The Country Curmudgeon: Ghosts from the past
By Roy Hicks
Thursday, June 25, 2009 10:21 AM PDT
I got a call a few days ago from the Payette County Sheriff’s Office. The dispatcher, who happens to be the grandson of one of my Elks lodge brothers, reported that a gent from the California Department of Justice was trying to contact me “in connection with an old homicide case.”
Ouch! I couldn’t imagine what this might be about. I’ve been retired from the police wars for 15 years now and couldn’t think of any old cases I might ever be called on again.
I returned his call: a gentleman who stated he himself is a retired San Francisco Police Department member now working for the California State Attorney General’s office.
“Thanks for calling back,” he said.
“What can I possibly do for you?” I said cautiously.
Believe thee me, friends, after all these years, the very last thing I want is to be ensnared in the police wars again. Last time this happened was in late 1994 when I managed to duck a lawsuit by some disgruntled woman I’d never had anything to do with and managed to convince the San Francisco city attorney so. If they have to pay the way, California isn’t too keen to subpoena former members to court from out of state for no good reason.
“Well, as you may have heard, we’re reopening the murder case of Sgt. John Young in 1971. We’ve been through all the old files, and we noticed that your name came up quite often in both photographing evidence from the scene and also in some later surveillance photos of the suspects involved,” he said.
I’m not likely to ever forget the dreadful night Sgt. Young was murdered. As a brand new member of the SFPD Photo Bureau, I was off duty that evening, but, when I heard of this on the radio, I immediately called in to see if there was anything I could do. Inspector Frank Moser assured me everything was under control, and there was no reason for me to respond.
Yeeps! but that was an awfully long time ago ... 38 years now. I don’t remember doing “evidence photos” at the time, but I vaguely remember doing some surveillance photos on the Black Panther and Weathermen suspects on Divisidero Street from an undercover nest.
“Would you be willing to come back and testify?” said the DOJ gent.
“Of course,” I said immediately, “provided you’d pay my travel.”
“Automatic,” he said, “but do you remember any of this?”
“That was an awful long time ago,” I said.
“Would it help if we sent you copies of some of your photographs and ask if you can remember taking them?”
“Certainly,” I said. “I’ll do anything I can to help you now.”
As any former career policeman knows, we never completely get done being cops.
I recently wrote a piece on the murder of Sgt. Brian McDonnell in early 1970 (“Vigilante justice,” June 4.) I can’t tell you how it galls me how that clown in the White House and those murdering skunks Bill Ayers and his terrorist wife, Bernadine Dohrn, are all still tight chums, and, to this date, none of those scoundrels have ever been brought to justice.
After receiving this call, I subsequently learned eight suspects in the murder of Sgt. Young were arrested in 2007 and are all now apparently facing criminal trials. It’ll be interesting to see what the California Department of Justice might want me to attest to, but, believe me, if I can, I sure as hell will. Stay tuned.
Roy Hicks, a Payette resident, writes a weekly column for the Argus Observer. Comments or questions for Mr. Hicks can be directed to: Roy Hicks, Argus Observer Newsroom; 1160 S.W. Fourth St., Ontario, OR 97914
