On August 7, 1977, four people were found execution-style in Gaston, Oregon: 24-year-old Margo Compton, her 6-year-old twin daughters Sylvia and Sandra, and the 19-year-old son of her boyfriend, Gary Seslar. The twin girls were discovered clutching teddy bears; one was found with a toy from a Cracker Jack box and had been fatally shot in the head.

Detective Sergeant Mike Graham led the investigation for nearly two decades. A key break came when Michael Thompson, an Aryan Brotherhood leader incarcerated at Folsom State Penitentiary, reported that Odis Buck Garrett of the Hells Angels had confessed to ordering the killings; Robert G. Bugeye McClure was identified as the triggerman. Both McClure and Garrett were later convicted and received four consecutive life terms.

The killings were linked in motive to retaliation for Margo Compton’s testimony in a San Francisco prostitution trial. Does anyone have memory of the Gaston community at that time or information that could add detail to the timeline?