age of 82 — a man still claiming innocence, still haunted by the night that defined his life and the decades that followed.

This episode explores justice, myth, memory, and the long shadow of fear that settled over Aberdeen for generations.

Sources Used

Primary Newspaper & Archive Sources:

• The Aberdeen Daily World (1923–1926) — coverage of the murders, trial testimony, executions stays, and community reactions.
• The Seattle Times (1950s) — reporting on Grassi’s pardon, sanity hearings, and efforts to return to Italy.
• The Spokesman-Review — articles on Grassi’s appeals and late-life hearings.
• The Associated Press — obituary notice and coverage of Grassi’s death in Italy (1961).
• The Oregonian — regional reporting on legal developments during the 1920s appeals.

Court & Legal Records:

• Grays Harbor County Superior Court transcripts (1923–1926).
• Washington State Supreme Court rulings regarding Grassi’s appeals and the jurisdictional issues surrounding insanity proceedings.
• Walla Walla Superior Court filings, including the 1925 and 1926 lunacy commission reports.

Government & Institutional Records:

• Washington State Penitentiary archives, Walla Walla: inmate reports, disciplinary logs, clemency petitions, and communications with governors.
• Office of Governor Roland H. Hartley — stay of execution records and correspondence on Grassi’s sanity petitions.
• Office of Governor Albert Rosellini — pardon documentation and conditions for deportation.
• Italian Consulate correspondence involving Vice-Consul Sam Grosso and Consul Alberto Alfani.

In this episode, Kaydee investigates a chilling case from Grays Harbor County, Washington, in November 1923. A string of brutal murders left a predominantly Italian immigrant community in terror. Central to the chaos was Guido Grassi, a laborer whose reputation for violence earned him the nickname the Cat-Man.

The night unfolded with shocking attacks: Joe Tollomi was found shot and slashed in his boarding house, while witnesses were injured, and John Ricci was murdered in a nearby shack. Amid dense fog and eerily silent streets, police scrambled to track the assailant. Survivors described him moving with catlike stealth, carrying a small white sack — a charm believed to render him untouchable.

Inside the sack were fragments of what appeared to be a human heart preserved in salt, though Grassi claimed it was a sheep’s heart. Fear of the charm delayed witness cooperation, allowing Grassi to evade justice temporarily. Once the talisman was seized, witnesses spoke out, revealing the horrifying details: Grassi had entered the Tollomi home, shot and stabbed multiple men, and terrorized anyone in his path.

The case illuminates the interplay of superstition, community fear, and crime, showing how belief in a talisman can influence both criminal behavior and law enforcement efforts. The episode ends with Grassi’s arrest and the lingering question of his charm’s influence on the community.

Sources & Context:

1. “Luck of a Salted Charm,” True Detective Mysteries, March 1930.
2. Tacoma Tribune, November–December 1923 – Coverage of the Grassi murders and arrests.
3. Grays Harbor County Records (1923–1924) – Criminal filings and coroner reports.
4. The Daily Olympian (Nov–Dec 1923) – Trial and witness accounts.
5. Walla Walla Penitentiary Records (1924–1926) – Execution delay documents.

Next episode, Kaydee will dive into the trial, the unraveling of Grassi’s “charm,” and the community’s confrontation with the brutal reality behind the myth.