Harry Ecklind was born on May 12, 1888, to Swedish parents in Santa Maria, California. His father, a musician, would die as when he infant and a few years later his mother would join him. Knowing her son would become an orphan, before her death, his mother would come in contact with the Blochmans. The childless couple would take in the boy and treat him as if their own.
Lazar and Ida Bolchman were known as charitable people. They would take homless and less unfortanate people in. Lazar was both a businessman and columnist for the Santa Maria Times where he would write about economic and sociological issues.Ida was the vice president of the Santa Maria Union high School, and a member of the Board of Education of Santa Barbra County. She also was a a high regarded Botonist in Santa Barbra County.
Harry's name would be changed to Harry Ecklind Blochman was known as a happy, handsome and smart child. He seemed to inherit some of his father's artistic abilities and the Bolchmans wanted to nurture those talents.
On the night of July 3, 1901 Harry stayed out late that night. At 8:30 he was seen heading home, and at 9 he was seen talking to two men a block away from home. The two men seemed to have been threshers and one of them seemed to be drunk and this was the last time anyone saw Harry alive.
While the town celebrated the 4th the Bolchmans worried about their young son. The same night he went missing the Strong boys reported that their horse and buggy had been stolen from in front of Haslam's store around 9:30 pm. It was found in Guadalupe the next day with the horse exhausted.
Police suspected that Harry may have been abducted. The police kept asked about the trains leaving the Guadalupe area. Police found out that a man had been on a train about 11:30 he pretended to be asleep and his his face. When the conductor asked for a ticket he didn't have a ticket, but did pay to go San Luis Obsipo. This led nowhere though.
On July 6th around 7 p.m. two children were playing in their back yard. They noticed something a bean field not far from the Bolchman's home. They would stumble upon Harry's body about 1/8 of a miled from the road. The children's father notified the Blochman's before the police.
He was greatly decomposed and there was a struggle in the bean field. There were 9 knife wounds 4 of which could have caused his death. Two in the brain and two in the heart. It appeared that he tried to crawl towards his home before he died.
A man named William Kelso was believed to be the one who was seen speaking to Harry the night he died. Police would bring in a man named Kinkaid and arrested him as an accomplice. He allegedly knew that Kelso was the one that stole the horse and buggy that night, but he was released.
William would be found in Templton under the name Jackson working on a ranch. Sheriff Ivans would come up and arrest him. He would take him by train back to Santa Maria, but because there was rumors of a lynching he had William hide behind several large trunks in the baggage compartment. There was no lynch mob waiting for them.William would be charged and would go to trial for the murder. On October 9, 1901 William would be found not guilty of the murder. It only took the jury less than 45 minutes which was unexpected as many believed that it would take longer.
There were no other suspects in the case. It's unknown if William Kelso had done the crime and if not the real culprit will remain unknown.
SOURCES:
The Fresno Morning Republic July 7, 1901
San Fransisco Chronicle July 8, 1901
Santa Maria Times July 13, 1901
San Fransisco Chronicle October 10, 1901
Hanford Kings County Sentinel October 17, 1901
Santa Maria Times November 21, 2010
Santa Maria Times November 9, 2014
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