Update: One of the recent sub-plots surrounding Butcher, Baker concerns *facts* that are not in evidence. Things like the date of Robert Hansen’s arrest. And the location of said arrest. I’d like to take this opportunity to correct the record. I’ll admit that sometimes I take my *curator* role too seriously. This is one of those moments. One where something’s wrong and has to be corrected.
So, let’s go through the data. The news article above is dated February 1984. Not September. So those who insist that Hansen’s arrest took place in September 1984 have some explaining to do. Because — on my calendar at least — February is seven months before the *claimed* September arrest date. Seven Months. The September arrest date is wrong. Note the headline. The link to Hansen’s plane and “closing in on murderer.” When this piece was written, Robert Hansen had confessed. In Anchorage — not Seward. The same city where he was arrested.
February 29, 1984
There are also folks who claim that the Alaska State Troopers were somehow not involved in Hansen’s arrest. The cutline on the photo above has three names. Lyle Haugsven, Alaska State Troopers. Gregg Baker, Anchorage Police Department. Glenn Flothe, Alaska State Troopers. These three were among the investigators who helped bring Hansen in.
Yeah, the troopers were there. Any alternate take on this is simply wrong. In fact, the APD dropped this one. To get any traction, Gregg Baker had to hand deliver his Hansen report to the troopers. Such was the rivalry between the two organizations that Baker got in a little trouble over that. Never mind. He was right about Robert Hansen.
Money Quotes
Glenn Flothe: “Flothe said his long months of investigation have left him convinced Hansen has been killing four or five women a year since the mid 1970’s.”
[NOTE: Hansen’s flight map shows two marks in Resurrection Bay, near Seward. Two women disappeared from that city in 1973 and 1975. His first murders? Probably not.]
Jurisdiction: “Most of Hansen’s victims disappeared from Anchorage Police Department territory, but later turned up dead in trooper territory.”
[NOTE: For those unfamiliar, the troopers have jurisdiction in areas that lack a local police presence. Which, by the way, is most of Alaska.]
AST Involvement: “The troopers involvement with the disappearing dancer case began when the Knik River body was identified in late September [1982] as Sherry Morrow, a dancer at the Wild Cherry nightclub before her November 1981 disappearance.”
October 27, 1983: “For the investigators, Oct. 27 is the day they all remember most vividly. That was the day they got the search warrant that turned up evidence linking Hansen to the murders, including the maps showing the grave sites. It was the day they confronted Hansen in a carefully planned interview that lasted five hours and ended with his arrest.”
Wrong September?
The discovery of Sherry Morrow’s body on the Knik River was a critical turning point in the investigation. Her body was found on September 13, 1982, “in [a] shallow grave in [a] Knik River sandbar.”
Sherry was identified on September 27, 1982, using dental records.
Perhaps some of my readers have confused these dates with the date of Hansen’s arrest? Perhaps. But I gotta say this: the Knik River is nowhere near Seward. And Seward is not that close to Anchorage either. You know, that Anchorage. The one where Hansen’s Bakery was. The one where Hansen lived. The place where Robert C. Hansen was finally arrested.
Post-Truth World
Okay, I get it. We’re in a post-truth world.
Copyright Leland E. Hale (2022). All rights reserved.
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