Digital Bob Archive

9 June 1978 issue

JANUARY 19, 1909-Robert F. Stroud, 18, is in the federal jail charged with the shooting death of F. K. F. von Dahmer, 33, known in Juneau as Chas. F. Dalmer, a bartender at the Montana Saloon. The shooting occurred about 6:30 p.m. yesterday in the cottage where von Dahmer lived, on the lower side of Fourth Street between Franklin and Gold.

Stroud, who is nearly six feet tall and is sometimes known as Slim, came to Juneau from Cordova last fall. He came to Alaska in 1907 and in Katalla and Cordova he sold peanuts and ran errands for the women of the red light district and was known as the Peanut Kid. He brought with him from Cordova Mrs. John E. Dulaney who also went by the name Kittie O?Brien. She has been around the North since Gold Rush days, in Skagway, Dawson, Atlin, Ketchikan, Cordova and Katalla. She is known to have a proclivity for rolling drunks and is said to have been run out of both Dawson and Ketchikan. She and Stroud lived in room 12 in the Clark Building.

Information gathered by officers indicates that on Saturday Stroud arranged with von Dahmer for a visit from Kittie that evening. The two went to the von Dahmer residence and had some drinks with him. Stroud left after arranging that von Dahmer would pay Kittie $10. Kittie returned to the Clark Building around 4 o?clock Sunday morning and told Stroud that von Dahmer had paid her only $1. She urged Stroud to collect the other $9 and allegedly told him to ?Kill the Russian.? Von Dahmer was born in Germany but grew up in Russia.

On Monday morning Stroud took the $1 and bought cartridges for a .38 Colt revolver. That evening he went to the house on Fourth Street and entered when von Dahmer opened the door. A moment later there were two shots. These were heard by William Dickenson who lives next door. He stepped onto his porch and saw someone pull the shade in the window of the von Dahmer house. A moment later Earle Hunter Sr. passed on the street and he and Dickenson saw Stroud leave the house. Both men recognized him and he told them ?Everything?s all right,? and ran toward Swede Hill. Dickenson knocked on the door of the house but got no answer. He went to get deputy U. S. Marshal H. L. Faulkner.

While Dickenson was getting the marshal, Stroud returned to his room, removed the empty cartridges from the gun and replaced them. He left the gun in the room and went to find Police Chief J. A. Mulcahy, evidently realizing that he had been recognized. He found Mulcahy at Valentine?s Jewelry Store and gave himself up. He told Mulcahy that he had shot a man in self defense. He said that when he asked von Dahmer for the $9 owed to Kittie, the man reached toward his rear pocket and Stroud thought he was reaching for a gun. Mulcahy took Stroud to the jail then went to the Fourth Street house.

He arrived there about the same time as Faulkner. They entered the house and found von Dahmer?s body. The pockets had been turned out but whether Stroud got any money from the body has not been learned. Kittie O?Brien was arrested as a possible accomplice but was so sodden with drink at the time of the arrest that she could not make a coherent statement. She also is in the federal jail.

(Note: Stroud passed his 19th birthday 10 days after the shooting. He was indicted by a Grand Jury for first degree murder but the following August he was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in the penitentiary. Kittie O?Brien was acquitted. While serving his sentence, Stroud killed a guard and was sentenced to death. This was commuted to life imprisonment and he was placed in the penitentiary at Alcatraz. There he became known as The Birdman of Alcatraz.)

NOVEMBER 27, 1912-The steamer Georgia has completed 1,000 voyages on her mail run which consists of round trips to Sitka and to Skagway each week. It is estimated that she has covered 350,000 miles on the run.