A fight broke out — and was ended by the roar of a double-barreled shotgun. Story contains explicit language. (Manhattan, Clatsop County; 1887) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1807e.girl-defended-her-family-with-a-shotgun-506.html)

... so a fisherman brought them ashore two by two in his rowboat. (Port Orford, Curry County; 1941) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/o1112d-dory-fisherman-rescues-shipwrecked-sailors.html)

... it turned out to be merely a chance to be the butt of one of his irreverent pranks. (Eugene, Lane County; 1967) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1610c.andy-warhol-punks-oregon-413.html)

... there’s also a bunch of evidence that makes no sense at all in that context. Why would a murderer mail a box of sexy panties to the exact place he planned to run away to, the day before an apparently premeditated crime? Was “Mrs. Norman Whitney” a real person, and if so, who was she? Did Brumfield have a second family in Calgary?

Then, too, why would a man who’s contemplating a murder like this use such a small amount of dynamite? Why would he stage the entire pageant on Pacific Highway, the most heavily traveled road in the area? Was there a second man involved in the plot, as the district attorney broadly hinted to reporters? Why was his wife so doggedly insistent that the burned corpse was that of her husband, when it was so obvious to everyone else that it was not? Was she in on it?

And those suicide attempts: How many people, crazy or not, can cut two inches into their own throats with a dull instrument? How many can hang themselves from a bunk bed without help? If he had help, who could have provided it?

It’s possible that all these anomalies can be explained by Brumfield simply being an unhinged homicidal maniac, and yeah, maybe that’s all there was to it. But looking back over the record at all the loose ends hanging off this messy little murder mystery, a person sure has to wonder.... (Roseburg, Douglas County; 1921) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/20-06b.brumfield-murdering-dentist-mystery-part2of2.html)

Dr. Brumfield had hired Russell to blast out some stumps from around a rural farm property he owned. At least, that’s what he’d told Russell when he hired him.

But, as it turned out, he was lying about that. What Brumfield really wanted to hire Russell for was to impersonate a corpse.

His corpse. (Roseburg, Douglas County; 1921) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/20-06a.brumfield-murdering-dentist-mystery-part1of2.html)

It seemed there was an endless supply of the stuff, slowly being released from somewhere just offshore ... century after century.

The natives, when asked, shared their oral histories about the strange wax — a tale of a big ship wrecked on the shore near Nehalem Bay, from which it all came. But what kind of big ship? From where, and whither bound? And what had become of its crew?

Over the years, historians and archaeologists have closed in on the answers to these questions. By the mid-20th century they had figured out that it was a Spanish galleon out of Manila, on its way to New Spain (Mexico, basically) sometime in the 1600s or 1700s, and that what remained of it — including cannons and other heavy metal artifacts, as well as, possibly, treasure — lay on the seafloor just off the north Oregon coast. But, nobody really knew which galleon it was.

By the end of the 20th century, though, the historical record on the beeswax shipwreck had become badly confused and polluted. Over the years, writers and raconteurs — especially Native American storytellers hired by resort owners to entertain guests — had had some of their professional fabrications and exaggerations taken a little too seriously, and the whole subject had just about crossed over the line from archaeology to folklore studies.

But in 2006, the Beeswax Wreck Project, a group of archaeologists and historians and geologists came together and decided they were going to take the topic seriously, and drill down through all the myths and legends to solve the mystery for real.

And in 2918, after more than a decade of research and exploration, they joined forces with another team of researchers working on the question and published what amounts to the definitive account in the summer issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly. (Offshore near Nehalem Bay, Tillamook County; 1693) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1807d.beeswax-wreck-mystery-solved-505.html)

... and later, so did generations of Bugs Bunny fans. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/o1112c-voice-of-looney-toons-mel-blanc.html)

... the roughest, toughest, most skillful “whip” on the West Coast was not what he appeared to be. (Siskiyou Pass, Oregon-California border; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see http://www.offbeatoregon.com/1610b.legendary-one-eyed-charley-412.html)

(Wolf Creek, Josephine County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see http://www.offbeatoregon.com/H1004aa_WolfCreekTav.html)

Today, you can visit Kitty Kat's grave, but his barn has been moved to a new place. (Tangent, Linn County; 1983) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1201b-kitty-kat-owner-of-city-hall-richest-cat.html)