Offbeat Oregon History podcast

'Diamond Bill' Barrett earned his nickname by sweet-talking a jewelry store into letting him borrow a $55,000 diamond, which he promptly hocked. Later, he deployed that legendary charm to sweet-talk two heiresses into marrying him, then disappeared with showgirl-turned-trophy-wife Sidi Wirt Spreckels' $100,000 string of pearls. But the mystery remains: Did he really steal Sidi's pearls ... or did he fence them for her? (Hillsboro, Washington County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1905c.diamond-bill-barrett-heiress-whisperer-548.html)

As a filming location, Oregon really started to come into its own in the 1980s, and many locals can point to key cultural touchstones that played out right in their home towns. (Deschutes, Clackamas, Lane, Clatsop, and Multnomah County) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1403e.part3.iconic-movies-shot-in-oregon.html)

By the early 1960s, word started getting out in Hollywood about Oregon's virtues as a place to shoot on location. Productions made here during these eventful years follow changes in popular culture in an almost spooky way. (Lane, Baker, Lincoln, Marion, Deschutes, and Jackson County) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1403d.part2.iconic-movies-shot-in-oregon.html)

As a place to go shoot pictures on location, Oregon has become pretty popular in the last few dozen years. But the Beaver State's contribution to early cinema, though more sparse, was surprisingly influential. (Clatsop, Lane, Deschutes, Hood River County) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1403c.iconic-movies-shot-in-oregon-part1.html)

At the critical moment, the keeper of the rescue station at Cape Arago lost his nerve and deserted his waiting crew. Eleven shipwrecked sailors drowned while he huddled behind the warm stove in his cabin. (Cape Arago, Coos County; 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1905b.lighthouse-keeper-cowardice-547.html)

The fix was in -- all the legislators who needed to be bribed had been paid off -- so John Mitchell felt comfortable 'fessing up to his plans to double-cross Jonathan Bourne and his "Friends of Silver." But Bourne had a plan to turn that around ... (Salem, Marion County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1906d.hold-up-session-1897-553.html)

State regulators didn't care, so neither did some dairy farmers, who left dead cows to rot among their dairy herds and brought milk to market in the same cans they used to slop the hogs; Portland led the nation in baby deaths as a result. (Portland, Multnomah and Columbia county; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1208b-bad-milk-was-killing-babies-in-portland.html)

Oregon’s last geothermal water-blaster, Old Perpetual, erupted for the last time sometime in the spring of 2009; a few dozen years ago, the state had two. (But now it's fixed again — see editor's note at end!) (Lakeview, Lake County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1011c-last-geyser-in-oregon-goes-still-in-lakeview.html)

Promoter Harry Glickman was late getting to the key meeting, so Baltimore Bullets basketball team owner Abe Pollin stalled for time by waiting in the bathroom until he arrived. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1960s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1011b_trail-blazers-fate-hung-on-long-bathroom-break.html)

Although she's most remembered for being the mistress of a famous man, journalist and rodeo performer Mona Bell Hill was, on her own, one of the most interesting people ever to live in Oregon — and, to the government, one of the most vexing. (Bonneville, Multnomah County; 1910s, 1920s, 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1706d.mona-bell-wild-west-bearcat-449.html)

IT WAS A TYPICAL balmy August evening at the Oregon State Penitentiary. The bell had rung for supper, so inmates were streaming out of their cells and heading toward the dining hall for the evening meal, as they always did. But on this particular evening, four prisoners hung back from the throng, and when the last prisoner had rounded the corner out of sight, they doubled back, hurrying into the cell that had been assigned to one of their number. Working feverishly with an auger stolen somehow from the prison’s shops, they cut a hole in the roof and pulled and boosted each other up through it. One of the most legendary jailbreaks in Oregon history had just started, and the die had been cast that would lead to the men’s doom. It was August 13, 1925; not one of the four prisoners would live to see 1929. (Salem, Marion County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/23-05.bloody-1925-prison-break-621.html)

Bunco Kelley was out of prison, Mysterious Billy Smith was at loose ends, and Jumbo Riley was looking for something to do ... somehow, they ended up at a table at Erickson's Saloon with the Jost brothers, talking about getting back into the shanghaiing business. Alas, it was not to be ... (Portland, Multnomah County; 1907) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1906c.jost-brothers-the-last-shanghaiers-552.html)

Oregon's Sailors' Boardinghouse Commission seemed completely uninterested in any enforcement activity other than ordering Larry Sullivan's competitors to leave the business. Naturally, those competitors fought back as best they could. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1906b.mysterious-billy-part2of2-551.html)

After Jim Turk's death, former pro prizefighter Larry Sullivan virtually owned the shanghaiing business in Portland ... but there was one competitor he couldn't seem to shake: 'Mysterious Billy' Smith, boxing's Welterweight Champion of the World -- whose 'day job' was crimping sailors. (East Portland, Multnomah County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1906a.mysterious-billy-smith-shanghaier-550.html)

Persistent legend claims the pioneer doctor and preacher, before he was killed in the 'Whitman Massacre,' foiled Britain's plans to take over by recruiting the first wave of Oregon Trail emigrants — but it's probably bunk. Here's why. (Walla Walla (Washington); 1830s, 1840s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1010a_marcus-whitman-wanted-to-save-oregon-but-not-from-british.html)