After all, it was you and me
I've lived in Oregon for two thirds of my life now, and I've seen and heard a lot of things here that leave you shaking your head. Probably the most outrageous of these was the 1989 murder of Michael Francke, the young head of the corrections department, who had discovered corruption and was about to blow the lid off it. The people he was about to expose killed him, and then, to the shame and disgrace of everyone who lives here, they successfully covered it up and had a patsy, a poor bastard named Frank Gable, serve 30-some years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Some of the people who know what happened are still alive. And they have never told the truth about it.
My friend Phil Stanford was a columnist for the Oregonian at the time, and he never let go of the story. He's been writing about it on and off ever since it happened. He's managed to draw national, even international, attention to the unsolved mystery. Most recently he's been on Substack posting pointed questions to some of the dudes who presided over the legal charade that followed the murder.
Now Stanford's released a whole book, "Who Killed Michael Francke," and that title does not end with a question mark. A Kindle version of it "dropped," as the kids say, earlier today, and apparently there's a paperback going on sale in a few days.
This is an important book for a lot of reasons. But to me the most important is that it's Phil summing up decades of blood, sweat and tears he's shed over this case. On an hourly basis, he would have made more money working at McDonald's. At this point, it seems, he just wants the truth.
I think we all do. Or at least, most of us.
I wish the spirit of Michael Francke was with us. I’d like to see what could be uncover at the OLCC.
ReplyDeletePhil Stanford was always my favorite read, first at the Oregonian and then at the Tribune. I bought the book (all of his books are great), but I always wished he would back off a bit so that he could continue as a city columnist, in the best tradition of Doug Baker... I would argue that Phil was every bit as good.
ReplyDeleteI miss Phil’s columns. He is honest, informed and I love the way he made the local politicos squirm on occasion!
ReplyDeleteYou are much the same Jack and I appreciate that more than I can say!
I am not in the same league as Stanford but am proud to be playing the same game sometimes.
DeleteI previewed Stanford's book over at PortlandDissent, and the old guard promptly bombed me with denunciations and comments on my sanity--without, of course, reading the book. It'll be more than interesting to see what the O's star innvestigative reporter, Noelle Crombie, who was on the team that wrote the O's smear of its former columnist, has to say about the book. Want to bet the O will maintain magisterial silence?
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