Death of Mrs. Irene McCarthy 12/1940

The Murders of William L. Johansen (alias Harry W. Gordon, alias Frank Gordon, alias Walter Johansen and William Johnston). 

Background:

Born in Denmark as Wilhelm Johanssen, the man who would later be known as William Johnston, and eventually under the alias Gordon, began his life’s journey in a small European country before being brought to the United States in 1913. Settling in Beverly, Massachusetts, his early years were marked by modest educational achievement, completing only the eighth grade. Despite his limited formal education, Johnston's life took on a variety of paths, each more turbulent than the last.

At a young age, he enlisted in the Army, a decision that seemed to offer direction, but it was short-lived as he soon deserted, leaving behind any aspirations of a military career. In another chapter of his life, he ventured into the world of the sea as a merchant marine sailor, a job that likely provided both adventure and hardship.

His life, however, took a darker turn, as indicated by his eventual arrest. At the time of his apprehension, Johnston was described as a "burly, moon-faced" man, weighing 210 pounds with blonde hair—a physical presence that matched the rugged and unsettled life he led. His transformation from Wilhelm Johanssen to William Johnston, and finally to the alias Gordon, reflects a life marked by reinvention, turmoil, and perhaps a search for identity amidst the chaos.

After leaving behind a life marked by desertion and fleeting adventures, Johnston found himself in New York City, where in 1925, he took on a night duty job at the morgue of Mount Sinai Hospital. It was here, amidst the sterile environment of death, that his darkest fantasies began to take root. As an attendant, his tasks included sweeping floors, cleaning up after autopsies, and sewing up the bodies once the procedures were complete. Though seemingly mundane, these duties ignited something sinister within him.

Johnston would later recount how the images from the morgue became indelible, haunting his thoughts. "Back in 1925, I worked in the morgue room at the Mt Sinai Hospital in New York," he recalled. "I'd sweep the floors and clean up around the place, and they also made me sew up the bodies after they performed autopsies. It got so I couldn't get the sight out of my mind. It wasn't a bad job. But I guess I got the habit, subconsciously, of wanting to carve up human bodies."

This morbid fascination remained dormant while he was sober, but with the introduction of alcohol, it began to surface in terrifying ways. Johnston described how, under the influence of whiskey, he would experience "blue flashes"—a disturbing sensation that triggered an overwhelming urge to kill. "Every time I got to drinking," he confessed, "I get to thinking about the time I worked in the morgue and got the urge to cut someone up."

These urges escalated to the point where he would black out, only to awaken to the horrifying reality that he had taken a life. Johnston later blamed these experiences at the morgue for planting the seeds of a maniacal desire to "play God," to witness death firsthand and control it. This compulsion was a dormant force when he was sober, but under the influence of alcohol, it became an unstoppable drive that ultimately led to murder. "When drunk," he admitted, "I would get spells and see a blue flash... Then the next thing I knew, these women were dead." Seeing the dead bodies at the morgue could have resulted in post-traumatic stress disorder. Blacking out is a symptom of disassociation.Alcohol is an easy out  a way not to take responsibility for one's actions, sexual or not.

In Johnston’s chilling narrative, the boundaries between his past and present blurred, with his experiences at the morgue shaping a future steeped in violence and tragedy.

First Murder:

While in New York, Johnston married his first wife, Florence Johnston, with whom he had two children. However, their marriage soon became strained, leading to frequent conflicts. One fateful night in 1933, Johnston visited Florence at midnight, and their encounter quickly escalated into a deadly confrontation. In a fit of rage, he choked her to death. But the horror didn’t end there. Driven by a twisted curiosity and the belief that she might have been pregnant, Johnston mutilated her body, opening her abdomen to see if her claim of pregnancy was true.

When asked for an explanation, Johnston offered a chillingly detached excuse. He claimed that his wife had thrown a flower pot at him, causing him to "see red" and attack her in a blind fury. "The time I killed my wife," he recounted, "we had a quarrel, and I grabbed her by the throat and held her a while. Then she got limp. There wasn't a pulse anymore, so I put her on a bed and autopsied her with a boning knife." He described seeing a "blue flash" as he realized the gravity of what he had done, but by then, it was too late. Florence, only 35 years old, lay dead, a victim of his uncontrollable violence.

In the aftermath of the murder, Johnston fled to Brooklyn, where he assumed a new identity, changing his name to William Gordon. It was in Brooklyn that he met his second wife, Lydia, who owned a flower shop in Long Beach. Seeking to escape his past, Johnston took to the sea once again, working as a seaman. After about eighteen months, he arrived in San Francisco in early 1935, carrying with him the dark secrets of his past crimes.

