ANCHORAGE RAPE SLAYER TO HANG: THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE, DECEMBER 16, 1949

The jury in Anchorage needed forty minutes. On a Thursday in December 1949, the federal court jurors convicted Harvey Carignan, a 22-year-old soldier from Fort Richardson, of the rape and beating death of Laura Showalter, and by the form of their verdict they sent him to the gallows. If he hanged, the Associated Press noted, it would be the first hanging in the Third Judicial District within the longest memory of anyone working in the court. The Daily Alaska Empire in Juneau put the story on its front page the next day, under a headline promising that he would hang.

Laura Showalter was fifty-seven. On the night of July 31 she had been walking home from a movie in downtown Anchorage when she was attacked and beaten to death, a crime the prosecution called "the most brutal ever committed in this court district." The paper sketches the defendant as a gangling youth who had called a North Dakota reform school "home" from the age of twelve until he went into the service. He showed no emotion as the verdict was read. Later, alone in his cell in the federal jail, he threw his hands over his face and, the guards said, "sobbed like a baby."

Judge George Folta, a Juneau judge helping with the Anchorage docket, had given the jurors three choices: guilty, guilty without capital punishment, and innocent. They chose the first. The defense said it would appeal, and the item closes by noting that Carignan was already awaiting sentence on another federal conviction, returned on November 22, for assault with intent to rape a second Anchorage woman. The appeal his lawyers promised went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in 1951 that the confession at the center of the case should never have been used.

The verdict this brief reports did not stand. The prosecution's case rested on a confession Carignan gave while he was held on the separate assault charge, and in 1951 the Supreme Court of the United States held that it had been unlawfully obtained; the murder conviction fell, and he never hanged. In the eyes of the law the killing of Laura Showalter was never proved against him. The paper places the conviction in December 1949, while other accounts date it to 1950. His two murder convictions came decades later in Minnesota, for Kathy Schultz and Eileen Hunley, and he died in prison in 2023.

Printed in Juneau on December 16, 1949, this issue is younger than ninety-five years. The Library of Congress, which supplies the scan from Chronicling America, says it believes such papers are in the public domain and adds that they "may contain some copyrighted third-party material." This article shows no sign of syndicated or separately copyrighted matter. The full citation and rights statement are printed under the scan.

Every word was taken from the scan; the impression is a little gray and some line starts are worn, but nothing was unreadable. There are no misprints to preserve, only the style of the day: "40 minutes deliberation" without an "of," "MINS." in the headline and the "(AP)" credit. The report ends cleanly above a rule. Two unrelated items printed below it, a church couples' club meeting and a former Juneau official's trip south, fall inside the crop and are not transcribed.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

ANCHORAGE RAPE SLAYER TO HANG; JURY OUT 40 MINS.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec. 16—(AP)—A 22-year-old Fort Richardson soldier with a reform school background was convicted Thursday of the rape-slaying of a middle-aged woman July 31.

By the form of the verdict, the Federal Court jury, after only 40 minutes deliberation, decreed that Harvey L. Carignan shall die by hanging.

If he goes to the gallows it will be the first hanging in the Third Judicial District within the longest memory of court personnel.

The gangling youth, who called a North Dakota reform school "home" from the time he was 12 years old until he entered the service, showed no emotion when the verdict was read.

Later, alone in his cell in the Federal jail, he threw his hands over his face and "sobbed like a baby," guards said.

He was accused of raping and beating Mrs. Laura Showalter to death, a crime the prosecution called "the most brutal ever committed in this court district."

Defense attorneys indicated the conviction will be appealed.

Federal Judge George Folta of Juneau, aiding in hearing local court cases, gave the jurors three possible forms of verdict: guilty, guilty without capital punishment, and innocent.

Under Alaska law, at least five days must elapse before sentencing.

Carignan also awaits sentencing on a previous federal jury conviction. He was found guilty Nov. 22 of assault with intent to rape another Anchorage woman.

Transcriber's notes

- Readability: Very good. The impression is a little grey and the left-hand edge of some lines is worn, but every word is clearly legible. No [illegible] markers were needed.

- No printers' errors were found in this item. Period usage kept as printed: "Defense", "40 minutes deliberation" (no "of"), the headline abbreviation "MINS.", and the wire credit "(AP)".

- The article ends cleanly at "…another Anchorage woman." above a short rule. It does not jump to another page.

- The headline falls above the top of the supplied crop: the first tile begins at the dateline "ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec. 16—". The three headline lines given above were read from the full-page scan held in the same folder as the tiles (carignan.fullpage.jpg) rather than guessed; the headline is set in three lines within the one column, between two short rules.

- Unrelated matter inside the crop, below the article and not transcribed: a short item headed "COUPLE CLUB MEETING" about the Couple Club of the Northern Light Presbyterian Church meeting on Tuesday, and below that one headed "LYBECK TO GO SOUTH" about Bert Lybeck, former Juneau street department superintendent, flying to Tacoma, Wash. Both occupy the last two tiles.