Apple Podcasts<\/strong>: <\/strong><\/strong>Episode Six – Closer to Home<\/a>
Schedule<\/strong>: <\/strong><\/strong>Tuesday, Thursday<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first few “persons of interest” in Muriel\u2019s murder can be roughly placed in the \u201cspeculative\u201d bucket. Even, you might say, the deeply<\/em> speculative bucket. As in\u2026 One by one, most of these folks were eliminated (or eliminated themselves) from consideration. Donnie Wayne Pitts? Nope. He was big talk, but under pressure, even the slightest trace of pressure, his story collapsed. His story had no home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Attorney Karl Johnstone? State prosecutors ultimately dug up a counterfactual: Karl Johnstone did not<\/em>, in fact, assert that the bomb was intended for him. Rather, he\u2019d duly noted his antagonism to pro-labor groups in Alaska. Had, in fact, gone up against powerful Teamster interests in the State. Did<\/em> confirm that his car was parked in the same lot. The rest of the story \u2013 that he was a bomb target \u2013 was another conjectural. And, of course, there was this: Johnstone was on a quick path to becoming a Judge. Under the circumstances, it was perhaps better for him to stay away from such hot button issues. Not that it ever came into play\u2026 But, yes, he did get the judgeship. <\/p>\n\n\n Equally conjectural<\/em> was speculation that the actual<\/em> bomb target was Robert Pfeil \u2013 Muriel\u2019s brother. It was said that he sometimes drove Muriel\u2019s car and \u2013 more important, it seemed \u2013 he\u2019d been involved in union activity focused on labor strikes involving his employer. That employer being Alaska Airlines,<\/em> for whom he was a senior pilot \u2013 you may recall he was employee number thirteen. Once again, some folks in the community were swinging for the fences. Union activity? Always an appealing target. You can do that one without even thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which leads us down another road\u2026 What about the journalist working on the Fairbanks Teamsters story? Well, she reconsidered her original assessment. Her Volvo, she noted, was older, was a different color \u2013 and she parked all over that lot. Muriel\u2019s car, on the other hand\u2026 Just that bright orange one, parked only in that one spot. The scene of her murder. But the journalist was right in her other assessment\u2026 There was<\/em> something about Fairbanks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Fairbanks Daily News Miner<\/em> reported on September 13, 1976, two hundred fifty pounds of dynamite, which was stolen the previous June, was discovered in brush near Mile 24 of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The explosives and 4,000 feet of fuses were found intact by two bulldozer operators, and\u2026 The theft touched off an extensive search. Alyeska officials confirmed at the time that if the dynamite fell into the wrong hands it might have posed a threat to pipeline construction. Not to mention humans.<\/p>\n\n\n And then\u2026 On October 22, 1976, less than a month after Muriel\u2019s bomb, another car bomb explosion hit Anchorage\u2026 This one about a mile from Robert Pfeil’s home — Muriel’s brother — somebody placed an incendiary device in the filler neck of an unoccupied Alaska State Trooper patrol car\u2026 Investigators found wires and footprints leading to the vehicle. This was a remote detonation. Exactly what police feared.<\/p>\n\n\n And then<\/em> another one, back in Fairbanks\u2026 By mid-November of 1977, another abandoned vehicle was destroyed by an explosion. The wrecked vehicle had been left alongside the road when it was bombed at 1:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Troopers in Fairbanks were investigating what was now the second successive car bombing in Fairbanks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An exhausted Police Lt. Ralph Christianson, of the Anchorage police, compared the characteristics of the two Fairbanks bombings, and reluctantly noted, \u201cThe only real similarities are that both vehicles were station wagons, and they were both bombed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lt. Christianson confirmed that four investigators were working fulltime on the case and that interviews of possible witnesses continued. The officer added that his agency has been going through travel manifests between Fairbanks and Anchorage. They were looking for possible suspects. \u201cWe\u2019re also considering using a polygraph to test certain people who may be involved,\u201d Christianson said. He declined to name any possible suspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They weren’t ignoring Anchorage. <\/p>\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re still interviewing possible witnesses,\u201d in Anchorage, Christianson said. That was because, besides the businesspeople located in the area surrounding the parking lot, many windows of the Captain Cook Hotel, located a short distance away, overlooked the bomb