LATE ONE SPRING evening in 1917, a man named A.L. Sauvie was trying to sleep, and not having much success.

The problem was his downstairs neighbor, who had gotten roaring drunk and was now verbally abusing, and physically beating, his wife.

Complicating the situation even further was the fact that the downstairs neighbor was Sauvie’s landlord. He was renting an upstairs room in the Clackamas Tavern, just outside Oregon City.

The Clackamas claimed to specialize in chicken dinners, but its real claim to secretive fame was as a speakeasy. Prohibition had started early in Oregon.

Also, the wife-beating owner of the Clackamas was about as close to royalty as old Portland’s liquor industry had. His name was August Erickson — the former owner of the legendary Erickson’s Saloon, on Burnside downtown. (Portland, Multnomah and Clackamas county; 1880s, 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2506b.august-erickson-cautionary-tale-701.520.html)