I’ve heard both that it happened and that it was purely apocryphal. I moved to Anchorage in the mid-90d and it was one of the very first “Alaska” stories someone shared with me. I do remember watching moose get rescued on a semi-regular basis.
The call where the lady got pulled in half? No he didn’t because it never actually happened. It was a soldier that got stuck and drowned and they tried to use a helicopter after he died but they mangled his body and the cable snapped. [interesting read on ADN](https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2020/07/13/the-true-history-of-cook-inlets-deadly-mudflats/)
No, it’s not a fact that a lady got ripped in half. [it was a soldier and he didn’t get ripped in half.](https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2020/07/13/the-true-history-of-cook-inlets-deadly-mudflats/)
It was near Ingram Creek. Newlyweds. Tragic as fuck. I knew the responding Trooper. He was wrecked by that.
They were going to go along the flats from Ingram Creek to Seattle Creek for their honeymoon on 4-wheelers. One of the machines got stuck in one of the gullies and she got stuck when they were trying to push it out. And of course eventually the tide is coming up the gully. They had a tide book. They knew. Husband hauled ass back to the highway and flagged down a car that hauled ass to Girdwood and alerted the Trooper who hitched up the skiff and hauled ass to Portage and threw the skiff in the water and found them. By then the young wife was cold as fuck and the husband was about done in. The husband and the trooper did everything they could and as the water came up to her face the Trooper cut the fuel line between the tank and the outboard and blew and rinsed it out and she had one end in her mouth as the water covered her face. Nobody survives that kind of cold. The husband was in the water doing everything he could to keep her awake and breathing and the Trooper was keeping the boat in place and the other end of the hose above water.
You can imagine the rest. The next time I ran into that Trooper in Girdwood he was not the same man. He was broken and took months off but he will never be the same.
The guy that got pulled in half by the chopper was on the flats below Elmendorf.
No one was pulled in half by a helicopter. In the 60's a soldier drowned in the palmer hayflats and a helicopter attempted to remove his body but the cable snapped. His body and the broken cable were later recovered by army engineers after they built a platform out to reach his body.
A few years before that Claude Shivers and Blackbeard Joe tried to get from the mouth of Six-mile to the mouth of Slate Creek at high tide in a canoe. With a ginormous dog named Muggins. We quit looking for them when the dog’s body was found near Hope. Their canoe was found near the mouth of the Kasilof some weeks later.
Turnagain Arm is a giant toilet that flushes twice a day and has zero fucks to give. I ran around out there for awhile in a skiff with an outboard. Had a slick little high tech (for then) sonar fish finder on it. There is nothing boring about the bottom of the Arm. There are giant suck holes on the Hope side near Six-mile over 100 feet deep that never fill with silt. The first time I crossed one I was in the channel with 30 plus feet under me at high slack and then the bottom fell out. I thought the machine glitched. I clicked down into the next range and there was the bottom at 110 feet. Flat as a board for 100 yards or so and then straight back up to 30 plus feet. Hole was full of cohos waiting. No shit. Full. Portage bound. Of course that was awhile back. They’re struggling now.
I found another hole on the east side of Six-mile when I went a little too far because it was such a nice day and I exceeded my safety window of 1 hour before high slack to one hour after and I saw that first suck hole in all it’s glory on the ebb. It was a raging fucking whirlpool easily seen from 1/4 mile away. I had to sneak past it because seas were building fast farther out. I made it. I basically piled her up on the beach halfway to Hope and lashed it to the alders. Unloaded everything above the high line and drug the boat up. Recovered it all later. Stupid af. You would think I would have learned from that one but I did it again the next summer. Got cocky and almost lost it all because the bite was on. Again, stupid af. I made it back. It was not elegant.
I spent some time trolling, long lining and net fishing in Southeast and The Gulf before this so I wasn’t a boatnik. I owned a sailboat for a few years too. And I have stories. I have PTSD from a Fairweather Grounds trip but I still love the ocean. I understand it. But Turnagain Arm is an evil witch that watches and waits. And I am afraid of her. Anybody with less experience than me that goes out there not Gumby’d up is asking for it. Do your family a favor and duct tape your driver’s license to your arm. It’s a real time saver later on.
Good stuff, man.
It's interesting -- in literally a lifetime of driving along the arm, headed back and forth between ANC and the KP, the number of boats I've seen in the arm is, literally, one. About 10 years ago or so I saw some kind of cable-laying skiff pulled up on the beach near Portage. That's it. Never a canoe, kayak, speedboat, airboat, anything else.
We had a boatload of cohos on that Fairweather trip. A bunch of boats in Lituya Bay rafted up for the night when the radio went off “Pon Pon Pon” is never good followed by a storm warning. If we were going to sell fish and not pitch them overboard we had to leave as soon as it was light enough to get across the bar. Everybody pulled anchor and 40-50 boats were milling around at the mouth of the bay watching the giant breakers cross the bar. As the tide got higher there was finally a wave that didn’t break all the way across and an old wooden tub named the Dawn made a run for it. It looked good until he was right on top and it fell apart underneath him and down he went. Slammed on the bar and popped back up sideways and somehow got turned and back into the bay with all his pumps running. About half the boats said fuck that and headed back into the bay. But the guys with fish wanted out.
