Inn Slayer Given Life Sentence
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(Buck) Rolland Caught Friday In Windsor
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Gordon (Buck) Rolland, 20, was sentenced here Monday afternoon by Judge Herman Dehnke, to Natural Life in prison, for the murder of Berl Bergman manager of the Lookout Inn, last Thursday.
Rolland, an employee of the Tavern at the time, shot and killed Bergman and seriously wounded William Gilliland, owner, early last Thursday morning, following a wild drinking party in Alpena on Wednesday night. He made his escape in the car owned by Bergman and abandoned it at Standish and hitched-hiked to Bay City. While in Bay City he bought a complete new clothing outfit. He was then traced to Detroit and to Windsor, where Capt. Leonard of the State Police arrested him on Friday night. He was returned to the County jail at Harrisville Saturday night, where finger prints were taken, and he was lodged in a cell with police guard.
Tells of Flight
Rolland 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 Gilliland. "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 if 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 Gilliland was a wealthy contractor who had built many roads in northern Michigan. They gave him living quarters with them at the cabin.
"The night before the shooting," he told police, "I borrowed Bergman's coupe and drove to Alpena. I met a stranger. We had some more drinks and met a couple of girls. I took my girl home, and on the way back to the Inn drank about 12 bottles of beer."
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 Gilliland would have money and I had seen a gun in Bergman's dresser."
Shot Bergman
Bergman was asleep when he entered the room Bergman occupied, he told police.
"I said 'Hello." then shot him." "Then I went into Gilliland's room. He was awake and sat up in bed. I said 'I'm sorry I have to do this, Bill.' I fired once and he fell back." Gilliland is in the McRae Hospital in Alpena with a bullet wound in his abdomen and an injured hand.
Then, Rolland went through the pockets of both men and left. When he was arrested he had more than $100 with him.
Rolland was arraigned Monday morning before Justice F. A. Beede. He pleaded guilty, and was bound over to Circuit Court at two o'clock Monday afternoon.
Before sentencing, several witnesses were questioned before the court.
The Sentence
Mr. Rolland, you have been convicted on your plea of guilty of the offense of murder and on the basis of the testimony taken, which is corroborated by what you yourself told me during the interview, the Court is required to decide that it was a case of murder in the first degree. The statute reads as follows:
"All murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison or lying in wait or any other kind of wilful, deliberate and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate any arson, rape, robbery or burglary shall be murder of the first degree and shall be punished by solitary confinement at hard labor in the state prison for life."
Obviously this was a killing perpetrated during the commission of a robbery or burglary. I confess I find some difficulty in satisfying myself as to how a boy of your age and background could arrive at such a condition and state of life. I have not as much information as I would like, of course, about your youth. All I know is that your father died when you were about four years old, four or five; that you have no brothers or sisters; that you appeared to have had a respectable home and a common school education to about what we would call the eighth grade here; and for the last four years or so you have been making your own way in life. You went sailing on the lake steamers in the summer of 1936 and most of the year 1937, and according to your statement were brought into contact with modes of life that were not wholesome, and at a period earlier than those things come to most men. But apparently that has produced a condition of mind under which you had little thought for anything else except liquor and women of the wrong kind and every other form of indulgence that might seem attractive. Your earning capacity was limited, and these men that you were associated with apparently had considerable quantities of money on their person as you found out from your association with Mr. Gilliland in the hunting camps, and with both Mr. Gilliland and Mr. Bergman at the inn where you were employed. And possibly your mind had been running along other channels that suggested that "Here was a good opportunity to get hold of a considerable quantity of money by which you might satisfy your appetites." As you know I went into this situation very thoroughly with you and the only possible extenuating thing that might be advanced in the case is the suggestion, that you were intoxicated at the time you committed this crime to such an extend that you were not fully aware of what you were doing. But that is so utterly contradicted by the things that you remembered and the things that you id that I don't think it rises to the dignity of even a plausible excuse or defense in this case. You remember about many things that happened just before and just after the shooting. And during the time that you were in that building where these two men were when you shot it sustains that line of reasoning. You remember Mr. Gilliland handing you his trousers so that you might take the money out of them You remember Mr. Bergman's trousers being on the table near the room where he was sleeping and taking the money out of them. You remember about the gun and cartridges in it. You remembered where you had thrown the gun away and were able to find it again. You were able to drive your car back and forth to Alpena twice; and then from the Inn to Standish a distance of about ninety miles at what you describe to me as a speed of more than seventy miles an hour without any accident or hint of an accident. Men who are so intoxicated that they are not aware of what they are doing can not give that kind of a performance. Others might be mentioned along the same line. So I don't see any escape from the conclusion that you committed this killing during the perpetration of a robbery or burglary.
Under the state that constitutes murder in the first degree, subject to mandatory life imprisonment. Mr. Gilliland is still alive, and apparently the doctors are hopeful that he will survive. But we have no definite assurance of that, and I think under the circumstances it would be a mistake to enter a conviction at this time upon the charge now pending against you in that connection because it might bar prosecution for murder late on on that charge. And in addition to that the nature of our interview was such on that case that I would not feel justified in accepting your plea of guilty at this time. So that case will be held in abeyance and perhaps may never be further prosecuted but it is there in case there should be any necessity for going through with it.
Upon the charge of murder upon which you stand convicted is there anything further that you wish to say why the sentence of the Court should not be passed upon you at this time? Defendant: No sir.
THE SENTENCE OF THE COURT then is that you, Gordon Rolland be confined in the State Prison of Southern Michigan in solitary confinement at hard labor for the term of your natural life.
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Sheriff George Wilson and Sergeant Thor Person, of Alpena State Police, took the prisoner to Jackson Wednesday morning.
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Funeral services for Mr. Bergman were held at the Dale church, near Beaverton, Mich., which he had helped to build, Sunday afternoon.
Surviving him are three brothers, Ralph, Lawrence and Carl Bergman of Beaverton; three sisters, Mrs. Chloe Fairchilds, Detroit; Mrs. Yaura Quillet and Mrs. Nora Mushell, of Beaverton.