4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL September 16, 2015
O PINION
LETTERS TO THE
EDITOR
Trump's still in debt
Donald Trump has become wealthy by playing
to the base instincts of people. His gambling
casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City leave most
people poorer and appeal to people who don't do
the math.
For his highly leveraged building projects, four
times his businesses fi led bankruptcy instead
of repaying the people who loaned him money.
Even though the court ruled that he did not need
to fulfi ll his promises to repay company debt,
morally he still owes the debt and should pay off
the people who bought his bonds and his lies.
Those American retirees who were charmed and
scammed by this 69 year-old Music Man would
welcome the return of their investment in Trump
Inc. Seeing his record, voters can guess he would
push to default on US bonds to wipe out the fed-
eral debt doubled by Obama. His latest bankrupt-
cy was only six years ago. With net worth of $4
billion, let him make a real blessing in America
by paying back the people he still owes.
Larry Bottemiller,
Certifi ed Financial Planner
Cottage Grove
Offbeat Oregon History
Private manhunt ended with cold-blooded,
jury-approved murder
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
The Unwritten
Law Files
This column is one of a
series of case studies of the
early-20th-century mania
for honor killings. It was
popularly known as “The
Unwritten Law,” and it
was a social convention
that permitted and/or ob-
ligated a man to murder
anyone whom he knew to
be working to seduce his
wife or sister. Unwritten
Law cases arose around
the country in the 1890s
and were alarmingly com-
mon until around the time
of the First World War.
Today’s column discusses
one such case, which took
place in Astoria in 1907.
I
t was a little after 6 a.m. on June 14,
1907. Dawn was just brightening the
decks of the passenger steamer Alliance,
docked at the pier in Astoria, when John
Bowlsby saw his prey step aboard. He
fi ngered the .44 revolver in his pocket
and tried to stay out of sight, waiting for
a chance to make his move.
His chance came almost immediately.
The marked man was moving away from
the crowd of people, and soon he stood
in a spot where Bowlsby felt he could get
in a good shot without risking hitting any
bystanders. Carefully he steadied the big
.44 against the side of a deckhouse – and
pulled the trigger.
owlsby’s target, a fellow North Bend
man named Cleve Jennings, died in a
hospital eight hours later. Meanwhile,
with his head held high, a triumphant
John Bowlsby quietly submitted to arrest
and handed over his revolver.
Hard as it is for a modern person to
believe, this cold-blooded assassination
met with widespread approval. It was
about as close to a pure example of “The
Unwritten Law” in action as Oregon
would ever see.
“It was the outcome of one man alien-
ating the affections of another man’s
wife and was the result of a manhunt in
which the hunter fi nally found his game,”
wrote the Morning Oregonian’s Astoria
correspondent the next day.
Bowlsby was, or at least considered
himself to be, a wronged husband. The
man he had stalked and gunned down
was Cleve Jennings, a former co-worker
of Bowlsby’s wife; Jennings and Mrs.
Bowlsby had both worked in a cheese
factory in North Bend for a time. Bowls-
by had grown suspicious of Jennings and
determined to run him out of town. This
he apparently did; Jennings left North
Bend sometime in early 1907.
Some time later, Mrs. Bowlsby (the
newspaper never mentions her name) had
journeyed to Astoria to visit her broth-
ers; after her departure, Mr. Bowlsby
had somehow heard a report that she had
secretly met up with Jennings at a lodg-
ing house in Astoria prior to going to her
brother’s house. Immediately Bowlsby
had journeyed north to pursue – and, of
course, to avenge.
He found his wife easily enough; but
Jennings, he learned, had traveled on to
Portland. Bowlsby followed but was un-
able to fi nd his rival in Portland after sev-
eral days’ search, so he booked a ticket
back home to North Bend – via Astoria
– on the steamer Alliance.
It had been during the passenger load-
ing at Astoria that Bowlsby had spotted
his rival, who apparently was also jour-
neying home to North Bend.
And that is how the two of them came
to be on the deck of the steamer Alliance
that morning, taking part in a dramatic
tableau of assassination and revenge.
From the very start, Bowlsby based his
defense on The Unwritten Law. He told
reporters he regretted nothing.
“I believe I did no more than any other
man would do under similar circum-
stances, as there appears to be no law to
protect a man’s home and family unless
he does it himself,” the unrepentant as-
sassin told the Oregonian’s correspon-
dent the next day. “The only regret I have
is the disgrace to my son and daughter.
For myself I do not care.”
He blamed the affair on Cleve Jen-
nings’ aged mother, who, he claimed,
encouraged the affair, and on another
“meddlesome old woman”; both of them,
he said, “were constantly urging my wife
to leave me.”
The picture Bowlsby painted clearly
resonated with the coroner’s jury, which
not only ruled the killing justifi ed, but
excoriated its victim at the same time.
“The evidence shows that the defen-
dant and his wife had lived together in
peace and happiness for a period of over
15 years until the serpent entered their
household in the shape of Cleve Jen-
nings and destroyed their home,” the
jurors wrote. “We are furthermore of the
opinion, on account of the lack of stat-
utes covering crimes of this character,
that said Bowlsby was fully justifi ed in
shooting the said Jennings.”
The district attorney nonetheless fi led
charges against him; but one gets the
distinct impression that this was done as
a courtesy, to secure for him a record-
clearing acquittal and an offi cial declara-
tion of innocence. Certainly the outcome
was never for a moment in doubt. Mrs.
