LUTHERAN QUILTERS – Members of the Quilts for Comfort Group stand between pews draped with some of the 205 quilts they made, in the Sitka Lutheran Church Tuesday. The group made the quilts for five local non-profits and one in Anchorage. The remaining quilts are sent to Lutheran World Relief which  distributes them to places around the world in need, such as Ukraine, as part of Personal Care Kits. Pictured are, from left, Helen Cunningham, Kathleen Brandt,Vicki Swanson, Paulla Hardy, Kim Hunter, Linda Swanson and Sue Fleming.  (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

A Review: Forgotten Murders Live On

“Forgotten Murders from Alaska’s Capital” by Betsy Longenbaugh. Epicenter Press Inc. $16.95. Forward by Sitka author and poet John Straley.

Olga Day, the daughter of emigrants from Norway, had married at the age of 17. The couple separated and in 1916, five years after their marriage, Day shot her estranged husband. He had threatened her, and she was not prosecuted. Two years later, she married again, with “only the most intimate friends of the couple being present.” The pair moved to Oregon, where he worked as a newspaper reporter and a prohibition officer; he also had connections to the Ku Klux Klan. After a divorce, Day returned to Juneau and took up what was, as the author puts it, “an unusual occupation for a lone woman”: she bought her own fishing boat, the Faith. She sold the Faith in World War II, at a time when Japanese submarines were a menace. Day later retired to Sitka, where in 1993 she celebrated her 100th birthday.

Journalist Betsy Longenbaugh, the author of Forgotten Murders, has selected the tale of Day and nine others carefully, and each  tells a different story. They include the murder on a boat of a comedian; the death of Lucy Shellhouse, a Native woman whose education began at the Sheldon Jackson Mission School; and a shooting by the superintendent of what was then the largest gold mine near Juneau, the Treadwell mine. One of the last chapters recounts a murder committed by a “remittance man,” i.e. someone whose family is upset by “irresponsible or embarrassing behavior” and pays a remittance to the offender “to live somewhere far away, and for many, Alaska is far enough.” The author tells us that this is  still apparent in Alaska today.” 

Longenbaugh effectively uses photos to bring to life many aspects of the stories. In the account of the shooting by the mine superintendent, there are photos of the superintendent with a pyramid of gold bricks, the mining community, the superintendent’s house, and even the inside of the store where the victim was laid on the counter and prayed for before he died. 

In describing events that took place between 1902 and1959, Forgotten Murders is not just about the murders themselves. It also paints a picture of the stores, hotels, brothels, taverns, temperance societies, Native communities, and other groups that populated Southeast Alaska. The book includes fascinating accounts of how the murders were investigated and their perpetrators prosecuted and tried. Investigation was difficult in the early days without the ability to take fingerprints or use other forensic evidence. 

Longenbaugh’s material is interesting enough that she probably could expand on it. A good editor might have been able to help with working in additional material and telling the stories in even better ways. I would have liked some of the photos to be larger or of better quality, but what is in the book often may reflect all that is available. Maps, for the reader who is less familiar with places like Douglas or Treadwell, would be helpful as well.

Forgotten Murders is a highly readable account of Alaska life from the last century. It would fascinate guests at any Sitka or Southeastern Alaska Airbnb or hotel. It is also an excellent book for high school students, and I would recommend it as required reading in an Alaska history class. 

– Lionel Kennedy

(Betsy Longenbaugh, who grew up in Sitka and has lived in Juneau for 35 years, was a newspaper reporter in Sitka and Juneau. She and her husband, Ed Schoenfeld, a radio and newspaper reporter and editor, are retired, and conduct murder story walking tours for the Juneau-Douglas City Museum.)

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Advertisement: Tea-Licious Tea House & Bakery 315 Lincoln Street Grand Opening! Freshly Baked Scones, Cakes & Pastries Innovative Salads, Soups & Sandwiches Harney & Sons Tea. Lunch * Afternoon Tea * Supper.

50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Photo caption: National Republican Chairman George Bush takes a drink of water offered by Jan Craddick, Sitka delegate, during the Republican convention held here. Mrs. Craddick explained to Bush that the water was from Indian River, which means, according to local legend, that he will return.

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