Chapter Eleven:Kathy Kohm:Who was Stanton Gash?

 

Chapter 11 

     Who was Stanton Gash? 

   He was a married firefighter in Evansville, Indiana.  Evansville was the largest town in Southwestern Indiana and only about an hour’s drive from Santa Claus, Indiana and Christmas Lake Village. Situated on the Ohio River it had been a hub of industry since before the Civil War.  It had boomed during the 1940’s with defense jobs. They even built fighter planes there.  Manufacturing declined somewhat in the 1950’s when those jobs went away but other companies like Whirlpool had come along and taken over the defense factory spaces to make washers and dryers for all those baby booming households of the post-war years. In the 1980’s it was still a busy thriving town with factories, shopping malls, hospitals and hotels and a small regional airport.  

    To understand Stanton, it helps to understand his family life and how he grew up. Stanton was the oldest son of Charles Max Gash.  Charles M. Gash had been appointed the Chief of Police in Evansville in 1955 when Stanton was just 6 years old.  Charles himself was only 32 years old when he took over that top law enforcement job.  He wasn’t a sergeant or a lieutenant when he was appointed chief.  He was a traffic patrolman.  He went from patrolman to chief overnight after Vance Hartke was elected mayor.  In newspaper articles Gash claimed to be surprised and bewildered as to why he was chosen to be Chief after only 7 years on the job.  It makes one wonder.  What knowledge or special skills might a traffic patrolman possess that would make him standout so?  If it seems odd or even suspicious to you; you’re not alone. 

    Charles Max Gash served as chief for 5 years but after that was appointed Assistant Chief of Police … for life. Assistant Chief was a new position within the department.  No one had ever filled that role before and after Charles M. Gash no one ever would again. It was announced that he had passed a set of brand new rigorous exams with flying colors. That was the reason the department gave for the lifetime appointment.  A skeptical person might look at that set of facts and wonder how a patrolman suddenly rates the top job.  Was he really so talented and such a natural leader or was there something else at play? And later, why create the lifetime position of Assistant Chief of Police?  A really skeptical person might think that perhaps people with influence and power in the city needed a cooperative person on the force that could help them out of jams from time to time. Maybe he had already seen some things as a patrolman and helped a few people out.  But, maybe that wasn’t it at all.  Maybe Charles Max Gash was just a very diligent, talented and gifted leader with a lot of charisma.  

     Stanton had two younger brothers. The middle child was named Vernon and the youngest was Patrick.  Tragically, Patrick had come down with a virus and high fever as a toddler. The high fever had caused a traumatic brain injury that left him mentally challenged.  

    Vernon took on a paper route at 12 years old and built it into the largest paper route in the city of Evansville at that time.  A lot of kids had paper routes in the 1960’s but this level of work must have been massive for a kid.  It must have kept him out of the house for many hours each day.  Did he really need the money or did he just like working and getting out of a chaotic and unhappy home?  

    Testimony in court decades later would reveal that it was indeed an unhappy home.  Family would testify that Charles M. Gash was an alcoholic.  The elder Gash had also had a very difficult upbringing. Most people in the latter half of the 20th century did not seek help for their mental health issues but instead self medicated with alcohol. Getting help was heavily stigmatized and a person could lose their job. Careers in law enforcement often leave one with PTSD from all the horrors that they witness.  It is a tragedy when police officers and other first responders do not feel able to seek out help.  

    Charles and his wife Janice had a rocky relationship. She filed for divorce in 1943 but they reconciled. They would separate several times over the course of their marriage before finally divorcing in the 1970’s. Charles would remarry and raise three more stepsons with his second wife Judy.  None of these things could have been easily accepted by his first three sons.  Divorce was stigmatized just like seeking help for one’s mental health.  It must have been a very difficult childhood for them all.

