On Aug. 9, 1911, Placer County Undersheriff May received a telegram from Placer County Sheriff George McAulay from Montgomery, Alabama. McAulay was there with former Placer County Sheriff Charles Keena where they identified and had local authorities apprehend Herman F. Bremer, who was a suspect in the homicide of Thomas Raffleton on the Bear River near Colfax on April 20, 1911. The telegram stated they would return to Auburn with Bremer, but a second telegram informed May they would return without him. Bremer’s attorney filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus which would not be heard until November.
Although Bremer was extradited to Auburn from Alabama in January of 1912, the Placer County Grand Jury failed to indict him. Sheriff McAulay was certain Bremer killed Raffleton based on witness accounts that the two were seen together the day of the incident. Bremer’s attorney, L.L. Chamberlain, produced a telegram that Bremer had sent from Dunsmuir, California, on the same day Raffleton was killed, making it impossible that he could have committed the crime. McAulay investigated this in Dunsmuir and returned to Auburn convinced that Bremer was not the killer. On Feb. 17, 1912, District Attorney Tuttle filed a motion to dismiss the charge against Bremer and he was released from jail.
On Nov. 16, 1916, another man, Edward Liley, confessed to the murder of Thomas Raffleton. He was sentenced to life in prison and transferred to Folsom State Prison.
Herman F. Bremer joined the American Expeditionary Force during World War I and was killed in action near Bellicourt, France on Sept. 29, 1918. He was a sergeant in the Machine Gun Company, 119th Infantry, 30th Division and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions the day of his death.
Photo: Placer County Sheriff George McAulay
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