There’s news this week about the Michael Francke murder. Phil Stanford, the career journalist who’s spent about half of his life unearthing the truth about it, has the latest details here, and he tells it way better than I could. If you’ve followed the case, you should go over there and read what he’s got.
To summarize, Frank Gable, the patsy who was wrongfully convicted of murdering Francke, is about to receive roughly $2 million from the state as compensation. (And it should be tax-free, by the way.) Gable’s suing for much, much more. I hope he gets it.
But there’s still one thing missing, and that’s the State of Oregon telling the truth about who killed Francke, the state’s prison director, and why. We all pretty much know the why, but the state has never acknowledged it. And even Stanford has never figured out with certainty the who.
The state also needs to look into who railroaded Gable, and how. Some of those involved in the prosecution are still alive, and even if they weren’t, the public needs assurance that whatever dark crimes may have been committed, they aren’t going to be repeated.
Neil Goldschmidt, governor at the time and up to his eyeballs in this lethal caper, is now dead, and his direct lieutenants, who had a stranglehold on all levels of government in Oregon for many decades, are either also dead or retired. It’s time for the new state attorney general, Dan Rayfield, not only to pay Gable but also to open all the files and show the public what really happened, not only in the murder but also in the coverup. A new investigation, a real one, should be undertaken. And if there are people still around who were responsible, it’s long past time for them to face the music.