Did a killer strike twice in 32 years?

Tofino, Canada — \o7For man is born for trouble, and sparks fly upward.\f7 -- Job 5:7

--

This goes back 35 years. Yet what happened on Radar Beach that summer reverberates even today -- kept alive by detectives who came up empty, by living ghosts left behind and, more than anything, by the possibility that three summers ago, on a distant beach in Northern California, it happened again.

The story begins in that tumultuous epoch known collectively as the Sixties. Each summer, the west coast of Vancouver Island was swarmed by thousands of American draft resisters, hippies, Jesus freaks, nudists and assorted other shaggy-haired foot soldiers of the era. In short, it was a scene.

Makeshift lean-tos, shacks and tents covered the run of rugged beaches south of Tofino, now a popular tourist destination, but then a quiet village of fishing families and loggers. Drugs were everywhere, and shoplifting in town was epidemic. Most of the visitors traveled around by thumb.

Ken Gibson, a retired dock builder, would often pick up hitchhikers "if they didn't look too squirrelly, just to talk to them: 'What's this all about? What's the kick? What are you hoping to get out of this?' "

Joseph Henry Burgess came late to Tofino's freewheeling period, arriving on the island in May 1972. Tall, skinny and bearded, the 25-year-old Burgess had fled to Canada from New Jersey in 1968 after failing to report for induction into the Army.

He hung around Canada's eastern cities for a few years. He held down odd jobs. He bounced checks. He trained as a bush pilot. He also, according to a Royal Canadian Mounted Police synopsis of his movements, was not a stranger to drugs.

On his way west, authorities recounted, Burgess purchased a Gevarm rifle, a .22-caliber, semiautomatic that could be fitted with a 20-round clip and broken down to carry in a duffel bag. Later, he bragged about his marksmanship.

Born in Jersey City to a prominent Catholic family, Burgess attended a Jesuit college and taught Bible classes. By the time he reached Vancouver Island, he had plunged headlong into more unconventional spiritual thickets. He had become, as one acquaintance told police, "a Jesus freak."

As a police summary said: "Witnesses that had contact with BURGESS at the time stated that he would quote the Bible and speak of the 'Wrath of God,' always ending his conversation with 'Amen.' "