5 mistakes of a murderer: How justice was won for Billy Wimbish, killed near Fairbanks in 1910

Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

The first mistake was the murder itself. As of 1910, John Cooper and William “Billy” Wimbish were mining partners, had been for at least a couple of years. Well after Fairbanks’ gold rush peak, they were working their way around such unplundered creeks as they could find. The work was hard and stole years off lifespans. The hope of a life-altering bonanza had faded, dimmed by the pressing costs of grub and shelter month after month, year after year, far from home.

The moment may have originated from passion, anger, or another hot emotion. The moment may have been coldly calculated. What if, instead of dividing a claim by two, it is divided by one? Wimbish was also thought to possess up to $600 in cash — roughly $20,000 in 2024 money — as of his death. The truth was buried long ago and ultimately matters little. John Cooper killed William Wimbish; that much is known. The murder happened around November 1910, the last time Wimbish was seen alive by someone other than Cooper. Partner killed partner, the first of five significant mistakes.

Apart from the moral and legal consequences of his actions, Cooper had committed the most dire deed. Wimbish was literally dead. Cooper was figuratively dead. If one man in his time plays many parts, then Cooper had assumed his final role. To the world around him, Cooper was thereafter either heavily suspected of murder or outright convicted. His freedom ended long before the prison bars.

The second mistake was that Cooper stayed at the scene of the crime. He remained in Alaska and worked his way around the Fairbanks mining district. His presence was an audacious act in and of itself. Every interaction reminded people that Cooper remained while his partner Wimbish was missing. Cooper even collected Wimbish’s mail, claiming it was at his partner’s request.

People disappear in Alaska all the time, today and even more so a century ago. There were the more innate dangers, like terrain, weather, and fauna. But there were also the softer factors. The life was hard for settlers, separated by thousands of miles and countless, costly logistics from home, family, and friends. Prospectors frequently surrendered to reality and abandoned their northern stakes without warning. If Cooper had disappeared from Alaska immediately after killing Wimbish, their collective absence would have been less remarkable. If Cooper had fled Outside, he might well have never been prosecuted.

The third mistake links with the second. Cooper did not possess the best handle on his tongue. He was not a naturally skilled liar. Since he was around, people naturally asked him about Wimbish’s whereabouts. And he could not stop with the stories, the various contradicting tales. At first, he said Wimbish had gone hunting, though without his dogs, blankets, or other gear. He later said Wimbish had struck out for Chandalar farther to the north. To the contrary, Wimbish had recently built a new cabin closer to Fairbanks. Nothing was missing from the cabin. To someone else, Cooper claimed Wimbish had fled the territory because of some old crime.

The fourth mistake was who he killed. Wimbish was a popular man in the Alaska Interior, well-known and respected. Several years before his death, he had been the frontman of a lawsuit seeking back wages for miners. Wimbish and several other laborers were working a Cleary Creek claim north of Fairbanks. D. H. Cascaden owned the mine but contended that all the work was conducted on behalf of lessees, who had subsequently abandoned the lease and left the miners unpaid. However, Cascaden did not inform the miners of any lessees or lease changes. As far as they knew, they ultimately worked for Cascaden, who was still taking 40% of the gross output and appreciating their capital improvements to the site. In 1906, Judge James Wickersham sided with Wimbish and ruled Cascaden liable for all labors on the claim.

Understandably, other miners felt a certain sort of positive way toward a man who fought for his fair earnings and those of his brethren. These people not only noticed Wimbish was missing but were concerned about that absence. By comparison, Cooper lacked an equivalent Alaska tenure and was deficient in reputation. Wimbish was trusted. Cooper was believed when he had evidence.

Wimbish was the sort of person that people not only missed but would expend effort upon recovery. In the fall of 1911, miner Richard “Waterfront” Brown told the Fairbanks Daily Times, “The whole creek believes that Wimbish was done away with. But you can’t get the authorities to do anything. I have started this thing at my own expense, and I am going through with it, but the officials certainly deserve a roast for the way in which they have let this thing slide along without making a serious attempt to find the missing man or to arrest a suspect. I consider the evidence entirely sufficient to arrest the partner of Wimbish, and I am going to try to do it.”

