Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 26

tt Minneapolis Star and Tribune 26 A Nov. 7, 1984 Montgomery Ward Alaskan town still is haunted by the horror of mass murder Additional $100 savings for our Adam Computer System in this week's Montgomery Ward ad now $499.99 After going to press with this week's sale section, we were able to cut the price of our Adam Computer System by an additional $100. Our ad refers to a $25 software package, and coupon for a cabbage patch doll which ere no longer part of this package at the new sale price of $499.99 (thru Saturday, November 10). wiiti (3. 5 mm That opens Gieensleeves Sound ot Music Sunrise Sunset Silent Night Borntree Bolero A More Musical movements sold separately $7.25 Music box kits precision machined Styl2 Walnut Oak JS.

bom with a tune Walnut Cherry S2L50 solid hardwood StTl4 Walnut Cherry S25.00 025LyndaleAveS. 822-3338 'X. Vstrle3 Style 1 Walnut Oak $18.95 WW vUZirj StOresun. dina) Associated Press Patty Lee, co-owner of the Manley lodge and store: "Every one of us knows It could have been any one of us." Meet a Junior Business Leader As a Minneapolis Star and Tribune newspaper carrier, Todd Smiley, 15, of Brooklyn Center currently delivers 138 SaturdaySunday newspapers. Soon he'U take on two additional routes which means he'll be responsible for delivering 185 Saturday and 238 Sunday newspapers.

Of course, he can count on help from his dad and according to district manager Don Eckstrom, "This is a father and son team that really enjoy working together." In the two-and-one-half years Todd has been on the job, he's learned "to be punctual and to talk over problems with other people. He saves half of the money he earns, and uses the other half for general expenses including movies, ice skating, games, A sophomore at Brooklyn Center Junior Senior High School, Todd enjoys gym and his friends. He plans to be a veterinarian because he loves animals especially horses and cats particularly Willie and Suzi--and his schnauzer Princess. Sports are an important part of Todd's life and he's proud of the 16 trophies he's collected over the years. About six or seven years ago, Tfidd began playing hockey (goalie) and this year will try out for the varsity team.

He plays baseball (first base and centerfield) for the Park Board's team, the Centaurs; enjoys cross-country skiing with family and friends at Central Park near his Ittme and Elm Creek Park Reserve; ajjjj he likes to bowl. Last winter Ifodd and his father placed third in family state finals and Todd IESpIb on a Saturday morning league Cjrtjed, appropriately enough, the Early Risers sponsored by Doyle's. XJJ Minneapolis Star and Tribune rrmpany salutes Todd Smiley-and Sfather-for the fine service they $8p our Brooklyn Center customers. Wjfre. pleased to have a carrier of Tedd's caliber on our team.

Thanks, 1Zdd, for a job well done. OPPORTUNITY pfBttto: MMmwapolis "Star and Tribune Company 425 Portland Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55488 I am interested in a newspaper route (need to be at least 1 1 years oW) Phone. City. Thursday. I I 'fy "Si iJk Todd Smiley Zip cods Orcal: -Circulation Department at 372-4343 By Paul Jenkins Associated Press Mattley Hat Springs, Alaska It was spring when a brooding, jobless loner from Illinois methodically executed seven residents of this wilderness hamlet and dumped their bodies into the Tanana River.

Now, with winter's grip squeezing the life from the countryside, townspeople ponder the lingering horror and the changes It made in their lives. Michael Silka of Hoffman Estates, was 25 when he drove a beat-up sedan crammed with guns and gear north to Alaska, dreaming of living off the land In the back country. Authorities say they believe he already had murdered a man In Fairbanks by the time he reached this log cabin settlement of about 50 year-round residents and killed seven of them. Including a pregnant woman, her husband and their 2-year-old son. In a three-hour riverbank rampage May 17.

Nearly a day passed before the town figured out what had happened to the missing people. Alaska state troopers In helicopters headed up the Tanana after the drifter. He died May 19, hit five times by troopers' M-16 rifle fire on the muddy bank of the Zitziana River. Seconds earlier, troopers had offered him a chance to surrender. Instead, he stepped from behind a tree and fired a high-powered rifle at one of the helicopters, killing trooper Troy Duncan.

