A “Murder" of crows inspired our label and our logo…
A True turn of the century murder inspired our name. The events below all happened on land that would become Perli Vineyards.
January 6, 1911 Point Arena Record -- reported:
An Old Man Foully Murdered
“After weeks of searching, the remains of Joe Cooper have been found, and it develops that the old man was murdered and the body burned.
A couple of boys were attracted on Signal Ridge by flies, and reported having discovered a human skull and a number of bones.
Sheriff Donohoe was notified and proceeded to the scene. He gathered up the bones and skull and took them to Ukiah. An investigation revealed the fact the bones were those of a human being and that they had been broken with an axe.
About seventy yards from where the remains had been burned, stood Pete Gianoli’s cabin, in which was found Cooper’s coat. The Sheriff took Gianoli to the brush and asked him if he set the fire, to which he answered in the affirmative. In answer to another question he said that he had burned jack rabbits and some bones. Other evidence was secured and Gianoli was placed under arrest and taken to Ukiah.
Cooper had $7.50 on his person and a demijohn of wine. The wine was missing but the money was found in his coat. Joseph Cooper was about 70 years of age, an inoffensive man, and why he should be murdered is a mystery.”
January 20, 1911 The Point Arena Record -- reported:
“Pete Gianoli, accused of the murder of Joe Cooper, will have his prelimary examination at Ukiah next week. The report of his dismissal for lack of evidence was a mistake.”
March 17, 1911 The Point Arena Record -- reported:
“Pete Gianoli was acquitted of the charge of murdering Joe Cooper.”
December 2, 1911 The Mendocino Beacon -- reported:
Gianoli Again Under Arrest
“Pete Gianoli of Anderson Valley, who was thought to be the murderer of Joe Cooper and was arrested and tried before the Superior Court some time ago and released, the jury acquitting him, is again in jail awaiting action to be taken by the District Attorney. It is reported that after Gianoli returned to his home near Boonville that he made boasts to other Italians of that vicinity of how he had slain Cooper. It is also reported that he has made threats against several of the residents of that section and always carried a rifle with him wherever he went. It will be remembered that Cooper was killed about a year ago and the body burned, several of the bones being found in an ash pile near Gianoli’s place”
December 23, 1911 Cloverdale Reveille -- reported:
Sent to State Hospital
Peter Gianoli, who was acquitted of the murder of Joe Cooper in Mendocino county a few months ago, was examined at Ukiah this week for insanity and committed to the state hospital. Gianoli’s insanity, so say a number of residents of Mendocino county, is a desire to murder some of the best citizens of that county, who were instrumental in ferreting out the murderer of Joe Cooper.
August 16, 1922 Ukiah Repubican Press, would later report in an article of Sheriff Ralph Byrnes accomplishments:
“The first murder case in which he was interested was that of Pete Gianoli, who murdered a man named Cooper in the southwestern part of the county… Gianoli killed Cooper during a quarrel… was acquitted by the jury on a technical ground, the prosecution not being able to produce the body… Subsequently he was charged with perjury in connection with his testimony at the trial, but while being held on this charge Sheriff Byrnes decided he was mentally deranged, and after an examination by alianists he was sent to the asylum. He confessed he had committed the crime as charged originally.”
