Juneau Crime Line is starting a new cold case section. The first cold case to be featured is the 1988 murder of a Juneau man known as Johnny Jack.
Sometime between Friday, October 14, 1988 and Monday, October 17, 1988, 73 year old John L. Jack Senior was brutally beaten and stabbed to death. His body was found on that Monday at about 10:00 in the morning inside his apartment in the Mountainview Senior Center. Investigators at that time concluded there were likely two suspects, a man along with a woman or smaller man. The suspects were never identified. The circumstances indicate Jack probably knew his killers and they were familiar with where he lived and that he kept a small amount of cash in his apartment. Jack was a particularly vulnerable victim as he was partially paralyzed after having a stroke.
Investigators in the late 1980s came to believe people in the community knew more than people were disclosing to police. Secrets may have been kept due to loyalty to certain individuals or fear of reprisal. JPD hopes that someone who knows what happened with want to unburden himself or herself of this nearly thirty year old secret and might be willing to come forward at this point.