Dark River
The Torso Murder Case became one of the oldest and deepest of Portland's unsolved mysteries. |
In the spring and summer of 1946 several packages containing the dismembered parts of a woman’s body were found in the Willamette River. The Torso Murder Case, as the Oregonian called it, became one of Portland’s longest and deepest mysteries. Not only was no suspect ever identified, the victim was never identified either. For nearly seventy years police, reporters and murder buffs have only been able to speculate about the identity of the woman who was tortured, beaten over the head and cut into pieces before being thrown into the river.
While working on my latest book – Portland on the Take written with JB Fisher – I came across someone
who coincidentally disappeared sometime early in 1946. Her name was Anna Schrader and she was one of
Portland’s most interesting characters. A competitive swimmer and socially
prominent Portlander, Schrader worked as an undercover agent for the Portland
Police Bureau and a private detective. Married to a local railroad executive,
Schrader carried on a long term affair with police Lieutenant William
Breuning. Schrader’s affair with
Breuning ended in a violent confrontation in 1929, creating a scandal that
ended Breuning’s career and Schrader’s work for the Police Bureau. Schrader,
who was a highly emotional woman, swore revenge against the Police Bureau and
Chief Leon Jenkins and devoted the next few years to exposing corruption in the
police force and in Mayor George Baker’s administration. She was involved in at
least two recall elections and ran an aborted campaign for mayor in 1932. Along
the way she made a lot of enemies, some of whom might have wanted her dead.
The affair of Anna Schrader and William Breuning ended in scandal in 1929. Schrader devoted several years to exposing the corruption of the Portland Police Bureau and the George Baker administration. |
I asked Theresa Kennedy Dupay, a talented historical
researcher, to look into the life and activities of Anna Schrader to help me
evaluate whether or not she could have been the victim in the Torso Murder
Case. Dupay has done a great job of finding information on Schrader and has
even managed to get access to some of the investigative files kept by the
Clackamas County Sheriff, who reopened the unsolved case in 2004. Dupay and her
husband, ex-homicide detective Don Dupay – author of Behind the Badge in River City – have become intrigued with the
possibilities that our new investigation offers.
I am intrigued by the possibilities too, so I have been
preparing a ten episode podcast – Murder ByExperts -- to present our theories and investigation. One of the problems
with trying to solve such an old case is that none of the people who are
investigating it are aware of the situation in Portland in 1946, so this series
will concentrate on the historical setting as much as the crime. Here is the
first, introductory episode. Please give it a listen and then let me know what
you think.
http://murderbyexperts.podomatic.com/
If you like the work I do I hope you will support my Patreon.com campaign. https://www.patreon.com/jdchandler
If you like the work I do I hope you will support my Patreon.com campaign. https://www.patreon.com/jdchandler
1 Comments:
Well, I'm biased as you know but I personally love it! Not only is this an important story to look into its awfully entertaining also.
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