    In 1964 the boys’ grandmother, Emma Gash, was accidentally struck in the forehead with a baseball bat while watching the boys play in the backyard of the family home at 2003 E. Michigan Street in Evansville.  She was admitted to Deaconess Hospital in fair condition and recovered. The newspaper article reported that 15 year old Stan Gash had thrown the bat. Likely it was just an accident.  It is easy to swing and just let the bat fly afterward. Most people who are first learning how to swing a bat can have trouble setting the bat down gently after swinging.  Most 15 year olds have got it down by then but accidents do happen.  One can only imagine the kind of reactions his parents might have had in that day and age. Whatever happened, the fallout afterward can’t have been pleasant for the boys.

    As we mentioned before, Charles M. Gash had an unusual career in law enforcement. From patrolman to Chief overnight in 1955.  Then in 1960 he was appointed Assistant Chief for Life.  And then in 1965 a friend of his called him in the middle of the night.  Hubert Coke was described as an oilman, a gambler who would bet on anything and one of the best pool players in the country. He was nicknamed “Daddy Warbucks” because people thought he looked like the cartoon character from Lil’ Orphan Annie. That evening in 1965 he called his friend, the Asst. Chief of Police because he had shot a man. Mr. Coke had a friend over and the man had tried to steal some cash so he had shot him. Then he called his friend, Assistant Chief of Police Charles Gash. Gash then jumped into action after arriving at his friend’s home and… called the police. He offered no medical aid to the bleeding man on the floor. He chatted with his friend while they waited for the police to arrive. The man would die of blood loss pleading for assistance. Gash would testify in court that he did not think it was serious enough for a tourniquet. 

   Five years earlier Gash had awarded a patrolman the first ever Award of Merit for, of all things, applying a tourniquet and saving a woman’s life after a terrible car accident.  But that night in 1965 at Hubert Coke’s house, it did not occur to him to use any life saving medical intervention to the man who had been shot by his good friend.  Coke would later be found not guilty of manslaughter after his friend Charles Gash testified on his behalf.  It’s good to have friends.

      In August 1969, the new police chief suspended Assistant Chief Gash for three days for failing to report in on time. It seems at some point the chief was trying to get in touch with him and couldn’t. At the end of his three day suspension he returned to work but asked to take a two week vacation, effective immediately.  The vacation time was granted.  After his vacation Charles Gash would be assigned to an evening shift from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.  

     On November 12th 1969, Charles Gash was separated from his wife and staying in an hotel room when he was accidentally shot in the shoulder. His wife was in the hotel room with him. It was reported in the paper that she was visiting him there when the gun went off. He would recover from the gunshot wound. There was no clear explanation given as to how the gun went off and who fired it. 

    Asst. Police Chief Charles Gash was involved in a car accident in front of his own home in 1971.  The newspaper article said that “the woman driver” in the other car was to blame.  Both cars sustained substantial damage but no one was injured. 

     In 1972 Charles Gash suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized but eventually recovered. He narrowly escaped death by smoke inhalation in 1973 when his apartment caught fire while he was sleeping.  

    The police department decided to make a few changes in the mid seventies. In 1975 it was decided by the police department that after the retirement or death of Charles Gash, they would eliminate the position of Lifetime Assistant Chief.   

    By 1976 Charles and Janice Gash were divorced.  Not long after the divorce, Janice was pulled over in a traffic stop for speeding and was accused of attacking the two officers.  She failed to appear in court but later had her license reinstated after appearing in referee court. She felt that the police department was harassing her on the orders of her ex-husband. 

    Charles Gash had remarried by 1981 when he retired from the Evansville Police Force.  His new wife had three sons as well.  He took a job at Eastland Mall as a Security Guard.  His second wife, Judy, ran an office cleaning service.

    To say that the family life of Stanton Gash was tumultuous is an understatement. One wonders how this influenced his own behavior. His younger brother Vernon seems to have coped by working insanely long hours in retail and sales and eventually becoming part owner of Kenny Kent Chevrolet. 

