Anchorage Ghost Tour Owner and Historian Solve City’s First Cold Case

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of taking a ghost tour of Anchorage led by Ghost Tours of Anchorage owner and proprietor, Richard “Rick” Goodfellow. The other day I spotted an article from an unlikely source about the Anchorage ghost tour owner and a historian solving a true crime involving the Alaskan city’s first chief of police, Jack Sturgus. Yahoo Finance reported that Goodfellow and Historian/Musician Laura Koenig had uncovered new information that solved the cold case.

One of the four spookiest stories that stuck with me after taking the ghost tour was that of “The Patroller.” Many have claimed to see a phantom “patrolling” 3rd, 4th, and 5th Avenues in downtown Anchorage. Goodfellow posed the question to us tour-goers: Is it the restless spirit of the city’s first chief of police, who was killed only six weeks after being appointed to the position?

I think it stuck with me because he alluded to the phantom patroller throughout the tour, but then took us to the alley beside the Historic Anchorage Hotel where Jack Sturgus was shot and died. It was there that he told us the story of his unsolved murder.

Who had killed him and why? That’s a question that has haunted many, including Rick Goodfellow, who it seems may have finally discovered the answer. However, was he “killed in the performance of his duty” as is written on his tombstone?

Let’s take a look at this unusual case and what Goodfellow and Koenig now say actually happened to the police chief.

The Death of Jack Sturgus

Jack Sturgus was born in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1861. He ventured to Alaska in 1913 for the same reason as many did: lured by a gold rush. In his case, it was the Shushanna placer strike near Cordova that brought him to The Last Frontier.

Before that, though, he had lived in Montana and Washington where he’d worked in law enforcement as a peace officer. When he moved to Anchorage in 1916, he also worked in law enforcement as a deputy U.S. Marshal.

Anchorage was a new city at that time without any real government or law enforcement except for the U.S Marshal service and night watchmen hired by local businesses. When the Alaska Engineering Commission stopped overseeing the town in 1920, the residents voted to incorporate as the City of Anchorage. The first council meeting was held on November 29, 1920.

Because this was the time of Prohibition, bootlegging and illegal alcohol were among the unlawful activities taking place in Anchorage. Along with prostitution and gambling. To deal with this and the other problems that the burgeoning town of Anchorage faced, the Anchorage City Council appointed Sturgus as the first chief of police. He started on Jan. 1, 1921, but would die a mere six weeks later on Feb. 20, 1921.

During his patrol of the town that night, he passed Oscar Anderson around 9 p.m. The next person to find him would be a night watchman about 30 minutes later. He found Sturgus near the intersection of Fourth Avenue and E Street in the alley behind what was at that time the Anchorage Drug store and Liberty Cafe with a gunshot wound to his chest.

As the Anchorage Daily News reported, Anderson was “carried” to the hospital. (No ambulances or emergency vehicles yet!) He died about an hour later, at 10:50 p.m.

Confusing Clues

Those investigating estimated Sturgus was shot with his own gun around 9:15 p.m. There were two empty cartridges in the gun, but witnesses claimed to have only heard one shot.

The Anchorage Daily News reported there were no signs of a struggle, and no other footprints in the freshly fallen snow to indicate someone had fled.

Also, during the coroner’s inquest, people testified Sturgus had left certain items at home that he normally would’ve carried with him, including his billy club, handcuffs, money and identification. He was also known to carry two guns, but only one, the one that had shot him, was ever recovered. There’s no telling if he had that second one on him that night or not.

Apparently, he had also spent several hours that day writing letters, which was deemed as odd behavior for him and which was among the reasons the coroner floated the theory of suicide. However, his death was ultimately ruled homicide.

Murder or Suicide?

Among the suspects who may have wanted Chief Sturgus dead were the bootleggers. As the Anchorage Daily News told it, Sturgus had raided some stills and possibly could’ve angered some moonshiners to the point of murder. Also, during the 1964 earthquake, a basement “packed with moonshining equipment” was discovered near the site of Chief Sturgus’s murder.

Or was it a suicide? Who had he written letters to? What did those letters say? Is that even important or a red herring?

One thing that resonated with me from Goodfellow’s tour was that he said some believed Sturgus’s death was suicide. But as Goodfellow pointed out, “It’s not common for people to shoot themselves in the chest when they commit suicide with a gun. They usually shoot themselves in the head.”

It was after taking the Anchorage ghost tour two years ago that Koenig became fascinated with the case. She spent those years researching it. She now believes it was a suicide because, as the Yahoo Finance story reported, Sturgus had “a history of family depression and had tried to kill himself as a young man in Wyoming.”

Which creates a new mystery: Why cover up his suicide?

Was it to help his widowed wife claim insurance she’d need but wouldn’t get if her husband’s death was ruled a suicide?

I don’t know, but it seems this cold case isn’t fully solved just yet. I’m hoping either Goodfellow or Koenig, or both, will respond affirmatively to my request for an interview because I’d love to talk with them about this case!

Check-In

Who do you think shot Chief Sturgus: someone else or himself?