This ad encouraging Anchorage residents to vote for Russian Jack for Mardi Gras King appeared in the Anchorage Daily Times in 1948.
Jacob Marunenko, better known as "Russian Jack," remains one of Anchorage's most colorful historical figures-a bootlegger, homesteader, and notorious character whose name is now attached to parks and streets throughout the city. He also was a convicted killer.
Marunenko emigrated from the Ukrainian village of Parevka in the early 1900s, leaving behind a wife and two children to seek fortune in Alaska. He entered the United States in 1915 via Blaine, Washington, and by 1920 settled in the bustling railroad town under the name Jack Marchin. Census records reveal he owned the Montana Pool Room and a cabin, establishing himself as a literate, entrepreneurial figure.
He did not make much of a splash from the mid-1920s to mid-1930s. The completion of the Alaska Railroad in 1923 led to many transient workers leaving the area, and Anchorage itself survived mainly as a supply stop for outlying mining camps. It was during these decades that Anchorage's character solidified, with European immigrants like Z.J. "Zack" Loussac and the Bagoy family helping shape the town's economy and culture.
Marchin made his way as a carpenter, wood hauler, and, most infamously, as the operator of an illegal moonshine still. From his homestead three miles east of downtown, he catered to everyone from working "girls on the line" to Anchorage's elite, running his bootlegging business profitably both summer and winter.
But Russian Jack's reputation took a dark turn on March 21, 1937. At a raucous drinking party, Marchin shot and killed taxi driver Milton Hamilton.
In his court testimony, Marchin described being attacked and severely beaten by Hamilton, asserting he fired his gun in self-defense after being choked and fearing for his life.
"Someone grabbed me by the throat and started choking and beating me. I tried to holler but couldn't because of the choking. Something hit me hard on the head. I was afraid I was going to be killed.
"I remembered my gun [which had been in his pocket for protection against wild animals during a six-mile walk in the woods earlier in the day] ... I got the gun from the coat pocket and shot once to make a noise and get loose. I didn't know which way I shot."
The jury eventually convicted him of manslaughter rather than murder, and he served two and a. half years at McNeil Island penitentiary.
Remarkably, Russian Jack was largely welcomed back into Anchorage society when he returned. By 1948, as the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous revived after World War II, Russian Jack was nominated as "Mardi Gras King"-a gesture that revealed both his celebrity and the community's capacity for forgiveness. Marchin lost the election to Kurly Braga, but he was named prince of the events. His popularity indicates that most of the community felt Marchin had paid his debt to society and welcomed him back.
One Anchorage resident told historian Bruce Merrell at the Z.J Loussac Public Library that Hamilton "deserved being killed anyway."
During the 1940s and 1950s, the land that had been Jack's homestead became Russian Jack Springs Park, as the city acquired ownership and sought to use its freshwater springs. The 320-acre site is now a cherished green space with golf and ski trails, forever linking Jack's legacy to Anchorage's landscape.
Russian Jack officially became a U.S. citizen in 1954 at the age of 70. He eventually moved to California, settling in Arvin, a desert town near Bakersfield, where he died of heart disease in 1971, aged 88. His grave was later marked by Anchorage historian John Bagoy to ensure his legacy would be remembered.
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 at www.auntphilstrunk.com and Amazon.
