Morty Comix # 2492

Morty Comix # 2492 found a new home and enhanced a recent issue of Cat Fancy in the Centralia Timberland Library, Centralia, Washington. Outside the library is a memorial honoring the four WWI veterans killed in the Centralia Massacre, Nov. 11, 1919.

I had relatives on both sides of that tragic event where Wobblies and vets clashed. My great-uncle testified at the trial. His mechanic business was next door to the IWW Hall. In the early 1970s I interviewed several people who were involved, including three eyewitnesses to Dale Hubbard's murder and Wesley Everest's capture. I also learned about the prosecutors wiretapping the defense during the trial at Montesano and what they did with the info. All in all, a pretty sordid story, and one day I'll publish it.

Family trivia: My great-great grandfather once lived in a house at the present location of the gray building in the background of the last photo.

Missing Persons

This was another WFMU giveaway as part of a fund drive. Compiled in 1996 by Hank Arakelian, these were actual playing cards.

The theme concerned missing persons. I was given the diamond number cards and assigned to come up with missing persons in the Pacific Northwest. My subjects were Jacko the Sasquatch, Harry R. Truman, Hale Boggs, Butch Cassidy, Wesley Everest's grave, victims of Billy Gohl, flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, me, and D.B. Cooper.

The artists in this project were: Sam Henderson, Deirdre Kennedy, Justin Green, William Graef, Dave the Spazz, John Schnall, Kaz, Hank Arakelian, Harry S. Robins, George Erling, Doug Skinner, Krystine Kryttre, Diane Farris, Chris Ware, Bob Powers, Steve Willis, Nisa Rauschenberg, Mack White, Robert Armstrong, David Chelsea, R. Sikoryak, and Dorian.

The set was accompanied by a small booklet presenting the biographies of the subjects.

Wes Everest's grave is now a well marked IWW memorial to the 1919 Centralia Massacre. I never met Harry R. Truman, but I remember seeing his lodge when I visited Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake a year and a half before the eruption.

Missing