William F. Gohl was born on February 6, 1873, in Germany.

William Gohl, also referred to as Billy Gohl, is known for the murders he committed between 1902 and 1910 in Aberdeen, Washington. During his time as a bartender and later a union official, numerous bodies of migrant workers were discovered in the nearby waters. Between 1905 and 1910, around 40 bodies washed ashore, many of whom had been robbed of their belongings.

Gohl would often target sailors arriving in the port. He worked at the Sailors' Union building, where he would speak to them about their families and, eventually, their valuables. If he found a sailor who seemed to be passing through and could be easily missed, he would choose him as a victim. It was alleged that he killed these sailors in the union building, either by shooting them or through other methods, and disposed of their bodies in the Wishkah River or directly into Grays Harbor.

In 1910, an accomplice named John Klingenberg was arrested after attempting to escape to Mexico. Klingenberg testified against Gohl, revealing that he saw Gohl with a sailor named Charles Hatberg. Hatberg had disappeared, and his body was discovered shortly after. Investigators found a gun that belonged to Gohl at the scene.

Gohl was convicted of two murders: Hatberg and John Hoffman, who had witnessed Hatberg's murder and was killed afterward. Despite being suspected of many more murders, he was sentenced to life in prison. Gohl spent his later years in an asylum for the criminally insane, where he died in 1927. His burial site is located at Eastern State Hospital.