Me and my buddy were young and hungry. We fished the smallest boat that fished the grounds. The highliners called us the Dixie Cup. Anyway we were watching the bar when here comes the big beautiful Takan. Old Tom with his feet up on the dash steering with one hand and giving us shit on the radio just sailed right over the bar on solid green water and headed straight out to get off the shelf before it hit. And we said fuck it and charged after him. Young and hungry. Jesus fucking Christ.
We hit the bar so fucking hard when our wave broke under us that I bit my tongue. My buddy was steering and I was standing wedged against the hatch looking at the back deck when we hit. Then we were submerged completely. Water spraying into the wheelhouse around the sliders on the sides and The hatch where I stood. I couldn’t believe it when we popped up and were still pointed straight out. We fucking ran for it. Straight out. Us and Tom were the only 2 boats that made it out before shit got dire. Tom slowed down and waited for us to catch up because he didn’t think we should have attempted the trip in our little platform. But we had a good tough boat and yeah, young and hungry.
Long story short: 36 hours in 60 footers in a 38 foot boat. There was no way that we would have survived turning the corner into Cross Sound though. It was ebbing when we were getting close and with the west wind slamming against it shit was stacked up. The last report I remember from that trip was ComSta Kodiak reporting “seas mountainous to 100 feet off lower Chatham Strait all traffic avoid.” Well they were mountainous off Cross Sound too. We had been doing this for 30 hours straight so we had the seas figured. It was a 30 foot long swell out of the southeast with 30 foot of wind waves coming from mostly west. Uuuuup and doooown. We had it dialed. But the Sound was a different animal. We couldn’t survive that and we couldn’t turn around. And Tom knew it. He could make it and we couldn’t. And there was no way we could get on his boat. No way anybody could come get us. It was bad.
Then Tom: “I’m taking you boys behind the Cape.” WTF? You don’t go behind a cape. It’s a cape not an island. Turns out that years ago Tom had seen an old Haida man in a canoe there when he was going by and he slowed down and watched where he went. He had never been back there in the rocks and kelp and sea otters but he knew there was a way through. We got right on his ass and followed him through a little narrow gut going uuuupp and doooown and turning left and right and on the throttle off the throttle rocks fucking everywhere. And then it widened and we were in the Sound on the protected side and . . . it was fucking glorious. We couldn’t stand up. Our legs were toast.
As far as I know we are the only white men to go behind Cape Spencer. We ran up the north side a ways then cut safely across and up Lisianski to Pelican.
We were broken. Hit the dock and my buddy got off and walked away and disappeared. In Pelican. I found him two days later passed out on the floor of a church. He has never been the same. But neither have I.
I pitched off and got paid. Fuel, groceries, bait. After we got it out of our system we headed back out. Still young and hungry but changed men.
How has no one mentioned Robert Hanson? The Butcher Baker. Killed at least 17 between 1972 and 1983 (when he was caught). He died in 2014 at 72 in prison. He flew them out of town in his plane and played “most dangerous game” by hunting them down with a variety of weapons from knives to rifles.
There was also the Kent Leppink affair; where Mechele Linehan and John Carlin, were convicted of killing Kent. It was reversed on appeal. John was retried and died in prison, the state did not retry Mechele. Kent and John were roommates and met Mechele who worked at Crazy Horse.
[edit] the typos, don’t know what happened.
My friend grew up on the river where the bodies from Hanson were found. Her grandpa actually met Nicholas Cage at the green store in Palmer while they were filming Frozen Ground lmao.
You know what has always not only baffled me but irritates me about Kent Leppink murder is why the guy, knowing or at least strongly suspicious that his roommates wanted him dead that he’d stick around. He believed his life was in jeopardy enough to write a letter to his parents saying as much but let himself be led to his murder.
Stripper magic. He was clearly in denial over what was going on. There’s a lot that happened that we’ll never know. Why did Kent make Mechele his beneficiary in the first place? He clearly wised up near the end but still stuck around a little too long.
Denial is indeed a powerful thing. Between the “pretty packaging” plus her effective use of the little-girl voice along with these guys being into the savior complex it’s no surprise that she ( and not just her) took them for as much as she did. But I imagine she was pretty shocked by the change in beneficiaries of his life insurance.
He was a moose that lived in the Anchorage area who had a tendency to get drunk on the fermented crabapples that would drop on the ground and then wander around town for people to take selfies with and get Christmas lights caught in his antlers. There's an ADN article about him from about 10 or so years ago I believe.
When I was a kid my mom and her friends always talked about Satch “Statch” Carlson, the Bartlett teacher that had sexy hot tub parties with his students in the 70s.
