Two days before Christmas 1977, a phone call shattered Ralph Beistline’s quiet legal practice in Fairbanks, Alaska. The call was from the Presiding Judge of the State Superior Court and came with an assignment: represent a seventeen-year-old boy charged with two counts of first-degree murder in a deadly shootout over a gold mining claim in the remote Fortymile Country.

Part true crime thriller, part historical chronicle, part personal memoir, The Chicken Murders delivers a fascinating glimpse into a world where gold, guns, and justice intersect in the frozen wilderness of Alaska.

Ralph R. Beistline is a lifelong Alaskan, fifty-year member of the Alaska Bar Association, and Sr. United States District Court Judge for the District of Alaska.

The Chicken Murders draws from his early career, recounting a trial that tested his principles and shaped his understanding of justice in Alaska’s unique legal and cultural frontier. Through his firsthand account, Judge Beistline brings both the courtroom drama and the human lives at stake into sharp focus.