UPDATE: The Times obituary of Jim West has been posted here.

Former Spokane Mayor Jim West died early this morning from complications related to the cancer he has battled for years. I knew West well and will write more here later after I help on an obituary for the paper.

You can see what the Spokesman Review wrote this morning. The paper published a lengthy investigation that led to West's political downfall and personal crisis.

Spokesman blogger Frank Sennett may have been the last reporter to hear from West. The e-mail shows West was still hoping for a legacy other than scandal.

"I may have screwed up personally but I never screwed up the city. And I was accessable, just about anyone could drop in my office without an appointment."

Here's the AP obit.

I wrote an extensive piece about West late last year in which it was clear he was far from being able to say who he really was and what really happened over his troubled life.

It must be said he died in disgrace, a man turned out by the voters whose respect he craved, who could not explain what made him cruise on-line for very young men. He died having never been able to fully refute allegations that he was a child molester. He spent most of his life wanting to be a person of authority, looking for respect, and when he was given the chance his secret personal life did him in.

The cancer seemed seems almost an afterthought.

MORE: I did not express myself well in this hurried post. And a comment below compels me to write more. I do not think West's death is an afterhought in any way. In his struggles the past year his cancer was overshadowed by the scandal. He said so himself. He was glad for that on some days. I'm sorry if what I wrote above seemed harsh. West was haunted by the allegations he could not refute, or he was when he last spoke to me. He'd bring it up in almost every conversation.