Beaverloop biography of william
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Almanac: Popular Kenai fishing park has chilling past
Editor’s note: This story features two key characters whose names have varied spellings. The first is Ethan (or Ethen) Cunningham, and the second is William “Bill” Frank (or Franke). Most of the information for this story came from four sources: the book, “Alaska Odyssey: Gospel of the Wilderness,” by Hal Thornton; an Anchorage Daily Times article from Jan. 22, 1948; an occasionally inaccurate Dec. 4, 1997, letter (and accompanying documents) from Sara Cunningham Scott to the Kenai City Council; and the research of Kasilof historian Brent Johnson.
By Clark Fair
Photo by Clark Fair, Redoubt Reporter. A lone hooligan fisherman walks along the river at Cunningham Memorial Park, in Kenai, preparing to cast his net.Redoubt Reporter
Redoubt Reporter
The night that Jimmy Minano raced up and issued his nearly breathless command, Hal Thornton was relaxing with Pappy and Jessie Belle Walker in Kenai.
“That Jeep!” said Mina
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Anastasia Nancy Hufana
Anchorage Funeral Home & Crematory
Phone: (907) 345-2244
Toll-Free: (800) 478-3353
Fax: (907) 345-1096
1800 Dare Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99515
Peninsula Memorial Chapel & Crematory
Phone: (907) 283-3333
Fax: (907) 283-6116
5839 Kenai Spur Highway, Kenai, AK 99611
Homer Chapel
Phone: (907) 235-6861
Fax: (907) 283-6116
3522 Main Street, Homer, AK 99603
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Crafted with care by Frazer Consultants and TA
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: At the outset, inom want to acknowledge invaluable contributions to this story from these three primary sources: the 2003 Hal Thornton memoir, “Alaska Odyssey: Gospel of the Wilderness”; the scholarship of Kasilof historian and writer Brent Johnson; and numerous contemporaneous newspaper articles and other documents.
The Crime
It was just before 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 19, 1948, in the small town of Kenai, Alaska. It was the dead of winter.
Hal Thornton, on his first-ever day in Kenai, was relaxing with Pappy and personnamn Belle Walker in their Quonset hut when Jimmy Minano raced up onto the Walkers’ porch and burst through the front door. “That jeep!” said Minano, indicating Thornton’s vehicle parked outside. “Take me to the marshal! There’s been a murder!”
The killing, Minano speculated, was the result of some “bad blood” between two men. Now, some of that blood had been spilled and was, in Tho