Second Murder:

Lena "Betty" Coffin, a woman of many aliases, left the rooming house at 1207 Gough Street, where she lived with her husband, and told him she was going "to go downtown." Known in the nightlife circles as Betty Coffman or Betty Davis, Lena had a troubled past, with prior arrests for vagrancy and a history of drug use, as her husband admitted. Her life was one marked by hardship and brushes with the law.

On the evening of April 5, 1935, Lena encountered a man named Gordon on Market Street. Together, they went to the Bay Hotel, where they registered under the names Mr. and Mrs. H. Myers. Gordon, describing himself as a sailor, secured a room for the night. What followed was a chilling and brutal encounter. After spending about an hour in the room, Gordon wrapped adhesive tape over Lena's mouth to silence her, then grabbed her tightly by the throat, squeezing until she was strangled to death. In a grotesque act of violence, he mutilated her body, cutting off one of her breasts. When asked to explain his actions, Gordon could only say, "I don't know, something came over me, and I grabbed hold of her by the throat." After spending three hours in the hotel room, he left and soon shipped out of San Francisco on a boat heading to Portland. His time away included stays along the Gulf of Mexico and in Texas, but he eventually returned to San Francisco.

Lena's life was filled with tragedy long before her untimely death. She was just 19 years old when she married 20-year-old Ernest Leonard Coffin (also known as Al Coffman) on July 30, 1917. Ernest had his own troubled past, including arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct. In 1924, Lena and Ernest were found nearly starved to death in a "ditch hovel" near Richmond, California. They had survived for three days on nothing but hot dogs. Ernest, according to the police, had been sustaining himself with narcotics. Lena later told Police Judge C.A. Odell that her husband had been unable to find work. The couple had left their 7-year-old son, Otis, with Lena's parents at 1697 Twelfth Street, Oakland. Judge Odell gave Lena a 30-day suspended sentence on the condition that she return to her parents, while Ernest was held in jail.

At the time of her murder, Lena was 32 years old. Her son Otis was living with his grandfather, Willington Coffin, at 1508 Eureka Street, Oakland, while Lena's mother resided at 1697 Twelfth Street in Richmond. Lena's life, marred by misfortune and despair, came to a tragic and violent end, leaving behind a young son and a family burdened by loss.

Third Murder:

While in San Francisco on June 24, 1940, Gordon encountered Irene Mabelle Chandler, also known by the name Irene McCarthy. Irene was married to Robert Earl McCarthy, and together they had two children. Despite the stability suggested by her marriage and family, Irene’s life intersected tragically with Gordon's during this fateful meeting. The circumstances that led to their encounter and the consequences that followed would become another dark chapter in Gordon's disturbing history, marking the collision of two lives with devastating repercussions.

Gordon met Irene Mabelle Chandler in a beer hall on Fifth Street, a common haunt where alcohol blurred the lines of judgment and reality. The two, heavily intoxicated after several drinks, decided to continue their evening together. Gordon purchased a bottle of whiskey, and they made their way to a nearby waterfront hotel on Fourth Street. They registered under the alias of Mr. and Mrs. J. Wilkins from Los Angeles, a married couple with no luggage, just Irene's purse and a delicate corsage of gardenias adorning her attire.

In the privacy of the hotel room, the atmosphere quickly shifted from festive to dark. Irene, overwhelmed by the alcohol, undressed and collapsed into bed, unconscious. Gordon, filled with a growing anger, tried to wake her, but she remained unresponsive. His frustration turned violent as he grabbed her by the throat, tying her own belt around it. He tightened the belt, watching with a twisted sense of satisfaction as her life drained away under his hands.

Once Irene was dead, Gordon's depravity escalated. He mutilated her still-warm body, using a razor blade he found in the room to cut off a portion of one breast. In a final, grotesque attempt to cover up his crime, he dumped her lifeless body from the bed and flipped the mattress over, trying to conceal the bloodstains that bore silent witness to the horror that had unfolded.

After the horrific act, Gordon calmly washed himself, trying to cleanse the traces of his brutality. He then left the hotel, attempting to erase the events from his mind. He later claimed that he woke up at noon the following day in a drunken haze, only to discover Irene's lifeless body beside him. He professed ignorance about what had transpired, as if his memory had been obliterated by alcohol. Panicked or perhaps simply pragmatic, Gordon fled the scene, boarding a bus for Los Angeles that very same day.

The next morning, a chambermaid entered the room, expecting to perform her routine cleaning duties. Instead, she was met with a nightmarish sight. Irene's nude body was grotesquely contorted, wedged between the bed and the wall. The belt from her dress, which had been cruelly used as a weapon, was still cinched tightly around her neck. Her abdomen bore deep slashes, and a portion of her body had been viciously cut away. The room itself was a silent witness to the carnage—an almost empty whiskey bottle sat on the dresser, and the severed piece of Irene's breast lay discarded beside her body, a final testament to the killer's depravity.