site. \u201cWe\u2019re still tracking many of those people down,\u201d he said. Other investigators were still sifting through evidence, much of that at a secure Anchorage Police garage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That wasn’t all. APD investigators were searching other nearby office buildings, attempting to locate any transmitter that could have triggered the blast. One team was seen searching closets in the Carr-Gottstein Building less than a block from the blast. Why? Because offices in the building would have provided a clear view of Muriel’s Volvo and<\/em> her office. <\/p>\n\n\n And so it went. Indeed, there were<\/em> some interesting leads coming in. Not all of them local. Or even that close to home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With witnesses coming in from everywhere, one who quickly came forward was a friend of Muriel Pfeil. She revealed that Muriel had told of her of someone she’d befriended during her European travels. His name was Joachim Peiper. She’d met him in Germany — in Stuttgart to be exact — while she was studying abroad. A Volkswagen executive, he’d helped Muriel and sister Caroline get a car so they could take advantage of Europe’s premier ski slopes.<\/p>\n\n\n Formerly a lieutenant colonel in an armored division of the Waffen SS during the Second World War — we\u2019re talking full on Hitler stuff here — Peiper was ultimately held responsible for a massacre of American soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge. On 17 December 1944, Peiper\u2019s armored battalion encountered a convoy of 30 American vehicles near Malmedy, Belgium. The American Battalion was quickly overcome and captured \u2013 then ordered to stand in a meadow before the Germans opened fire on them with machine guns. Eighty-four soldiers were killed. Their bodies left in the snow. It was characteristic, apparently, of Peiper\u2019s aggressive style of command. So\u2026 At war\u2019s end, Peiper was put on trial before a military tribunal\u2026 And convicted as a war criminal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, he was ultimately “cleared” by the Americans because there was insufficient evidence that he gave the order to open fire. And when, years later, Muriel revealed the Peiper relationship, her friend felt compelled to inform her of Peiper’s horrific background. A background to which Muriel seemed oblivious. But that wasn\u2019t the nugget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During the summer of 1976, Joachim Peiper was residing in a lodge in France. Townspeople, having previously learned his identity, warned him to leave. He refused. And so on Bastille Day, July 14, 1976, he was murdered when his lodge was blown up by what some characterized as a \u201chigh velocity explosive.\u201d [Except the details are incorrect \u2013 Peiper\u2019s house was fire-bombed. It was Muriel Pfeil who was killed by an explosive device.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Less than two months later, on September 30, 1976, Muriel Pfeil was murdered in Anchorage. Were they related? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kill Brother, Kill Sister<\/strong><\/em> is available at Amazon<\/a>, Barnes & Noble<\/a> and other fine bookstores (paperback and ebook).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Copyright Leland E. Hale (2026<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kill Brother, Kill Sister: Episode Six Podcast: Episode Six – Closer to HomeApple Podcasts: Episode Six – Closer to HomeSchedule:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,132,142,138,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alaskas-worst-unsolved","category-car-bomb","category-joachim-peiper","category-kill-brother-kill-sister","category-muriel-pfeil"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"home\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/Robert-Pfeil-Anchorage_Dally_Times_1987_01_11_40_alaska-airlines-left.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nSlow Road Home<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
(October 22, 1976)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nDynamite + More Bombs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"home\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/Car-bomb-2-Anchorage_Daily_News_1976-10-22_2.png\")
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThe Fairbanks – Anchorage Connection<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Muriel's](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/snow-city-capt-cook-background-w-address.png\")
(Capt. Cook Hotel, background)
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"bomb](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/downtown-anchorage-landmarks.png\")
<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThe War Criminal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/500px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R65485,_Joachim_Peiper.jpg\")
\n\n\n\nThe Book: Kill Brother, Kill Sister<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n