Bowlsby had confessed to having been
intimate with Jennings, and although it’s
possible that she was lying to keep her
husband out of prison, that seems fairly
unlikely. To that jury in 1907, the case
for acquittal seemed as clear and obvious
as the case for conviction would be to a
jury today.
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 5A
New information to sleep on
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
W
e often fail to recog-
nize or acknowledge
its importance, but sleep, like a
high-nutrient diet and exercise,
is a crucial
component
of excel-
lent health.
As our lives
become in-
creasingly
busy,
we
are sacrifi c-
ing sleep: in
1942, mean reported sleep time
for adults was 7.6 hours, and by
2001, the average was down to
6.7 hours. According to a poll
by the National Sleep Founda-
tion, 63 percent of American
adults report that their sleep
needs are not being met, and
43 percent report that on week-
nights they rarely or never get a
good night’s sleep. But we need
adequate sleep to work optimal-
ly in our daily activities.
Why do we need sleep? Our
brains work best when we are
well-rested: during sleep, our
brains stabilize newly formed
memories, and adequate sleep
promotes learning and cog-
nitive performance the next
day. Sleep is also essential for
proper immune function. Get-
ting adequate sleep regularly
may reduce the severity of cold
symptoms and also may main-
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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tain suffi cient numbers of natu-
ral killer cells. In fact, there is
some evidence that poor sleep
could impair the immune sys-
tem’s ability to eliminate, small,
newly established tumors before
they become dangerous. In ad-
dition, melatonin, which is a
hormone produced in response
to darkness and during sleep, is
an antioxidant and an inhibitor
of cancer cell growth. Allowing
the body to produce suffi cient
melatonin is essential. Inad-
equate sleep is associated with
impaired learning ability, faster
aging of the brain, impaired
driving and work performance,
overeating, obesity, elevated
cholesterol, and increased risk
of diabetes, hypertension and
death from all causes. Plus, lack
of sleep negatively affects our
appearance and emotional state.
Are you getting enough
good-quality sleep? The precise
amount of sleep required for
adults has been debated and dif-
fers between individuals. But, if
you wake up to an alarm clock
you are most likely sleep-de-
prived. Here are some strategies
to consider if you’d like to im-
prove the quality of your sleep:
you wake in the middle of the
night, don’t turn on your TV,
smartphone or computer; the
light will turn off melatonin and
cause you to feel more alert.
Instead, relax, read under low
light or meditate until you feel
sleepy again.
Minimize electronic device
use at night. Smartphones, com-
puter screens, televisions and
tablets emit blue light, which
suppresses melatonin produc-
tion. Using these devices close
to bedtime can disrupt sleep. If
Sleep on a consistent sched-
ule, going to bed at the same
time every night, and waking
up at the same time every morn-
ing.
Don’t wake up to an alarm
clock if possible; the alarm
Make your sleep environment
as dark as possible. Don’t keep
clocks that emit light or night
lights in the bedroom; light-
blocking curtains or a sleep
mask can reduce exposure to
outside light and enhance your
sleep quality. Light exposure
regulates our internal clock:
bright light makes us alert in
the morning, and a dark room at
night promotes melatonin pro-
duction and good sleep. Expo-
sure to light soon before bed or
during sleep reduces the depth
and quality of sleep. Even a low
level of light exposure through
closed eyelids (such as a night
light) can reduce melatonin
production, and this disruption
of our natural rhythms has ill
health effects. Light exposure
at night is associated with an
increased risk of cancer, most
strongly with breast cancer.
clock wakes you abruptly and
use of the snooze button can
rob you of valuable REM sleep.
When you wake naturally, your
body prepares you during the
fi nal sleep cycles by shifting
hormone production—reducing
melatonin and increasing corti-
sol, which helps you to become
alert.
Minimize noise. How noise
affects one’s sleep is somewhat
individual, based on what is
familiar and typical. Earplugs
or “white noise” (for example
from a fan) may help to prevent
noises from disrupting sleep.
Avoid alcohol and caffeine.
Although alcohol may cause
you to fall asleep more quickly,
it reduces the quality of sleep.
Caffeine also disrupts sleep, es-
pecially when consumed in the
evening.
Exercise. Exercising regu-
larly (especially vigorous ex-
ercise) promotes healthy sleep,
but exercise close to bedtime is
usually not recommended.
Sleep at a comfortable, but
cooler temperature. Body tem-
perature naturally drops during
sleep. Sleeping in a warm room
(above 75°F) or trapping in ex-
cessive heat with extra blankets
may disrupt sleep.
Follow a high-nutrient diet. A
low intake of vegetables is as-
sociated with poor sleep. Those
following a Nutritarian (high-
nutrient) diet may get better
quality sleep than people eating
poorly, and therefore may re-
quire fewer hours of sleep.
For those who experience
diffi culty sleeping, morning
light exposure (or light therapy)
helps normalize melatonin cy-
cling as a means of establishing
better sleep patterns and resolv-
ing insomnia. In the mornings
open the shades wide and get in
a sun lit room, go outside or use
a therapeutic light. Tart cherry
juice, a natural dietary source
of melatonin, may be an effec-
tive addition. Supplementing to
achieve adequate omega-3 fatty
acids and zinc may also benefi t
sleep. These natural methods
are preferable to prescription
sleep drugs, which are linked to
serious problems including an
increased risk of death.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York
Times best-selling author and a
family physician specializing in
lifestyle and nutritional medi-
cine. Visit his informative web-
site at DrFuhrman.com. Submit
your questions and comments
about this column directly to
newsquestions@drfuhrman.
com. The full reference list
for this article can be found at
DrFuhrman.com.
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