The Law and the Lawless: Frontier Justice on the Canadian Prairies, 1873-1895

by Art Downs (Editor)

Overview

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. From remote barracks in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, the new recruits quickly rose to the job of dispatching justice to criminals such as the Plains Cree trapper Swift Runner, hanged for murder and cannibalism, and the notorious Regina crime duo of Gaddy and Raclette. They put their lives on the line and sometimes paid the ultimate price for it, as revealed in the story of Constable Graburn, shot in the back at Cypress Hills by an unknown killer, and of Manitoba’s beloved first police chief, Richard Power, who drowned while pursuing the fugitive Mike Carroll. In other stories, the frontier town of Calgary is the site of the first hanging of a white man in western Canada, while further east, a quick-witted Métis from St. Boniface earns the title of Manitoba’s first indigenous outlaw. These are amazing stories indeed of a formative time in Canada’s history and the steadfast constabulary who helped bring order to a lawless land.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781927527870
Publisher:	Heritage House
Publication date:	07/02/2014
Series:	Amazing Stories
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Art Downs, described as “the first of the environmental editors,” was one of the forefathers of the BC publishing industry. Born in England in 1924, Art immigrated to Saskatchewan as a young child. He worked in the merchant navy during the Second World War and then moved to the Quesnel River Valley in the Cariboo. He became owner and editor of the Cariboo Digest, which evolved into BC Outdoors, a successful blend of history, wildlife and conservation. In 1979, he and his wife Doris established Heritage House and began publishing books by BC writers for BC readers. He died in Surrey in 1996.

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note 6

Prologue 7

Chapter 1 The March of the Mounties 9

Chapter 2 The Death of Manitoba's First Police Chief 35

Chapter 3 Alberta Cannibal: Swift Runner 53

Chapter 4 Manitoba's First Outlaw 65

Chapter 5 Calgary's First Hanging 73

Chapter 6 Prairie Stagecoach Holdups 84

Chapter 7 Gaddy and Racette 100

Chapter 8 Death Song from the Poplars 106

Selected Bibliography 133

List of Authors 135

Index 137