The brutal murder of six residents in a horrific shooting spree will never be forgotten in Alaska. In 1983, the tiny town of McCarthy was shaken by one of the residents turning his rifle on his friends and neighbors and murdering many of those who lived in there. Hidden in Eastern Alaska, McCarthy is an idyllic tiny mountain village tucked in the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains. The fact that there was a cold-blooded killer in their midst never crossed the minds of McCarthy residents, until it was too late.
Form 1900-1938, McCarthy was the booming recreation area for the adjacent town of Kennecott, a copper mining empire. A few Alaskan families stayed in the area throughout the century, although most of the industry left in the 1930's.
In the 1980's, McCarthy was comprised of a small group of Alaskans who were drawn to the mountains, the quiet and the simple way of life in this gorgeous part of Alaska.
Louis D. Hastings, an unemployed computer programmer, moved to McCarthy about 8 months before the incident. He’d been living with his wife in Anchorage but moved out to their summer cabin in McCarthy when his marriage dissolved.
On March 1, 1983, Hastings visited his friend Christopher Richards and they had coffee. Little did Richards know what was going through Hastings’ head. Out of the blue, a bullet hit Richards in the right eye, then one in the neck.
Hastings had shot him with a .223-caliber Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle. As Richards lay bleeding, Hasting said the chilling words: "Look, you're already dead. If you'll just quit fighting, I'll make it easy for you."
Instead, 29-year-old Mr. Richards grabbed a knife, slashed his assailant and fled in his socks into the snow. Hastings proceeded to travel through the village, murdering all those he found with sprays of bullets.
At the time, McCarthy was inaccessible by road in the winter and had no telephone service. Richards and a private pilot flew to Glenallen where he reported to the Troopers. They arrested Hastings while trying to escape on a snow machine.
The victims were Maxine Edwards, Harley King, Les and Flo Hegland, and Tim and Amy Nash. Donna Byram and Christopher Richards were wounded but survived. On July 27, 1984, Louis Hastings received a sentence of 634 years in prison.
