This week in Prince George history, May 8-14:
May 14, 1931: Suspects in two separate double murders were set to go on trial at the spring session of the assize court in Prince George, The Citizen reported.
Carl (Karl) Fredericks was charged with the murder of his companions, Herman Peters and Max Westphal, at Trembleur Lake in June 1919.
"The majority of the Crown witnesses are Indians, with a sketchy acquaintance with English, while the accused is German, requiring the engagement of a second interpreter," The Citizen reported. "Since his arrest, the accused has told conflicting stories as to the part he played in the tragedy..."
Also on trial was Michael Sowry "a Ukrainian resident of of Hythe, Alberta, is charged with the murder of Joseph and Annie Babchuck, on or about August 18th, who apparently were murdered in their bed in their cabin at the southern end of Cecil Lake, a few miles northeast of Fort St. John," The Citizen reported.
"This crime was not discovered until September 2nd, when a man engaged to do some work for Babchuck going to the Babchuck cabin found the bodies in the bed. The bodies were badly decomposed by this time, but an autopsy disclosed that the deaths had been caused by rifle bullets," the report said.
I couldn't leave this story without finding out what the results of the trials were, so keep reading below:
Sowry (also spelled Sowery), a 52-year-old married Ukrainian labourer, was convicted of murdering the Babchucks and was hung on Aug. 14, 1931 at the Oakalla Gaol in Burnaby, according to Department of Justice records.
The trial of Fredericks, a 29-year-old single rancher from Germany, resulted in a hung jury. A second trial in Prince George on Sept. 25, 1930 found Fredericks guilty and he was sentenced to hang on Dec. 3, 1931, Department of Justice records show.
However, a Kamloops appeal court overturned the verdict, saving him from the noose, according to author Cecil Clark's account in The Man Who Was Hanged by a Thread, and Other Tales from B.C.'s First Lawmen.
According to Clark's account, Fredericks first told police he'd never met the two victims or been to Trembleur Lake. But later he changed his story, and said the three men had gone to there to sell liquor to First Nations people in the area.
Fredericks told police that Peters attacked him and he forced to shoot him in self defence. Fredericks said he then returned to the camp to find Westphal dead - apparently murdered by Peters. An autopsy of the victims showed that Peters had been shot in the head, while Westphal had been decapitated with a sharp instrument. The bodies had been buried in a concealed grave, Clark wrote.
Police and medical examiners believed the two men had been murdered in their sleep.
While Fredericks was a free man, it wasn't for long, according to an account of the story in the Omineca Express. Two years after being cleared of the double murder, he was picked up by a game warden in Bridge Lake for carrying a rifle without a license. Given the choice of a fine or 60 days in jail, he chose to serve the time.
While Fredericks was in jail, he was fingerprinted and his information was sent to his native Germany, which informed Canada that Fredericks was wanted on six criminal charges there.
He was deported to Germany in 1934, the Express reported, which was under Nazi rule. Fredericks had previously been associated with the then-outlawed Communist Party -a group considered enemies of the state by the Nazis. He is believed to have died in a Nazi concentration camp after being turned over to the SS, the Express reported.
Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. Even if Fredericks was a bootlegging, murderous communist agitator, nobody deserved to die in a Nazi death camp.
May 14, 1920: Cariboo pioneer Telesphore Marion, better known as Tom or The Frenchman, returned to the region less than a year after moving back to his native province of Quebec, The Citizen reported. The Citizen incorrectly identified him as Thomas Marion in 1920.
Marion had moved from Quesnel back to Quebec in the summer of 1919, but returned with the intent of settling down in Quesnel by the Fraser River.
"Quebec, he ees no good for me," The Citizen quoted Marion as saying. "He is a flat countree; no hills like at Quesnel. I am go back there again. I have the farm; I build a house down there."
"He started out in a small way, and gradually built up a profitable and extensive trade amongst the Indians. He was one of the few white men who successfully invaded this territory at traders when it was under the sway of the Hudson's Day Company," the Citizen reported. "He came to (the) Cariboo in 1890 and traded at different times as far north as Fort Grahame, on the Findlay River. He used to track scows up the river with a crew of 20 Indians, bartering his cargo for furs in the spring."
Marion later settled down in Quesnel and opened a store - which he sold in 1919 before leaving Quesnel. In 1909 he invested in building the sternwheeler Quesnel, which he later sold to the Northern Lumber & Mercantile Company.
Marion told The Citizen he intends to remain retired, and not get back into business.
According to City of Quesnel historical documents Marion was born in Quebec in 1861 and came to Quesnel to work for the Boyd family at Cottonwood House.
He later opened Marion's Store on Front Street in Quesnel and traded with miners and trappers. Later he expanded his business to include four warehouses.
Marion stayed in Quesnel died in 1943 at the age of 83. The steamship he built, the Quesnel, was not so long-lived. It would be wrecked on the rocks of the Fort George Canyon on May 13, 1921.
To explore 100 years of local history yourself, visit the Prince George Citizen archives online at: pgc.cc/PGCarchive. The Prince George Citizen online archives are maintained by the Prince George Public Library.
