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Daily Sitka Sentinel from Sitka, Alaska • Page 1

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Sitka, Alaska
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1
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Member of the Associated Press A I I Tuesday, February 28, 1984 Sitka Alaska Businessman ANCHORAGE (AP) A bakery owner whose "crimes numb the mind" has confessed to killing 17 women over 10 years, the worst mass murder in Alaska history, and the death count could go even higher, a prosecutor said. Robert Hansen, 44, made the confession in "bits and pieces" over the past week before pleading guilty Monday to four murders along with theft and weapons violations. Hansen also admitted to raping 30 others over several years, authorities said. Superior Court Judge Ralph Moody immediately sentenced Hansen to 461 years in prison and a life sentence. Alaska doesnbt have a death penalty.

Hansen was charged with four killings because authorities located only that many bodies, said Victor Krumm, Anchorage district attorney. Two bodies were found by hikers and the other two were discovered after being unearthed by bears. 'Seventeen may not be the end of it," the prosecutor said late Monday. "We feel from what we've learned that there might be more bodies out "Before you sits a monster, an extreme aberration of a human being who has walked among us," said Assistant District Attorney Frank Rothschild. "Not even his wife of 20 years had any inkling of his dark, evil side," Rothschild told Moody.

"His crimes numb the mind." Hansen was being held in an Anchorage jail but likely will be transferred to a federal prison outside the state, authorities said. Krumm said Hansen, who was es to 17 charged last fall with the kidnap and rape of a 17-year- old prostitute, "knew we were on to him." He pleaded guilty to spare himself and his family a "drawn-out" ordeal as police tried to tie him to the disappearance in recent years of a dozen dancers from red-light district, Krumm said. Police grilled Hansen every day since last Wednesday, threatening to charge him with murder each time a body was discovered. Krum said. Most of his victims were shot to death, police said.

The district said police found a map in Hansen's home With marks-in 21 areas in the Anchorage vicinity. Hansen, who Was flown over some of the sites on Saturday to point out grave locations to Alaska State Troopers, admitted "some of the marks were where bodies were buried and some were potential areas" for burial of victims, Krumm said. "Mr. Hansen is publicity shy, so rather than go through that," he gradually admitted the killings until the list stood at 17, Krumm said. "Apparently he has less problem killing the women than talking about it later, "Krumm said.

"We still feel there may be more; that he hasn't told us everything," the prosecutor said Hansen, who was to go on trial this week on the kidnapping and rape charges, said he began killing the victims around 1973, burying their bodies in remote areas near Anchorage, Krumm said. Three of the four victims whose remains were found were identified as Joanna Messina of Seward, and Anchorage bar dancers Sherry Morrow and Paula Golding. The fourth could not be identified, Krumm said. Hansen was sentenced to 99 years for each of three counts of murder and to life without, parole for the fourth murder charge. He received 99 years for kidnap, 30 years for rape and a total of 35 years for the weapons and theft charges.

Police said they would use the map to search for other bodies after the spring thaw. "Mr. Hansen called his work a 'summer-time I guess recovering the bodies is a summer-time project too," Krumm said. "He was a respectable, well- known Alaskan, especially in hunting circles," Krumm said. "But he's also a very cunning man." Hansen grew up in the small, northwest Iowa community of Pocahontas.

In 1961, he pleaded guilty to an arson charge in connection with a fire that destroyed a school bus barn. He was sentenced to three years in the Iowa Mens Reformatory at Anamosa, Iowa, and was paroled May 1,1963. Moody said Hansen had twice been arrested and freed on charges, associated with kidnap and rape. "This gentleman here has been known to us for several years. We've turned him loose several times." "I cannot think of a bigger indictment of society than we have here," Moody Hansen was identified last June by a prostitute as the man who picked her up after offering $200 for sex while she was handcuffed.

Assembly Questioned oh By Sentinel Staff The city staffs handling of a case in which a Sitka business received 14 months of unmetered electricity and a situation involving $18,000 worth of missing gravel from the Granite Creek Gravel Pit was questioned and protested by more than a dozen residents who met with the assembly at its regular work session Monday. The case of Jon McGraw's gravel business having 14 months of un- metered electricity should be reopened, said Tom Pratt, representing the residents, most of whom are local contractors. The district attorney's office has been requested by the city to launch an investigation into the alleged removal of $18,000 worth of gravel from the state- owned Granite Creek Gravel Pit without proper accounting. The discrepancy was reported to the city and the money has since been paid, reported City Administrator Rocky On Jan. 24, the assembly approved on a 5-2 vote a motion to charge McGraw Sales $880 per month for 11 and half months of electricity used but never metered.

