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With the nickname “Blueberry Tommy,” Thomas Johnson sounds like a harmless and even friendly historical figure, but nothing could be further from the truth. Historians don’t know much about Johnson except that he was a serial killer.
Sources
Hunt, William R. 1987. Distant Justice. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, OK.
Heaton, John W. 2010. Outlaw Tales of Alaska. Morris Book Publishing, LLC. Guilford, CT.
The Blueberry Kid. Alaska Genealogy Trails. https://www.genealogytrails.com/alaska/blueberry_kid.htm
6-22-1914. Many “Blueberry Kids” confuse officers. Man wanted is “Blueberry Tom” Johnson. Fairbanks Alaska Citizen.
6-29-1914. Clew found to Alaska crime. Fairbanks Alaska Citizen.
7-20-1914. Launch Seal Pup found. Fairbanks Alaska Citizen.
8-8-1914. Mute reminders of the Koyukuk tragedy. Iditarod Pioneer.
10-12-1914. Will recover body. Fairbanks Alaska Citizen.
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Karluk Bones Audiobook Narrated by Beth Chaplin
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Robin Barefield is the author of five Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, and Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge. She has also written two non-fiction books: Kodiak Island Wildlife and Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. Sign up to subscribe to her free monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
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9-13-1987. We Alaskans. Anchorage Daily News.
As the 40-ft. waves crashed down upon him and threatened to wash him and his charge, Captain Singh, off the deck of the sinking ship, Petty Officer Aaron Bean knew the helicopter would not return to rescue them for several hours. Would the freighter remain afloat? Could he survive the relentless pounding by the freezing North Pacific waves? Would Captain Singh, who wore only street clothes, survive? Bean shook off his doubts and concentrated. As long as he could, he would do his job to the best of his ability, and he would give his life if necessary to save Captain Singh.
In September 2000, Shelia Toomey, a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, wrote a front-page story about six unsolved homicides in Anchorage. The article displayed the photos of the six victims. All were women; five were Native Alaskan, and one was African American. Nothing connected the victims, and the police did not know if they were looking for one, two, or six murderers.
On a cold February night in 1921, Jack Sturgus, Anchorage’s first police chief, patrolled downtown Anchorage. He strolled past local businessman Oscar Anderson at 9:00 P.M., and they exchanged pleasantries, but what happened over the next few minutes constitutes one of the biggest mysteries in Anchorage history. At 9:30 P.M., night watchman John McNutt discovered Sturgus lying in an alley behind the Anchorage Drug Store and the Liberty Café near Fourth Avenue and E Street. Sturgus was bleeding from a single gunshot wound to the chest. The watchman summoned help, and several men carried Sturgus to the hospital. Sturgus kept mumbling about being cold and needing to be turned over. In the hospital, he complained about the bright lights. He repeatedly called, ‘Oh, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.” but when asked who shot him, he did not reply. Sturgus died at 10:50 P.M.
arrested anyone for his murder, and until now, no one has ever answered the question of who shot Jack Sturgus. Recent in-depth research by two Anchorage history buffs brings us as close as we will ever be to knowing what happened between 9:00 P.M. and 9:30 P.M. on February 20, 1921, in a back alley in the newly incorporated city of Anchorage, Alaska.
An electrician found the badly beaten and defiled body of 48-year-old Martha Hansen behind the Elks Club on 3rd Avenue in downtown Anchorage. She was naked except for a white sock on her left foot. When police detectives arrived at the scene, they were determined to do everything they could to find the animal who had perpetrated this horrible crime. They put in hours of dogged perseverance and executed a forensic technique few investigators thought was possible.
Ice Cold Rage. Fatal Frontier-Evil in Alaska. E03. 11-21-2021.