Daily Sitka Sentinel from Sitka, Alaska • Page 1

YEAR Member of the Associated Press A I I Monday, December 31, 1984 Sitka Alaska 35 Murders Outweigh Anniversary As Biggest 1984 Alaska Stories By BRUCE HARTLEY Associated Press Writer ANCHORAGE (AP) Murders, some new and some old, dominated Alaska news in 1984, tarnishing Alaska's' silver statehood anniversary. The euphoria recalling the state's admission to the union 25 years ago in January quickly gave way in February to the gruesome tale of an Anchorage baker who methodically murdered at least 17 women and raped dozens more over the past decade. Scarcely had Robert Hansen been shipped off to a federal penintentiary in Pennsylvania to begin serving a 461- year sentence, when the idyllic village of Manley Hot Springs, about 100 miles west of Fairbanks, was ravaged by a brooding loner named Michael Silka. He slaughtered seven people at the small community's boat landing on the Tanana River and later killed a state trooper pursuing him. Silka quickly was slain by other troopers.

Any explanation for Silka's murderous rampage died with him. And as 1984 drew to an end, lawyers John Kenneth Peel of Bellihgham, were struggling in a Ketchikan courtroom to show Alaska lacked anough evidence to try their client on charges he killed eight people aboard the fishing vessel Investor before setting it afire in the summer of 1982. The chilling tales of murder in "The Last Frontier" were selected by the Uaska staff of The Associated Press as top news story in Alaska in 1984. The rest of the Top 10 are: --The loss of Japanese adventurer Maomi Uemura on Mount McKinley; --The election-year shakeup of the Legislature; --Allegations of a conspiracy by the Japanese to cheat on their fish allocations in Alaska waters; --Capture by the Soviets of a Homer- oased supply vessel which apparently strayed into Russian waters; --The meeting between Pope John Paul and President Reagan in Fair-' oanks; --A Canadian jurist's review of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; --The state-run aerial wolf hunt, designed to reduce predatory pressure Dnmoose; --Alaska's celebration of 25 years of statehood; and, --Tpriy Knowles' victory over Tom Fink for a second term as mayor of Anchorage. Alaskans in 1982 had barely enough time to recover from the slayings by a mental patient of four teen-agers in an Anchorage park when the smoldering hulk of the Investor yielded its grisly cargo.

Most people dismissed the cases as abberratiohs and said it was unlikely crimes pf such magnitude would be again soon in Alaska. But Louis Hastings proved them wrong. In 1983 he massacred six people I Over TAP Windfall JUNEAU CAP) The state could have an extra $310 million in its treasury by late 1985 or once the Trans Alaska Pipeline rate case is settled, according to Attorney General Norm Gorsuch. But lawmakers are taking a bird-in-hand approach to the windfall, saying they'll spend it when they see it. Gorsuch announced tentative agreement with Atlantic Richfield Co.

in the seven-year-old pipeline tariff case Thursday, leaving seven other co- owners of the 800-mile pipeline still to agree on the litigation. The dispute, which centers on the cost of pumping crude oil through the pipeline, has cost the state some $35 million in legal fees, officials said. Principal plaintiffs in the suit are the state of Alaska and the U.S. Justice Department. At stake is $12 billion in additional revenues for the state over the next several years, officials said.

The state could realize $310 million from the settlement by late 1985 or early 1986, with increased revenues from the new tariff pushing the annual total to more than $400 million by the 1990s, Gorsuch said. "We hope to have agreement with several other companies by the time the Legislature comes to town (Jan. 14)," Gorsuch said. "And by the end of the session, we should know how much is available so they can start appropriating it." Sen. John Sackett, R-Ruby and cochairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday the matter is a long way from being settled.

"If Sohio were to be a party, that would be about 70 percent (of the pipeline owners represented)," Sackett said. "There's a good chance then that we could rely on revenue projections beginning Jan. 1,1986. "But I'm not going to plan on it until I see it," he said. "I take a conservative view toward those things." Rep.

Al Adams, D-Kotzebue and chairman of the House Finance Committee, said he doesn't expect to see that money filter down to the state for quite some time. "I don't intend to put plans to spend The Daily Sitka Sentinel will not publish Tuesday, Jan. 1 in honor of New Year's Day. that money into action," Adams said. House Speaker-designate Ben Grussendorf, D-Sitka, said he'd be hesitant to appropriate any of the money before a final settlement is reached.

