A Bloody Anchorage Night

It took a horrible murder for Alaska to revise its statutes for the criminally insane from some of the most lenient sentencing laws in the country to the strictest laws for the insanity defense in the U.S.

On the night of May 3, 1982, one veteran Anchorage police officer was quoted as saying, “This has got to be one of the grisliest nights I’ve ever seen.” Within an hour, seven people lost their lives. Three died in the Black Bull bar in the Muldoon section of Anchorage, and the other four were shot in Russian Jack Springs Park in East Anchorage. At first, investigators wondered if the two crime scenes were connected, but they soon learned nothing linked the two horrific events.

Police were first called to the Black Bull bar where they found three bloody bodies strewn across the floor while patrons calmly sat at the bar sipping their cocktails. It did not take detectives long to learn the facts of the crime. Donald Pierce, 26, had a loud argument at the bar with his girlfriend, Jody Coson, 24. Pierce stormed out of the bar and returned a short time later with a gun. When he saw Coson talking to Herf Keith, 62, Pierce shot Coson twice, then shot Keith twice, and finally turned the gun on himself, shooting himself once in the head.

From the sequence of 911 calls, authorities knew the murders at the bar occurred before the killings at Russian Jack Springs Park, so Donald Pierce could not be responsible for the murders in the park.

Russian Jack Springs Park

Russian Jack Springs Park, named after Russian immigrant Jacob Maruneko, is in East Anchorage. Maruenko, nicknamed Russian Jack, emigrated to Anchorage in 1915 and obtained a permit to harvest trees in the area of the current-day park. In 1930, Maruneko built a cabin near a natural spring in the area, and this section of Anchorage subsequently became known as Russian Jack Springs. In 1943, the Army claimed the land for wartime purposes, and after the war, the city of Anchorage purchased the parcel from the Army and used it as a park and a prison. In 1959 after Alaska became a state, the prison closed, but the park remained.

Russian Jack Springs Park soon became a popular place to camp and play. The park encompasses a golf course, softball fields, ski trails, a ski chalet, and a sledding hill. The girl…