Former Downtown Brownsville Fixture, Jeffrey Cutlip, Convicted of Three Oregon Murders

From the editor:  The Brownsville Herald published an Associated Press article in Sunday's paper about the conviction of Jeffrey Cutlip for three Oregon murders.  

Cutlip has been the subject of several articles on MMB.  I had noticed recently a substantial number of page-views for those 2012 articles.(Google's blogger dashboard details the daily page-views, traffic sources and countries comprising the "audience" of the blog.)

Cutlip was a well-known, non-paying patron at downtown venues, particularly the old Crescent Moon Cantina, with bar manager J.J. Struebelt more than once having to chase Culip, known to locals as "Jessie," from setting his bedroll behind the bar's rear entrance.

Shortly after Cutlip revealed to an off-duty Brownsville cop that he was a sex offender with serious restrictions imposed on his movement and contacts, he vanished, allegedly to his home state of Oregon.    When Nena and I spotted him at a bus stop on Central Blvd., we called 911.  After our third call, the dispatcher, seemingly tiring of our calls, told us a detective had assured her that Cutlip was "alright."

Here is a story we posted September 22, 2012:

Charismatic sex offender Jeffrey Cutlip, once released from prison in Multnomah County, Oregon(Portland), hightailed it for the obscurity of extreme south Texas, that is, Brownsville, Cameron County. Cutlip introduced himself to patrons at the Crescent Moon

"Jessie" makes the cover of the
Ist Annual Jazz Festival magazine

and other downtown establishments as "Jessie", skillfully spinning stories that elicited sympathy and material help.

With a guitar on his back, dressed in a hobo Aerosmithian style, he liked to pass himself off as a musician who could namedrop a number of rock legends as his collaborators, although he literally couldn't play a lick. Perhaps it was that fairy story that garnered him a feature photo in last year's Latin Jazz Festival, no shame intended for George Ramirez because we were all fooled at some point.

Cutlip loved the collective gullibility of Brownsville and its non-invasive police department. Many times BPD would just ask him to move on after a night of sleeping on some business or residential door step or patio. He liked to hit an adult day care around lunch time, complaining about the menu as if he were a paying customer. He wore a plastic hospital bracelet on his wrist to fend off the hospital security guard who might question his presence in the

Cutlip at Brownsville Cheezmeh/
Brownsville Loving Valentine Event

Baptist lobby.

His luck changed when he gave an off-duty BPD detective a bit of attitude resulting in his first local background check. Clearly, he had not registered as a sex offender, violated many of his parole stipulations, including geographical limitations, being where young people congregate and/or alcohol served. Incredibly though, BPD put him quickly back on the street despite the obvious. Two weeks after his real background surfaced, I observed Cutlip at a bus stop on Central Blvd. and called 911. I was told a police unit would be dispatched shortly. Fifteen minutes later I called again receiving the same promise. On the third call a dispatcher said she had checked with a detective who advised her that Cutlip was "alright."

Several days later Cutlip ventured of his own accord into BPD and confessed to three 70's murders he said he had committed in Oregon. Once extradited back to Portland, newspaper reports indicated Cutlip had provided detectives with details of at least two murder scenes never before revealed. Cutlip, through his lawyer, entered a plea of innocent with respect to at least one of the murder charges..