FRANCKE CASE SEES SOME STRANGE TWISTS

Author: PHIL MANZANO - of the Oregonian Staff

No Oregon murder investigation has proved to be as expensive and extensive as the Michael Francke case, and probably no case will be as strange.

``I've never seen a case with as much publicity over an extended amount of time . . . with all the theories and suppositions and spinoff stories that were generated in this two-year period,'' said Dale Penn, Marion County's district attorney.

Jury selection begins Monday in the aggravated murder trial of Frank E. Gable, who is accused of stabbing Francke to death on Jan. 17, 1989.

The case has seen more than its share of strange twists:

KEVIN FRANCKE

Francke's younger brother, Kevin, left his bankrupt construction business in Port Charlotte, Fla., late last year and moved to Salem to pursue his own investigation of the case.

When he arrived, Francke sought work as a private investigator -- for the lawyers defending the man accused of killing his brother.

Kevin Francke later became romantically involved with the woman who shot and killed Tim Natividad, a Salem drug dealer.

Gable's lawyers think Natividad may be connected to Michael Francke's death.

KAREN STEELE

After his arrest in the Francke case, Gable was accused of unrelated federal firearms charges. He pleaded guilty to the charges, but that plea was withdrawn and a personal relationship between Gable and an attorney, Karen Steele, came to light. Steele visited Gable often at the jails in Multnomah and Marion County, where guards noted that the two were seen laughing, holding hands and cuddling during visits, some of which lasted more than five hours.

SCOTT McALISTER

Among the more prominent names surfacing in the Francke investigation was a former Oregon assistant attorney general, Scott McAlister

McAlister represented the Corrections Department in legal matters for 16 years ending in 1989. McAlister and other corrections officials were questioned by police after the Francke family raised concerns about department corruption.

McAlister never was a suspect and passed a lie detector test about the killing, officials said. He had left Oregon shortly before Francke's death to become inspector general for the Utah Department of Corrections.

In May 1990, an ex-secretary in Salt Lake City reported him to the FBI after finding child pornography movies among other films in a box McAlister had given to her.

She said McAlister wanted her to participate in group sex. McAlister denies it, saying he did not know the films, evidence from a 1977 Multnomah County Circuit Court case, were in the box.

McAlister eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor pornography distribution charge and was sentenced to a week in jail.