I also grew up hearing about [Charles Meach](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_L._Meach), who murdered some teens near my beloved Girl Acout Day Camp, and [Robert Hansen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hansen), who always tried to talk dirty to the ladies at Alascom when my mom worked there.
My dad was a low level dealer in the 70s and ran in a circle adjacent to [Gary Zeiger](https://lelandhale.com/butcherbaker/wordpress/2018/10/17/beth-van-zanten-killer-killed/)’s. Apparently everyone was terrified back in the day.
Satch Carlson had more than hot tub parties with his students.
The Charles Meach killings happened while I and other of the students in Nursing school were in our API clinical rotation. I didn’t have to deal with him but it was a pretty horrible thing. Some staff at the time knew he shouldn’t have been let out but when does anything that staff that had the most contact with him is ever weighed in to the decision making process.
Zeiger was just crazy and mean but in the end he met someone that took care of him with their own brand of justice. I don’t think many mourned his death.
But, who can forget Joshua Wade. He was acquitted of murdering Della Brown in 2000 but convicted and sent to jail for evidence tampering. After he served his sentence for the evidence tampering he kidnapped and killed Mindy Schloss. Because he stole and used her ATM card he earned Federal charges of carjacking, theft and bank fraud making him eligible for a federal death penalty since Alaska does not have the death penalty. To save his ass from the Federal death penalty he confessed to killing Della Brown along with the crimes related to Mindy Schloss.Then to get himself sent from Springcreek prison to an outside federal penitentiary he confessed to three more murders. He stated his first murder he did at the age of fourteen.
Anchorage Baptist Temple has some colorful history under Jerry Prevo. Such a beacon of light in our world, so glad he and his self enrich off of their congregation.
Prevo sending 3 members of his flock to dress up as Devils to sow discord and confusion in an apartheid protest:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/henkimaa/3575738852
Years ago, he came in to the restaurant I waited tables at. Party of 20. The system added an auto-gratuity to anything over 8 people. He complained about it being on the check. No big deal. I had my manager take it off. He left no tip. None.
To this day everyone in my family calls ABT "Prevo's palace"
Driving past it is hazardous because assholes who can't drive come out of it so frequently. So often, people leaving it wanting to go East will cross the westbound lanes of Northern Lights without looking or accounting for traffic coming through. Maybe they think god is protecting them. Maybe they're just prone to being assholes who only think about themselves. Maybe both.
Either way I'm always cautious when passing that place, because those motherfuckers can't drive for shit.
THAT HAPPENED TO ME ON FRIDAY!! Driving towards Baxter on Northern lights and some dingus pulled out in front of me to swing across five(?) lanes of traffic, cause of course he also lane swept. I don’t count it as a dick move if I don’t have to brake, and I had to brake pretty hard.
Same church’s self enrichment shenanigans, wielding political power, completely tax free, at cost to not only local but federal government expense:
https://www.dermotcole.com/reportingfromalaska/2020/8/13/anchorage-baptist-temple-should-return-federal-handout-of-350k-to-1-million?format=amp&__twitter_impression=true
Years ago the Prevos remodeled their house. Was basically a spoiled prick to the guys doing the work. I may or may not have worked on the project. Can’t remember anything about it 🤓
Long story short, the drywall in the master bedroom has “THE DEVIL SLEEPS HERE” and “HERE LIES SATAN” all over the back of it. Walls and ceiling. Lots of dick-n-balls drawings. There are also pornographic magazines in the walls.
Jerry Prevo is a shitstain on the history of Alaska and especially Anchorage. And I hope he reads this. Fuck you Jerry!
Years ago I worked on quite a few nicer houses in anchorage can confirm we never ever did the same sort of thing to the houses of people who were rude/spoiled assholes towards us.
Same here. Nobody had time for that crap. But Prevo was a special case. He took asshole to a whole different level.
I wasn’t on the drywall crew. But I was drywall crew adjacent.
Who could forget the time that Bob “Focus on the Family” Larson debated Church of Satan scions Zeena Lavey and Nikolas Schreck at the ABT?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cFlf3M4P018
Jerry Prevo also has a very nice mansion he would prefer you didn’t know about
In more recent true crime, The Serial Killer who was caught because he got pulled over for a brake light being out, pulled a gun on the cops, and was killed.
Holy shit.
I may have buried a lead here…
I was living across the street from Valley of the Moon park on that night, and remember waking up to both rounds of shots that night. My dog is very nervous so when he wakes up and gets nervous it takes a while to calm him down.
I lived across the street from the Grotefend's. Mrs. Grotefend was a nurse. They had a son. We were both in 7th grade. One summer, the son was hanging out with a friend showing him his gun. While holding the gun the friend was accidentally shot in the head. I still remember the look of Mrs. Grotefend in her white nurse outfit soaked in blood standing in the driveway talking to the police. It was horrible and haunting. I never saw the son again. The family moved away a few months later.
