Grants Pass Man At Center Of Indian Artifact Controversy Dies

An Oregon man convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill a former business partner and of stealing mummified remains and artifacts from Indian graves in Nevada has died in prison. The Grants Pass Daily Courier reported Thursday that the Department of Corrections confirmed the death of 72-year-old Jack Harelson on Dec. 14 in the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. The agency said he died of natural causes. A longtime amateur archaeologist, Harelson was convicted in 1996 of illegally excavating graves in Elephant Mountain Cave in Nevada's Black Rock Desert In 2005, Harelson was convicted in a retrial of trying to hire a hit man to kill Lloyd Olds of Brookings, whom he blamed for his grave-robbing conviction.