On the night of July 25, 1982, six inmates smuggled a .22 caliber pistol into Rocky Butte Jail in Portland and executed a 45-minute escape that took five corrections deputies and five civilian staff hostage. Deputy Irving Lawrence Burkett, a 14-year veteran then in his early sixties, was at the first-floor control center and attempted to sound an alarm. Before he could, inmate Stephen Kessler shot him in the head.

The escapees got away that night; five were recaptured within weeks and Kessler was arrested on August 26, 1982, in Independence, Missouri. Kessler later pleaded guilty to charges including attempted murder and kidnapping and received a 40-to-100-year sentence. The other inmates received terms ranging from 10 to 50 years.

The bullet remained lodged near Burkett’s brain stem, leaving him blind and unable to walk unassisted. On August 21, 2003, at age 83, Irving Lawrence Burkett died from complications of the gunshot wound he suffered during the jailbreak. Does anyone have memories of Deputy Burkett or information about the Rocky Butte escape that could shed more light on what happened that night?