National Network for Equitable Library Service

Scottish nursemaid Janet Smith was the victim of a 1924 tragedy that ignited racial tension in a very young Vancouver. At the core of the issue were the mysterious circumstances surrounding Smith's death, particularly the fact that the only other adult in the house at the time was the Chinese houseboy. When Smith's death was followed by the assassination of Davie Lew, a well-known Chinese man, it only strengthened the European view that Vancouver's Asian community was a hotbed of violence and corruption.

In 1874, the newly formed North West Mounted Police marched west to shut down unscrupulous liquor traders who had devastated the lives of many First Nations people. The Mounties` famous trek heralded over 50 years of "whisky wars" in the Canadian West. Author Rich Mole traces the turbulent history of alcohol, temperance movements and prohibition between 1870 and the 1920s through the stories of those who suffered and profited from the West`s insatiable thirst for liquor.

They looked impressive in their red tunics, but the members of the fledgling North West Mounted Police had little experience as they departed from Fort Garry in 1874 on a mission to bring order to the lawless territories west of the Red River. There they found a vast and rugged land ruled by whiskey traders, outlaws, and First Nations determined to defend their way of life from encroaching settlers.

Bill Miner, the gentleman bandit, enjoyed more popularity in his day than Jesse James or Billy the Kid. He robbed stagecoaches and trains across California, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Washington State and British Columbia until just before the First World War, by which time the public actually wanted him to escape the police. Reporters visited him during his time in jail and dubbed him “Old Bill Miner.” When he died in Georgia, where he had committed the state’s first train robbery, locals chipped in to pay for his funeral.

From 1858 until 1950, the BC Provincial Police were responsible for maintaining law and order in British Columbia. Numbering only 100 men in 1900, they patrolled this vast area by horseback, boat, snowshoes and dog team until the arrival of the train, automobile and airplane. In these classic cases from the files of the BC Provincial Police, former deputy commissioner Cecil Clark brings to life the lawmen who upheld the peace and the criminals who disrupted it. A Texas gambler thinks he has committed the perfect murder, but his plans are foiled by Barkerville’s barber.

Ten gripping tales of murder and missing persons show how skulls and skeletons reveal their secrets to forensic investigators. A skull is found on a scree slope high above the mirror-calm waters of Spray Lakes. Bones rumoured for years to be buried in a Medicine Hat backyard are finally dug up. The trussed and tortured skeletal remains of an unknown man are found in a septic tank near Tofield. These baffling Alberta cases show how dogged, old-fashioned detective work combines with modern forensic techniques in the search for the truth.

From the days of the fur trade, one constant thread weaves its way through the tumultuous history of frontier British Columbia, Washington and Oregon—the war over liquor. Between 1840 and 1917, the whisky wars of the west coast were fought by historical heavyweights, including Matthew Baillie Begbie (the “Hanging Judge”) and Wyatt Earp, and a contentious assortment of murderous whisky traders, angry Natives, corrupt policemen, patronage-loving politicians and trigger-happy drunks.Liquor was a serious and life-threatening issue in 19th-century west coast settlements.

Slumach’s Gold chronicles what is possibly Canada’s greatest lost-mine story. It searches out the truth behind a Salish man’s hanging for murder in 1891 and tracks the intriguing legend about him that grew after his death.

In October 1935, three prairie farm boys embarked on a deadly trail of robbery and murder that stretched across three western Canadian provinces and made newspaper headlines from coast to coast and as far away as Los Angeles. By the end of the spree, seven people were dead, including the fugitives themselves and four law-enforcement officers. For the next 70 years, these Depression-era “farm-boy killers” held the distinction of being the RCMP’s deadliest adversaries.

In early-1980s Vancouver, Ivan Henry was an ex-convict still adjusting to civilian life when he was detained on a break-and-enter charge. A short time later he found himself on trial for ten charges of sexual assault—crimes he vehemently denied committing. Henry spent twenty-seven years in prison before a 2010 DNA test proved his innocence and secured his release. To this day, however, he has not been compensated or publicly exonerated.This is a powerful, heartbreaking, frustrating story of justice miscarried and an innocent man who fell through the cracks.