4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL July 20, 2016
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History
Who had the motive to frame an innocent man?
Everyone did
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
here: They all bungled it badly. First,
they didn’t secure the crime scene; the
train stopped at several stations, with
people freely allowed on and off, be-
fore law enforcement people met up
with it at Eugene to start the investiga-
tion.
And when the agencies fi nally did
get involved, they did it like a pack of
paparazzi at the Oscars. There was the
Lane County Sheriff’s Offi ce, the Eu-
gene Police Department, the Oregon
State Police, the railroad’s own in-
house detective bureau, and, once they
got to the scene, the Linn County Sher-
iff’s Offi ce. Federal investigators from
the U.S. Navy and FBI soon weighed
in. Witnesses were interviewed and re-
interviewed, all in a big room so that
they could hear each other; naturally,
their stories started to infl uence one
another. Evidence was mishandled,
stepped in, tracked around, and then
cleaned up. Then, to top it all off, the
railroad company parked the “murder
car” on a spur line right next to the big-
gest U.S.O. facility in the region for a
week, where it (and any lingering un-
compromised evidence) received hun-
dreds of visits from curious soldiers
and sailors.
A day or two later, the story was in
the headlines nationwide, and federal
law-enforcement offi cials were mak-
ing some very nasty remarks about
evidence-handling and crime-investi-
gating skills out in Oregon. A nation-
wide public-relations disaster was in
the offi ng.
That much we know, as a matter of
public record. Here’s the speculative
part of the scenario:
Oregon authorities can see it’s im-
portant to fi nd somebody to pin this
on, and fast, so that they can get back
to not being a national laughingstock.
But the most likely suspect, Wilson,
has had a week in which to get his sto-
ry straight, and because he’s white and
a military man, any jury will choke on
the “reasonable doubt” introduced by
their failure to secure the crime scene.
Prosecuting him will only result in a
high-profi le acquittal that will show-
case every detail of their incompetence
and make them look even dumber.
What’s needed is a fall guy to pin it
on. And nobody’s more vulnerable to
that sort of judicial lynching, in 1943
America, than one of the train’s
I
n the cold light of history, the con-
viction and execution of Robert E.
Lee Folkes was almost certainly a rail-
road job. And it’s highly likely that the
real murderer of the lovely young Mar-
tha Brinson James was none other than
the prosecution’s star witness, Marine
Corps Pvt. Harold Wilson.
As outlined in last week’s column,
it was Wilson’s confl icting testimony,
along with an unsigned confession
likely beaten out of Folkes by the Los
Angeles Police Department, aided by
the hostility of the jury and some rab-
ble-rousing references to Folkes as a
“zoot-suiter” in local newspapers, that
sent the cosmopolitan young black
man to the gas chamber.
But why? Why would all the author-
ity fi gures, from the railroad’s house
detective all the way up to Oregon
Governor Earl Snell and maybe even
higher, have acted in this way, to hang
a man they should have at least sus-
pected was innocent of the crime?
We can’t really know the answer to
that question. But if you consider the
consequences that might have resulted
from Wilson being publicly accused of
this crime, it begins to make a lot more
sense — especially in the context of an
America in its darkest wartime hour.
Southern Pacifi c Railroad
Let’s start with the Southern Pacifi c
Railroad. Geier, in his book, makes an
excellent case for the railroad having
had a strong incentive to pin this kill-
ing on Folkes. To the railroad, Folkes
was a somewhat dangerous man – an
intelligent, articulate, well connected
black man who also happened to be a
prominent member of a union that the
railroad really wanted to break. Send-
ing him up the river in the face of plen-
ty of evidence of his innocence would
send a powerful message to members
of that union that it could not protect
them.
Oregon law enforcement agencies
The various law-enforcement orga-
nizations charged with investigating
this crime shared a strong incentive to
pin it on Folkes rather than trying to in-
dict Wilson for it. The reason was sim-
ple: to save face. There’s no ambiguity
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 10A
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Why no wireless?
One simple question with maybe
a slightly more complicated answer:
Why, in this age of technology and
high-speed fi ber optic cable access,
does the Cottage Grove Library NOT
have free wireless internet access?
It seems like a major oversight and
travesty for users of a public library,
paid for in part by tax dollars, for there
not to be a free public wireless virtual
on-ramp here in our little town to the
information superhighway. Residents
should not have to go searching for
open wireless networks in bar rooms
and coffee shops here and consequent-
ly feel compelled to buy something at
either for the privilege of using their
networks. Cottage Grove should not
be a city of the haves (access to infor-
mation) versus the have-nots due to
income and ability to essentially pay
for a seat at businesses with open net-
works.
Surely there are grant programs
for such a thing? Surely a two-time
All-America City and the Covered
Bridge Capital of The World can do
a little better for it’s citizens? Surely
it’s a better use of fi nancial resources
than repaving Main Street or re-do-
ing a city park (All-America Square)?
Ok, there were several more rhetorical
and not so simply answered questions.
As the kids say, “Sorry, not sorry”.
I realize there are many aspects and
issues to be explored in this topic.
Maybe I have not informed myself and
they already have been and continue to
be discussed and reviewed regularly.
But the fact remains that there is not
one public place, to my knowledge,
in town where there is free and open
wireless access to information in an
environment conducive to study and
quiet research.
I would welcome the opportunity
to stand corrected and would buy the
fi rst person to do so your next coffee.
Stacy L. DeHart
Cottage Grove
To CGPD:
There has been so much resentment
and retaliation against police depart-
ments all across America simply be-
cause of a few incidents where some
police have acted without justifi cation
of their actions.