Reflecting on the murder of Irene Chandler, Gordon later remarked, "I guess a mania must have seized me again, and I grabbed her by the throat and choked her while she was lying in bed... put pressure on her windpipe." His words hinted at a chilling detachment, as if the horrific act was a mere compulsion, something that overtook him beyond his control.

Irene had a troubled past, marked by a long police record in San Diego. Her identity was confirmed through her fingerprints and distinctive tattoos—a butterfly on her shoulder and an anchor with a shield inscribed "USA" on her thigh. Despite her difficult life, Irene was a mother to two sons, Harry and Ralph, whose lives would be forever altered by her tragic end.

Gordon Johansen, who denied ever having sexual intercourse with his victims, insisted that his intentions when visiting the hotels were purely sexual. However, he offered no coherent explanation for the gruesome mutilations he inflicted upon their bodies. His inability to provide a rationale for his actions added to the sense of chilling detachment that characterized his confessions.

One month after Irene's murder, Johansen was arrested. Upon his apprehension, he displayed an unsettling calmness, confessing to the murder of Lena "Betty" Coffin without hesitation. He also admitted to killing his wife in New York, though disturbingly, he could not recall her name. In a haunting statement, Johansen remarked, "I've killed three women, and I'd probably do it again unless they get me out of the way." His words underscored the dangerous compulsion that drove him, leaving a grim reminder of the violence he was capable of repeating.

Trial:

Summary of the Case:

Case Title: The People, Respondent, v. William Johansen, Appellant.

Court: In Bank, Criminal Case No. 4334, February 21, 1941

Parties Involved:

Respondent: The People (the state/prosecution)

Appellant: William Johansen

Legal Representation:

No lawyer appeared on behalf of William Johansen during the appeal.

Earl Warren, the Attorney-General, and David K. Lener, the Deputy Attorney-General, represented the state.

Case Background:

William Johansen was charged with two separate counts of murder that took place in San Francisco:

The murder of Lena Coffin on April 6, 1935.

The murder of Irene Chandler (also known as Irene McCarthy) on June 24, 1940.

These charges were officially filed against Johansen on July 18, 1940.

Legal Proceedings:

Initially, Johansen pleaded "not guilty" and "not guilty by reason of insanity" to both charges. Later, he withdrew his "not guilty" pleas and waived his right to a jury trial, choosing to be tried solely on the basis of his insanity plea. His trial began on October 14, 1940, before a judge, not a jury.

Consolidation of Cases:

The two murder cases were combined and tried together as one case.

Mental Health Evaluation:

Before the trial, the court appointed two doctors (alienists) to evaluate Johansen's sanity:

Dr. Tilton E. Tillman, a member of the Lunacy Commission.

Dr. Margaret H. Smyth, the Medical Director and Superintendent of the Stockton State Hospital at the time.

Trial Outcome:

After hearing the evidence, the court determined that Johansen was sane and sentenced him to death. Judgments were pronounced accordingly in both murder cases.

Appeal:

The law mandates an automatic appeal in death penalty cases (under section 1239 of the Penal Code). However, despite having a public defender during the trial, Johansen did not have any legal representation or file any briefs for his appeal. The Attorney-General submitted a summary of the evidence and relevant matters for the court's consideration.

In layman's terms, William Johansen was found guilty of two murders in San Francisco. He initially pleaded not guilty and claimed insanity but later dropped his not-guilty plea and went to trial only on his insanity defense. The court decided he was sane and sentenced him to death. Although the case was automatically appealed because of the death sentence, Johansen did not participate in the appeal, leaving the court to rely on the summary provided by the Attorney-General.

Summary of the Court Proceedings:

In this part of the trial, only three people testified: the defendant, William Johansen, and two court-appointed psychiatrists (also known as alienists). Johansen identified three statements he had made to the police after his arrest, which were presented in court as evidence. He did not object to these statements being used.

The defense lawyer accepted that the two psychiatrists were qualified experts. The first psychiatrist, Dr. Tilton E. Tillman, testified that he had examined Johansen twice at the County Jail and had spoken with Johansen's wife. Dr. Tillman also consulted with the second psychiatrist, Dr. Margaret Smyth. In his written report, dated October 10, 1940, Dr. Tillman concluded that Johansen was sane and mentally competent.

Dr. Margaret Smyth, who worked as the Medical Director and Superintendent of Stockton State Hospital for ten years, also testified. She had examined Johansen at the court's request and provided a written report about his mental condition. Her report was read aloud in court.

