States of Mind: The death of Ethen Cunningham

States of Mind: The death of Ethen Cunningham

AUTHOR’S NOTE: During the evening of Jan. 19, 1948, in Kenai, William Franke shot dead Ethen Cunningham near Cunningham’s home along the lower Kenai River. Franke never denied doing the killing, but prior to the trial scheduled for March, local residents were rehashing the events of that night — as they understood them, mostly via hearsay — and were trying to make sense of the violence.