Marin County
Death Records
Transcribed by Betty Wilson
KILLING OF ALEYER HUBERT
KILLING OF ALEYER HUBERT.—The victim of this atrocity was a peddler aged seventeen years, and was coldly murdered for money and to cover the crime of taking it. From a small beginning of a few pieces of cheap lace, which he packed upon his back, he had grown to that of carrying his goods upon a horse, riding or walking, as he chose. He had a widowed mother and orphan sister in San Francisco, who were largely supported by his persevering efforts. By strictly temperate habits, economy and untiring industry, he had given comfort to his loved and loving mother. Having on a trip about the Christmas holidays got together a few dollars—probably about fifty—some one bearing the image of man, gangrened with avarice, and reckless of all consequences, in cold blood, and with no provocation other than a desire of possessing Hubert’s little stock, took his innocent life by shooting him with a shot gun loaded with buck-shot, which took effect in the neck and upper part of the left breast, producing almost instant death. His body was afterwards dragged with a riata to a culvert over a deep but narrow cut in the Bolinas and Olema road, near the head of Olema creek. The body was discovered by the merest accident on December 31, 1876, fully two days after the deed had been committed. Suspicion fell upon Joseph Bernal, who was arrested and tried, but was released on account of the insufficiency of evidence.
MURDER OF CARL PETER RUSH
MURDER OF CARL PETER RUSH.—On June 1, 1877, Peter Rush, an old farmer of Novato, went out to his field to work, taking his luncheon. He left at the house his wife and an Indian boy. A man employed by Rush on the place started for Petaluma that morning, leaving the house first. The man returned about five o’clock. Rush was expected in early to do the chores, and as he did not come, the boy was sent out for him, but could not find him. The man finished up his chores, and then, taking a lantern he and the boy went out to look for Rush. About half an hour after they had left, as Mrs. Rush was sitting at the window reading, a gun was discharged through it, large shot perforating her book, the flying glass scratching her neck, and the shot lodging in a bed, the wad setting fire to it. After searching about an hour, the man and boy returned to the house, and reported that they had found nothing of Rush, and there the search was dropped for that night. No notice was given to the neighbors of the extraordinary events. The next morning word was sent to Sweetser & De Long’s, and a force of fifteen or twenty men visited the premises, and commenced an active search for the missing man. All that day was spent in the hunt, but no clue was obtained to the whereabouts of Rush. The search was resumed on the 3rd, and in the afternoon, the murdered body of Peter Rush was found, in the field adjoining where he had been at work. He had been shot in the back, and his upper jaw was broken as if by a heavy blow. The body had been dragged by hand to a fence, and under it, and on the opposite side of the fence from where he had been at work, and there covered up with grass and brush. The appearance of the body indicated that he had been dead several days. The victim of this murder was formerly a sailor, a native of Denmark, aged fifty years. He had lived in Novato about twenty years, and his estate was estimated at from twenty to thirty thousand dollars. The murderer was never found.
MURDER OF CHUNG HING-HOOT
MURDER OF CHUNG HING-HOOT.—On August 8, 1877, Lew Wong, Chung Hing-Hoot, Lee Yun, and another Chinaman, were engaged in abalone fishing at Tomales bay, and lived in a cabin together on Preston’s Point. About ten days before the murder, Lew Wong and Chung Hing-Hoot quarreled about some trivial matter connected with their business, but it passed over for the time without any serious trouble, and they continued upon apparently friendly terms for some days. On the 7th of August the fourth Chinaman left the fishery and went to San Francisco, and on the next day the tragedy occurred. Chung was at work late in the afternoon nailing some boards upon the cabin, while Lew Wong was seated inside, and Lee Yun was engaged in some occupation a short distance away. Whether any words passed between the two is not know, but Wong suddenly drew a pistol and fired from the door at Chung, killing him instantly. Lee Yun, hearing the shot, hurried up to the cabin, and was confronted by the leveled pistol of the murderer, who threatened to kill him also if he ever breathed a word of what he saw. With the pistol still aimed at the frightened man’s head Wong compelled him to go with him in search of a good spot to bury the body of Chung, and together the two walked over the sand beach until they found a place where the murdered man could be concealed from the sight of chance wanderers on the Point. This completed, they returned to the cabin, where the murdered man was lying, and tied a rope around his neck, with which Lee Yun dragged the body across the sands to the grave on the beach, followed by Wong with his pistol in his hand, where it was buried. With the pistol at his head, the murderer extorted the promise from Lee Yun, that the dread secret should never be divulged—and thus they parted, Lee going to San Francisco. As soon as he reached the city, he informed the President of the Sam Yup Company, to which Chung Hing-Hoot belonged. Lew Wong, relying upon the promise of Lew Yun, went to the city also, a few days afterwards, was recognized by some of the Sam Yup men, and arrested and delivered into custody. He was tried and convicted of the murder in the December term of the District Court, 1877, and executed January 28, 1878.