When Death Stalked the Cannery Floor
By Hank Nuwer
Margaret Andrianoff was born to a Japanese mother, her father unknown. Fisherman Constantine (Costia) Andrianoff and his Alaska Native wife Annie adopted her, according to the 1900 U.S. Census.
Margaret, also known as Mary, never attended school, but Costia apparently taught her to read and write. In 1912, he built a comfortable home a short walk from Glacier Sea Food Company on Douglas Island, where Margaret and Annie worked in the cannery..
Margaret and her mother worked at the cannery.
In 1924, a Japanese immigrant, known only as M. Suzuki, found a job there. Soon, he lost his head and good sense over Margaret.
At first Suzuki merely pestered her. Soon the unwanted attention became stalking.
He tried to win her over with a five-dollar bribe. She pushed it away. He wrote her a note. She tore it up. He began to get sullen.
She told her mother and father about Suzuki’s harassment.
On July 21, 1924, Annie Andrianoff told him he’d find himself in trouble at the cannery unless his advances stopped.
When Susuki continued this behavior, Costia tried to rebuke him, but Suzuki fled.
On the morning shift of July 24, just before 9 a.m., Suzuki failed to show to work. He had a plan.
He entered the big room where the mother and daughter cleaned their first tray of shrimp. He wore a raincoat and street clothes.
When they went into another room to fill a second tray, he followed them and pulled out a .45 automatic Colt pistol. If he couldn’t have her, no one would have her.
Suzuki pumped two bullets into Margaret. She clutched her wounded arm after the first shot. The second bullet killed her.
He then shot the mother, As Annie lay on the floor, Suzuki fired three or four more shots into her before fleeing.
Two cannery workers hopped on his trail.
Fleeing down a path, Suzuki nearly ran into cannery proprietor H. H. Ohmer, who was arriving for work.
Cornered by the posse and Ohmer, Suzuki tried to commit suicide with one last bullet, but only tore out a chunk of flesh and brain. Doctors also treated Suzuki for advanced syphilis.
After recovering in a hospital, he went on trial.
Judge Wickersham represented him.
Shoup served as the prosecutor.
Wickersham argued that the case merited an all-male jury to understand a man’s passion-gone-wrong. The court denied the request.
Wickerham next tried for an insanity defense, citing a mental breakdown due to the venereal disease.
The insanity defense collapsed under the government’s evidence. Witnesses testified Suzuki had been in a rage but sane. The jury voted to convict.
Judge Reed, upon sentencing, told the murderer through an interpreter that his crime was among the most “revolting” acts to be tried in his court.
The judge reminded Suzuki that similar crimes brought murderers to the gallows.
“You killed an innocent, young girl and shot her mother,” Reed said. “For this killing you have been found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder without capital punishment, as it was authorized by law to do.”
A Juneau Empire reporter noted that the prisoner was more “cheerful” and “brighter” than he had been during the trial, knowing now that he would not be hung.
“You will be taken hence and imprisoned for the remainder of your natural life at hard labor in the United States penitentiary at McNeil’s Island (Washington).”
Suzuki was still imprisoned when the 1940 census was taken. Instead of the hard labor Judge Reed envisioned, the aging inmate worked as a watchmaker inside the prison.