Reading: Monty Orrick: The Crater Lake Murders
About The Crater Lake Murders:
When two General Motors executives drove into Crater Lake National Park in July 1952, no one could predict they would be dead within an hour—not even their killers. It was a crime of opportunity, a botched robbery during the middle of summer in a crowded national park. When Albert Jones and Charles Culhane were found shot to death two days later, the story became a national obsession. The FBI used every resource and available agent but, as time wore on, the investigation ran out of steam. A lack of evidence worked to the killer's advantage. He had committed a perfect crime. The FBI's 2,000+ page report details a staggeringly complex, multi-agency effort: 200 ballistic tests, 1000 interviews, 466 license plate identifications. The man hours were beyond calculation, and yielded valuable information—buried within the individual reports of the FBI, Oregon State Police and local agencies are many clues to the nature and identity of the perpetrator. The FBI file has rarely been seen by anyone outside the Bureau until December 2015 when the author received it on two discs, satisfying a Freedom of Information Act request submitted three years before. This book summarizes all the information: the FBI file, Oregon State Police reports, fresh research and interviews, county records, rare first hand accounts, reaction from one victim's family and an obscure college thesis that first named the killer. Add to this, the personal account of a man to whom the killer confessed. Before the confessor died, he swore his wife to secrecy, reminding her about "the things that nobody talks about."
Monty Orrick has worked twenty five years as a photojournalist doing TV news in Oregon. During the riots on May 26, 2020, he set a personal record getting assaulted four times in one night! He enjoyed it. Besides four Emmy nominations, he wrote a book about this crazy profession with Tim Gordon, Feeding the Beast—a handbook for professionals and journalism students learning to tell stories better. In 2011, while working in Portland, Oregon, he first came across the story of the Crater Lake murders. He could not let it go—or was it the other way around? He effectively solved the case ten years later. Besides his two books, he has published a handful of campfire stories about his misadventures fly fishing and backpacking in the Sierras. Besides fly fishing, the author's other chief talents are watching baseball and listening to records.
Tim Gordon is a longtime local news journalist who has spent the past 20 years in Portland reporting on all types of issues. Tim currently anchors KGW's 4pm newscast and continues to report on stories of interest in the Pacific Northwest. Tim met Monty Orrick in 1999 at KEZI-TV where the two both worked. They became fast friends; they and their families remain close. The pair has had many adventures over the past 25 years. Monty taught Tim just about everything he knows about fly fishing. They wrote a book together covering the workings of broadcast news. And Tim has been a big supporter of Monty's inspired effort to investigate and tell the story of The Crater Lake Murders.
Event Links
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2490872-0
