The Fort Bragg Fires, Part I: The Money Trail
The Fort Bragg Fires Part I: The Money Trail by Mark Heimann and Bruce Anderson for the Anderson Valley Advertiser February 3 rd , 1999 Edited by Peter J. Mello – December 29 th , 2017 Publisher’s Note: In a remote Northern California logging and fishing hamlet, hidden in the inky autumn blackness before either moon or sun would rise on September 20 th , 1987, an unknown group ignited three brazen and near-simultaneous arson fires that destroyed the Ten Mile Justice Court , the adjacent City Library and, just two blocks down Main Street, the venerable Piedmont Hotel and restaurant (seen right). No one was ever prosecuted for the blazes, spectacular and disheartening as they were, and only much later would residents learn the motives behind them and the rest of the series of arsons-for-profit that plagued the small coastal community of Fort Bragg in the late 1980s....