Fishermen on the Rogue River in the 1940’s were wary of an old hermit living at Hewett Bar. It turned out they had a reason to be.
The recluse, Jack Mahoney, had lived in a cabin overlooking the river for about 40 years and was known to have a dim view of intruders.
Bob Fox, who lived upriver from Mahoney, thought he had made peace by bringing Mahoney fresh bread and provisions from Grants Pass. Mahoney seemed happy until he decided to kill off all the "honyocks", as he called them, living around him.
He started with Fox. Mahoney sneaked over to his place one May morning in 1947 and waited for him to go into his woodshed. As Fox gathered wood, Mahoney shoved a rifle through a knothole and shot Fox in the back. Fox made it back to his house and fired his pistol while dying.
Mahoney left a note on a tree saying he'd killed Fox, then forced another river resident to give him dinner. A news media helicopter flew over as Mahoney was on his way to his next victim. Perhaps believing it was the state police, Mahoney shot himself in the head. Mahoney is buried where he died, on Winkle Bar.
Source: Aman, Florence, and Glen Wooldridge. "River Politics Spawns Poachers." The Rogue, A River To Run, Wildwood Press, Grants Pass, Ore. (1982): 179-81. Print
