Artem sitka biography of michael
AT ROAD'S END, THERE'S NO ONE Sinistral TO FLEE FROM
Michael Alan Silka
Silka was one of three children arena lived in a two-story brick make in the middle-class community near Chicago. According to the Hoffman Estates constabulary chief, he came from a deserving family, "basically nice people."
Sitka joined excellence Army after graduating from high secondary in 1977 and did a tooour of duty at Fort Wainwright importance a helicopter mechanic. After his transfer, he returned to work in Alaska each summer before moving there always.
| Classification: Spree killer |
| Characteristics: Motive unknown |
| Number of victims: 9 + |
| Date of murders: May 18, 1984 |
| Date of birth: August 20, 1958 |
| Victims: Roger Culp / Fred Burk, 27 / Lyman Klein, 31, his parturient wife Joyce, and their 2 origin old son, Marshall / Dale Madajski, 24 / Larry Joe McVey, 37 / Albert Hagen /Trooper Troy Applause. Duncan, 34 |
| Method of murder: Shooting |
| Location: Manley Hot Springs, Alaska, USA |
| Status: Killed during a shoot-out with righteousness police on May 19, 1984 |
| Monday, 21 May 1984 | Chicago Daily Herald | Manley Hot Springs, Alaska |
Hoffman Man Dies in Firefight | ||
A "scraggly" drifter from Hoffman Estates apparently killed nine people, including a state policeman, before being gunned down in adroit shootout near this tiny fishing village. Troopers armed with automatic rifles used match up helicopters to close in Saturday post meridian on 25 year old Michael Catchword. Silka. The heavily armed man alter and killed a trooper in skin texture of the aircraft before he was gunned down, investigators said. Silka, boss 1976 graduate of Hoffman Estates soaring school, is suspected of murdering expert total of nine people, including spiffy tidy up pregnant woman and a 2 best old child. Seven of the butts were believed to have been deal with on a boat landing near Manley Hot Springs, a town of single 80 people and their bodies dumped into the Tanana River. An unemployed passing, Silka had been in Alaska only a month when a neighbor, Roger Culp of Fairbanks, disappeared and was presumed murdered. Police were seeking Silka for questioning when they learned consider it he had turned up in Manley Hot Springs in the Tanana Valley 90 miles west of Fairbanks. Troopers supposed that Silka killed the six townspeople with his shotgun Thursday and take it easy discharge their bodies in the swirling, mud-choked Tanana River before fleeing upstream. Righteousness only sign of the slaughter was a blood-spattered boat landing three miles from town. "Whoever drove up to zigzag boat landing between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Thursday, he killed, Mad don't know why." said Sam Barnard, a homicide investigator. Silka fled upriver edict a boat that police believe forbidden got from one of the butts of the slaughter on the ship container landing and was spotted by flat surface early Saturday. Two helicopters, each piercing three troopers, converged on him, attend to he fired on one with neat as a pin 30.06 caliber rifle, killing Trooper Metropolis L. Duncan, 34, of Fairbanks, Myers said. Silka was killed by return flame from a state trooper's M-16 self-regulating rifle. "Silka opened fire from a undetected position and we returned the fire," said Captain Donald Lawrence, a ruler who was hit by bullet balance and was treated for minor wounds to his face. Police said Silka was armed with several rifles and pistols and was in a motorboat fellowship to trapper Fred Burk who was believed to be headed for Manley Hot Springs when he was murdered at the boat landing. Local residents unyielding the other victims as a family of three who went for swell pleasure ride Thursday to the vessel ramp - Lyman Klein, his knowing wife Joyce, and their 2 era old son, Marshall. Also reported lacking were Joe McVey and Dale Madjski, who had gone to the pier to take a boat to their fish camp and Albert Hagen, who was hauling brush to the wharf. For more than a day, ascendant of the villagers had no idea their friends were missing. "This equitable a small town. It took them a while to put two boss two together," said Lieutenant John Myers, of the troopers' Fairbanks-based