For 10 months, area law enforcement refused to pursue the case. This passivity can be viewed in a couple of ways. More generously, they might have believed Wimbish was mining elsewhere, a plausible enough theory apart from Cooper’s contradictions. Their inaction may have also represented a lack of concern. Both Wimbish and Cooper were Black. While Black prospectors were a common if lesser documented presence amid the Alaska gold rushes, they did not discover a territory free of discrimination. As the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner opined before the subsequent trial, “In addition to the usual scruples of jurors against the death penalty the defense will have to contend against the prejudice against the negro race, Cooper being a negro.”

On Aug. 3, 1911, Brown led an investigation party out to the scene of the suspected murder. He expected to find Wimbish’s body at the bottom of the shaft on the claim shared with Cooper. Instead, he found a blood-stained straight razor, the first physical evidence. On Aug. 13, a warrant was finally issued for Cooper, who turned himself in at Fairbanks.

Besides the bloody razor — the likely murder weapon — there was the body. On the day Cooper was arrested, Deputy Marshal Allan Cunningham examined the scene at the Wimbish-Cooper claim on Gilmore Creek. On his orders, the snow was cleared near the shaft. There, he soon discovered the remains of an old fire. Bones and clothing remnants ran in one direction from the woodpile, along a suspiciously human length six-foot line. There was also a magnifying glass, like the one Wimbish was known to carry. A few days later, investigators found evidence of a more recent fire, which contained additional human remains, including several teeth. As suspicions intensified, Wimbish attempted to eliminate the evidence.

The fifth and final mistake was the handling of Wimbish’s remains. Again, Cooper had around 10 months to dispose of the body, 10 months to, at the least, destroy or scatter the bones and personal property across the vast, relatively sparsely populated Fairbanks mining district. While not hoping for a more perfect murder, the better options are apparent. With a little more effort, the remnants of Wimbish could have been deposited in the Yukon River, crushed into near oblivion, dropped over distances measuring hundreds of miles, or otherwise disposed of in a manner less likely to be recovered. Across American history, murderers have very rarely been convicted without the presence of a body, the literal corpus of the corpus delicti.

After several delays, the trial commenced in September 1912 with several days of witness testimony at Fairbanks. Notably, there was no direct evidence linking Cooper to the murder, no eyewitnesses or confession. Alaskan juries of this era were especially reluctant to convict solely on the basis of circumstantial evidence. This case, however, was accompanied by a significant mountain of circumstantial evidence, and after a five-and-a-half-hour deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Cooper was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Alaska Citizen reported, “He took the verdict calmly, showing no emotion whatsoever, and went to his cell just as quietly as if he had not heard that never again would he see the light of heaven a free man.” Like so many Alaska criminals before and after him, he was sent to the McNeil Island Penitentiary southwest of Tacoma, Washington. He died there in 1920 during a medical operation, perhaps from the mistakes of someone else.

Wimbish remained fondly remembered around Fairbanks for as long as that generation of old-timers endured. Nearly four years after the murder and two years after the Cooper trial, Wimbish’s remaining remains were still locked inside the courthouse vault. His friends successfully petitioned for his release, and what was left was dutifully interred at the Clay Street Cemetery in Fairbanks.

Key sources:

“Charred Remains in the Woodpile.” Fairbanks Daily Times, August 16, 1911, 1.

“Cooper Found Guilty of Murdering Wimbish, Will Ask for a New Trial.” (Fairbanks) Alaska Citizen, September 23, 1912, 1, 5.

“Cooper Trial Starts Monday.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, September 11, 1912, 3.

“Find Bloody Razor in Wimbish Shaft.” Fairbanks Daily Times, August 5, 1911, 1.

“Grewsome [sic] Legal Exhibit Disposed Of.” Iditarod Pioneer, June 6, 1914, 3.

“John Cooper Under Arrest for Murder.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, August 14, 1911, 1.

“More Human Bones Mystify Everyone.” Fairbanks Daily Times, August 19, 1911, 1.

“Wimbish-Cascaden Opinion.” Fairbanks Evening News, November 19, 1906, 1.

“Wimbish Is in Chandlar [sic].” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, August 7, 1911, 3.

“Wimbish Killed by His Partner.” Fairbanks Daily Times, August 17, 1911, 1, 3