Huckleberries: And here’s how a good guy caught Aryans & other bad guys

This isn’t the way to read a book. Chapter 9 first. Then, C hapters 12 through 15. And back to Chapter 1. But “The Street Agent” by former FBI agent Wayne Manis isn’t like other books. Your columnist was newspapering in the Idaho panhandle (Lewiston Tribune, 1982-84) and North Idaho (1984 to today) when Wayne was busting bad guys associated with the violent racist Orders 1 and 2 here. And dismantling a drug empire, as well as illegal prostitution and gambling, in the Silver Valley that prospered while Frank Crnkovich was entrenched as Shoshone County sheriff.

“The Street Agent” pulls back the curtain on those busts, including the Whidbey Island shootout with Order 1 desperado Bob Mathews, who fired an automatic blast in Wayne’s direction. Wayne was old-school FBI. He would have been at home as a lawman in the Wild West of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Pat Garrett.

Wayne’s book was published in 2014. But it had been gathering dust in the home office until a Facebook comment prompted Huckleberries to pick it up. The comment? Wayne mentioned that he and other agents who ran Order 1 leader Mathews to ground had conducted two days of interviews for an episode of CNN’s “Declassified” series (with former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers as host). The episode is expected to air in June or July. If you can’t wait that long to find out what happened behind the scenes, read Wayne’s book/ DFO , Tuesday Huckleberries. More here.