At that time, the heard protests from residents who suggested that the back billing was too low because the business had worked overtime during the period the power was taken, and this was not taken into account by the city staff. They said the company also should pay interest on the bill. The $880 figure was agreed on by the assembly and city staff, after McGraw reported and showed records of down time for the business, during which heavy equipment such as a crusher was not in use. At that time, the lack of a meter was attributed to an oversight of both the city electric department and the city staff. A discrepancy in the dates on which a crusher was hooked to power was noted during the meeting, which would 'result in a difference of 1-and a half months of power.

The city staff is to look into the difference to see if McGraw could possibly owe more money for electricity. Finance Director Anderson said he had been told the crusher was not in real production during its first two months of use, beginning in June 1982, and was merely being tested. Pratt said the state has a law that anyone using power without paying for it must pay three times the price upon discovery, and said that law should have been applied to McGraw. "We expect more effort (from the city staff) to get the best back that we deserve," said Pratt, who said he was speaking as a taxpayer. City Attorney Peter Hallgren explained the whole situation in a detailed memorandum dated Feb.

27, pointing out that the three-phase power line extended to McGraw's gravel operation was done with the knowledge of the electric department and at first had been uhmetered because the city did riot have the proper type in inventory. The press of other utility business and the turnover in top utility department personnel contributed to the delay in having the power metered, Hallgren said. Gutierrez assured the protesters that any city employees who do work without a work order, from which a bill is prepared, in the future would be terminated from employment. He also said city workers will not be permitted to do outside contracting work unless they are certified and have contractors licenses for the work they are doing. Pratt suggested the city require the firms with which it does business to keep careful records.

McGraw leases city land for its operation, and Pratt questioned whether the lease could be (Continued on Page 2) Uphill Work Police, Fire Panel Checks Breathalyzer By Sentinel Staff A breathalyzer, a new, compact piece of equipment that will be used by Sitka police to determine whether a driver is intoxicated and should be brought into the station for additional testing, was demonstrated to the Police and Fire Commission during the regular meeting Monday. The breathalyzers, which look like transistor radios with nozzles on top, will be placed in each patrol vehicle of the police department. The equipment was provided by the state, and each breathalyzer costs $458. "This will save a lot of time and embarrassment for the public and the officer," said Commissioner Greg Custer. LeTourneau explained before officers can stop a ask him or her to take the breathalyzer test, the officers must find probable cause, such as observing the driver having problems controDing the vehicle or committing a violation.

Once a driver is stopped, the officers ask the person to perform a few simple dexterity tests. If the situation is still questionable, the officers then ask the person to take the breathalyzer test. It is a state offense to refuse to take the test. A proposed ordinance that would make such refusal a city offense will be up for final public hearing tonight at the regular meeting of the assembly. The driver then must blow into the breathalyzer's disposable nozzle for 10 seconds, LeTourneau explained.

The small piece of equipment then provides a printout on the results of the test Only if that test were positive would the driver be taken to the Sitka police station and be asked to undergo the more sensitive in taximeter testing. In other business, the commission was asked by Assembly Liaison Roberley Potter about reaction to a proposed ordinance to permit children under 13 years of age to play video games when accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Currently in Sitka, (Continued on Page 2) Alaska State Parks Ranger Krisann Rice, left, and Sitka' Visitors Bureau Director Ann Strain check out the side of Castle Hill. The state agency and the city organization have proposed making the tourist attraction more scenic by using volunteer help. (Sentinel photo by Susan Froetschel) Get A Warning Wednesday is the deadline for Sitkans to pay property tax for their vehicles and to pick up the small white and purple stickers for their windshields.

After Wednesday, the Sitka Police Department will begin issuing citations to drivers whose vehicles are without stickers. The stickers can be obtained at the city's general office at 304 Lake St. between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Residents should take their vehicle registrations.