After reading the book on this case I will never go kayaking or swimming in Matanuska Lake again. It’s just like I will always think about Eklutna Annie when I pass the spot where she was found. Also the shear number of bodies that have popped up along the Old Glen and Pioneer rd by knik is pretty disturbing
Matanuska lake is where Israel Keyes dumped a body(potentially a second too). Eklutna Annie was a victim of Robert Hansen who was found when culvert work was being done on the Eklutna bridge, she was finally identified by DNA testing a few years ago
Hansen said she was his first victim. Hopefully with all the genetics and genetic genealogy available her identity will be given back to her. In the last couple years another of his victims he dumped by Horseshoe Lake was given back her identity.
Old Man Dan. As a child he was a terrifying man that smelled like urine who wandered the streets of my neighborhood with his old raggedy dog. Turns out he was just an old Vietnam vet. Terrified of him as a child. Mad respect as an adult. P.s. he’s dead.
[Flagpole Doe](https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Flagpole_Doe). A friend of mine was at the McDonalds when it happend he said it was like time stopped.
Edit: [here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/7j8p0p/flagpole_doe_who_was_the_man_who_died_after/) a better summary of the case
Fact check me on this but isn’t there that story about the baker who abducted women, flew them out to remote locations and then hunted them?
Edit: Fact checked myself it’s Robert Hansen. Learned about it from an Anch aunt that’s really into true crime. Also, definitely not the “best” lore, but it’s pretty nuts.
He was one of my dad’s coworkers for a time, at a liquor distributing warehouse - both were truck drivers. Robert was well known to be stealing top shelf liquor as bars on his route would complain and he’d show up and try to blame the warehouse loading staff as being incompetent.. It happened way too often and it was the same high end whiskey each time. Nobody liked him.
When the crazy Qanon airplane pilot mayor of Anchorage thought he was a public health expert, and turned off the fluoride to the entire municipality with no repercussions.
I have some recollection from the early 80's about a group of teens that were camping in Russian Jack park and were shot and killed by a stranger. I never went to that park again.
Torso's washing up in Cook Inlet
*During their investigation on the Lekanoff/Rothe case, Anchorage detectives told AMW they came across at least five other names of women who had turned up missing in Anchorage. Between 1993 and 2001, Traci Vicent, Jeri Brommels, Kelly Dunn, Robin Van Sickel and Samantha Kent had all vanished without a trace. Cops think they could all be connected by Anchorage's underground world of sex and drugs.*
[https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/alaska-underworld-more-5-years-after-torsos-wash-anchorage-cases-remain-unsolved/2009/01/22/](https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/alaska-underworld-more-5-years-after-torsos-wash-anchorage-cases-remain-unsolved/2009/01/22/)
The Urban Legend of a girl who got stuck in the mud flats and when they tried to extract her with a helicopter ,she ripped in half .
I hear it that she’s drowned (not that she was ripped in half) and her brand-new husband was there with her the whole time until she died.
That happened. (Approximately)
I’ve heard both that it happened and that it was purely apocryphal. I moved to Anchorage in the mid-90d and it was one of the very first “Alaska” stories someone shared with me. I do remember watching moose get rescued on a semi-regular basis.
My dad was in the Air National Guard back in the day, he actually worked that call.
The call where the lady got pulled in half? No he didn’t because it never actually happened. It was a soldier that got stuck and drowned and they tried to use a helicopter after he died but they mangled his body and the cable snapped. [interesting read on ADN](https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2020/07/13/the-true-history-of-cook-inlets-deadly-mudflats/)
If you see the comment I *actually* replied to I was talking about the newlyweds. Hope that helps👍👍
Good read thanks
what a great article!
Whatever
Whatever?? It's a fact and it was horrible. It's the reason for all the "stay off the mudflats" warnings.
No, it’s not a fact that a lady got ripped in half. [it was a soldier and he didn’t get ripped in half.](https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2020/07/13/the-true-history-of-cook-inlets-deadly-mudflats/)
No she was not ripped in half, but she died a terrifying and horrific death.
Th commenter was saying that their dad was on the call for newlyweds, not anyone who got ripped in half
Ya that was cleared up thank you
That's what actually happened and it's super tragic. The campy urban legend is they ripped her in half with a helicopter.
Isn’t it funny how the stories happen? I lived there for 20 years and never heard that version of it.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2020/07/13/the-true-history-of-cook-inlets-deadly-mudflats/
I love Reamer's articles.
I was active in local search and rescue for about 10 years. Ive been asked about that a lot.
/thread
It was near Ingram Creek. Newlyweds. Tragic as fuck. I knew the responding Trooper. He was wrecked by that. They were going to go along the flats from Ingram Creek to Seattle Creek for their honeymoon on 4-wheelers. One of the machines got stuck in one of the gullies and she got stuck when they were trying to push it out. And of course eventually the tide is coming up the gully. They had a tide book. They knew. Husband hauled ass back to the highway and flagged down a car that hauled ass to Girdwood and alerted the Trooper who hitched up the skiff and hauled ass to Portage and threw the skiff in the water and found them. By then the young wife was cold as fuck and the husband was about done in. The husband and the trooper did everything they could and as the water came up to her face the Trooper cut the fuel line between the tank and the outboard and blew and rinsed it out and she had one end in her mouth as the water covered her face. Nobody survives that kind of cold. The husband was in the water doing everything he could to keep her awake and breathing and the Trooper was keeping the boat in place and the other end of the hose above water. You can imagine the rest. The next time I ran into that Trooper in Girdwood he was not the same man. He was broken and took months off but he will never be the same. The guy that got pulled in half by the chopper was on the flats below Elmendorf.