    In those days people did not go to therapy.  People didn’t often go to rehab. Alcoholics Anonymous was around but seeking help for any problems or even admitting that you had a problem was often a career ending move.  It was a very different atmosphere than today. 

    One can feel very sorry for Stanton and his brothers at this time in their lives. They went through an absolutely miserable childhood.  Some kids who go through similar things pivot away from those behaviors and break the cycle.  They seek out a calmer life.  They find solace in work, relationships, religion, therapy.  But others do not find themselves turning toward positive behaviors. They can sometimes struggle with anger, anxiety and depression.  Men in this time period were growing up in a world of toxic masculinity where they were not allowed to show any emotions other than anger. Men and boys were told not to cry and ridiculed if and when they did.  Men and boys were discouraged from being kind and tender. The only acceptable behaviors for men and boys were toughness, and manliness.  Many people from this time will remember that a man holding his own baby was a rare thing.  A man helping around the house was something to laugh at. Toxic masculinity was at a high point and it was so normalized by everyone that merely questioning it was viewed by society as out of bounds.

    Abused children who grow into adults can fall into the trap of traumatic reenactment.  They may look back on the way that they were treated as children and be horrified by that treatment.  But, they can still find themselves acting as an abuser in their own relationships. That’s traumatic reenactment.  Abused children can easily fall into the pattern of behavior in which they become an abuser themselves. It’s rare to grow up in an abusive and toxic home and come out completely unaffected. 

    Stanton had been engaged to a young woman in 1968 and things had progressed to the point that the engagement was announced in the newspapers. For whatever reason, they did not end up getting married. She married someone else in 1969 and moved many states away. Her parents also moved out of Evansville and out of Indiana but stayed in the Midwest. It seems odd that after a broken engagement to Stan Gash; this young woman and her whole family left Indiana for good. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that they all moved away but it raises questions. Did Stanton take the break up badly and act out in anger?  His father was assistant chief of police. Did this young woman and her family realize that they had little recourse but to flee?  Of course that is just conjecture but the situation raises many questions.

    Stanton later met and married a different local woman, Linda Fest, in February of 1971.  She had attended Bosse High School and the University of Evansville.  She worked at a very successful children’s and maternity clothing store called The Baby Shop.  They had several locations in Evansville including one in the new Washington Square Mall.  She would work there for decades and eventually become a buyer for the store and travel frequently.  At the time of his wedding, Stanton worked as a surveyor for the county.  

    Two years later Stanton Gash would become a firefighter in Evansville. An article about his fire department service says that he was appointed to the Fire Department in 1973 during the term of Mayor Russell Lloyd. It seems unusual to be “appointed” to the fire department but maybe that is how it worked in those days. 

   It was said that he did not associate with his fellow firemen outside of work. He was also known as unlucky and accident prone. “If anything was going to happen then it was going to happen to Stan Gash.”  Terry Rickard, fire captain at Hose House 14 is quoted as saying.  

    Stanton served at four different firehouses in Evansville in his eight years of active service. One wonders if moving to different firehouses is a common thing. His fellow firefighters described him as being in terrible physical shape with a litany of ailments and injuries.  He broke his ankle once playing ping pong at the firehouse and the ankle gave him quite a bit of trouble after that. 

   In August of 1976, Stanton Gash was mentioned in the newspaper after cutting his knee while fighting a warehouse fire. He was treated and released from St. Mary’s Hospital.

   Was he just unlucky, clumsy and uncoordinated or was there something else going on?  It’s impossible to know. 

   In 1980, Stanton made the papers in Spencer county when he threatened to sue Christmas Lake Village for causing damage to his yard and driveway after someone reading the water meter drove off the snow covered driveway making deep muddy ruts in the grass.  Gash was asking for $10,000 in damages.  The head of Christmas Lake Village felt that the amount asked for was exorbitant and said “He will just have to sue us then.”  It is not known whether he did indeed go ahead with a lawsuit.