A piece of Bremerton’s tragic past will be spotlighted this
coming spring.
True-crime author Gregg
Olsen has a new book about the 1997 murder of Dawn Hacheney.
Her husband, Nicholas Hachney, a former Bainbridge Island pastor,
was convicted in 2002 of killing her in and hiding the evidence by
setting fire to an East Bremerton apartment. He was sentenced to
just over 26 years in prison, though he could be released in 16-19
years. Details of his post-prison
community custody terms still must be worked out in court
again.
The case drew gasps and wide eyes of horror from community
members when sordid details of the case came out in court. Nicholas
Hacheney had reportedly had affairs with several parishoners,
including one mistress’s daughter. One woman claimed she had a
vision from God, who told her that Dawn Hachney was going to die
and that she would become Nicholas Hachney’s new wife.
In other words, the details of the case proved perhaps
inevitably that a true-crime writer would seize upon it. That seems
apparent in the promotional video for the book “A Twisted Faith,”
which is set for release March 2010 (see promo video below).
It may not one of the highlights of Bremerton’s collective
memory (we’ll just blame Bainbridge), but then isn’t all PR good
PR?
The USS Missouri is seen in
Drydock 4, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 at the Pearl Harbor Naval
Shipyard, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (AP Photo/The Honolulu
Advertiser, Gregory Yamamoto)
For all of you here in Kitsap who still feel a connection to the
historic USS Missouri, which was
mothballed on Bremerton’s waterfront for decades, here’s a little
update.
Earlier this year, the USS Missouri Memorial Association began
work preserving the gray lady, on whose decks Japan signed the
declaration of surrender that ended World War II. For the next
three months, the ship will be cleaned up, rewired and
otherwise spiffed up (if you can call $18 million worth
of work “spiffed”) for the nearly half million tourists who now
visit the ship ever year. They will sandblast and fortify the hull,
and upgrade electrical and sewer systems. The work is being paid
for with a $10 million Department of Defense grant and funds from
the nonprofit USS Missouri Memorial
Association.
She’ll be back open for tours — they cost $20 per person — in
December.
I visited the ship last month. They were doing early painting
touch up work, but it still was open for tours.
I didn’t visit it when it was in Bremerton; I probably wasn’t
old enough to appreciate it at the time. But I remember the fight
when its departure from Bremerton was announced. It was downright
vicious, involving a federal lawsuit and strong words from our
local Congressman.
The ship was mothballed in front of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
from 1954 to 1984. Perhaps because of the popularity of the tours
and the exposure it received during the 1962 World’s Fair in
Seattle, other cities began clamoring for visits from the Mo.
The ship was towed to Long Beach, Calif., and recommissioned in
1984. It toured the world and was deployed during the Gulf War. Its
return to Bremerton was promised by then-Navy Secretary H. Lawrence
Garrett III in 1989, and it came back for its second mothballing in
1992.
In 1995, the year of the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender
1995, several cities — including Bremerton, Pearl Harbor, and Long
Beach, Calif. — petitioned to become its permanent home. Hawaii, of
course, won.
No matter the argument about where the ship belongs, it serves
its purpose at the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. As one of our
commenters put it, the Missouri provides a “period” to the
memorial’s statement on the attacks on Pearl Harbor.
So while I was there, taking it all in, I thought I’d bring a
little back for my fellow Bremertonians. It may not be the ship,
but these images from the tour are going to have to suffice. Also
included at the end of the slideshow are photos of the Arizona
memorial so you can read the sentence backward. (If you also have
visited the Mo in Bremerton or there, e-mail me photos or post a
link to them in a comment.)
