Week 18 - Crime and Punishment - Matt H. Gormley
Week 18: Crime and Punishment
This is the story of my wife’s great grandfather, Matt H. Gormley. He was born in Delevan, Wisconsin in March 1867. His father, Henry Gormley, moved the family from Wisconsin to the boom town of Seattle in 1878. The Gormleys were accorded the status of pioneers in the new city first founded by the Arthur Denny Party in 1851 and incorporated 18 years later in 1869. By 1880, Seattle’s population was 3,500, tripling in size from a mere 1,100 in 1870. Henry Gormley was a very successful building contractor in the city and known by all. The well-off family even found themselves constantly featured in the Society sections of Seattle’s local newspapers.
Matt Gormley graduated from the Washington Territorial University in 1886. He had enlisted from the cadets in a volunteer infantry company known as the Seattle Rifles. He moved up through the ranks and was a 1st Lieutenant in the militia by the outbreak of the Spanish American War in 1898. His unit, Company B, 1st Washington Volunteers, was federalized into the US Army for service in The Philippines. When his company commander, Captain George H. Fortson, was killed in battle, Matt was promoted to Captain and given command of the company. After the war was over in December 1898, he brought Company B home to a hero’s welcome in Seattle, complete with cheering crowds, parades, bands and countless waving flags.
Captain Matt H. Gormley, c. 1900
Great grandfather Gormley had a highly successful military career from the time he served in the University cadets until he retired as a Colonel from the Washington National Guard in 1911.
Meanwhile, he had married Tara’s great grandmother, Ida Schonemeyer, in 1892. They had three children, to include Tara’s grandmother, Rowena. By 1900, Matt had not only a solid social position and the backing of a well-to-do family, but had come home from the war as a hero and seemed to be on top of the world.
Seattle politics was run by the Republican Party, and they enthusiastically listed Matt as an up-and-comer. He subsequently won election for three terms as the King County Treasurer and by all reports served well in that position. But with his life at a full gallop, in 1909 he divorced his first wife, Ida, and married a woman who we believe was his secretary. Between 1910 and 1918, he had four more children with his second wife. In 1918 he was appointed Auditor for the Port of Seattle, another prestigious political position. But with a young 2nd family to support, and a country club life style to maintain, he apparently needed more money. Something had to give. And give it did.
According to multiple newspaper articles published in 1934, Matt Gormley, who had been the Auditor for the Port of Seattle for 16 years, began embezzling money from Port funds beginning as early as 1920. He knew the book keeping system well, he initiated the system for the state when he was a state examiner checking against just such shortages as State examiner Dittemore discovered against him on May 8th.
Gormley hired a new Port cashier by the name of A.J. Bickell sometime in 1920. Bickell apparently found the books didn’t balance and confronted him with this fact. There were no newspaper reports of what transpired between the two men, but the cashier, also in need of money to support an extravagant life style, began embezzling too. Great Grandpa Gormley couldn’t stop him without exposing himself to charges of grand larceny. The way their scheme worked was the Port had two accounts, the revolving fund and the general fund. State auditors never changed their scheduled audits. They always audited the revolving fund after the first of the year and then came back at the same time a few months later to audit the general fund. Knowing the schedule of audits, Gormley and Bickell would simply transfer funds from one fund to the other so that the State auditors always found the books balanced. A new State Auditor, Clifford Yelle, took office in early 1934 and after hearing rumors of “funny business” going on with the Port of Seattle funds, he sent his examiners up from Olympia to audit both funds unannounced a few days ahead of the normal scheduled time.
On May 8, 1934, the State Auditor’s office descended upon the Port of Seattle and after examining the books caught Matt Gormley short of an amount that later was determined to be $157,000. Today that amount may not seem like a fortune but it was! In 2021, $157,000 is equal in value to $3.1 million. When asked to explain the discrepancy, Great Grandpa Gormley hung his head and said, “I am completely responsible.” He then said he was going to step outside for a breath of fresh air and would be back to explain it all. But he never came back. The State examiner called the police who then put out an all points bulletin for Gormley’s arrest. He apparently drove around all afternoon and night trying to figure out what to do. But about 4 am he stopped his car in a wooded area close to his home, wrote a note to his wife and family, found a place in the brush where he would not be seen, neatly folded up his overcoat, and placing his hat on top of the coat, he laid down on his side and shot himself in the temple with a 38 caliber revolver.
In his suicide note, which was printed several days later on the front page of the Seattle Daily Times, he wrote,
“I am writing this before I do all I can to pay for what I have done. Don’t need to say I’m sorry---think I have been half crazy these years. Tried to keep up knowing it was just a matter of time. I hope my fault will not be visited too heavily upon my family---the best a man could have. Helen, I am worth more to you all as it will be a short time than if I didn’t do this. Bo, you will have to be the man, more than I have been. Hatcher, Buddy, & Toody, help mamma all you can. You all better go out of town somewhere to live where it will be more pleasant. Can hardly ask it, but try to think of me as not all bad. I tried but was too weak. Hope some of the good I tried to do will be remembered, as well as my great fault.
Everything I have I leave to my wife, Helen Marquis Gormley, save one dollar to each of the four children. I do this so that it will be easier to adjust things. Not that I don’t want the children to have their share. Have asked God to forgive me, but have no right to ask it. Good-bye.
Matt H. Gormley
Am going into the future---don’t know what it is, but will find out in a few seconds. Creamate me without any funeral services---they would be a mockery. Wrist watch to Bo. $21 in billfold to wife. See Silbaugh about widow’s pension. Car insured, not yet paid. No other bills.”
Matt Gormley had claimed he had no accomplices when he stated on May 8th, “I am completely responsible”. The Port cashier, A.J. Bickell, at first denied any involvement in the loss of Port funds. But after the police found incriminating evidence in the form of private loans, IOUs, deposit slips, and checks signed by both Matt Gormley and A.J. Bickell, he confessed to his part in the scheme. He claimed he needed money for his wife’s care in a sanitarium which was true. However, several women came forward during the investigation and also told their stories about being wined and dined by Bickell and affairs that they had with him thinking he was a wealthy man. He had also purchased an automatic laundry in 1927 that continually operated in the red. He needed about $5,000 a year to break even with the business expenses. His salary was reported to be $198 a month, or about $3,900 a month in 2021 dollars. He was convicted of embezzling $21,700 in July 1934 and sentenced to a term of 5 to 15 years in Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.
After reading all the newspaper articles about this crime, it was clear that there was a great deal of corruption in Washington State and Seattle in the twenties and thirties. The State Auditor’s office was extremely slack in its auditing procedures. It allowed the Port’s scheme to go unnoticed for 14 years. The Port’s auditor, cashier and purchasing agent all were guilty of embezzlement. And to top it all off, the King County Treasurer, James M. Wittenmyer, on the 31st of January 1934 had been found to have embezzled $30,000 from County funds, whereupon he disappeared and his trail had gone cold in Southern California.
Last but not least, there also appeared to be a good-ole-boy network in operation here. The main players knew each other well. Both Dittemore and Wittenmyer had worked for Gormley in past jobs elsewhere. Dittemore was an aide to Gormley when he was a state examiner. Wittenmyer had worked for Gormley when he was King County Treasurer. Rich, powerful friends all vouched for Matt Gormley’s character, even after his embezzlement was discovered. They just couldn’t understand how such a good man could have gotten himself involved in such a nefarious affair.
Bottom line, crime may pay for awhile but not in the long run!
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