"We're making assumptions," he said, conceding that "there will be some eyes looking at it." "I'm skeptical that we should plan on those funds for this fiscal year, although there may be some pressure to do so," Grussendorf said. "I would like to see it put in the treasury before we start spending it." Study Shows Oil Revenue Big Tax Bite ANCHORAGE (AP) State and federal taxes siphoned off more than half the oil industry's $14 billion in Alaska revenues during 1981, a recently released study concluded. The University of Alaska Institute of Social and Economic Research study focused on 1981 because oil prices peaked in that year. It found that $7.2 billion of the oil and gas revenue for the period ended up in state and federal coffers. Alaska nearly mirrors Texas in the way oil and gas revenues are divided among taxes, lease payments to landowners and oil company profits, the researchers said.

The chief difference between the two states is that most Texas oil production is pumped on private lands, while Alaska oil is pumped mostly from public holdings. The study indicates that after a 52 percent tax slice, producers's costs totaled 20 percent of the 1981 revenue. Another 12 percent paid for leases, and the remaining 16 percent was profit. Federal taxes ate about 35 percent of the 1981 revenues, while state lease payments accounted for about 20 percent. Native corporations cited by the report as the only private owners of significant oil holdings collected less than 1 percent of all oil lease payments.

The native corporations took in about $9.6 million in oil revenues that year, the researchers said. The study also concluded that world energy prices, oil discovery quantities, land ownership and production and transportation costs are the most important factors in determining profits and revenue distribution. It said state and federal policies have less effect. in McCarthy. A few weeks later, an airman once stationed in Alaska admitted slaying five young women from the Fairbanks area.

Experts acknowledged Alaska is a violent place, out said the spate of murders was a statistical coincidence and such events were unlikely to occur again soon. Meanwhile, Anchorage police were growing increasingly concerned about the growing number of prostitutes and strippers who were disappearing from the local night scene. Many of them vanished on their way to appointments with a man who wanted to take nude photographs of them. What few bodies were found were discovered in places easily accessible: only by airplane. Robert Hansen drew police when a young dancer reported he had? tried to adbuct her in his small plane.

A search of his residence tied him to the disappearance of some of the missing women. And in February, Hansen admitted lolling at least 17 women over the past decade. He flew with investigators to point out shallow gravesites on gravel bars and remote lakeshores throughout southcentral Alaska. He also admitted raping 30 other women during the same period. Hansen was sentenced to 461 years in prison.

Scarcely had the emotional wounds left by Hansen begun to heal when Silka ripped them wide open. Known to local residents as an "end- of-the-roader" one of several who every, at Highway community Silka drove his battered sedan into Manley in late spring. Although he gave some people the creeps, they paid little attention. They would come to wish they had. On May 17, over a period of several hours, local residents began disappearing.

By the time their neighbors pieced things together, Silka had fled. State troopers headed up the swollen Tanana River after Silka and caught up with him on the banks of a tributary, the Zitziana River. As they swooped in by helicopter, Silka shot Trooper Troy Duncan in the neck with a high-powered rifle before falling in a hail of automatic weapons fire. Investigators later linked Silka to the disappearance 1 of a man in Fairbanks during the winter. But the truth and his motives went to rest with Silka in the Sitka national cemetery where the native of Hoffman Estates, 111., was buried as a military veteran.

The Investor case was but a dim memory in the minds of almost (Continued on Page 8) Kobi Lyon tried out ice-skating for the first time with his parents, Marc andSherrie.on Swan Lake this weekend. The lake, with ice about 3 to 7 inches thick, was covered with happy sled riders, skaters, bicyclists, and dogs Saturday and Sunday as temperatures dipped into the teens. Rising temperatures are expected to make both the ice and the people on top of the lake disappear Forecast Supportive Parents for tonight is east to southeast winds to 20 mph, temperatures in the mid to upper 30s with intermittent rain and drizzle. For New Year's, National Weather Service officials forecast intermittent rain or drizzle, winds up to 30 mph and temperatures in the low 40s. Outlook for Wednesday is rainy and windy.

