Episode 82: Rerelease – The New Year’s Eve Murder of Mike Defino

This episode is a rerelease from our archives, originally published on New Year’s Eve, and shared again as we ring in the new year.

On December 31, 1915, in Douglas, Alaska, a shocking murder took place in broad daylight—one that newspapers at the time described as “one of the most cold-blooded murders to ever occur in the North.” The victim was Mike Defino, an Italian immigrant whose life ended outside a saloon after a bitter dispute over money turned deadly.

In this archival episode of Italian American Stories Podcast, we revisit the tragic story of Defino’s murder, the dramatic manhunt that followed through the snow, and the disturbing details revealed during a rare early-20th-century autopsy. The case ultimately took a strange turn when the accused killer was declared mentally unfit to stand trial, leaving justice unresolved.

This episode explores:

• The New Year’s Eve murder of Mike Defino in 1915

• Italian immigrants working in Alaska’s mining communities

• Early territorial laws, arrests, and life in remote Alaska

• Graphic autopsy reporting from historical newspapers

• A murder case that ended without a trial

This rerelease is part of our effort to bring important stories from the archives back into focus—stories that remind us how much history can be hidden in a single headline.

📰 Found in print. Remembered in story.

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