On today’s episode I have the pleasure of speaking with history professor and author Aaron Goings. 

Aaron’s latest work titled, The Port of Missing Men, is an in depth look into the life and legend surrounding Billy Gohl the charismatic, controversial and infamous labor organizer of the Sailors Union of the Pacific. 

After being convicted for the murder of a good friend, Billy was unjustly credited with the murder of dozens of port workers and  was branded by the press as The Ghoul of Grays Harbor.  

Aaron’s book looks into this bizarre slice of history and attempts to untangle the complicated story of big business, organized labor, citizen committees, and shady detective agencies in pursuit of the truth behind the multitude of dead bodies known as the “floater fleet” that clogged the frigid waterways of Gray’s Harbor, Washington in the early 1900’s.

More than just a true-crime novel, The Port of Missing Men exposes the brutal treatment sailors and loggers suffered at the hands of lumber barons and ship owners in the early Pacific Northwest extraction economy and details the heated and sometimes violent clashes between pro-union and anti-union forces.  

Aaron’s book exposes a class system of income inequality that persist even today and serves as a poignant reminder that the fight for fair pay, safer    working conditions and basic workers’ rights is far from over.

The Show Notes

The Port of Missing Men
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295747415/the-port-of-missing-men/

Powell's Books
https://www.powells.com/

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