By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Some crimes in Wood County’s past are high profile – like the Pretty Boy Floyd and Billy the Babyface Kid’s shootout in Bowling Green that sent a police officer to his grave.
But some crimes got far less fanfare. In one case a murder victim was identified by his socks. In another case, four people were charged at different times with the killing of a woman – but the crime has gone unsolved to his day. And in another, an attorney was shot by two brothers angry about a bill for legal services.
Marnie Pratt, who works in the local history department of the Wood County District Public Library, has researched crimes that occurred in Wood County during the oil boom times of the late 1800s and 1900s.
“There’s all kinds of interesting stories out there,” Pratt said.
“We have to remember this was a fairly new settlement then,” she said. “It was a little bit like the wild west here.”
Following are a few of the more serious crimes committed in Wood County during that era.
Carl Bach kills his wife with a corn knife
The murder of Mary Bach by her husband, Carl, in their cabin near Milton Center is one of the more infamous crimes – likely because Mary’s fingers, cut off with the corn knife, were on display for years at the county courthouse then later at the county historical museum.
By all accounts, Carl and Mary Bach had a less than happy marriage. It was a “quarrelsome” relationship, fraught with financial problems. And Mary was known to be a poor housekeeper – which led to some of the marital discord.
“We probably blamed the victims more back then,” Pratt pointed out.
In October 1881, the couple had a violent fight, ending with Carl Bach stabbing his wife with a corn knife. Mary at the time was six or seven months pregnant.
“It was very, very brutal,” Pratt said.
“He spends the rest of the night in the house with the kids,” Pratt said of Bach and the couple’s three children.
The next day, Carl Bach turned himself in for killing his wife on Oct. 11, 1881.
Mary’s fingers were used as evidence at the trial.
“They were entered to show the brutality of the crime,” Pratt said. The jarred fingers were later put on display in the courthouse, then at the county historical center.
Though Carl Bach confessed to the crime, there were some who suspected the couple’s son, Charles, 13. Investigators found bloody clothes from both the father and son in the corn crib.
“That always sat weird with me,” Pratt said.
But Carl Bach was found guilty in Wood County, then in a second trial in Hancock County.
He was hung in 1883 on gallows specially built for the execution behind the old Wood County Jail. The National Guard was called in to make sure the crowd of spectators didn’t get out of hand, Pratt said. And postcards with photos of the Bachs and their home were handed out to those attending the hanging.
“It was such a sensational crime of the time,” Pratt said.
Murder victim identified by his socks
On May 9, 1885, the body of a man was discovered on a farm near Stony Ridge.
“The body was severely damaged and left to the animals for a couple of days,” before it was found, Pratt said.
The investigation that ensued uncovered several mysterious clues.
“It read to me like an early CSI case,” she said.
The body was posed, with his arms and feet crossed.
A hat was found nearby with two bullet holes in it. But the victim’s head was so damaged, it was unclear if he had been shot. Also, there was evidence of choking around the man’s neck.
The soles of the victim’s shoes had grain in them, supposedly from the nearby field. There were footprints of three people found in the field.
And the most curious clue was found on the victim’s socks, which had the words “G.G. Loomis.”
Loomis’ family came forward and said Granville Loomis, somewhere between 30 and 40 years old, had come to Stony Ridge to conduct business with Arthur Grover.
So Wood County Sheriff Brown started a manhunt for Grover, who is finally caught in Wisconsin.
“He finds Grover with all of Loomis’ belongings, including his wagon and pony,” Pratt said.
Grover professed his innocence, but had trouble keeping his story straight.
“His story changes several times,” Pratt said.
The owner of a hotel testified that he saw Loomis and Grover together with a “hard character from Fremont.”
“All the evidence was what we would call circumstantial,” Pratt said.
But back then, it was enough to convict Grover of murder, and he was sentenced to death. Grover maintained his innocence till the end.
His last words before being hanged at the Ohio Penitentiary, were reportedly spoken in a calm voice:
“Boys, I die here tonight an innocent man. Goodbye.”
The unsolved murder of Olive Peaney
On March 1, 1895, Olive Peaney was murdered in Tontogany.
“This one is interesting because it’s still unsolved,” Pratt said.
It’s rather complicated too, since four people were charged at different times with the murder – but none were found guilty.
The story starts with Dr. Adam Eddmon working in his drug store in the center of the downtown area, tallying up the money from the day. He reportedly hears a gunshot and runs to his house to check on his wife.
His wife is fine, but the doctor looks out his window and sees a fire in the back alley. Eddmon and his neighbor, Harry Rudd, run out to the fire.
“They think it’s a burning pile of trash,” Pratt said. “Actually, it’s the body of a woman.”
It turns out to be Olive Peaney, a patient and neighbor of Eddmon’s. It is later discovered that she was shot first, then set on fire.
Neighbors notify Olive’s husband, Peter Peaney, who said he was a sound sleeper and missed all the commotion in town.