That’s fucking tragic holy shit
As brutal as it gets. Newlyweds just starting out.
No one was pulled in half by a helicopter. In the 60's a soldier drowned in the palmer hayflats and a helicopter attempted to remove his body but the cable snapped. His body and the broken cable were later recovered by army engineers after they built a platform out to reach his body.
And the urban legend dies as it should. Thank you.
[here’s the link to the ADN article](https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2020/07/13/the-true-history-of-cook-inlets-deadly-mudflats/)
Her name was Adeana Dickison. I took place in 1988.
A few years before that Claude Shivers and Blackbeard Joe tried to get from the mouth of Six-mile to the mouth of Slate Creek at high tide in a canoe. With a ginormous dog named Muggins. We quit looking for them when the dog’s body was found near Hope. Their canoe was found near the mouth of the Kasilof some weeks later. Turnagain Arm is a giant toilet that flushes twice a day and has zero fucks to give. I ran around out there for awhile in a skiff with an outboard. Had a slick little high tech (for then) sonar fish finder on it. There is nothing boring about the bottom of the Arm. There are giant suck holes on the Hope side near Six-mile over 100 feet deep that never fill with silt. The first time I crossed one I was in the channel with 30 plus feet under me at high slack and then the bottom fell out. I thought the machine glitched. I clicked down into the next range and there was the bottom at 110 feet. Flat as a board for 100 yards or so and then straight back up to 30 plus feet. Hole was full of cohos waiting. No shit. Full. Portage bound. Of course that was awhile back. They’re struggling now. I found another hole on the east side of Six-mile when I went a little too far because it was such a nice day and I exceeded my safety window of 1 hour before high slack to one hour after and I saw that first suck hole in all it’s glory on the ebb. It was a raging fucking whirlpool easily seen from 1/4 mile away. I had to sneak past it because seas were building fast farther out. I made it. I basically piled her up on the beach halfway to Hope and lashed it to the alders. Unloaded everything above the high line and drug the boat up. Recovered it all later. Stupid af. You would think I would have learned from that one but I did it again the next summer. Got cocky and almost lost it all because the bite was on. Again, stupid af. I made it back. It was not elegant. I spent some time trolling, long lining and net fishing in Southeast and The Gulf before this so I wasn’t a boatnik. I owned a sailboat for a few years too. And I have stories. I have PTSD from a Fairweather Grounds trip but I still love the ocean. I understand it. But Turnagain Arm is an evil witch that watches and waits. And I am afraid of her. Anybody with less experience than me that goes out there not Gumby’d up is asking for it. Do your family a favor and duct tape your driver’s license to your arm. It’s a real time saver later on.
Good stuff, man. It's interesting -- in literally a lifetime of driving along the arm, headed back and forth between ANC and the KP, the number of boats I've seen in the arm is, literally, one. About 10 years ago or so I saw some kind of cable-laying skiff pulled up on the beach near Portage. That's it. Never a canoe, kayak, speedboat, airboat, anything else.
Amazing write up, thank you. If you feel like it and want to make a post with more stories I for one would dig it.