(Sentinel photo by Susan Froetschel) CAB, 46, Shuts Down WASHINGTON (AP) The Civil Aeronautics Board, ending 46 years of control over the airline industry, held its final meeting today as the chairman praised deregulation and a Marine bugler played "Evening Colors." The CAB, which officially goes out of Nation Set to Ring In New Year, New Ways By MARK BERNS Associated Press Writer In celebrations including $750-a- couple nightclub bashes, bowling binges, mountaintop parties and quiet flfJi YlrtC? A Wl a. who were looking forward to buying their first beer and wine in 1985 will have a year to wait as the drinking age for those beverages goes from 19 to 20 But Americans with something to 0 jjaiuca emu quiet nui Americans witn gatherings, Americans tonight will ring celebrate will find a way. Out 1984 pnri a nicwo ttm tr out 1984 and a piece of the federal government and ring in new taxes and a new telephone area code. New Year's Eve revelers who don't take advantage of myriad free rides home will face such anti-drunken driving measures as roadblocks in Nashville, and roving breath- test checkpoints in Los Angeles. New York City, where hundreds of thousands of people are expected to jam Times Square to usher in the New Year, will become a city divided after midnight as the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island get a new, and to many unwelcome, 718 area code.

Manhattan and the Bronx keep the familiar 212. New York state residents who drive to New Year's parties will have to buckle up on the way home as the nation's first seat belt law goes into effect. Unbelted drivers and front-seat passengers face fines of up to $50. Nationwide, higher Social Security taxes and lower federal income taxes go into effect Tuesday but most workers will see only a few pennies difference in their take-home pay. The Civil Aeronautics Board ends its 46-year reign over the nation's airline In New York City, the tab for a soiree at Regine's is $750 a couple, up $50 from last year for a five-course "gourmet dinner," a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne and favors.

Dom Perignon also will flow at Chicago's Park Hyatt Hotel, to wash down a $600-a-couple, eight-course dinner. The tab includes a room and a champagne breakfast. Thousands of an anticipated million spectators began arriving over the weekend to get a good spot to see 59 floats decked with 20 million flowers for the 96th annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. Party-goers in a number of Michigan taverns will hoist their drinks off napkins bearing the advice: "Know Your Limit." The napkins, printed with a chart showing the effect of consumption on blood alcohol levels, are just one of the ways officials nationwide planned to deal with excess. Tavern-owners, newspapers, taxi companies and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers will be subsidizing free rides home in several Michigan cities for people who party too heartily.

Plain- business at midnight, is the first major federal regulatory agency to be abolished by the government's general loosening of controls over transportation industries. Under airline deregulation, air carriers can fly wherever they want domestically and may charge whatever the market allows. Almost anyone may start an airline as long as some indication of financial backing is produced and safety requirements are met CAB Chairman Dan McKinnon slammed the gavel down to end the board's largely ceremonial, 10-minute meeting. Then, the bugler played "Evening Colors," which is routinely played to mark the close of business at military installations. The agency's director of public affairs, Alan Pollock, stepped in behind the bugler and removed the CAB seal from the hearing room wall.

The CAB, began in 1938, held strict control over the airline industry for more than three decades. But with deregulation the CAB's powers were gradually reduced during the past six years. The agency has been on regulatory death row since 1978 when Congress enacted the Airline Deregulation Act, which gradually removed the CAB's powers and ordered it closed down at the end of 1984. In its heyday the CAB controlled fares, routes and virtually everything else involving the airline business It decided what airlines should be allowed to operate. Under airline deregulation, the air earners can fly wherever they want domestically and may charge whatever the market allows.

Almost anyone may start an airline as long as some indication of financial backing is produced and safety requirements are met A variety of CAB functions will what carrier is awarded authority to fly an overseas route and negotiate with other governments on fares. Administration of the so-called essential air service program, which provides subsidies to airlines, virtually all of them commuter carriers, for flying into more than 100 communities that otherwise could not support air service. Authority over a variety of consumer protection rules including smoking restrictions aboard airliners, compensation for lost baggage or bumping of passengers with reservations because of overbooking, and protection of travelers from unscrupulous charter operators. The consideration of antitrust questions involving the airlines. drunk driving The Daily Sitka Sentinel and the Sitka Police Department would like to remind all Sitkans not to drive after drinking this New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Sitkans who intend to drink should leave their vehicles home and plan on taking a taxi. "The price of a cab is a lot cheaper than a court fine or a jail sentence," said Lt Weldon White South ins. vr XATVU tuiicuuns win sentence, said Lt continue into 1985 and beyond, although theSitka Police Deo' the Transportation Department will The minimum SSSTfor the first offense of driving while intoxicated includes a $250 fine, 72 hours in jail and TM.