Little Kids, Teenaged Crew

What about the crew? Tussing said it was “one of the best crews I’ve ever worked with. I really loved them all. They always did what they were told and you know, they might not have always enjoyed it, but they realized that, you know, it’s their job and they did it.” Even if, in some eyes, they were nothing but kids.

Miller pressed Tussing with questions about crew morale. The trooper had LeRoy Flammang’s less than flattering take in his back pocket. The one about the little kids. From Tussing, it was more of the same.

Tussing said things were okay until, “Irene and the kids came up when we were in Craig, and that kind of dampened everybody’s spirits. All of a sudden you got three more, you know, the two little kids. I didn’t really feel the boat was a good place for little kids. They don’t belong on the boat, I feel. I still feel that way.”

But Tussing was reluctant to say everything was terrible on board the Investor. Even with a teenaged crew. Asked again by Miller how the crew felt, Tussing said, “Pretty good, I think. They were, you know, they were good guys. They did what they were asked and kept their mouth shut, whether they, you know, were happy or not happy. You know, basically it was all right, and they were making some pretty good money there, for, you know, kids.”

kids
Investor Crew (clockwise from top left): Michael Stewart; Jerome Keown;
Chris Heyman; Dean Moon

“Is there… is there anything that… that I haven’t touched upon that you think may help, or contribute to the investigation,” Miller asked as the interview neared its end.

Tussing initially said he couldn’t think of anything, then admitted he felt bewildered about what had happened. The only motive he could think of was money. And that was crazy, he said. There never was any money on the boat.

Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale.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.”

Copyright Leland E. Hale (2019). All rights reserved.


Craig

Order “What Happened In Craig,” HERE and HERE. True crime from Epicenter Press about Alaska’s Worst Unsolved Mass Murder.

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