Who murdered Allen James Hamilton in 1977?
On a summer afternoon in Portland, Oregon, the steady flow of the Willamette River gave up a grim secret. It was Monday, August 15, 1977, when an employee of the Portland Development Commission spotted a body floating near the Ankeny Pump Station around 2:15 p.m. The Multnomah County Sheriff's River Patrol was summoned to the scene, recovering the man from the water and bringing him to a nearby float. The man was identified as Allen James Hamilton, a 24-year-old Native American male.
An autopsy would later reveal a chilling sequence of events. While the ultimate cause of death was determined to be drowning, the coroner found that Hamilton had been stabbed. His death was a homicide, a violent end to a young life. Investigators learned that Hamilton was known to be a transient who struggled with alcohol. The last time anyone recalled seeing him alive was three days earlier, on the evening of Friday, August 12.
The final hours of Allen Hamilton's life were spent at the Tacoma Tavern, where he was seen at approximately 5:00 p.m. He was not alone; witnesses remembered him drinking with three other men who have never been identified. The group consisted of two African-American males and one white male. After leaving the tavern, Hamilton's trail went cold until his discovery in the river. Decades have passed, but no arrests have ever been made in his murder, and the identities of the men he was with remain a mystery. His case is still considered an unsolved cold case by the Portland police.