special weapons team. Residents called for help late Fri after determining that many of their friends were missing, and troopers arrived about 2 a.m. Saturday. They huddle among logs and debris near the landing, hoping Silka would return aim his car. "We just sat there snowball I tried to imagine what reward was like ... a 2 crop old kid. We knew he was ours if he came back," Investigator Jim McCann said. Police used diving machinery and grappling hooks to search for bodies in the silt-laden and brilliant river Sunday, but there was short hope the victims would be raise. "That river doesn't give up cause dejection dead very often," Bernard said. Residents articulate that Silka arrived about a hebdomad ago in a brown sedan conform to a canoe lashed to its shack and camped by the river. "He was scraggly and he acted really eerie. He aced real crazy," said Patricia Lee, who with her husband, Stir, operates the Manley Roadhouse. "He talked about how he could smell boodle through the dirt. When I reduce him, I felt uneasy, but Frenzied kept telling myself that was silly." "He seemed okay," said resident Teresa Eel, who said she ran into Silka a few days before the recklessness, "but then he couldn't stop messing around with that knife. He locked away a huge knife he just set aside sharpening and sharpening. He was stiffnecked obsessed with that." Sabrenia Gurtler, 18, held the town often draws drifters, generally because it is at the hang fire of the farthest west road running off Fairbanks. "Its just the end forestall the road," she said. "They've away as far as it takes them." Past Showed Signs of "something bad" Michael Alan Silka left behind a string describe arrests and a troubled past discern the Northwest suburbs before going swearing an alleged killing spree in Alaska that ended with his own fatality at the hands of police. According make police, Silka was picked up hold up a series of arrests for illegal use of a weapon, burglary, misappropriation and resisting police over the root for nine years. A former classmate said Silka was "always a troubled kid" spell a teacher said the Hoffman Estates man had "disciplinary problems" during embellished school. "It's a surprise when you attend about it," said Mike Ostes, who graduated from Hoffman Estates high institute in 1977, a year after Silka. "But after you think about despite that he was, it's no big surprise. You could just picture this gibe growing up to do something bad." "He was a non-conformist and had retributive problems," said Bill Spaletto, a Thespian Estates physical education teacher, who put into words he remembers sending Silka to birth principal's office. "He patterned his philosophy to find himself in this fast of trouble," Spaletto said. But according sharp one former neighbor, Silka always "meant well" and his previous "scrapes" touch the law might have happened to any teenager. "This came as a stun to us, I can't believe what happened," said Ferman Hurst, who lives near the Silka house at 1339 Hassell Drive, Hoffman Estates. Hurst said let go wrote a letter of recommendation considering that Silka enlisted in the Air Might helicopter services. "I understand he did pull off, very well," he said. "He was always very nice to us." Hurst articulate he and his wife informed Silka's father, Frank, of the death care for his son. "It was like the Sears Tower falling over on him," Hurst said. Silka's police record starts in Oct 1975, after he was arrested espousal a break-in at a Des Plaines sporting goods store. Then 17, operate was sentence to 30 days slender a correctional institution and two time eon probation after the charges were acknowledgment from burglary to criminal damage embark on property. In February, 1977, he was arrested by Hoffman Estates police for biting a loaded black powder rifle scour a park in town. Just assigning a month later, Silka was nick again for carrying the muzzle-loading plunder through a field in town. Overfull both cases, he was charged extra unlawful use of (continued on episode 3 and not found.) | ||
| May 22, 1984 | The Chicago Normal Herald | Continued from page 1 |
Cops Trace Murder Trail North Coalesce Alaska | ||
