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A Soul on Trial: A Marine Corps Mystery at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Robin R. Cutler

2008; Oregon Historical Society; Volume: 109; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ohq.2008.0098

2329-3780

R. Gregory Nokes,

American Political and Social Dynamics

fareof schoolbooks andmainstream histories, thealternateversion emphasizes thedissenters from capitalism and liberal democracy of the kind practiced in the city throughout itshis tory.InThe PortlandRed Guide,Michael Munk, a retiredpolitical science professor and lifelong radical,has put togethera testament to thefact that the cityhas consistentlyhad a current of radical thought and action running through its past like an underground river ? swift, seldom seen, but occasionally bubbling to the surface to muddy itsotherwise placid political and social life. Munk's book serves both as a primer of this history and a tourist guide to its material presence in the city.Sectioned off by physical and topical categories aswell as by chronology?with chapters titled"TheNine teenth Century (Utopians &Marxists)" and "WWII-1960 (McCarthyism & ColdWar)", for example ? theguide is an easily followed key to thepersonalities, places, and eventsmaking up Portland's radical past. In it,readers find obvious figures,such as John Reed and the steps inSouthwest Portland leading tohis home, but alsoGeneral Evans F.Carlson, who made popu larthephrase "gungho," supported theChinese revolution, and, as a result, became a victim of McCarthyism. A fewother randomly selected names from thebook include:Marie Equi, Dirk Dejonge, Emma Goldman, and Rose Leopold. Each of the stories theyrepresent reveal some thing interesting about Portland radicalism. Numerous well chosen photographs andmaps enhance the stories and directions. Portland's radical history isrichbut patchy. Neither the citynor Oregon has been a hotbed of radical politics inquite theway that larger cities such as Seattle and San Francisco have been. As a result, Munk's enthusiasm for uncov ering thecity'sradicals sometimes bests his bet terjudgment. To takeone prominent example, he includesDeNorval Unthank, Portland's first African American physician, inhis pantheon of Portland radicals. While Unthank was a courageous figurewell worth remembering, it is stretchinga point to call him a radical, even if,asMunk points out, he was so labeled by an undercover agent.Unthank was basically a well-regarded doctor who tried to livea useful and peaceful lifebutwas harassed mercilessly bybigots.His "radicalism"was largelyowing to his refusal to give in tohis racist tormentors. Such choices give readers ofThe Red Guide, atdifferentjunctures in thebook, the sense that the author ispadding his text. Yet, in total, the work isa genuine contribution to the literature of the city and a livelyaddition to the depth and breadth ofknowledge we have about what reallyhappened here. Craig Wollner Portland State University A SOULON TRIAL: AMARINECORPSMYSTERYATTHE TURNOF THETWENTIETH CENTURY byRobin R. Cutler Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Maryland, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 382 pages. $26.95 cloth. Rosa Sutton would like thisbook. It gives far more credence toher claims of seeingvisions of her newly deceased son thandid a 1907 military panel thatdismissed them out of hand. Robin R. Cutler, author of thisdetailed account of the investigationintothedeath of Marine Lt. James "Jimmie"N. Sutton, allows readers to make up their own minds. The twenty-two-year-old Sutton, who was fromPortland,Oregon, was shotdead during a brutal fight with other youngMarines outside their barracks inAnnapolis, Maryland, on October 13,1907.Afterwhat appeared to be a slip-shod investigation, U.S. Navy investigators initially ruled that Sutton committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. At home in Portland, however, Rosa Sutton claimed to have received a post-mortem visit from her son,duringwhich he toldher hewas murdered i62 OHQ vol. 109, no. 1 and revealed severaldetails about thefight she presumably could not otherwise have known. An overriding concern forRosa Sutton, a Roman Catholic, was her belief that suicide was amortal sin. She found the idea of suicide incomprehensible because Jimmie had told her of his excitement at having been recently assigned to President Theodore Roosevelt's GreatWhite Fleet for an upcoming voyage of major importance. The author suggests, with good reason, that theNavy was concerned from the outsetwith protecting itsreputation,already tarredbyhaz ing incidents at thenearby Naval Academy. A murder among itsyoungMarine officers, most ofwhom were from prominent families, would be a public relations disaster.The Suttons,who resided in a comfortable five-bedroom home onNorthwest Portland's Hoyt Street, were also well-connected. Using information from her visions, but without emphasizing thempublicly,Rosa Sut ton created enough doubts about theNavy's initialfinding, and pulled enough...