By Maxine Bernstein
oregonlive.com
SALEM, Ore. — Two Oregon legislative leaders on Monday urged the new FBI director to open an investigation into the 1989 stabbing death of Oregon prisons chief Michael Francke, now that the conviction of Frank Gable has been thrown out.
“The lack of resolution of this case is a grave injustice to the Francke family and the State of Oregon,” House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, D- Tigard, and House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby said in a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel. “A new, impartial investigation, led by the FBI, is necessary for justice to be served.”
They wrote that the people of Oregon have a “compelling interest” in knowing who killed Francke and why.
The state last month offered to pay nearly $2 million plus attorney fees to Gable to settle his wrongful conviction lawsuit against Oregon in the Francke case.
Gable, who was serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, was released in 2019 after more than 29 years in custody.
A federal magistrate judge that year overturned Gable’s conviction based on new evidence, and a federal appeals court upheld the decision. The judge found that no reasonable juror would have convicted Gable in light of another man’s multiple confessions to Francke’s stabbing and because nearly all the witnesses in the case had recanted their testimony since the trial.
Francke, 42, was the director of the Oregon Department of Corrections when he was attacked during a confrontation near his state-issued car outside the Dome Building, the agency’s headquarters in Salem.
The state argued at trial that Francke interrupted Gable as Gable broke into Francke’s car. Prosecutors said Gable, then a local methamphetamine dealer, was after “snitch papers,” based on the testimony of one witness. The woman later recanted and said she lied. Eight witnesses since trial recanted their statements to police.
John Crouse, a Salem man who was on parole for a robbery at the time, repeatedly said he killed Francke, telling numerous law enforcement officers as well as his mother, brother and girlfriend that he stabbed Francke when Francke caught Crouse burglarizing his car. The judge in Gable’s trial had excluded Crouse’s confession. Crouse is no longer alive.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta found that the exclusion of Crouse’s confessions violated Gable’s due process rights. The 9th Circuit upheld Acosta’s ruling, calling the facts of the appeal extraordinary. The state petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and reinstate Gable’s conviction, but the nation’s high court declined to hear the case.
In November 2023, Gable, now 66, filed a petition, seeking more than $2 million to compensate him for the time he spent in prison.
The two House leaders said they consulted with Francke’s family, who support their request.
Francke’s brothers have long believed that Gable wasn’t responsible for the prison director’s death and supported Gable’s challenge to his conviction. They have believed that there was a conspiracy to kill Michael Francke to cover up widespread corruption inside the state’s prison system.
“This is good news and shows a willingness to work across the aisle in Oregon in pursuit of the truth,” said E. Patrick Francke, one of Michael Francke’s brothers.
The national FBI office declined to comment on the letter.
—
©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.