Who Killed William Goebel?

 

William Goebel (photo: public domain)

 

“Assassination is probably the only enterprise where private industry is not more efficient” ― Pierce Brown, Iron Gold”

Governor William Goebel and his friends Frank Helm and the Kentucky state Attorney General W.J. Hendricks walked to Helm’s First National Bank of Covington, Kentucky, when they came upon John L. Sanford, who had been leaning against a metal rail as though waiting for someone. With his right hand in his pocket, he shook hands with Helm and Hendricks with his left hand, turned to Goebel, and said, “I understand that you assume authorship of that article.”

“I do,” Goebel said.

Sanford pulled out a firearm. He shot at the governor, piercing his clothing. Goebel drew his own weapon, fired once, and killed Sanford with a single shot to the head. Goebel pocketed his weapon, called is brother Justus, and turned himself in to the police. A previous threat by Sanford to kill Goebel and the testimony of witnesses to the shooting acquitted Goebel the charges of dueling and murder.

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The Goebel-Sanford feud began years earlier, when Senator Goebel introduced a bill that reduced tolls on Kentucky’s roads, bridges, and railroads, including the Roebling Bridge between Covington and Cincinnati, one of Sanford’s investments. In retaliation, Sanford arranged through powerful men to block Goebel’s chance for a seat on the Court of Appeals.

Later, Goebel moved three of Covington’s accounts from Sanford’s bank to Frank Helm’s First National Bank of Covington, further enraging Sanford., who then threatened to kill Goebel.

Sanford had practiced for some time a custom of the period in which citizens could post scandalous remarks about their enemies in newspapers. Goebel retaliated by posting a comment about Sanford in which he referred to his enemy as “John Gon — h — ea Sanford. The sexual disease insult resulted in Sanford’s assassination attempt.

John L. Sanford was not the Senator’s only enemy. Indeed, Senator-turned-Governor Goebel possessed an abrasive personality that attracted the ire of powerful men.

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Before he ran for office in the Senate, he worked in his private legal practice where he took on corporations and railroads. For fifteen years he fought against corporations who abused their power over workers and the widows of men killed in train wrecks. During those years, he never lost a case against the L&N Railroad, the most powerful corporation in the state.

On entering politics in 1887, the Senator fought for the rights of blacks, women, and the working class while fighting abuses by corporations. The company that suffered most from Goebel’s populist crusades: the L&N Railroad. Goebel sought to have railroads pay their fair share of taxes, to raise those taxes, and to curtail the L&N monopoly’s generous lobbying that gave the company immense power in state government. When a bill to abolish the state’s Railroad Commission came before the Senate, L&N President Milton H. Smith’s lobbyists spent lavishly to encouraged friendly legislators to kill the bill. On learning of the lobbyist’s influence, an investigative committee sought and failed to get an indictment against the lobbyists, but the bill to abolish the commission died in the General Assembly.

During the 1890 convention to rewrite the state constitution to comply with amendments to the U.S. constitution. Goebel included in the new document a provision that secured the Railroad Commission, the state agency that regulated railroads.

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In 1899, Goebel ran for governor or and won the Democratic Party’s nomination at the raucous party convention held at Louisville’s Music Hall that the New York Times described as “a continuous performance of howling farce. . . .” (Walker)

L&N’s chairman, August Belmont wrote in 1999 a letter to Goebel saying he would do all he could “to counteract the evil influence of your unjustifiable hostility.” He told Goebel’s friend, Urey Woodson, that He and his associates had spent 500,000 dollars to defeat Goebel. L&N’s president, Milton Smith, took charge of the campaign against Goebel’s run for governor.

Goebel told Woodson that, as his first act as governor, “he would ask for a special grand jury and get an indictment against Milton Smith and his cronies for criminal libel and put them in in jail for at least two years.” (Walker)

Kentucky Secretary of State Caleb Powers participated in (and allegedly organized) a meeting to plan an armed force from the eastern part of the state to descend on Frankfort to influence legislative action.

Goebel lost the election, but the Democratic State Central Committee found thousands of illegal ballots and asked for a recount that gave Goebel a leading edge in the race. The Democratically controlled General Assembly voted to give the election to William Goebel over William Taylor. Taylor sent out letters to friend to hurry to the capital. Many of those friends came from the rugged eastern mountains and arrived with weapons. Most of them came by way of fee passes on the L&N Railroad.

On January 30, 1900 — the day before Goebel was to assume office — he walked across the capitol plaza with two friends when a shot fired from the Executive Building struck him in the chest.

William Taylor seized control of the governorship, immediately declared a state of emergency, sent letters to friends requesting that they hurry to Frankfort, and called out the militia.

Democrats attempted to meet but were barred from the capitol by the militia. They met secretly at the hotel where Goebel lay dying and invalidated enough votes to declare Goebel as governor and John C. Beckham as lieutenant governor.

Over protests of his physicians, Goebel was sworn in as governor on his deathbed on January 31, 1900. He ordered the legislature to assemble and rescinded Taylor’s call to the militia. His order was ignored.

On February 1, 1900, Taylor signed vouchers to pay the militia (President Redman). Farmer’s Bank refused payment on the grounds that Taylor had usurped the office.

A court order restrained Taylor from interfering with the legislature. Alonzo Walker was deputized to serve the order on Taylor, but Taylor would not permit him to enter, so Walker tacked the order to the door, whereupon Taylor ordered the militia to apprehend him.

William Goebel died February 3, 1900. Lieutenant Governor John Beckham was sworn in as governor. The funeral train, February 6, 1900. On that day, Judge Moore ordered the release of Alonzo Walker. Taylor initially ignored the order but soon gave in. Goebel was buried with great pomp and ceremony on February 8.

Taylor withdrew the militia two days later. The legislature was permitted to meet for the first time since the crisis began.

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Surveyors determined that the shot came from Caleb Powers’ office. Warrants were issued for the arrest of Powers and John Davis, state Capital Square policeman.

“Governor” Taylor ordered the militia to deny Sheriff Sutter entry into the capitol to serve the warrants.

Powers and Davis escaped Frankfort disguised as soldiers and accompanied by twenty-five soldiers to Barbourville, a stronghold of the Taylor faction. Police chief Ross of Lexington stormed the train with his entire force and took Powers and Taylor prisoner after a desperate battle.

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In 1909, Governor Augustus E. Willson pardoned all parties involved in the Goebel assassination.

End

Sources:

[1] The Late Governor Goebel, Marianne C. Walker. HUMANITIES, July/August 2013, volume 34, Number 4. https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/julyaugust/feature/the-late-governor-goebel. Accessed 08/14/2019

[2] Nicholas C. Burckel, 1974, William Goebel and the Campaign for Railroad Regulation in Kentucky, 1888–1900 https://filsonhistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/publicationpdfs/48-1-5_William-Goebel-and-the-Campaign-for-Railroad-Regulation-in-Kentucky-1888-1900_Burckel-Nicholas-C..pdf citing The Louisville Courier-Journal, October 17, 26, 1899. Accessed 11/07/2021

[3] “Caleb Powers: United States Representative, Politician,” “The prosecution charged that Powers was the mastermind, having a political opponent killed so that his boss, Governor William South. Taylor, could stay in office.” https://prabook.com/web/caleb.powers/1060693

[4] “Goebel Shoots Sanford” www.nkyviews.com/Kenton/text/Goebel_shoots_sandford.html