{"id":13087,"date":"2020-02-06T16:10:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T16:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lelandhale.com\/wordpress\/?p=13087"},"modified":"2020-02-11T16:13:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T16:13:11","slug":"fragments-memory-larry-demmert-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/wordpress\/fragments-memory-larry-demmert-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragments of Memory: Larry Demmert, Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Larry Demmert, Jr., was an important witness for the state. Maybe the most important witness. He was certainly important enough that the prosecution saw fit to prepare him for the expected onslaught by Phillip Weidner. In the months before the trial, he met with Sergeant Stogsdill at Demmert&#8217;s attorney&#8217;s office in Seattle. He met a second time with Stogsdill in Bellingham. And he met several times with Stogsdill and assistant district attorney Bob Blasco at pre-trial meetings in Ketchikan. They had talked to him, in Stogsdill&#8217;s words, &#8220;about being in court, what it was like.&#8221; There his memory would face the ultimate test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/ketchikan-courthouse-copyright-lhale.png\" alt=\"memory\" width=\"301\" height=\"401\"\/><figcaption><strong>Ketchikan Courthouse<\/strong> <br>(copyright Leland E. Hale)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, if one thing stood out, it was that Demmert&#8217;s journey into this Ketchikan courtroom had not been straightforward or particularly intentional. It was, in retrospect, more of a meander. His initial bouts of memory seemed to come in fragments. Later, he would admit he didn&#8217;t want to become involved in a case that focused on John Peel, a longtime friend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fragments of Memory<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>October 22, 1982<\/strong>. Demmert told Bellingham Det. McNeill that he was asleep onboard the <em>Libby 8<\/em> the night of the murders, but &#8220;was <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"awakened from his sleep (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lelandhale.com\/wordpress\/awakened-by-scream\/\" target=\"_blank\">awakened from his sleep<\/a> by something and as he awoke he felt somewhat strange. He has no idea what awoke him nor did he hear any noise out of the ordinary after he woke up.\u201d He also told McNeill that an acquaintance named \u201cDoug\u201d told him about a drifter who was around Craig at the time and who disappeared soon after the murders. Demmert said \u201cDoug\u201d believed this was probably the killer.<\/li><li><strong>August 29, 1983<\/strong>. AST Sgt. Jim Stogsdill interviewed Demmert in Craig&nbsp;during the anniversary trip. Demmert related similar memories, but added&nbsp;that when he returned to his boat at around 10 or 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 5, he saw a half dozen people \u201cpartying\u201d on board the <em>Investor<\/em>. He did not see who they were.<\/li><li><strong>March 26, 1984<\/strong>. During Demmert\u2019s interview with police at the Bellingham Police Station he told investigators he recalled returning to the <em>Libby 8<\/em> sometime before midnight on the night of September 5, and witnessed someone clambering onto the <em>Investor<\/em>. \u201cI saw the person jump across \u2014 or going from the middle boat to \u2014 across the <em>Investor\u2019s<\/em> door when I was going on my boat.\u201d He said it was dark outside, the weather was misty and he did not recognize the man. \u201cThe guy looked like a dirty old fisherman to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought he was probably off the <em>Defiant<\/em> crew or one of those guys.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/craig-jt-brown-rain.png\" alt=\"memory\"\/><figcaption><strong>Craig w\/ Daytime Mist<\/strong> (copyright Leland E. Hale)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Hypothetical Memory<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>At that same March 1984 interview, troopers asked Demmert about a \u201chypothetical\u201d scenario in which John Peel was the person who murdered the\u00a0<em>Investor\u00a0<\/em>crew. \u201cIf he did this,\u201d the troopers began, \u201chow would you picture it happening, in your own mind, mainly because you do know John and how he behaves&#8230; How would you think it to come down?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201c<\/em>Well, I\u2019d never thought of, you know, John doing it,\u201d Demmert replied, diving into his John Peel memory bank. \u201cBut the way that Mr. Stogsdill described the other day \u2013 remember how?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Demmert then described Stogsdill&#8217;s speculation that Peel had been on the <em>Investor<\/em> partying with the crew when Mark Coulthurst and his family returned from dinner. In that hypothetical scenario, Coulthurst, upon seeing his former crewman \u2014 a man he had fired \u2014 got angry and told Peel to get off his boat. Peel, with his growing grudge against Coulthurst heightened by the skipper&#8217;s refusal to give him a ride to Craig earlier in the season, felt he had been dissed. John Peel \u201csnapped\u201d and gunned down everyone on board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/craig-north-cove-seiners-rafting.png\" alt=\"memory\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"\/><figcaption><strong>Purse Seiners, Rafted, Craig<\/strong> (copyright Leland E. Hale)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That scenario sounded questionable to Demmert. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t have been carrying the gun on,\u201d Demmert reasoned, visualizing out loud how this situation could have gone down. \u201cSo it probably would have had to have been, just from deduction, like kicked off the boat, come back, and did it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trooper Flothe asked: \u201cDo you think he [Peel] has the ability under the right circumstances, maybe\u00a0under the influence of drugs and booze, to do something like this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Demmert paused before answering with a question. \u201cYou mean the &#8212; craziness to kill somebody?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYeah, under those types of circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWell&#8230;\u201d Demmert paused a long time before answering. \u201c&#8230; something like that is really hard to say&#8230; Anybody under the right circumstances will kill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Demmert had a difficult time imagining his friend as a killer. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard to say. There\u2019s a chance, knowing him, now, that he &#8230; he would,\u201d he stammered. \u201cHe\u2019s \u2014 you know, like they\u2019d use \u2018kill the fucker\u2019 a lot, like \u2014 like he\u2019s pissed at somebody.\u201d He said he remembered hearing Peel making statements like, \u201cYeah, I\u2019d like to kill the fucker,\u201d but saw it as just a turn of speech, not a specific threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut,\u201d Demmert said, continuing to think about the possibility, \u201cI think he probably could have &#8212; be that &#8212; a person that could do something like that, myself, that\u2019s why it bothers me so much.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n<p><em>Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, &#8220;Sailor Take Warning,&#8221; by Leland E. Hale. That manuscript, started in 1992 and based on court records from the Alaska State Archive, served as the basis for &#8220;What Happened in Craig.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Copyright Leland E. Hale <\/em><em>(2020). All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/lelandhale-portrait.png\" alt=\"Craig\"><\/p>\n<p>Order &#8220;<strong>What Happened In Craig<\/strong>,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1941890229?pf_rd_p=d1f45e03-8b73-4c9a-9beb-4819111bef9a&amp;pf_rd_r=7G8DPC5WNEGBWK8G6981\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>HERE<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/what-happened-in-craig-leland-e-hale\/1129010868;jsessionid=BB32A736B72D9908645D42CAB43111BE.prodny_store01-atgap08?ean=9781941890226\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>HERE<\/strong><\/a>. True crime from Epicenter Press.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Larry Demmert, Jr., was an important witness for the state. Maybe the most important witness. He was certainly important enough&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,100,8,98,105,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alaskas-worst-unsolved-mass-murder","category-bellingham","category-craig-alaska","category-jim-stogsdill","category-larry-demmert","category-what-happened-in-craig"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fragments of Memory: Larry Demmert, Jr. - Leland E. 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