Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
Oakland Tribune
Friday, Sept. 13, 1946
Peter Voiss, Hermit, Dies
Death this morning ended the mortal wanderings of Peter Voiss, 84, Oakland’s eccentric hermit of the highways.
The aged, bearded recluse died in Fairmont Hospital, after having been found critically ill in his two-wheeled covered cart here August 6, with only his beloved burros for companions.
A prospector for three-quarters of his life, by his own reckoning, he later took to the highways in his burro cart and his picturesque appearance precipitated tragedy in 1936 when Voiss shot and Killed Dr. Jasper Gattuccio, San Jose dentist, for taking his picture without paying.
ACQUITTED IN KILLING
A jury acquitted Voiss after a sensational trial and he went back on the road still adamantly refusing to allow his picture to be taken without payment, holding that to be his only livelihood.
He was hailed into court several times for assaulting persons who tried to take his picture free and once his cart was smashed by a truck and he was injured.
But only the infirmities of age halted his wanderings, although for the last two years they had been narrowed to the confines of Alameda County.
NEPHEW NOTIFIED
A nephew, William E. Voiss of Portland, Ore., has been notified to make funeral arrangements.
The burros are being pastured on the San Ramon ranch of Kurt Mueller, 965 33rd Avenue.
Voiss was a native of a village near Cologne, Germany.
Oakland Tribune
Tues., Sept. 17, 1946
ACQUAINTANCES BURY PETER VOISS, NOMAD OF CALIFORNIA ROADS
Peter Voiss, who 10 years ago wrote that the “last trail” was not a difficult one was sent on his way with “Godspeed” yesterday by a strange collection of friends who knew no more than anyone else whether they buried was wealthy or poor.
No one claimed the body of Peter Voiss, 84, ex-miner and wanderer of the highways, but he was not given a pauper’s burial.
Because a few people thought of the eccentric nomad as a part of California’s rich and lusty heritage, he was given a funeral of beauty and respect. Flowers surrounded his coffin and a minister read the last rites.
CLOSE FRIEND
The people who gathered at the Albert Engel chapel were people who had known him in odd ways--, the butcher who had given him meat and become perhaps his closest friend, housewives who had seen his cart, men who had talked to him perhaps once of twice.
But even Kurt Mueller, the butcher, to whom Voiss had willed his beloved burros and cart, has no hint as to whether or not Voiss had a hidden fortune in money or counted his wealth in the knowledge he learned from mountain top, and in the depths of the earth.
He was virtually penniless when he was found ill in his cart on an Oakland street a month ago. Yet when he hold his life story after his acquittal of the murder of a San Jose dentist in 1936, Voiss wrote:
SECRET MAPS
“Many times in the past I have buried gold. I keep maps to tell me the spots, maps that only I can understand.
“The earth is the safest bank in the world. It will ever fail. In burying what I have I feel that I am returning to Mother Nature that which I took from her.
“I am leaving it for someone else to find in generations to come.:
Voiss’ thoughts in his last illness were not on money matters but on the three burros who whom he sang songs and wrote poetry.
“My only real friends are my burros, who divide my life with me.” He wrote. “With them I divide what there is to eat. When there is money, I feed my burros as I feed myself. They have qualities that are infinitely human and I always understand them.
“I will stay with them until I answer a call to go to the biggest gold fields where I may rest forever and ever,” he wrote at that time. “The trail is not a difficult one. I am frightened—but with joy.
Voiss, who revealed after his trial that he was born near Cologne and was as familiar with Greek and Latin, poetry and philosophy, as he was with the highways and back roads of California gave his burros into the keeping of Mueller, who has put them to pasture on his ranch near San Ramon.
HISTORIC LANDMARK
The animals ------“Sally”, “Jimmy” and “Betsy” will be kept there to eat and roam at will. Mueller said, and the ashes of Voiss will be scattered in their pasture. His cart will be placed on railway ties on the ranch as a “historical landmark”.
