Police Probe Hotel Deaths
PORTLAND-Two men were found yesterday shot to death in a downtown residential hotel, causing police to reconsider two other deaths at the property ruled accidental a week ago.
Diego Paltrone, twenty-six, and Jon Dwyer, thirty-two, were residents of the building at 1115 S.W. Eleventh Ave. and had been engaged in an argument before shots were fired, residents said. The building, favored by homosexual men, had been under scrutiny since the suicide of resident Markus Bane six months ago.
Evidence suggests the shootings might be the result of a murder-suicide, according to Sgt. Det. Dave Kenton. Individuals who heard the altercation said Dwyer’s room was locked before they broke in and discovered the bodies.
The deaths of Paltrone and Dwyer follow the deaths of two other residents of the hotel. Last week Cyril McNamara, nineteen, and Blues Kaufman, twenty-six, apparently were killed after falling from a hotel window.
Authorities said they will look closer at Bane’s suicide and the drug death of Lane Outlaw, whose body was found last month in a parking garage at Fourth Avenue and Pine Street. According to police, Outlaw was also a resident of the hotel.
The Cloister was housed in an old building crowing and creaking from years of neglect, the exterior paint of its pale-yellow bricks weather-beaten and peeling from incessant rain and occasional snow showers and heat waves. The building appeared to Diego Paltrone to be crying as he approached the four doors, each wooden and worn away. He entered to be greeted by another set of doors, a red sash tied in a ball at the end of one of the doors hanging down to the right of him. There was a sign at the farthest door to his right that read Pull Sash for Service. It was written in a type of calligraphy unknown to Diego. The pulling of the sash was followed by what sounded like the tinkling of slender wind chimes.
The smell in the air struck Diego as a mixture of incense -- an odor he first came across his freshman year in college -- and boiled beef. Peering through the glass door separating the lobby of the building from the foyer, Diego noted that the waiting area was furnished in hippie-antique: smoothly sculpted blue sofas, marble-topped end tables whose heels wore dragons’ faces with jutting tongues. There were spots in the lobby where potted plants hung, spilling over in spades of green. The object that seemed to be Diego’s frame of reference was an ebony Buddha sitting in the lotus position atop a long, black stand. The position of the statue to the stand gave the impression that the perpetually jolly deity was being pleasured by a stick. The intricately designed Persian rugs, playing a symphony of subdued tans, greens and purples, covered the hardwood floor, flanking either side of the wood-paneled reception area. A typewriter and a hodgepodge of papers, manila envelopes and candelabras sat protected behind the borders of an L-shaped reception desk.
The place seemed strangely deserted to Diego, to the point where he began to wonder if any residents were in the building. Just then, a figure emerged from an elevator consisting of a swinging door and metal gate. He was a young man who appeared to be in his early thirties with a shaggy beard and thick, brown Jesus hair that came to his shoulders. The man, wearing a pink polo shirt and pale camouflage pants, moved his five-foot-nine-inch frame in an unconscious flow of bravado and vulnerability.
Instead of heading to the door that Diego stood behind, the man walked to the reception desk, positioning his hand underneath the counter. His movement was followed by a buzzing noise. Diego was now free to enter the abode of the Cloister. He felt himself pulled toward the young man behind the desk.
"Hi. I saw your ad in the paper."
"You’re beautiful," said the man, staring at Diego with a wide smile, his leafy green eyes fixed firmly on Diego’s. Diego was taken aback, embarrassed, flattered. He stared at the man behind the counter curiously, noticing the way his lips failed to cover his teeth when he spoke.
"The ad said you guys were looking for people to join your community," said Diego, the initial shock of the man’s comment lingering with him.
