Louis Hastings

Case record: Louis Hastings

Background

Louis Hastings was a 39-year-old unemployed computer programmer during the shootings. He was held in custody in Anchorage.

The offence

On March 1, 1983, Louis Hastings went on a shooting spree in McCarthy, Alaska, a remote village with 22 residents. Six of the residents were killed and two others were wounded. The killings were described as ambush-style slayings, and authorities said they had no clue as to what prompted the shootings.

Three bodies were found near an airstrip and the others in a private residence in the remote Wrangell Mountain town. Three of the dead lay under a bright orange tarpaulin about 50 yards outside a house where they were found, and three bodies were alongside a snow-covered airstrip on a bluff overlooking McCarthy. Local accounts included that there was “a lot of shooting that went on inside that house” and “a lot of bullets sprayed around.” Police found several spent cartridges in the kitchen and in the back porch areas, and a bloody, fur-covered silencer on the nightstand next to the bodies.

Investigation

Authorities arrested Hastings after troopers responded to the shootings and searched for survivors. Troopers later flew to McCarthy to search for survivors.

A resident who completed a police report described Hastings as quiet and reserved, saying that his exposure to Hastings was limited to mail days and that at the home of Chris Richards the group would “play cards and talk.” The resident stated: "...in the winter my exposure to Hastings was limited to mail days, when most everyone got together, and at the home of Chris Richards, where the three of us would play cards and talk. My general impression from these meetings was that he was quiet and reserved, not going out of his way to socialize and seemed to want to be left alone for the most part. Talking about science and technology, the world situation, the future of Kennicott, I felt he was certainly intelligent and fairly knowledgeable on these topics but disillusioned and down on society in general. He seemed not well prepared in skills or supplies to live out in the Kennicott area and it seemed a bit odd to come and go as he did to and from Anchorage. In general, people are accepted in spite of any differences, by the others in the McCarthy-Kennicott area, and a live and let live attitude seems to prevail, so much of what I mentioned here did not seem unlike things that could be noticed in others living out here."

Arrest

After the shootings, state troopers responded in an unmarked helicopter and saw Hastings heading west on snow-covered McCarthy Road. When the troopers landed, Hastings waved and offered no resistance. Hastings told them that he was Chris Richards and that Lou Hastings had “gone berserk” and was “shooting up McCarthy.” Troopers knew Richards was already in Glenallen receiving treatment for wounds. Based on that and on the description given by Richards and Gary Green, troopers arrested Hastings. Hastings told troopers: “I’m your man.”

Hastings shared a forty-minute helicopter ride to Glennallen with the police and the survivor Donna Byram.

Trial

A grand jury indicted Hastings on March 16, 1983. The indictment charged him with murder in the deaths of six people in a shooting spree in McCarthy in the Wrangell Mountains of eastern Alaska, and he was indicted on six counts of attempted murder. Hastings was found blood-smeared and wounded outside the 20-person town after the March 1 shootings.

On December 7, 1993, Hastings entered a plea of no contest to charges that he killed six people and wounded two others last spring. He could receive up to 99 years in prison on each murder count and 20 years on each of two counts of attempted murder. On July 27, 1984, Hastings earlier pleaded no contest to the March 1, 1983, ambush-style slayings.

Sentencing

On July 27, 1984, Hastings was sentenced to 634 years in jail.

Outcome

Hastings was sentenced to 634 years in prison on July 27, 1984.

Aftermath

After the murders, McCarthy’s survivors continued to be affected by the killings, and survivors continued to remember something they believed should have clued them in to Hastings’s murderous intentions.

Chris Richards described what happened when Hastings shot him. Richards said he remembered the words of the man who shot him: "'look you're already dead. If you'll just quit fighting, I'll make it easy for you.'" Richards later described how he invited Hastings into his cabin for a cup of coffee, felt something hit him near the right eye as he reached for a cup, and heard the man tell him not to fight. Richards said: "Look, you're already dead. If you'll just quit fighting I’ll make it easy for you." He also described the action as: He described how the attack occurred after he invited the gunman into his cabin for a cup of coffee. As he reached for a cup, Mr. Richards said, he felt something hit him near the right eye and realized he had been shot. Another bullet hit him in the neck, he said, and then he heard the man tell him not to fight.

Maxine Edwards was described as having homesteaded in Kennicott in 1953, and the Edwards were to celebrate a 25th anniversary in two weeks after March 1, 1983. The Heglands were described as having lived in Alaska for 27 years and in McCarthy since 1967, and they were described as unofficial postmasters who kept their front porch addition unlocked for neighbors and groceries delivered by the weekly mail plane to not freeze.

The community continued to gather for mail day events, with changes to where neighbors met after the murders. People in McCarthy referred to mail day as “mail,” and neighbors gathered on the gravel airstrip outside a mail shack, then later some work their way down to McCarthy.