Louis Hastings

Mass Murderer

Louis Hastings and the 1983 McCarthy Mass Murder

Background

On March 1, 1983, Louis D. Hastings carried out a carefully planned mass murder in McCarthy, Alaska, a remote former mining settlement in the Wrangell Mountains. Hastings, a 39-year-old unemployed computer programmer from Anchorage, armed himself with a .223-caliber Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle and moved through the isolated community, shooting residents at their cabins, along trails and near the local airstrip. McCarthy had only about 22 year-round residents at the time. Its isolation, limited communications and dependence on small aircraft made the community especially vulnerable. Hastings intended to kill everyone in the settlement, conceal the bodies and then continue with a plan to sabotage the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. By the time he was stopped, six people were dead and two others had been wounded.

Hastings' Life Before the Murders

Hastings had previously worked as a computer programmer, including employment connected with Stanford University in California. He later moved to Alaska, where he sought a quieter life in what he considered an unspoiled natural environment. He spent time in Anchorage and McCarthy and was familiar with the residents, cabins, trails and airstrip. His personal and professional life deteriorated in the period before the murders. His programming business failed, and a brief marriage ended. Hastings had also received psychiatric care earlier in his life. He later described himself as socially isolated and expressed nihilistic ideas about the value of human life. Despite those difficulties, the attack was not an impulsive outburst. Evidence recovered after the murders showed that Hastings had developed an elaborate plan involving weapons, transportation, the destruction of evidence and an attack on the pipeline.

The Pipeline Sabotage Plan

Hastings reportedly believed that the development of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline had damaged Alaska's environment and transformed the state in ways he resented. He planned to obtain a gasoline truck, drive it to Pump Station 12 and ignite it in an attempt to damage or disable the pipeline. He apparently expected to die during the explosion. Hastings did not want his family to learn that he was responsible, so he devised an additional plan to eliminate witnesses in McCarthy. He intended to kill the residents, intercept the community's mail plane and use the aircraft to transport the bodies to a glacier or crevasse, where they would disappear. Hastings apparently hoped that his own remains would be destroyed in the pipeline explosion and that investigators would believe he had vanished with the other residents. A written checklist discovered in his cabin referred to his rifle, ammunition, a suppressor or silencer, clothing and flares, demonstrating that the violence had been considered in advance. ...

Confirmed Victims: (6)

Maxine Beverly Edwards 52 yr old Female

Louis Hastings | Murderpedia