Policing the Fringe. Charles Scheideman

cause of the slide was a faulty drainage culvert under the roadway. The pipe was of minimal size, only required to handle the small amounts of water from the hillside above the highway. The water ran down to the highway ditch and then along the ditch to the culvert. The unstable ground had shifted over the years to the extent that the uphill end of the culvert had become lower than the other; the shifting clay had then built up inside the culvert until it was completely clogged. The water had accumulated in the ditch and permeated into the road and the ground under it, finally resulting in the slide.

      The highway hole was filled and repaved, and additional drainage culverts were installed. The highway maintenance people were cautioned to keep a close watch for water pooling in the ditches. Within a few months, funds were made available to provide a Breathalyzer and a trained operator for Lillooet detachment.

      The Nelson Axe Murders

      The city of Nelson is a beautiful place with a rich history of mining and forestry. The mountains throughout the West Kootenay area have abundant mineral deposits, many of which have been mined over the years. Signs of mining can be seen along any roadway in the region, ranging from small shafts driven into the rock with hand drills and explosives, to large ventures where ore was taken out on underground narrow gauge railway tracks. Some of the mineral veins were still being worked in the early 1960s, and a few are still active today. Most of the mining activity was for lead zinc ore, known as galena, which was fed into the smelter operations in Trail. Nelson had a population of about ten thousand in the year 1900, and this census remained almost unchanged right up to the 1960s. As one mining venture petered out, another would be opened and the workers would drift around the district, nearly always able to find work. Local wags explained the unchanging population numbers by saying that each time a baby was born, some guy left town.

      The mining areas of the world always attract a few prospector-promoters who prey on each other and on anyone else whom they can con into believing in their latest fabulously rich find. These types do most of their prospecting in bars and lounges, looking for victims with a few dollars from which they can be parted. There was an abundance of these barroom prospectors in Nelson in the early sixties. Conversations one would overhear in Nelson watering holes were nearly always about the latest strike that had been made on some mountain not far away. Most of these finds were claimed to be galena ore so rich that a man could not lift a water-bucket full. When interest was shown from a bystander (victim), the conversation became very secretive and furtive glances were cast about the room as bits of disinformation were carefully leaked out. Numbers were whispered about the percentage of silver in the ore sample and the potential tonnage of the new find. After a great deal of probing to see if the mark could be trusted, a chunk of very heavy, shiny black ore would be produced from a pocket or briefcase. The ore samples were very guarded, usually kept under the table, and the mark was only allowed to hold them for a few seconds. Most of these very rich ore samples had found their way out of a commercial mine in a worker’s pocket and had been traded in the bar for a few drinks.

      Three promoters had been working as a team during the summers of the early sixties. They favoured the Kootenay region and centred their activities in Nelson. In the winter they drifted away to sponge room and board with relatives or others who did not realize their friends were such shady characters.

      During their promoting/conning activity in the later part of one summer they became acquainted with a man who had immigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia. Petre came here shortly after the Second World War and settled in Nelson for reasons that we were unable to determine; he had no family there or anywhere outside Czechoslovakia. He had kept himself employed at a variety of labour jobs and he was a skilled stonemason who took great pride in his work. Those who were fortunate enough to learn of his skills and to find and hire him were rewarded with an everlasting example of fine European craftsmanship. His work was remarkable, with perfect fitting and immaculate pointing. Stonemasonry was not in great demand at that time, however, and Petre was unable to communicate in English beyond the most basic requirements; these combined problems left him to seek work at whatever hard labour he could find.

      Petre was a willing worker. Those who hired him were often amazed at how he would work from dawn to dark with only short breaks for meals or rest. He kept track of his hours and requested payment only for each full hour that he had worked. His attention to detail was as obvious in menial tasks as it was in his masonry. He was a very proud man.

      Petre lived an exceedingly frugal existence. Home was a shack on a narrow wedge of property between the highway and a creek. The shack consisted of one room with a lean-to extension on the side where he parked his old car. The size and location of the property ensured that no others lived near him. Over the years he had closed the back end of the lean-to and put on a pair of hinged doors at the front, allowing him to get his old car in and out with some difficulty. The shack was heated by a light metal air-tight stove which also served for any cooking that he did. The wood for the stove was piled on the creek side of the shack, where it was handy to the door and kept out of the rain by the overhang of the metal roof. Every piece of wood was fitted into the pile perfectly; each square-sawn end was not more or less than one quarter of an inch different from the next. There was no electrical service to the shack; the only source of artificial light was a glass kerosene lamp. After about twenty years of this frugal living, Petre had saved some money. His bank records showed that he had a balance of nearly seven thousand dollars around the time he first met the three prospectors.

      Petre corresponded with a niece in his homeland and occasionally received newspapers or clippings from there, which he stacked neatly on a stand beside his army-cot bed. The letters from his niece indicated that he had a dream of returning to Czechoslovakia for an extended visit. He wanted to entertain her and her friends and travel with them to all the places he remembered as a young man. It seemed the only thing delaying this dream trip was that costs were constantly increasing at a greater rate than his savings. If he could somehow double those savings, he would be able to travel and enjoy himself before old age left him unable to do so.

      The three promoters became close friends with Petre almost immediately. One or more of them was always with him when he was not working. They introduced him to prospecting and helped him get a free miner’s license, which entitled him to stake and register a mining claim in the province. No doubt they told him how easy it would be to find the ore vein of all their dreams and become wealthy almost overnight. They helped him locate, stake and register a mineral claim. Petre’s claim lay only a few yards off the main highway just outside Nelson. They took him on their travels around the region, showed him claims they had registered and told him of the great potential of these properties—given the necessary investment for development. Petre was made to feel very fortunate to have met this trio of kindly and generous men.

      It was just before the onset of winter that the three con-men made their final pitch to Petre and made off with his savings. The three drifted away for winter as they always had, leaving Petre to brood about his foolish error. Petre sat quietly in his shack by the creek and worried about his loss. His anger grew with each passing day, and he gradually formulated a plan to even the score.

      In the early spring of the following year, Petre contacted one of the three promoters. They had an amiable conversation. Petre pretended to be understanding about the money having been used in the business of promoting mining ventures and that things did not always work out in spite of people’s best intentions. He went on to indicate that while things had not gone well with the mining investment, he had been very fortunate and had come into a sizable amount of money. He said he was looking forward to the return of the three to Nelson so that they could work together on some new projects.

      During this early spring conversation Petre learned that one of the three promoters had indulged in excessive drinking, as he always did, but that that winter, the booze had killed him. This news was another great disappointment for Petre; he had had some plans for this man and now he had cheated him again. Petre waited for the snow to melt and for the remaining two con-men to return to Nelson. While he waited, he travelled to an area near Nelson and staked another claim. This claim was another part of Petre’s plan to even the score with the promoters.

      Claims are often marked by cutting off a small tree at each corner of the selected property. The trees are cut leaving