The investigators said the bullet trajectory showed that Olive was bending over when she was shot – though Pratt questioned the ability of investigators at the time to accurately reach such conclusions.
But the rumors started circulating.
Peter Peaney was known to be a “jealous husband.”
“Some suspected some things,” Pratt said.
Adding to the mystery was the fact that the doctor carried a revolver with him – though it was the wrong caliber and hadn’t been fired recently.
Before it was over, several people were charged with Olive’s murder – including Peter Peaney, Dr. Eddmon, Mrs. Eddmon, and the Eddmons’ housekeeper, Nellie Hartsing.
“They were all charged with the crime at different times,” Pratt said. Eventually, all the charges were dropped.
“For years after this rumors circled, but it was unsolvable,” she said. “To this day, it is unsolved.”
The crime did have an unusual twist decades later, when Ralph Wires of Tontogany was operating a repair shop in the old pharmacy in 1954. In the wall, he reportedly found a rusty gun and bullets.
“I still think that’s a pretty weird coincidence,” Pratt said.
Pretty Boy Floyd and Billy the Babyface Killer
This story is one of the better known crimes of Wood County’s past. On April 16, 1931, infamous gangsters Pretty Boy Floyd and Billy the Babyface Killer were staying at a Bowling Green hotel with the Baird sisters – Rose and Beulah.
They may have gone unnoticed, but the four were reportedly flashing money and dressed like mobsters.
It didn’t take long for local citizens to report the four to Bowling Green Police Chief Carl Galliher.
“He’d been getting reports of these unusual people,” Pratt said. Citizens were worried about them passing counterfeit money or robbing a bank.
A citizen who worked at Uhlman’s department store downtown called the chief with concerns that the Baird sisters were spending a lot of money on new dresses. Meanwhile, Floyd and Billy were at Lake’s Barbershop.
Galliher, who wanted to bring the pair in for questioning, saw the gangster’s car parked on Clough Street.
“As soon as they shout for them to stop, all hell breaks loose,” Pratt said.
Bowling Green Police Officer Ralph Castner is hit by gunfire, “but he continues to shoot as he is lying on the ground,” Pratt said.
Billy the Killer is killed, with two guns and $700 on him. One of the Baird sisters is wounded, and the other is caught. But Pretty Boy Floyd gets away.
Castner is taken to the hospital.
“He fights for his life for several days,” but then succumbs to his injuries and dies, Pratt said.
Floyd continued his life of crime until 1934, when he was tracked down and killed in East Liverpool after a bank robbery in Kentucky.
“He was a big deal. He was wanted by the FBI,” Pratt said.
John Dillinger thanks his bank hostages
Wood County got another visit from a high profile gangster on May 3, 1934, when John Dillinger is suspected of robbing a bank in Fostoria.
“There’s no definitive evidence that it was Dillinger,” but witnesses swore it was, Pratt said.
It started with a robbery at the First National Bank.
“They had obviously been casing it, because they came in right before the vault time locked,” Pratt said.
The robbers fired shots, but didn’t kill anyone. The police chief noticed the commotion, and a gunfight ensued. Four people were injured.
The robbers got away with more than $17,000 – “a lot of money at that time,” Pratt said.
The robbers also took bank employees Bill Daub and Ruth Harris hostage as shields from police. The hostages were made to stand on the getaway car’s running boards, forced to hang on while the robbers sped away at 70 mph.
“Both are pleading – ‘you got away with the money, just let us go,'” Pratt said.
Eventually, the driver slowed and allowed Daub and Harris to jump off. Harris later reported Dillinger’s polite exchange with her.
“He said, ‘thank you,’ before she jumped off the running boards,” Pratt said. “He was known as a very charismatic character, and he didn’t like to kill anyone.”
“It was his style,” Pratt said, though it was never proven to be Dillinger who robbed the bank. “Ruth always said it was him.”
Dillinger never stood trial for the robbery, and he was gunned down in Chicago a couple months later.
Attorney shot in courthouse
In 1899, attorney Elias Henry Westenhaver was representing brothers John and Paul Zeltner in a lawsuit that was dragging on. One of the brothers settled the lawsuit, but Westenhaver sent them a bill for his services, totaling $100.
The case went to court in Hoytvillle, and the Zeltner brothers refused to be sworn in to testify. Westernhaver entered into evidence letters between himself and the brothers.
As Westenhaver was trying to put the papers away, John Zeltner reportedly pulled out a gun.
“He shoots him right there in the courthouse,” Pratt said.
Though injured, Westenhaver is able to run out of the courthouse. Meanwhile, the brothers continue to shoot at him. They chase the attorney around town.
“He falls down in the street and Paul shot him point blank,” in front of a crowd of people, Pratt said.
“Then the brothers take off and run out of town” to a family farm, where a standoff with law enforcement goes on for one and a half days.
“They have trouble finding anyone” to negotiate with the brothers, Pratt said.
“There was a question which fired the fatal shot,” she said. But eventually, both brothers were found guilty.