That hasn’t happened in the Cottage
Grove Police Department. I have the
highest regards and the utmost respect
of the Cottage Grove Police Depart-
ment.
Thank you for being who and what
you are. Cottage Grove is so fortunate
to have a police department like the
one we have. I’ve lived here in Cot-
tage Grove for 74 years. Thank you
for making me feel safe and secure at
a time when the world and the USA
has so much insecurity. Please keep
doing what you have been doing.
This is an original Bricker saying
“you can never assume that a person
is guilty of anything just because of
their color" but only if they have bro-
ken the law.
Glen Bricker
Cottage Grove
Just do it: Both short and long workouts reap big results
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
Exercise is crucial for health
and
lon-
gevity. A
huge study
recently
published
in JAMA
Internal
Medicine,
on
1.44
million
Americans and Europeans, has
linked a high level of physical
activity to a reduction in the risk
of 13 different cancers, includ-
ing breast, colon, lung and liver.
A low level of fi tness is known
to be a risk factor for cardiovas-
cular and all-cause mortality.
So there is no question that
exercise is a key factor in the
health and fi tness of your body.
Yet, for many people the ques-
tion is how much time and abil-
ity is necessary for exercise to
be benefi cial? The good news is
even short sessions of exercise
bring big results. The bad news
is Americans are not getting
enough exercise. How much ex-
ercise is enough to be valuable?
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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The current Physical Activity
Guidelines for Americans call
for adults to do a minimum of
150 minutes of moderate inten-
sity aerobic activity per week or
75 minutes of vigorous aerobic
activity, and they recommend
doubling that amount of activ-
ity for additional substantial
benefi ts to health. In addition,
the guidelines call for moderate
to high intensity strength train-
ing at least two days per week.
The percentage of Americans
who meet these guidelines has
improved from 15.1 percent in
2000 to 21.5 percent in 2014, but
that still leaves the vast majority
getting inadequate activity.
Even a small, regular dose of
exercise makes a difference. In
a pooled analysis of six studies,
people who got regular exercise
but a smaller amount than the
federal recommendations still
had a 20 percent decrease in
mortality risk compared to those
who were sedentary. Those who
met the recommendations had a
31 percent decrease in risk; the
risk reduction reached a plateau
at 39 percent for 3-5 times the
recommended minimum of ac-
tivity. Studies on runners have
found similar results. Large
reductions in all-cause mortal-
ity risk are commonly found
in groups that run moderate
amounts compared to those that
are sedentary: running or jog-
ging about 2-3 times per week,
a total of 1-3 hours per week, at
six miles per hour or slower.
These results suggest that
there are signifi cant longevity
benefi ts to be gained with even a
small amount of moderate exer-
cise. That being said, exercising
more vigorously (for example,
running rather than walking
briskly) provides a greater ben-
efi t. Comparing exercise of dif-
ferent intensities but the same
total calorie expenditure, more
intense exercise has more po-
tent effects on cardiorespiratory
fi tness. Also, vigorous exercise
is associated with greater re-
ductions in cardiovascular risk
compared to moderate exercise.
Exercise is powerful preven-
tive medicine, but many people
think they can’t fi t adequate ex-
ercise into their busy schedules.
Could we use the high intensity
exercise strategy to reduce the
amount of time we need to spend
on exercise for good health (ex-
ercise very vigorously for just a
few minutes)? This is what pro-
ponents of high-intensity inter-
val training (HIIT) claim.
High-intensity interval train-
ing (HIIT) generally includes
a short burst (usually 20-60
seconds) of maximum or near
maximum effort followed by a
recovery period, repeated sever-
al times. HIIT is used as a time-
effi cient strategy for improving
cardiorespiratory fi tness and
athletic performance.
A notable study on HIIT pub-
lished in April sparked head-
lines claiming that one minute
of very intense exercise could
produce the same health and fi t-
ness benefi ts as 45 minutes of
moderate exercise. The study
compared traditional endurance
exercise to HIIT by assigning
previously inactive men to three
different groups for 12 weeks:
A sedentary control group; an
endurance exercise group (three
days per week: 45 minutes on
a stationary bike at a moder-
ate pace, including a 2-minute
warm-up and 3-minute cool
down); and an interval training
group (three days per week: 2-
minute warm-up, 20 second all-
out sprint, slow two minutes,
20-second sprint, slow two min-
utes, 20-second sprint, 3-minute
cool down; a total of one minute
of high intensity activity).
Before and after, the research-
ers took muscle biopsies and
blood to measure indicators of
cardiorespiratory fi tness and in-
sulin sensitivity; they also mea-
sured body composition. Both
groups saw improvements in
their body fat percentage, car-
diorespiratory fi tness, insulin
sensitivity, and skeletal muscle
markers of fi tness and glucose
metabolism. The striking fi nd-
ing was that the improvements
were similar in the two exercise
groups.
This study is notable because
of the small time commitment
they studied – 10 minutes, three
days per week. At the end of the
12-week study, the total time
spent on stationary bikes was 27
hours in the moderate intensity
group and six hours in the HIIT
group, but the benefi ts were
similar.
One of the most common rea-
sons people choose not to exer-
cise is because they think they
don’t have enough time. This re-
search suggests you don’t need
much time at all.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York
Times best-selling author and a
board certifi ed family physician
specializing in lifestyle and nu-
tritional medicine. His newest
book, The End of Heart Disease,
offers a detailed plan to prevent
and reverse heart disease using
a nutrient-dense, plant-rich eat-
ing style. Visit his informative
website at DrFuhrman.com.
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