Book review: “Forgotten Murders from Alaska’s Capital” presents the stories of 10 murders that took place in Juneau or Douglas between 1902 and 1959, and also uncovers a great deal of Alaska’s social history at the time.
By Betsy Longenbaugh; Epicenter Press, 2022; 135 pages; $16.95.
The 10 chapters, arranged chronologically, involve murders of passion, greed, revenge and mental instability. They were chosen, the author explains, from more than 80 she’s chronicled and are ones that resulted in arrests and closure. The earliest story, of a 1902 murder, takes place in what was then the city of Treadwell, the company town located at the Treadwell Mine in present-day Douglas. There, the mine superintendent shot and killed an unemployed miner on the town plaza, in full view of witnesses. This is, in large part, a story of power imbalances; the superintendent claimed “self-defense,” and the coroner’s inquest, based on a single eyewitness account, ruled that it was.
Several of the murder stories take place in an underworld of gambling, scamming and prostitution. In 1919, a woman named Myra Schmidt was working “the line” in Juneau when she was found dead in her cabin. The place had been ransacked and her valuables stolen. The same day, a man known as Whiskey Jack was seen settling debts and buying new clothes, then boarding a boat for Skagway. When his luggage was searched, it was found to be full of Schmidt’s belongings.
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