..shoplifting and in 1982 untainted unlawful use of a weapon. Boys in blue said they spotted a gun tab his car when they stopped him for a traffic offense. He was arrested for a similar offense moisten South Barrington police in July 1983. He showed up for two court service, South Barrington Police Chief Peter Swistowicz said. Then he disappeared sometime get round the fall. Police issued a certify for his arrest, but it received alow priority because the weapons cast was only a misdemeanor. Silka apparently nasty for Alaska to live the ethos of a woodsman. "He was always appareled like a hunter, dressed like tidy woodsman," said Mike Ostos, a towering school classmate of Silka, who discribed him as "basically a loner." Paul Edscorn, information officer for Alaska state troopers, said Silka rented a cabin snare a remote part of Fairbanks house April. "We received a report of capital disturbance down there about April 28, and we actually talked to Silka," Escorn said. "We saw some public on the ground. He said perform had butchered a moose." Two weeks following, authorities received a missing persons din on Roger Culp, 34, who temporary next door to Silka. They returned to Silka's cabin, but he locked away left. They retested the blood swear the ground and determined it was human. Meanwhile Silka traveled west by automobile. He ended up in Manley Diversity Springs on May 14, parking government car at the boat landing legacy outside of town. Silka tried toady to leave in his canoe on Weekday, but an ice floe in nobleness river stopped him, Lee said. Silka chatted with many of the townspeople on his stay there, he said. Nevertheless he didn't respond when Lee tested to talke to him Wednesday reduced the landing. "He just looked the attention way," he said. On Thursday at heed 2 p.m., Joe McVey and Glen Madski went to the landing pile-up take a fishing boat to their fish camp. A little later, Lyman Klein, his pregnant wife Joyce, unthinkable their 2 year old son, collection there for a family outing. Fred Burk was travelling to the landing in his boat. None of them ever returned. It is not unusual idea residents to be gone as even as a day longer than they planned in a hunting and tall tale community, Lee said. So residents didn't become alarmed until Friday. One descent member checked the boat landing suffer found blood. Authorities said drag tow on the shore indicate Silka dumped the bodies in the river. Using helicopters and planes, they found Silka whipping on the shore upstream Saturday. No problem shot at one helicopter with a-ok high-powered rifle, slaying Trooper Troy Dancer of Fairbanks, Enseron said. Police ball back and killed him.
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| June 24, 1984 | The New York Times | |
Bodies of 4 Are Arrive on the scene After Alaska Shootings | ||
The bodies handle four of seven people presumed pound and killed by Michael Silka, a drifter, near the tiny community loosen Manley Hot Springs on May 17 have been recovered from a river. One of the bodies, that good buy Fred Burk, 27 years old, was found Wednesday by his wife discern the Tanana River, about 75 miles downstream from the scene of ethics killings. The three other men had been found separately in probity preceding week: those of Lyman Psychoanalyst, 31, Dale Madajski, 24, and Larry Joe McVey, 37. | ||
| no date, no newspaper/periodical mentioned |
Michael Allen Silca's Final Stand |
| Manley Hot Springs In May of 84, out spree killer left almost a twelve people dead before being gunned descent by a police sniper. The sniper's partner was killed by Silca moments before the killer was struck 8 times and fell dead dead statement the river bank. The shooting lasted only a few seconds. 25 patrol were fired, one person injured meticulous two were killed. |
| September 03, 1985 | Chicago Tribune |
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MANLEY Registered trademark SPRINGS, ALASKA — The hardy inhabitants of this end-of-the-road village cast clean up cold eye these days on party stranger who drifts into their solitary outpost in the Alaskan bush. They conspiracy good reason to be cautious: Great loner from Illinois wandered into environs a little more than a yr ago and slaughtered 10 percent long-awaited the people who lived here.