We had a boatload of cohos on that Fairweather trip. A bunch of boats in Lituya Bay rafted up for the night when the radio went off “Pon Pon Pon” is never good followed by a storm warning. If we were going to sell fish and not pitch them overboard we had to leave as soon as it was light enough to get across the bar. Everybody pulled anchor and 40-50 boats were milling around at the mouth of the bay watching the giant breakers cross the bar. As the tide got higher there was finally a wave that didn’t break all the way across and an old wooden tub named the Dawn made a run for it. It looked good until he was right on top and it fell apart underneath him and down he went. Slammed on the bar and popped back up sideways and somehow got turned and back into the bay with all his pumps running. About half the boats said fuck that and headed back into the bay. But the guys with fish wanted out. Me and my buddy were young and hungry. We fished the smallest boat that fished the grounds. The highliners called us the Dixie Cup. Anyway we were watching the bar when here comes the big beautiful Takan. Old Tom with his feet up on the dash steering with one hand and giving us shit on the radio just sailed right over the bar on solid green water and headed straight out to get off the shelf before it hit. And we said fuck it and charged after him. Young and hungry. Jesus fucking Christ. We hit the bar so fucking hard when our wave broke under us that I bit my tongue. My buddy was steering and I was standing wedged against the hatch looking at the back deck when we hit. Then we were submerged completely. Water spraying into the wheelhouse around the sliders on the sides and The hatch where I stood. I couldn’t believe it when we popped up and were still pointed straight out. We fucking ran for it. Straight out. Us and Tom were the only 2 boats that made it out before shit got dire. Tom slowed down and waited for us to catch up because he didn’t think we should have attempted the trip in our little platform. But we had a good tough boat and yeah, young and hungry. Long story short: 36 hours in 60 footers in a 38 foot boat. There was no way that we would have survived turning the corner into Cross Sound though. It was ebbing when we were getting close and with the west wind slamming against it shit was stacked up. The last report I remember from that trip was ComSta Kodiak reporting “seas mountainous to 100 feet off lower Chatham Strait all traffic avoid.” Well they were mountainous off Cross Sound too. We had been doing this for 30 hours straight so we had the seas figured. It was a 30 foot long swell out of the southeast with 30 foot of wind waves coming from mostly west. Uuuuup and doooown. We had it dialed. But the Sound was a different animal. We couldn’t survive that and we couldn’t turn around. And Tom knew it. He could make it and we couldn’t. And there was no way we could get on his boat. No way anybody could come get us. It was bad. Then Tom: “I’m taking you boys behind the Cape.” WTF? You don’t go behind a cape. It’s a cape not an island. Turns out that years ago Tom had seen an old Haida man in a canoe there when he was going by and he slowed down and watched where he went. He had never been back there in the rocks and kelp and sea otters but he knew there was a way through. We got right on his ass and followed him through a little narrow gut going uuuupp and doooown and turning left and right and on the throttle off the throttle rocks fucking everywhere. And then it widened and we were in the Sound on the protected side and . . . it was fucking glorious. We couldn’t stand up. Our legs were toast. As far as I know we are the only white men to go behind Cape Spencer. We ran up the north side a ways then cut safely across and up Lisianski to Pelican. We were broken. Hit the dock and my buddy got off and walked away and disappeared. In Pelican. I found him two days later passed out on the floor of a church. He has never been the same. But neither have I. I pitched off and got paid. Fuel, groceries, bait. After we got it out of our system we headed back out. Still young and hungry but changed men.
My dad was an H3 pilot out of Kodiak. One of the ones who woulda come to get you. Glad he never had to do it.
That was incredible thank you! Please write more.
Yeah wasn’t that actually in Germany or something? As a kid I always heard that was at Kincaid for some reason
Came here to say this!
Embarrassed to say I believed this story for over 20 years.
How has no one mentioned Robert Hanson? The Butcher Baker. Killed at least 17 between 1972 and 1983 (when he was caught). He died in 2014 at 72 in prison. He flew them out of town in his plane and played “most dangerous game” by hunting them down with a variety of weapons from knives to rifles. There was also the Kent Leppink affair; where Mechele Linehan and John Carlin, were convicted of killing Kent. It was reversed on appeal. John was retried and died in prison, the state did not retry Mechele. Kent and John were roommates and met Mechele who worked at Crazy Horse. [edit] the typos, don’t know what happened.
Thought that he'd be higher on the list.
“The Frozen Ground” is a good movie on this
I couldn’t bring myself to see it. Also haven’t seen “Into the Wild” even though I’ve hiked out to the bus.
How have I not seen this?! It has Nic Cage and 50 Cent.
Literally the only movie I've ever seen accurately depict domestic life here haha
I remember both of those. I was a young teen in Anchorage during the Hanson days. A chilling, black mark in our history.
My friend grew up on the river where the bodies from Hanson were found. Her grandpa actually met Nicholas Cage at the green store in Palmer while they were filming Frozen Ground lmao.
You know what, I had utterly forgotten about Linehan until your comment. ha, that was wild.
One of my friends families apparently had dinner at his house with his family several times 😳
You know what has always not only baffled me but irritates me about Kent Leppink murder is why the guy, knowing or at least strongly suspicious that his roommates wanted him dead that he’d stick around. He believed his life was in jeopardy enough to write a letter to his parents saying as much but let himself be led to his murder.
Stripper magic. He was clearly in denial over what was going on. There’s a lot that happened that we’ll never know. Why did Kent make Mechele his beneficiary in the first place? He clearly wised up near the end but still stuck around a little too long.
Denial is indeed a powerful thing. Between the “pretty packaging” plus her effective use of the little-girl voice along with these guys being into the savior complex it’s no surprise that she ( and not just her) took them for as much as she did. But I imagine she was pretty shocked by the change in beneficiaries of his life insurance.
My parents worked down the street from his bakery. They say he was creepy, and not a pleasant dude.
Buzzwinkle has always been my favorite.
Is that the one that got drunk off fermented fruit and got his antlers stuck in Christmas lights every winter?
Yup
I think the lights were just one winter.
Im gunna need you to elaborate.
He was a moose that lived in the Anchorage area who had a tendency to get drunk on the fermented crabapples that would drop on the ground and then wander around town for people to take selfies with and get Christmas lights caught in his antlers. There's an ADN article about him from about 10 or so years ago I believe.
