Killed With a Cuspidor.

Jerry Shoaff was drinking with a group of young men at Tom Clarke’s saloon in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the night of October 3, 1888. Eight of them decided to go next to Goelecke’s Saloon on East Main Street. Someone proposed that they order drinks there, then leave without paying. They all agreed to the plan.

They stood at the bar and ordered their drinks. As the men finished drinking, they began leaving he saloon. William Goelecke, who was tending the bar, demanded that they pay. Shoaff and his friends, Arthur Hammill and J.W. Hefflinger, stayed at the bar arguing with Goelecke, who was threatening them with a seltzer bottle he was holding by the neck.

William Kanning, one of the entourage, was outside smoking a cigar when he heard a large crash sounding like breaking glass. A moment later, Jerry Shoaff ran out of the bar saying, “Run boys, I have hit him.” They all ran down Main Street and turned down a side street.

During the argument inside the saloon, someone picked up an iron spittoon and hurled it at Goelecke. It hit him on the head and then shattered the bar mirror. Goelecke fell to the ground unconscious. His skull was fractured.

Witnesses said Shoaff had thrown the spittoon, and the police took him into custody. When Goelecke regained consciousness, he declared that the person who struck him was dark and heavy-set, wore a black mustache and a slouch hat. Shoaff was slender, with blonde, almost white hair. He was clean-shaven and wore a stiff hat. Goelecke was describing Arthur Hammill. The police assumed Goelecke was mistaken because Shoaff had thrown the cuspidor over Hammill’s head.

Shoaff was from a wealthy family, and he was out on $1,000 bail. William Goelecke died on November 12, and a coroner’s jury found that Goelecke’s death was due to pressure on the brain from the blow inflicted by Jerry Shoaff. Sheriff Viberg went to bring Shoaff back in and found that he had disappeared.

Shoaff had planned to take an eastbound train, but his father turned him in to the sheriff. The Grand Jury of Allen County indicted Shoaff for manslaughter, though many had expected second-degree murder. His bail was fixed at $10,000.

The trial began on January 7, 1889, and Jerry Shoaff’s plea was not guilty. Excitement was high in Fort Wayne, and the courtroom was uncomfortably crowded each day of the trial. The Fort Wayne Journal’s assessment of the case was not optimistic: “Unless close observation is misleading, the testimony in the Jerry Shoaff will develop an amount of lying that the honest jurors will have difficulty in reconciling the truth.”

The prosecution began with eyewitnesses to the murder. Author Hammill and other members of the party who caused the dispute testified that Shoaff picked up the iron cuspidor and hurled it at Goelecke. Others testified that Shoaff later confessed to the deed.

Dr. Miles F. Porter, the physician who conducted the autopsy on the body of Goelecke testified that the fracture of Goelecke’s skull was sufficient to cause death. He shocked the spectators by producing the murdered man’s skull in court to illustrate his point.

The defense called witnesses who testified that Arthur Hammil threw the spittoon and who heard him later admit it. Others contradicted testimony that Shoaff confessed. Dr. M. F. Porter, testifying for the defense, said that the wound was not fatal and a fracture of the skull was no more dangerous than any other bone.

Jerry Shoaff’s testimony was the centerpiece of the defense. He described the scene and said that witnesses saw him reach down to brush off his pant leg, but he did not pick up the spittoon. He denied throwing it or ever saying that he did. When questioned, he said he did not know who threw it, but his testimony implied that it was Hammill.

After six days of testimony, the case was given to the jury. They deliberated for thirty-one hours before returning their verdict – “guilty of involuntary manslaughter with a penalty of two years in the penitentiary.”  They had been deadlocked at six for conviction and three for acquittal and reached the final verdict as a compromise.

The verdict pleased no one. Both the state and the defense pronounced it a farce. The prosecutors thought the verdict a sad commentary on justice. But Jerry Shoaff had a different take. He told the sheriff, “I think the verdict is rotten. If I was guilty, I should have got twenty-one years, and if innocent I should have been acquitted.”

The Fort Wayne Journal believed the case was instructive because it “…has shown to many people and for the first time a side of life in this Christian city which they had no concept existed…What shall be said of young men who organize to ‘beat’ a saloonkeeper out of his wares and then plan to assault him if he fails to accept the ‘stand-and-deliver’ terms of the graceless highwaymen of the streets? Yet these are true pictures of nightlife in Fort Wayne.”

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Sources: 

“But One Indictment,” Fort Wayne Journal, November 25, 1888.
“The Case of Jerry Shoaff,” Fort Wayne Journal, November 21, 1888.
“Circuit Court,” Fort Wayne Journal, December 6, 1888.
“Court Notes,” Fort Wayne Daily News, January 28, 1889.
“Involuntary Manslaughter,” Daily Inter Ocean, January 13, 1889.
“Jerry Shoaff,” Fort Wayne Journal, January 8, 1889.
“Killed Him with a Cuspidor,” Daily Inter Ocean, November 13, 1888.
“Killed With a Spittoon,” Evening Bulletin, November 14, 1888.
“Looking for Bail,” Fort Wayne Journal, December 8, 1888.
“A Murdered Man's Skull in Court,” Illustrated Police News, January 26, 1889.
“The Nether Side of Fort Wayne,” Fort Wayne Journal, January 11, 1889.
“The News,” Fort Wayne Journal, October 6, 1888.
“The News,” Fort Wayne Journal, November 14, 1888.
“The Shoaff Case,” The Fort Wayne News And Sentinel, January 9, 1889.
“Shoaff's Story,” Fort Wayne Journal, January 9, 1889.
“Very Light,” The Fort Wayne News And Sentinel, January 12, 1889.