Friday, Sept. 13, 1946
Peter Voiss, Hermit, Dies
Death this morning ended the mortal wanderings of Peter Voiss, 84, Oakland’s eccentric hermit of the highways.
The aged, bearded recluse died in Fairmont Hospital, after having been found critically ill in his two-wheeled covered cart here August 6, with only his beloved burros for companions.
A prospector for three-quarters of his life, by his own reckoning, he later took to the highways in his burro cart and his picturesque appearance precipitated tragedy in 1936 when Voiss shot and Killed Dr. Jasper Gattuccio, San Jose dentist, for taking his picture without paying.
ACQUITTED IN KILLING
A jury acquitted Voiss after a sensational trial and he went back on the road still adamantly refusing to allow his picture to be taken without payment, holding that to be his only livelihood.
He was hailed into court several times for assaulting persons who tried to take his picture free and once his cart was smashed by a truck and he was injured.
But only the infirmities of age halted his wanderings, although for the last two years they had been narrowed to the confines of Alameda County.
NEPHEW NOTIFIED
A nephew, William E. Voiss of Portland, Ore., has been notified to make funeral arrangements.
The burros are being pastured on the San Ramon ranch of Kurt Mueller, 965 33rd Avenue.
Voiss was a native of a village near Cologne, Germany.
Oakland Tribune
Tues., Sept. 17, 1946
ACQUAINTANCES BURY PETER VOISS, NOMAD OF CALIFORNIA ROADS
Peter Voiss, who 10 years ago wrote that the “last trail” was not a difficult one was sent on his way with “Godspeed” yesterday by a strange collection of friends who knew no more than anyone else whether they buried was wealthy or poor.
No one claimed the body of Peter Voiss, 84, ex-miner and wanderer of the highways, but he was not given a pauper’s burial.
Because a few people thought of the eccentric nomad as a part of California’s rich and lusty heritage, he was given a funeral of beauty and respect. Flowers surrounded his coffin and a minister read the last rites.
CLOSE FRIEND
The people who gathered at the Albert Engel chapel were people who had known him in odd ways--, the butcher who had given him meat and become perhaps his closest friend, housewives who had seen his cart, men who had talked to him perhaps once of twice.
But even Kurt Mueller, the butcher, to whom Voiss had willed his beloved burros and cart, has no hint as to whether or not Voiss had a hidden fortune in money or counted his wealth in the knowledge he learned from mountain top, and in the depths of the earth.
He was virtually penniless when he was found ill in his cart on an Oakland street a month ago. Yet when he hold his life story after his acquittal of the murder of a San Jose dentist in 1936, Voiss wrote:
SECRET MAPS
“Many times in the past I have buried gold. I keep maps to tell me the spots, maps that only I can understand.
“The earth is the safest bank in the world. It will ever fail. In burying what I have I feel that I am returning to Mother Nature that which I took from her.
“I am leaving it for someone else to find in generations to come.:
Voiss’ thoughts in his last illness were not on money matters but on the three burros who whom he sang songs and wrote poetry.
“My only real friends are my burros, who divide my life with me.” He wrote. “With them I divide what there is to eat. When there is money, I feed my burros as I feed myself. They have qualities that are infinitely human and I always understand them.
“I will stay with them until I answer a call to go to the biggest gold fields where I may rest forever and ever,” he wrote at that time. “The trail is not a difficult one. I am frightened—but with joy.
Voiss, who revealed after his trial that he was born near Cologne and was as familiar with Greek and Latin, poetry and philosophy, as he was with the highways and back roads of California gave his burros into the keeping of Mueller, who has put them to pasture on his ranch near San Ramon.
HISTORIC LANDMARK
The animals ------“Sally”, “Jimmy” and “Betsy” will be kept there to eat and roam at will. Mueller said, and the ashes of Voiss will be scattered in their pasture. His cart will be placed on railway ties on the ranch as a “historical landmark”.