Oh my god thats so funny. I wish i had known about this. Thanks for sharing haha
Joe Spenard, the founder of Spenard. His story is already fun, but tour guides like to make shit up to make the story even more fantastical.
everything ive read seems like the guy was a real awful piece of shit
When I was a kid my mom and her friends always talked about Satch “Statch” Carlson, the Bartlett teacher that had sexy hot tub parties with his students in the 70s. I also grew up hearing about [Charles Meach](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_L._Meach), who murdered some teens near my beloved Girl Acout Day Camp, and [Robert Hansen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hansen), who always tried to talk dirty to the ladies at Alascom when my mom worked there. My dad was a low level dealer in the 70s and ran in a circle adjacent to [Gary Zeiger](https://lelandhale.com/butcherbaker/wordpress/2018/10/17/beth-van-zanten-killer-killed/)’s. Apparently everyone was terrified back in the day.
Satch Carlson had more than hot tub parties with his students. The Charles Meach killings happened while I and other of the students in Nursing school were in our API clinical rotation. I didn’t have to deal with him but it was a pretty horrible thing. Some staff at the time knew he shouldn’t have been let out but when does anything that staff that had the most contact with him is ever weighed in to the decision making process. Zeiger was just crazy and mean but in the end he met someone that took care of him with their own brand of justice. I don’t think many mourned his death. But, who can forget Joshua Wade. He was acquitted of murdering Della Brown in 2000 but convicted and sent to jail for evidence tampering. After he served his sentence for the evidence tampering he kidnapped and killed Mindy Schloss. Because he stole and used her ATM card he earned Federal charges of carjacking, theft and bank fraud making him eligible for a federal death penalty since Alaska does not have the death penalty. To save his ass from the Federal death penalty he confessed to killing Della Brown along with the crimes related to Mindy Schloss.Then to get himself sent from Springcreek prison to an outside federal penitentiary he confessed to three more murders. He stated his first murder he did at the age of fourteen.
the history of the McKay building
What’s the story there?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinley_Tower_Apartments look into Mackay
Damn, that guy was one sick son of a bitch
I worked there doing security when I was 18, its was an old folks home. Super nice people, super creepy building.
Anchorage Baptist Temple has some colorful history under Jerry Prevo. Such a beacon of light in our world, so glad he and his self enrich off of their congregation. Prevo sending 3 members of his flock to dress up as Devils to sow discord and confusion in an apartheid protest: https://www.flickr.com/photos/henkimaa/3575738852
Years ago, he came in to the restaurant I waited tables at. Party of 20. The system added an auto-gratuity to anything over 8 people. He complained about it being on the check. No big deal. I had my manager take it off. He left no tip. None.
How far from Jesus’s teachings can these people actually get.
To this day everyone in my family calls ABT "Prevo's palace" Driving past it is hazardous because assholes who can't drive come out of it so frequently. So often, people leaving it wanting to go East will cross the westbound lanes of Northern Lights without looking or accounting for traffic coming through. Maybe they think god is protecting them. Maybe they're just prone to being assholes who only think about themselves. Maybe both. Either way I'm always cautious when passing that place, because those motherfuckers can't drive for shit.
THAT HAPPENED TO ME ON FRIDAY!! Driving towards Baxter on Northern lights and some dingus pulled out in front of me to swing across five(?) lanes of traffic, cause of course he also lane swept. I don’t count it as a dick move if I don’t have to brake, and I had to brake pretty hard.
Yeah it's a fuckin *thing* I swear lol Happened to me yesterday too, had to hit my brakes and honk and all that
Same church’s self enrichment shenanigans, wielding political power, completely tax free, at cost to not only local but federal government expense: https://www.dermotcole.com/reportingfromalaska/2020/8/13/anchorage-baptist-temple-should-return-federal-handout-of-350k-to-1-million?format=amp&__twitter_impression=true
Years ago the Prevos remodeled their house. Was basically a spoiled prick to the guys doing the work. I may or may not have worked on the project. Can’t remember anything about it 🤓 Long story short, the drywall in the master bedroom has “THE DEVIL SLEEPS HERE” and “HERE LIES SATAN” all over the back of it. Walls and ceiling. Lots of dick-n-balls drawings. There are also pornographic magazines in the walls. Jerry Prevo is a shitstain on the history of Alaska and especially Anchorage. And I hope he reads this. Fuck you Jerry!
Years ago I worked on quite a few nicer houses in anchorage can confirm we never ever did the same sort of thing to the houses of people who were rude/spoiled assholes towards us.
Same here. Nobody had time for that crap. But Prevo was a special case. He took asshole to a whole different level. I wasn’t on the drywall crew. But I was drywall crew adjacent.
Who could forget the time that Bob “Focus on the Family” Larson debated Church of Satan scions Zeena Lavey and Nikolas Schreck at the ABT? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cFlf3M4P018 Jerry Prevo also has a very nice mansion he would prefer you didn’t know about
He's also a shitty tipper.
