They would receive phone calls from the Flavels, asking if police were around. Neighbors said they returned from time to time. An elderly neighbor had watched them get into their car, along with their dogs, and drive away, abandoning their home. Authorities discovered Harry, Mary and Florence had vanished. “Hatchet” Harry Flavel was found guilty of assault, but not attempted murder, in 1985.Īfter exhausting a string of appeals that took years, Harry failed to appear for his sentencing in 1990. A conviction meant up to 20 years in prison. This time, however, it came with an additional charge of attempted murder. Josephson survived, but once again Harry was facing assault charges. The story goes that Josephson had grabbed Harry by the sleeve, demanding his name so he could call the police, when Harry stabbed him in the abdomen. Josephson stopped, furious, and chased Harry by foot down an alley. As the car passed, Flavel swung the chain of a dog leash at it and made contact.

Harry was out walking two of his dogs when a car driven by 22-year-old named Alec Josephson came speeding down the road. They were too scared of him to take it back. One of his neighbors claimed he actually stole their dog because he didn’t think they walked it enough. Harry had a soft spot for dogs, often taking in strays. Harry locked Mary and Florence outside their home on the window’s peak on a cold night and sprayed them with a garden hose. Police were called to physically remove Mary from a social gathering at another residence because she refused to leave. Neighbors would report gun shots from inside the home, particularly on Halloween and New Year’s. There were other incidents over the years. The family testified that Fulton had been drunk, and Harry had acted in self defense. Harry was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.ĭuring Harry’s trial, his mother insisted she had not been in danger. When Fulton tried to help, he began hacking at the banister with the hatchet in a fit of rage, and eventually turned on Fulton. He ran inside, found Florence locked in a room upstairs. In 1947, at the age of 20, Harry Flavel earned his nickname.įred Fulton, a neighbor of the Flavel’s, heard screams for help coming from the home. Flavel, who lived there with his wife Florence and their two children, Harry and Mary until his death in 1951.Īstoria residents knew something wasn’t right with the younger Harry. When George died in 1923, he left the house to his son Harry M. It was a beautiful Colonial Revival-style home stained glass windows, intricately-carved wooden pillars, and amazing views of the river. The notorious Flavel House was built in 1901 by the captain’s only son, George. It was in this house that the captain’s great-grandson, “Hatchet” Harry Flavel, lived with his mother Florence and sister Mary at the time of the stabbing. The other Flavel House, the once stately home that sat abandoned and decrepit on the corner of 15th and Franklin for decades, serves as a testament to the decline of the legendary Flavel family into a strange and reclusive bunch after George’s death. He was even regarded as something of a local hero for his efforts to rescue the sinking SS General Warren in 1852. He was the first bar pilot of the Columbia, and became one of the first millionaires in Oregon. The captain made his money braving the perils of the Columbia river, where more than 100 ships have been lost at its mouth, an area known as “The Graveyard of the Pacific,” since its discovery in 1792. It is a grand Queen Ann mansion built in 1886 by prominent Astoria resident Captain George Flavel. The most well-known is the Captain George Flavel House, now known as the Flavel House Museum, at Eighth and Exchange streets. There are two Flavel houses in Astoria, Orgeon.

Oregon mystery house