Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale. That manuscript, started in 1992 and based on court records from the Alaska State Archive, served as the basis for “What Happened in Craig.” In this installment, Jerry Mackie summons assistance after finding a suspicious man in his mom’s bar.
From the expansive front windows of the bar, Mackie could see Kolivosky, McCoy and Trooper Anderson standing in front of J.T. Brown’s — a dry goods store that sold sleeping bags, guns and the other essentials of Alaskan life. He scurried down the streets of Craig, which had been torn up to make way for a sewer line, and told them what he had seen.
“There’s a man in my mom’s bar who matches the guy seen in the Investor skiff,” Mackie excitedly told them. “And he’s acting real nervous.”
The troopers answered Mackie’s call for assistance by summoning two first-hand witnesses: Kolivosky sent Anderson scampering back to the city float to roust the crew of the Casino. He wanted them to take a look at this guy; they’d not only seen him, they’d spoken to him.
View from Hill Bar (JT Brown’s @ left center. Note the distinctive roofline seen here and in the following images; courtesy Beverly Sheakley, 2014)
Downtown Craig in the ’80’s (street view; JT Brown’s right foreground)
JT Brown’s from Third Street in Craig (copyright Leland E. Hale)
In Retrospect: Author’s Analysis
The Casino crew were less than ideal witnesses. Their encounter with the skiffman was of brief duration. It was on the water, between boats of different height: one a troller, the other a power skiff. And it was inevitably influenced by the crew’s primary concern — getting to a burning boat off Ben’s Cove. At the time of their encounter they were hardly thinking they’d just spoken to a murder suspect.
Were there better options?
At this point in their investigation, troopers had identified five people who had seen the skiffman. One, who worked at the cold-storage dock, had already left Craig. Two others, who had seen and spoken to the skiffman onshore, as he landed in Craig, lived near Hollis — on the other side of Prince of Wales Island. These two witnesses were, realistically, several hours from Craig on miserable roads. Bruce Anderson and Jan Kittleson from the Casino, on the other hand, were nearby. And available.
When the call went out for witness assistance, they got the nod.
But Anderson and Kittleson were, ultimately, reluctant witnesses. Their fear, reinforced through a night of worry, was palpable. They agreed to a walkthrough at the Hill Bar more out of duty than anything else. Still, they had started off as good citizens. They weren’t going to stop now, when an investigation was on the line.
Copyright Leland E. Hale (2018). All rights reserved.
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