In her report, Dr. Smyth stated that Johansen appeared calm and rational, with no signs of hallucinations or delusions. He had a good memory, an eighth-grade education, and had managed to support himself and his family. Johansen blamed his current situation on alcohol and expressed a desire to withdraw his insanity plea to spare his wife further distress. He described his wife as the best in the world and felt that withdrawing the plea was the right thing to do.

Dr. Smyth concluded that Johansen was not insane and understood the difference between right and wrong when he committed the murders. When questioned by the judge, Dr. Smyth confirmed that Johansen was legally sane at the time of the killings. During cross-examination, she stood by her opinion regarding Johansen's sanity during the offenses.

During the trial, William Johansen took the stand to testify about the two murders he was accused of. On cross-examination, he was shown three statements he had previously made to the police, which were his confessions. Johansen admitted to making these statements, signing them, and confirming that they accurately reflected his responses to the police's questions. These confessions were then accepted as evidence in court.

After Johansen’s testimony and the reading of his confessions, the two psychiatrists, Dr. Tillman and Dr. Smyth, were called back to testify. Both agreed that Johansen's confessions supported their earlier opinion that he was sane when he committed the murders.

The court then made its decision, concluding that Johansen was sane at the time of the murders. Later, the court sentenced him to death for each of the two cases.

The court found that the evidence clearly showed Johansen was guilty of first-degree murder as charged. The decision to impose the death penalty was upheld, and the court affirmed the judgments in both cases.

The End:

William Johansen’s mental state was deemed sane, which led to his automatic conviction for the murders because he had previously withdrawn his not guilty plea. Johansen had expressed his willingness to face execution, saying he didn't care if he was sentenced to death, acknowledging he was a danger to others. Initially, he even requested the death penalty himself, saying he might kill again if not stopped.

The sanity finding automatically convicted Johansen of the slaying because he had withdrawn an earlier plea of innocent to a charge of murder. "I don't want an attorney. I want to plead guilty. I don't give a damn if I go to the gas house. Not much doubt I'm a menace. I'll probably kill more women" At first he asked to be put to death because "I've killed three women and I'd probably do it again unless they get me out of the way. I expect the worst, and the sooner it comes the better. ."

During a subsequent hearing where he pleaded insanity, Johansen asked for his sentence to be commuted to life in an asylum, openly admitting he would likely kill again if freed.  "I'll kill some other woman if you free me," he told the judge. "I'll do it again, sure!" Despite his pleas, he was sentenced to death. Johansen accepted his fate, telling reporters that he was resigned to it and ready for it to be over. He sat trembling and silent in the court room, while he was sentenced to die. Afterwards Johansen told reporters "That's the way I want it - it's all over now."

But when he was back in his cell, he was visited by his wife Lydia, who told him she "never wanted to see him again" and he was told that she had started divorce proceedings in Los Angeles. Exploding in a fit of rage, the ex-sailor shouted wildly "That's the reason I waived jury trial. Why, I might have got off with life, or even with second degree. But I wanted to sacrifice my life for her - so she is free. Now she sues me for divorce. Why it'll be a year before the divorce becomes final - and I'll be dead in three months."

The divorce action filed by Mrs. Johansen cited the fact that at the time of marriage he had concealed from her that he was wanted in New York for slaying a previous wife. She said also she had lost her waitressing job because of publicity arising from her husband's arrest.

Desperate to save himself, Johansen sent a letter to his Public Defender Gerald Kenny and stated that "I did not plan those crimes. Through liquor and the work I did years ago, I somehow lost balance. Since I came up here on the row (San Quentin Prison's death row) I have become a Christian."

Not swayed, Judge Alfred J. Fritz affirmed the decision of the death sentence. In February of 1941, Governor Olson grated a 90 day reprieve after he received a request by the advisory pardon board. Still trying to get confined to an asylum for life, Johansen was  denied clemency by The State Advisory Board in July 1941.

After two stays of execution, his time was up and his execution was imminent. Just before Johansen went to his death, Warden Clinton T. Duffy revealed that the murderer had telegraphed Governor Culbert L. Olson the night before, asking that the execution he postponed a second time "for religious and personal reasons," but received no reply. He ate heartily at supper and walked calmly to the gas chamber. He displayed no emotion as he bade farewell to Reverend FH Mancel, Lutheran pastor from San Francisco, at the gas chamber door. Johansen was executed via lethal gas chamber at San Quentin Prison on September 6, 1941.  He was 37 years old when he was pronounced dead at 10:13 am, 10 minutes after cyanide pellets were dropped into baths of sulphuric acid in the tightly sealed chamber and sent up lethal fumes.

Johansen was responsible for the deaths of three women: his first wife, Florence Gordon, in 1933; Irene McCarthy (also known as Irene Chandler) on June 24, 1940; and Lena Coffin on April 6, 1935.