Gambling was a problem in early Anchorage. The notice on the right in this photograph reminded players that gambling for money was strictly forbidden.
Anchorage's oldest unsolved murder happened 105 years ago this month when the town's first police chief was gunned down as he tried to get a handle on illegal activities like prostitution, bootlegging, and gambling. An eyewitness account of crime in the railroad town founded in 1915 comes from Kenneth Gideon, author of "Wandering Boy," who visited the town as it began to grow along Ship Creek. Along with describing the proliferation of prostitution, Gideon noted:
"The government had decreed that there was to be no liquor sold in Anchorage nor in a five-mile strip on either side of the railroad right of way. The effect was to make bootlegging a science in Anchorage. In the winter liquor came in over the trail, on hand sleds and by dog team. In the summer, when navigation opened up, it might be found in five-gallon cans inside bales of hay. Cases of canned tomatoes would prove other than tomatoes."
The newly formed Anchorage City Council officially established its police department in December 1920 and appointed 60-year-old John "Jack" Sturgus as its first chief of police in January.
The one-man police department spent the next few weeks patrolling the streets of Anchorage. But somewhere along the way, Sturgus may have stepped on the wrong toes. Someone shot him in the chest with his own gun.
Oscar Anderson, Anchorage's first butcher, passed Sturgus on Fourth Avenue at around 9 p.m. on Feb. 20, 1921, according to inquest transcripts and news articles of the time. Anderson noted that the chief was heading up E Street.
A few moments later, the chief lay dying at the bottom of a flight of stairs behind the Kyvig Building, which housed the Anchorage Drug store and now is an alley next to the Anchorage Hotel.
When rescuers reached Sturgus around 9:15 p.m., they found the chief's .32 caliber Colt revolver lying in the snow next to him and a bullet hole through the left pocket of his woolen shirt.
Sturgus died at 10:50 p.m. "with his lips sealed and a mystery remaining to be unraveled by the arm of the law."
Articles appearing in the Anchorage Daily Times revealed that during the official inquest people said they either "saw the flash of a gun" or "heard the report of a gun" the night of the shooting. But no one saw any suspicious characters.
The bullet taken from the body during autopsy matched the gun found at the scene. The coroner's inquest, conducted by Judge Leopold David on Feb. 23, concluded that Sturgus came to his death at the hands of unknown parties.
The Anchorage Daily Times offered several motives for the murder of Sturgus.
One suggested the chief was killed "while endeavoring to make an arrest or while watching in the rear of the drug store for some man under suspicion."
Other theories suggested that Sturgus had been "murdered by members of an illicit liquor gang," "in revenge" because of the "activity of the marshal's office during the past week," and while "watching for someone conveying moonshine liquor through the alley, and when attempting to halt them, met his death."
Although the city offered a reward of $1,000 for information about its chief's death, and council members pledged another $950, the murder has never been solved.
Sturgus is buried along the iron fence that faces Cordova Street in the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.
This column features stories researched for Aunt Phil's Trunk, a five-book Alaska history series written by Laurel Downing Bill and her late aunt, Phyllis Downing Carlson. Along with Bill's latest book, Pioneers From Alaska's Past, the books are available at bookstores and gift shops throughout Alaska, as well as online and Amazon.