Volunteers Sought for Project on Castle Hill Overpayments Found In Jobless Benefits JUNEAU (AP) Fraud investigators have "detected" $750,000 in overpaid benefits for unemployment insurance through 1983, and have turned the evidence over to other agencies for collection, a state official said today. Dewey Jones, chief of fraud investigations for the Alaska Department of Labor, said Tuesday that "a lot of that (kind of collecting) is automatic and routine; some will go to court." More than 1,200 claimants were determined to have obtained unemployment benefits fraudulently and were disqualified from receiving future benefits for a total of 24,179 weeks, Jones said. Eleven of the most serious cases were prosecuted and those charged received a combined 5,020 days jail time and $4,050 in fines. Administrative penalties denied the offenders future unemployment benefits for a period of one year each, Jones said. By Sentinel Staff The Sitka Visitors Bureau and local state parks officials want to make Castle Hill one of the most attractive sites in Sitka and Alaska and they are looking for help from all Sitkans.

Volunteers are being sought for a clean-up and preliminary landscaping project of Castle Hill that will be held on two Saturdays, March 3 and March 10. Also being sought are any donations of local shrubs or plants, especially from residents who may be thinning out their own gardens, said state parks Ranger Krisanne Rice, who is coordinating the project with Ann Strain, director of the Sitka Visitors Bureau. Rice and Strain said they hope to have some flowers blooming on the hill this summer. Anyone who is interested either in helping in the cleanup project or donating greenery should telephone the state parks office at 747-6249 and leave a message. "We want to make it a community project," Strain said.

"It's for everybody's benefit." The preliminary landscaping work will involve removing all the growth from the hill, including old stumps and the tenacious salmonberry bushes and roots, said Rice. Volunteers will have access to state parks equipment, and are not required to bring along their own. Service groups and individuals are welcome to help, Strain said. An Anchorage landscape architect with the state parks, Bill Evans, developed a plan for landscaping the hill, which was presented to some local gardening experts. The Sitkans suggested some local flowers and shrubs, and the plan has been returned to the architect who is working on including the local suggestions.

The plan also includes a trail that will wind through the gardens that are planned to cover the hill. Xhe plan includes a variety of flowering plants and shrubs so that blooms will be evident from early spring to Alaska Day. The state parks division also has money set aside to add a lighting system which will be installed this summer on Castle Hill. No city funds are being used for the projects, Strain noted. NH Voters Make Their Selection CONCORD, N.H.

(AP) New Hampshire voters, playing their traditional and often unpredictable role in presidential politics, went to the polls today watched by eight Democrats nervously waiting to see if the nation's first primary once again will shuffle the political deck. In line with state tradition, the 27 voters of Dixville Notch, a tiny mountain hamlet, cast their ballots at midnight at the Balsams Hotel, with Sen. Ernest Rollings of South Carolina receiving 3 votes and former Vice President Walter Mondale 2 votes. Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado and former Florida Gov.

Reubin Askew had 1 each On the Republican side, President Reagan had 15 votes, while Rollings had 5 write-ins in Dixville Notch. Most New Hampshire polls open at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m., EST, and close anywhere from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The campaign, which began more than a year ago, ended with a flurry of opinion polls saying that Hart was gaining on the frount-runner, Mondale.

An ABC-Washington Post poll released Monday night showed Mondale and Hart in a virtual dead heat in New Hampshire, with each receiving 30 percent support of the 446 Democrats and independents polled while Sen. John Glenn received 14 percent and the Rev. Jesse Jackson 8 percent. The poll, based on a rolling three-day average, has margin of error of plus or minus 6 percent. The poll indicated dramatic movement of support toward Hart.

A day before, the same poll showed Mondale with a seven-point lead over Hart. An even earlier ABC-Washington Post poll had showed Mondale with a 14- point lead over Hart. Glenn, of Ohio, whose standing in the polls plunged after his disappointing fifth place finish in the Iowa caucuses last week, insisted Monday that he's in the race to stay and predicted he would rebound and win the nomination. Glenn told a television interviewer who asked if he would pull out if he had another disappointing finish, "The answer in advance is no, I'm not getting out." Reagan had only token opposition in the contest for the state's 22 delegates to the Republican National Convention. The Democrats also will send only 22 delegates to their party convention out of a total of more than 3,300 But the numbers aren't what matters this primary.

It's a test of whether Mondale can solidify his status as frontrunner in a conservative state that has been rough on such leaders in the past as Sen. Edmund S. Muskie.

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Years Available:
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