| Unexpected Delivery to Lowville Art Studio Leads to Interesting Story 06/26/16 04:00pm by Nick Altmire nick@linkinglewiscounty.com |
| Copyright 2015 linkinglewiscounty.com all rights reserved privacy policy here |
| Everything You Need To Know About Lewis County In One Place! |
| This Prime Ad Space is Available! Contact Us! |
Search Our Site:
| Financing Available! |
Lowville, led to a quest by studio owner Kaera Sawler to find out all she could about the person it came from. It all started a few weeks ago, when an over sized envelope arrived in the mail from the Palmer Correctional Facility in Palmer, Alaska. "I admit, I was apprehensive about opening it, but I did and found a letter and the two paintings inside," Mrs. Sawler said. "Well of course it made me curious about who this person was, what did they do to end up where they are, and how and why did they contact me." she continued. Mrs. Sawler's husband David made a call to the prison, did some research online and contacted a few people to see what he could find out about Manfried West, the prisoner who sent the package. The prison informed Mr. Sawler that Manfried West, age 60, is a prisoner at the facility, serving an eighty-year sentence for a second-degree murder conviction in Alaska. He has been in prison since 1993. Mr. Sawler was told that Mr. West is an exemplary prisoner, never in any trouble and is always painting. The story surrounding Mr. West's murder charge was quite newsworthy in Alaska in the 1990s. Mr. West, a native of Harrisville, had been in and out of prison throughout his life for non-violent crimes. After moving to Alaska for a fresh start, he once again found himself with the wrong crowd and heading down the same path. In May of 1993, Alaskans were consumed by the story involving the disappearance of three-time gubernatorial candidate and Alaskan Independence Party founder Joe Vogler. Mr. Vogler, a miner, had unsuccessful runs in 1974, 1982, and 1986, seeking to be the governor of Alaska. He was the leading voice behind the Alaskan Independence movement at the time, lobbying for secession and maintaining that Alaska was illegally entered as a state in 1959 to serve U.S. interests in the developing Cold War with Russia. Mr. Vogler, who was also a constitutional lawyer, maintained Alaska statehood violated the U.N. Charter that the United States signed, which declared that "signatory's territories must be allowed self-determination and a vote on independence." Mr. Vogler claimed both Alaska and Hawaii were denied this and that their statehood is illegal since the United States did not give territorial Alaskans the option of independence when statehood was voted on. In 1973, he and other Interior Alaskan miners organized the Alaska Independence party, demanding a vote on independence from the U.S. The party was finally successful on winning the governorship in 1990, behind candidate Wally Hickel. Upset, in his opinion, that Mr. Hickel was not pressing for an independence vote hard enough after becoming governor, Mr. Vogler and his miner friends took out full page ads in Anchorage newspapers and looked for a sponsor in order to speak before the U.N. General Assembly on the subject of Alaska independence. Iran agreed to sponsor the cause.
when he was discovered missing in May of 1993. For over a year conspiracy theories circulated, speculating on what happened to Joe Vogler, 80 years old at the time of his disappearance, and what role did his secession efforts play in the case. Bringing us back to the Manfried West part of the story, it was seventeen months later, in October of 1994, that Mr. Vogler's body was found buried in a gravel pit outside of Fairbanks, after an anonymous tip. Mr. West, who was in prison on a forgery charge and awaiting trial for arson and evasion, confessed to the killing, at the time calling it a plastic-explosives sale gone bad. A jury convicted him for the murder in 1995, and he received an eighty-year sentence. Despite Mr. West's admission and conviction, many conspiracy theories still exist today concerning the case. We spoke to William Roggie, the gentleman mentioned in Mr. West's letter, who speaks with Mr. West a few times a month, and shed a little light on Mr. West's background and version of the events. Fred, as he refers to Manfried West, has been in and out of prison his whole life. He lived in Harrisville, and was incarcerated in Lewis County when Mr. Roggie's father was involved in a prison outreach ministry and met Fred through the program. Fred was in trouble a lot, but never for anything violent at that time. He had a history of running with the wrong crowd. After being released from jail, Fred stayed with Mr. Roggie and his family for a little over a year before moving to Alaska, where he had some family, including his mother. Mr. Roggie has heard Fred's version of the events surrounding Mr. Vogler's death many times. He said Fred's mother was a friend of Mr. Vogler. Fred maintains that the night of the murder, Mr. Vogler was not supposed to be at home. He entered through the basement with the intention of burglarizing the place for drug money. As he was walking up the basement steps to the residence he heard Mr. Vogler and his dog approaching from inside. Mr. Vogler confronted Fred with a shotgun, he contends, which misfired. Fred, who also had a gun, shot back, killing Mr. Vogler. After panicking, he wrapped the body in a tarp and buried it in a gravel pit. He later became afraid to come forward because of all of the attention and theories surrounding Mr. Vogler's disappearance. The A&E television network ran a program on the case in 1999, on the City Confidential series titled "Mining for Murder". Mr. West has since owned what he did, made peace with himself and God and currently helps with the prison outreach and mentor program to help other young men not end up in the same situation he is in. He states that one of the biggest problems is that most of the inmates want to blame someone else for their incarceration, rather than take responsibility for their own actions. He does keep up with the local news back here, which is how he most likely heard about the studio opening and Mrs. Sawler's battle with MS. He spends a lot of time painting, as it is a way to escape the current and forever status of where his life choices have put him. The federal prison system has also had him paint murals on some walls in Palmer Correctional Center as well as some other facilities, as they feel it has a positive effect on the other inmates. Quite often, fellow inmates will ask him to do paintings for a girlfriend or mother or wife. This is one way in which he feels he can give back. Despite the situation he has put himself in, Mr. West still feels he can make something out of his life and do some good before he dies. Mrs. Sawler plans to display the paintings at the studio for the time being, with information on Mr. West and the story surrounding his incarceration. At some point she may decide to sell them to fulfill his wishes. |
See large view of the paintings
and letter at the end of the article.
and letter at the end of the article.
Letter sent by prisoner Manfried West to Kaleidoscope Studio in Lowville
Painting sent to Kaleidoscope Studio from Alaskan prisoner Manfried West
Painting given to Kaleidoscope Studio by Manfried West