Gladwin County MI Archives Obituaries.....BERGMAN, BERL December 8, 1938
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Thomas Ladner tomdladner@yahoo.com April 18, 2008, 5:45 pm

Gladwin County Record dated 12-14/1938 Column - 7 & 8 Page - 1
BERGMAN SLAYER GETS LIFE TERM

   Gordon (Buck Rolland, 20 years old, was sentenced at Harrisville Monday to 
life in prison at hard labor and was taken to Jackson Tuesday. His mother, 
living in northern Canada, has not yet learned that her son had killed a man 
in a shooting that Rolland laid to a night of drinking. Rolland, former Great 
Lakes seaman, was sentenced only four days after the fatal shooting Thursday 
of Berl Bergman, manager of the Lookout Inn near Alpena. Rolland reached 
Windsor before his arrest Saturday.
   Rolland pleaded guilty and after having conferred for 40 minutes with 
Circuit Judge Herman Dehnke, was sentenced at 2 p.m. Judge Dehnke made no 
comment on his conversation with Rolland but observed to Rolland in Court, "No 
one could remember incidents as well as you do if he were very intoxicated." 
The killing was the first serious trouble in which Rolland had been involved, 
it was said. News of his fate probably will be given to his mother by 
Rolland's sister who lives in Detroit.

HOLD-UP FATAL TO LOCAL MAN

BERL BERGMAN KILLED, WM GILLILAND WOUNDED IN SHOOTING

   Berl Bergman, 55, well-known former Beaverton man, was killed last 
Thursday, and William Gilliland, Gladwin road contractor, was seriously 
wounded in the abdomen, when they were sot in their beds by Gordon (Buck) 
Rowland, 21 year-old employee at Lookout Inn, a resort owned by Gilliland and 
Bergman near Alpena. Both men were staying at the resort and were shot before 
they had an opportunity to defend themselves by the youthful Rolland who gave 
robbery as his motive for the shooting when he was picked up in Windsor, 
Ontario, by State Police and Canadian officials.
   Funeral services for Mr. Bergman were held at the Dale. M. E. church near 
Beavertn Sunday afternoon and were attended by hundreds of his friends from 
this vicinity.

CONDITIONS IS SERIOUS

   Although Mr. Gillihand's condition was described as serious by physicians 
at the Alpena Hospital today, it is thought that he will recover. Rolland was 
captured by police in Windsor Saturday and Captain Don Leonard; of the Detroit 
State Police Post, said that he confessed that a "druken impulse" brought on 
the murder. "I don't known what got into me," the officer quoted Rowland as 
saying, "I had been drinking all night and I suddenly had an impulse to get 
some money anyway I could."
   Rowland who fled to Bay City, Detroit adn finally to Windsor, where he was 
arrested by Capt. Leonard and Windsor and Michigan state police officers, told 
police he had gone deer hunting in the upper peninsula after he was paid off 
at the end of the shipping season. There, he said, he met Gillihand.

GOOD FRIENDS

   "We got to be pretty good friends and he told me he owned an inn, some 
cabins and a gas station near Alpena. He said he would give me a job it 
nothing else showed up, so about two weeks ago I went to the inn and he put me 
to work."  At the inn, he said, he met Bergman, manager of the inn, and 
learned that Gillihand was a wealthy contractor who had built many roads in 
northern Michigan. They gave him living quarters with them at the inn. "The 
night before the shooting," he told Capt. Leonard, "I borrowed Bergman's coupe 
and drove to Alpena. I had some drinks at a bar and met a stranger. We had 
some more drinks and met a couple of girls. I took my girl home, then returned 
to the inn, where I sat at the bar alone and drank 12 bottles of  beer."

WANTED MONEY

   It was at the conclusion of this solitary beer drinking that he received 
the "impulse." "I made up my mind I would get some money and go back to 
Alpena. I wanted to marry the girl. I knew Bergman and Gillihand would have 
money and I had seen a gun in Bergman's dresser." Bergman was asleep when he 
entered the room Bergmand occupied, he told police. " I said 'Hello', Then 
shot him," Capt. Leonard quoted young Rowland as saying. Leonard said Rowland 
added:
   I'm Sorry, Bill" "Then I went into Gilliland's room. He was awake and sat 
up in bed. I said 'I'm sory I have to do this, Bill. "I fired once and he fell 
back." Then, the officer said, Rowland went through the pockets of both men 
and left. When he was arrested he had more than $100 with him. 
   Leonard said Rowland had made a "clean" confession. "The only thing we're 
not satisfied about is his story that he wanted to marry the girl" he 
said. "We believe he was involved with the girl, but we believe the robbery, 
and robbery alone, was the motive. Rowland, he said. expressed a desire 
to "get this whole mess over." Leonare said Rowland had promised he would 
plead guilty when arraigned.

SERVICES HELD SUNDAY FOR BERL BERGMAN

   Funeral services for Berl Bergman were held Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Dale 
church, with Rev. Henry Kruelin of Bay City and Rev. H. R. Hodgson of 
Beaverton officiating. Interment was in the Dale cemetery. Berl Bergman was 
born in Fulton county, Ohio, and died at the age of 55 years. His wife 
preceded him in death 22 years ago.
   He is survived by three brothers, Lawrence and Carl of Beaverton and Ralph 
Of Edenville township, Midland county, and three sisters, Mrs. Alva Quillet 
and Mrs. Nora Mishler of Beaverton and Mrs. Claude Fairchild of Detroit. 


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