From the interview with John Vekich of Tacoma, WA conducted by Oran DeBois at the Fort Worden History Center on January 24, 2004. Mr. Vekich served in the U.S. Army 248th Coast Artillery during World War II. At Fort Worden, he worked as a CID investigator. Here he describes some of his work in law enforcement:

“Unfortunately we had a mess here. I investigated the first murder they had (at Fort Worden). It was a boy who married a lady who liked more than one man and he just couldn’t take it so he killed her right behind the NCO Club, then he committed suicide. I had the task of assembling that and making about a 60 page report. In those days they didn’t have a coroner. We worked with the sheriff’s office. Port Townsend was a third class city so they didn’t have felony authority, didn’t have the court that could handle anything. They had only one cop, he was the chief and the police commission and everything. We cracked a couple of burglaries in Pierce County and Port Townsend that involved soldiers.”