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I admit I sort of dove into this case to avoid thinking about the mysterious deaths I mentioned last week, which are still mysterious and the funeral is currently being televised.
Googling the ukulele case turned up some more stuff – the killer was originally sentenced to death, but won a retrial and got imprisonment:
The homicide occurred on the last night of the Rose Festival at San Jose, Saturday, May 22, 1926, about midnight, on a road near the highway to Monterey, some four or five miles from San Jose. On the preceding Thursday appellant and deceased had met for the first time in St. James Park and became acquainted through their mutual fondness for the ukulele, which both had and played. They spent Thursday evening, part of Friday, and Friday and Saturday evenings together. Appellant was at that time about twenty-four years of age, while Pashuta was a year or so younger. Pashuta resided in San Jose at the house of Mrs. Ida M. Bunch, 353 South Fourth Street, and as appellant was only in town for the festival, Pashuta introduced him to Mrs. Bunch as his friend, and on the fateful evening had asked her permission for appellant to occupy his room with him that night. The boys went to Pashuta’s room to dress for the evening and Pashuta asked Mrs. Bunch to come up and hear appellant play the ukulele, saying: “He can make it talk.” He also asked if he might defer payment of his rent as he and appellant wished to have a good little time that evening. The boys left the house in Pashuta’s automobile, an old Chevrolet roadster, about 8 o'clock. They first purchased two bottles of “white liquor” and after drinking some of it, drove on to St. James Park. There they talked with three other boys, two of whom testified that they drank with both Pashuta and appellant, and one of whom stated Pashuta and appellant were intoxicated while with him and that they left about 10:30 P.M., saying they intended to go some other place to make some money — evidently Chick Leddy’s, a roadhouse. The testimony of the various witnesses, without conflict, shows that appellant and Pashuta were apparently very good friends during this entire period, dancing and singing together and playing their ukuleles.
….
When appellant was arrested in Venice, California, about two weeks later, he made a written confession, introduced in evidence by the prosecution, stating his subsequent actions to have been substantially as follows: While he and Pashuta were parked near the highway, as above set forth, and while both of them were intoxicated, an argument arose between them. Appellant stated that about six months previous in a fit of despondency he had enlisted in the United States army, from which he had deserted about four months later, after a night of intoxication. This he had confessed to Pashuta and it was Pashuta’s threat to expose him as a deserter which led to the final argument culminating in death. “Q. Where were you at the time this man threatened to turn you in for desertion? A. To the best of my knowledge, we were seated in his car parked on the Los Angeles highway south of San Jose. Q. How long a time elapsed between the time he made a threat of exposure and the time you killed him? A. As I remember, the act was committed immediately after the voicing of the threat. Q. Did you make up your mind at the time he made this threat to kill him? A. I was incapable of making up my mind, but I remember taking up the first thing that came handy and striking at him. Q. Did you strike more than one blow? A. I did. Q. How many times did you hit him with this crank? A. I have no recollection of how many times I struck him, although it was more than once.” The crank used to start the motor was the weapon used and the autopsy surgeon testified to four wounds on the head and face, two of them of a most serious and brutal character.
Appellant told substantially the same story as a witness at the trial. He there stated: “I was terrified at the thought of exposure, what it would mean to me and to my people, and the awful disgrace to them. As far as I can remember, at the moment of the threat I lost control of myself, and picked up the first thing that came handy and struck at him. Hazily I remember dragging him from the car into a field at the side of the road. I did not know I had killed him. I returned to the car. After some confusion, finally, *Page 85 I drove to his house where I packed his things with my own, to give the impression I had left.”
After the homicide, appellant dragged the body of deceased into a field, a distance of about seventy-five feet and, placing it in an open furrow, partially covered it with two handfuls of dry grass. He then drove back to San Jose, went to the room of deceased, and took a suit of clothes, an overcoat, and blanket. His statements from the period when they left the park were partially corroborated by the physical condition of the body when found about a week after death, as well as by the blood stains upon the automobile. Mrs. Bunch testified that the next morning she found the room of deceased in great disorder, things all over the floor, dirty clothes in the middle, etc., and that a suit of his clothes were gone and a blanket.
Galloway won a retrial because one of the jurors was demonstrably out to convict him from the start, because she disapproved of drinking:
The affidavit of O.B. Brott stated, in substance, that while driving his automobile in San Jose on September 12, 1926, Mrs. Finley, Mrs. Pratt, and Mrs. Roberts being with him as guests, said Mrs. Roberts stated in his presence and hearing, and that of said other persons, that she would hang anybody that would get drunk.
The affidavit of Mrs. Minnie Hussey stated, in substance, that on September 15, 1926, she met Mrs. Roberts and walked with her along South First Street in San Jose; that on that occasion said Mrs. Roberts stated to her that she had been called as a juror in this case and further stated: “Well, I have no use for anyone that drinks and I’d hang him.”
The affidavit of Alice M. Pratt stated, in substance, that about September 13, 1926, after said Mrs. Roberts had been *Page 87 summoned as one of the jurors in this case, but before her examination, said Mrs. Roberts was present at a ranch of affiant near San Martin; that she stated in the presence of affiant that she expected to be called on the jury and if so called she would hang him (referring to appellant); that affiant said, “Oh! Ida, I will challenge you”; that said Ida M. Roberts answered, “Just try it”; that thereafter on September 17, 1926, and while said Ida M. Roberts was a juror in the trial of said case, she held a conversation over the telephone with affiant and discussed therein the testimony of the witness Mrs. Bunch; that she related to affiant the testimony given by said witness and said: “Poor little Andrew Pashuta was a fine boy; and it was a shame that this Galloway boy (meaning appellant) had taken him out and given him liquor and started him drinking when he never drank before”; that on Sunday evening, September 19, 1926, said Ida M. Roberts again had a telephone conversation with affiant, discussing therein appellant’s testimony and stating that he was a nice appearing young man and was a nice, smooth talker and very calm, but that nevertheless he would hang; that on the evening of September 20, 1926, said Ida M. Roberts had another telephone conversation with affiant in which she stated that the argument of the deputy district attorney was “wonderful” and “masterful”; that appellant’s attorney had made some weak sort of argument to try and save his client from the gallows, but she repeated and repeated that appellant would nevertheless hang; that on Sunday, September 19, 1926, affiant visited a ranch near Mountain View with said Ida M. Roberts and while there said Ida M. Roberts told affiant of the testimony of various witnesses during the trial and, pointing to an irrigation ditch, said: “That is the kind of a ditch or furrow that the Galloway boy put little Andrew Pashuta in and put the grass over him”; that affiant remonstrated with said Ida M. Roberts on several occasions but said Ida M. Roberts only laughed and shrugged her shoulders and expressed her determination that appellant should hang; that on the evening of September 21, 1926, said Ida M. Roberts telephoned affiant that the case was over and the verdict was hanging, of course; that she further stated three of the jurors held out for a while but that “we whipped them into line.”
Apparently the case has been cited in 33 subsequent cases, mostly, I think, as precedent for declaring a mistrial due to juror bias.
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3309664/people-v-galloway/?order_by=dateFiled+desc
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no subject
Date: 2017-12-22 01:48 am (UTC)From:I have been following this across several different Tumblrs in amazement. Thanks for the extra information.
I am so sorry there are still mysterious deaths where you are.