The Great Mystery

Marcus Peterson was a patient at Morningside Hospital when he died on June 21, 1940 at the age of 79.  He was buried the following day in Multnomah Cemetery in Section H, Lot 20A, grave 4.

We know he was admitted to Morningside in October of 1932 with a diagnosis of "senility and atherosclerosic dementia."  We might call that Alzheimer's today. 

Marcus' time at Morningside were easy years.  He was housed, fed, clothed and looked after.  He died of pneumonia, what some call "the old man's friend."   A nurse who wrote a medical column around that time in the New York Times said that a combination of pneumonia and a little morphine was "one shallow breath away from unraveling the great mystery." 

Salacious, "En Dishabille"

In the wee hours of January 1, 1922, Mrs. Agnes Purdin and her lover, Howard Sigsby were nestled together in Agnes' home on SE 47th St., when her estranged husband broke into the house, disturbing the sleeping lovers.

Agnes and Sigsby managed to get out of the bed before Purdin shot Agnes three times in the head.  Sigsby was shot three times before Purdin took a hatchet to his head, reducing it to pulp.   

Purdin left the house and returned later to look for his things.  Three days later, a neighbor, not having seen any activity in the house, wandered over and looked through a window.  What she saw was Howard's body on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood; she called police.

The case was sensationalized in the press.  Purdin was arrested and tried and found guilty of manslaughter.  He served seven years for murdering two people in cold blood.  His attorney argued that he was insane at the time of the murder; the jury bought it.  It was improper, after all, to be a married woman and found to be "en disabille" with a man who was not your husband.

Sigsby is interred in Section B, with a small block marker.  Agnes is interred at Rose City.   Once Mr. Purdin was released from prison, he left the state.  

Our Work is Noticed!

Our work with the Lost Alaskans project and Morningside Hospital has received some good press by Katy Muldoon in the Oregonian.  For some reason the stories of these people resonates with us.  For some they were removed from their traditional home to a strange land.  For others who went to Alaska to search for their riches their journey ended with a one way ticket to Portland.  But many were helped by their stay at Morningside as well and were released and remember their stay there in a positive way.