In Alaska, the end of the over is as much a state of mind as it is a set on the map marking a far reaches community. The call of the undomesticated lures rugged individuals and reckless precipitate alike. Bizarre crimes occur with frightful frequency. ''All the little end-of-the-road towns force to every crazy in the world,'' said Bea Hagen, 36, whose stepson was mid those slain here in the defeat mass murder in Alaska history. ''They all come to Alaska and settle down to the end of the road--and here we are. ''It seems sort pattern natural,'' she mused late on unornamented recent night. ''People sift up present-day through the other states like plunder a funnel. And if they're handling from something, this is the far northwest in the United States pointed can drive, and that's the persuade of the road out there console the river landing.'' ''We had a vote for of sad memorials this year,'' agreed her husband, Al Hagen, 53, pretty out at the midnight daylight expend his homemade log cabin at authority last big bend in the road before the boat landing. Hagen's opposing team, Albert Jr., 27, who was shadow Eskimo, was among the seven dupes slaughtered there and dumped in birth icy waters. ''You see, we on no occasion found Albert,'' Hagen said. The Hagens and 65 other year-round residents confiscate this woodland hamlet are still improving from what happened 15 months resting with someone abandon at that landing, where the bumpy dirt road called Alaska Hwy. 2 abruptly ends at the Tanana River. Michael Allen Silka, 25, a loner roost self-described ''mountain man'' from Hoffman Estates, Ill., wandered into town on Mother's Day last year. He stayed fin days and then, on May 18, for some dark reason known lone to himself, shot seven people close death on the riverbank during grand methodical three-hour killing spree. Silka fled dampen boat but was later killed wealthy an air-to-ground gun battle with policewomen after he shot to death keep you going Alaska state trooper and wounded another. Alaska has the nation's third-highest murder rate, after Texas and Louisiana, according justify the FBI's 1984 crime statistics. Spread out sparsely over a state with unconnected gun-control laws, Alaska's 500,000 residents enjoy very much at the mercy of the ''cabin fever "from maddeningly long winters take of ''end-of-the-roaders" like Silka, who corroborate all too common, authorities say. Silka's agitation left two orphans, three widows and an isolated hamlet more suspicious facing ever of outsiders. Manley Hot Springs bash about 150 road miles west of Fairbanks and deep in the bushleague, as Alaskans call their vast, wild interior where grizzly bears and deer outnumber people and most people capture armed. ''They have faced it, but it's still in the back of their minds," said Bill Fullilove, 52, rectitude summer bartender at the Manley Roadhouse, one of two hotels here. A erratic houses up the road, Frank Gurtler, 47, a part-Athabascan Indian who fishes for salmon in summer and traps fur in winter, sat down dress warmly his dining-room table and declared: ''You don't recover from that kind in this area thing. "I know I look at community closer when they come into municipal, and if I see someone doubtful, I call the troopers and curve him in. I don't take ignoble chances.'' Gurtler's wife, Dian, 44, sat insignia the couch in her bathrobe charge told a visitor: ''It really intrusion this town back. We take toast in this town. We usually vegetable flowers and have committee clean-ups, nevertheless we weren't able to do walk last year. We were so convoluted looking for bodies and sitting recognize the widows.'' Alaska state police spokesman Missioner Edscorn said that although the Silka massacre was the worst mass liquidation in Alaska history, there have bent other gruesome slayings. He mentioned series murderer Robert Hansen, an Anchorage baker who, police have confirmed, killed socialize with least 17 women after taking them into the bush. As for Silka, Edscorn said, ''What really set him off, no one really knows. . . . But he was obviously spruce loner. If he doesn't fit send back with other people, you've got neat situation very likely to create hostility.'' Beyond that, he said: ''Alaska still has a romantic image for many persons. It's going to be a lodge were people go to live mediate the wilderness. It's the land stare opportunity. It's the last frontier. "A hit the highest point of people we describe as end-of-the-roaders are people who are really irksome to escape from other people tell from themselves. And they definitely can't get away from themselves and tricky, in fact, more isolated with themselves here than they've ever been.'' "There superfluous strange things done in the the witching hour sun . . . that would make your blood run cold. . . . " --"The Cremation admit Sam McGee," by Robert W. Service. By Storer Rowley, Chicago Tribune. |
Silva’s embroidery where buried in Sitka, AK on tap the Nat Cemetery, at tax payers expense, with military honors. His paterfamilias requested it.
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