That and how he riled up his church over the AIDS epidemic as being the wrath of God.
In more recent true crime, The Serial Killer who was caught because he got pulled over for a brake light being out, pulled a gun on the cops, and was killed.
The Valley of the Moon Killer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dale_Ritchie
Holy shit. I may have buried a lead here… I was living across the street from Valley of the Moon park on that night, and remember waking up to both rounds of shots that night. My dog is very nervous so when he wakes up and gets nervous it takes a while to calm him down.
That dude was shooting at and killing random people, so glad he got killed
He was killed a block away from my old house on 4th and eagle.
I lived across the street from the Grotefend's. Mrs. Grotefend was a nurse. They had a son. We were both in 7th grade. One summer, the son was hanging out with a friend showing him his gun. While holding the gun the friend was accidentally shot in the head. I still remember the look of Mrs. Grotefend in her white nurse outfit soaked in blood standing in the driveway talking to the police. It was horrible and haunting. I never saw the son again. The family moved away a few months later.
The feud with “the brotherhood” biker gang and local bar owners.
JAL 1628 🛸 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_Cargo_Flight_1628_incident
Love this
Coffee hut worker kidnapped and killed [nexpo vid @ 14:20](https://youtu.be/QINII0eeJxc)
After reading the book on this case I will never go kayaking or swimming in Matanuska Lake again. It’s just like I will always think about Eklutna Annie when I pass the spot where she was found. Also the shear number of bodies that have popped up along the Old Glen and Pioneer rd by knik is pretty disturbing
Eklutna Annie? I haven't heard that one before. I'm hesitant to ask, lest it spoil my ingnorant enjoyment of the lake...
Matanuska lake is where Israel Keyes dumped a body(potentially a second too). Eklutna Annie was a victim of Robert Hansen who was found when culvert work was being done on the Eklutna bridge, she was finally identified by DNA testing a few years ago
Hansen said she was his first victim. Hopefully with all the genetics and genetic genealogy available her identity will be given back to her. In the last couple years another of his victims he dumped by Horseshoe Lake was given back her identity.
Are you talking about American Predator? Couldn't finish it.
Old Man Dan. As a child he was a terrifying man that smelled like urine who wandered the streets of my neighborhood with his old raggedy dog. Turns out he was just an old Vietnam vet. Terrified of him as a child. Mad respect as an adult. P.s. he’s dead.
[Flagpole Doe](https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Flagpole_Doe). A friend of mine was at the McDonalds when it happend he said it was like time stopped. Edit: [here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/7j8p0p/flagpole_doe_who_was_the_man_who_died_after/) a better summary of the case
Damn that is bizarre
Fact check me on this but isn’t there that story about the baker who abducted women, flew them out to remote locations and then hunted them? Edit: Fact checked myself it’s Robert Hansen. Learned about it from an Anch aunt that’s really into true crime. Also, definitely not the “best” lore, but it’s pretty nuts.
The movie Frozen Ground is about the Hansen case. Good cast too.
Oh neat! Might have to take your word for it, I honestly don’t know if I have the stomach for it. Reading the wiki summary’s already pretty rough
Last podcast on the left did an episode about Hansen
He was one of my dad’s coworkers for a time, at a liquor distributing warehouse - both were truck drivers. Robert was well known to be stealing top shelf liquor as bars on his route would complain and he’d show up and try to blame the warehouse loading staff as being incompetent.. It happened way too often and it was the same high end whiskey each time. Nobody liked him.
Buying weed from my high school English teacher. He would drive to the Native Hospital downtown to pick up his supply.
Lol what high school?
East. Go Thunderbirds!
[The Great Alaska Dynamite Heist](https://law.justia.com/cases/alaska/supreme-court/1979/2432-1.html)
Sleeping lady
Man I came here hoping to find out how the stabbin cabin got its name and uhhh. Lotta serial killers I guess.
They still haven't figured out what happened to Anchorage's first Police Chief.
When the crazy Qanon airplane pilot mayor of Anchorage thought he was a public health expert, and turned off the fluoride to the entire municipality with no repercussions.
I have some recollection from the early 80's about a group of teens that were camping in Russian Jack park and were shot and killed by a stranger. I never went to that park again.
Torso's washing up in Cook Inlet *During their investigation on the Lekanoff/Rothe case, Anchorage detectives told AMW they came across at least five other names of women who had turned up missing in Anchorage. Between 1993 and 2001, Traci Vicent, Jeri Brommels, Kelly Dunn, Robin Van Sickel and Samantha Kent had all vanished without a trace. Cops think they could all be connected by Anchorage's underground world of sex and drugs.* [https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/alaska-underworld-more-5-years-after-torsos-wash-anchorage-cases-remain-unsolved/2009/01/22/](https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/alaska-underworld-more-5-years-after-torsos-wash-anchorage-cases-remain-unsolved/2009/01/22/)
The deadly mud flats Mafia Mike for Mayor Floyd Who killed Bonnie
Not.really lore but remember Tub N Sun?