Nobody knows how Silka found this Isolated village on the Elliott Highway. Nobody knows what stirred his demons. People say they believe that he probably first shot a single person, perhaps in an argument, at the boat landing outside town, then to escape without witnesses killed the others as they arrived before he fled in a boat "Every one of us knows it could have any one of us," said Patty Lee, who runs Manley's lodge, general store and post office along with her husband, Bob. The carnage chilled the soul of little Manley Hot Springs, perhaps changing it forever. First came numbing shock.

Then, the anger. Townspeople could not get at Silka, so they took out some of their frustration on his car, which he had abandoned along a dirt road leading to the boat landing. "The boys shot it up, beat it up, tore it up and shoved it in the river," said Cy Hetherington, who runs a flying service. "I think It may have helped. It got some of It out of their systems." The phrase "time will heal" pops up repeatedly In conversation, but some of the anger still smolders.

"We're all very happy Silka was killed, rather than having to pay for his sitting in an insane asylum," said Lee. "I don't believe they should have buried Silka in the veterans cemetery. That didn't go over too well with a lot of people," said Hetherington's son, Tom, a 26-year-old trapper, mechanic and commercial fisherman. "He had no right to that" Silka was an Army veteran whose ashes were buried at the National Cemetery at Sitka at his father's request Manley Is literally paying for the notoriety Silka brought Residents say tourism, one of the town's few sources of income, and the real estate market were off this summer. closetsp November 15, 7:00 PM Sep winuun ii'Mi spent months searching for bodies along the brush-choked banks of the Tanana.

One at a time, four of them were found, some as far downstream as 50 miles: Larry Joe McVey, 38; Dale Madajski, 24; Lyman Klein, 36, and Fred Burk, 30. "Every time a body was found, it went on, and on, and on," said Dart "It was almost like putting salt in a fresh wound." By the end of summer, only the bodies of Joyce Heffner Klein, her toddler son, Marshall, and Albert Hagen 27, remained missing. In Fairbanks, the body of Roger Culp, 34, perhaps Silka's first Alaska victim, also has not been found. Early last month, troopers in helicopters searched the Tanana, hoping it would yield its dead before winter. "We sent helicopters with two observers," said Capt Don Lawrence of Fairbanks.

"They flew from Manley to Tanana, twice. To us, that's the end of it" Now townspeople are bracing for winter, when temperatures plunge as low as 70 degrees below zero. The Kleins' cabin stands empty, a painful reminder for some. Most of the victims' relatives have left. One widow has moved to Fairbanks.

Another lives alone near Manley, under the community's watchful eye. There have been other changes. Some people now lock their doors; some call neighbors whenever somebody seemingly odd wanders into town. The lodge, packed with reporters and police in May, Is closed for the winter. There's nothing left at the boat ramp to mark it as a killing ground.

"I think everyone is getting back into the swing of things," Tom Hetherington said. "Time will heal everything over." The Hearing Aid Advertised in Readers Digest. Two Year Warranty Free Consultation and Demonstration pr i i i 1 1 1r ITuIn "It's almost like it's a branded town," said Tom Hetherington. "Tourists, people who like to come here, were afraid of how they would be received here," said Lee. "People were afraid of their welcome.

There's been sort of an unrest in the people here, short tempers." "Some of them said the town just didn't feel the same," said Gladys Dart, the main teacher for the village school's 16 students. "When they came here, they noticed a subdued feeling. We've been noted for our hospitality in the past." She recalled a recent shopping tour to Fairbanks, 90 miles away: "I bought a large grocery order, and they were curious where I was from. When I told them, one said, 'Oh, I wouldn't go to that It's as if they think we're responsible for the honor." She said the killings had had a "tremendous impact" on her students. They still regularly talk about it she said: "It's hard for them to reconcile the horror of it" But now, with the leaves stripped from the birch-carpeted hills and with pan ice beginning to choke the Tanana River, a cautious sense of optimism is trying to take root "Nobody seems to be giving up," Tom Hetherington said.

"But the impact win be remembered for a long time. I take a gun everywhere with me now. I never did before. Our general opinion, after this, is that Manley is definitely a closed camp to drifters. Anybody that's questionable now gets watched." "I don't think anyone's dwelling on it anymore," said Dennis McNeil, a school worker.

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