National Network for Equitable Library Service

Botwood, Newfoundland and Labrador, 1958 In the midnight blackness of a cold November night mixed with rain in snow, three RCMP officers entered a restaurant by way of an upstairs window. Rumours around town had been rampant. The owner’s son had been missing for days. Father and son hated each other. He had been stabbed, or shot, and had been dumped somewhere, or he had been cut into pieces and put into a freezer to be secretly disposed of later. This unfolded as a German ship, the Alstertal, was scheduled to return to port, whereupon crew members intended to kill both father and son, feeling quite justified in doing so. No one was paying attention to the many warning signs of impending disaster. As the police officers cautiously made their way toward the living quarters door, a terrible chapter in the history of Newfoundland and the RCMP was about to be written. This is a true story.