i

‘ws

 MURDE
At 153 Mile House

*
By

INSPECTOR
GEORGE HA. CLARK,
M.C.

*

Or sunny day last August I

drove up the Cariboo Road

from Cache Creek to Quesnel.
It was some years since I had last
traveled it and it was difficult to
reconcile the broad paved highway
with the winding gravel road that it
had been when I first knew it in the
early twenties. Many of the old ranch
houses that were the stopping places
in the stage coach days still stood,
some deserted and all looking more
weather beaten than ever. Nearly all
of them brought back memories of
incidents of my police days in the
Cariboo.

As we passed the tottering old barns
at the 11] Mile my mind went back to

SHIELDS
MOTOR PRODUCTS
Ltd.

GENERAL MOTOR PARTS
SALES and SERVICE

*

PRINCE GEORGE

that early morning in 1923 when—
well, here is how it was.

June the first of that year was like
any other day in Quesnel. I was in the
police office typing some monthly re-
ports when the phone rang. Senior
Constable Gallagher at Williams Lake
wanted to speak to Chief Constable
George Greenwood. When he hung
up he turned to me, “Get the car
gassed up, there’s been a murder at
the ’53. Let’s get going.”

A short time later we were on our
way in the model “T” Ford, headed
South up Red Bluff Hill. As we
rolled along the chief told me of the
situation. At the 153 Mile there was a
ranch known as the Donnelly Ranch,
run by a Mrs. Clarke who had for-
merly heen Mrs. Donnelly. On _ his
death she had married Clarke, who
had also died, and she was running
the ranch herself with the help of a
hired man named Happy Hawkins.

This Hawkins had appeared about
a year before and had been engaged
as a ranch hand by Mrs. Clarke. His
antecedents were unknown and when-
ever questioned as to them gave eva-
sive answers. He lived in the house
and did his work satisfactorily, and
eventually any curiosity regarding
him died down.

At a neighboring ranch was a young
man named Bernard Duggan, who
had returned from the first war to
assist his mother, and to look after
the stock. Young Duggan was a fre-
quent visitor at the Donnelly ranch
house, and Hawkins began to dislike
him.

On the morning in question,
Hawkins left the house early, as was
his habit, to do the early chores with
the stock in the corrals. He did not

Inspector George Clark, formerly with
R.C.M.P. and B.C. Provincial Police Force,
and now magistrate at Edmonton.

return, when looked for later could
not be found on the premises.

One of the neighbors noticed that
a wire fence adjacent to a corral had
been cut, and further examination
showed that something had _ been
dragged along the ground through
the opening.

H. H. DOUGLAS & CO.

Stationery - Novelties - Photo Finishing
China - Glassware - Leather Goods

—School Supplies—

*
1289 3rd Ave.

Prince George, B.C.

Prince George Drug Co.
PRESCRIPTION SPECIALISTS

DRUGS KODAKS TOILETRIES
SINCE 1914
PRINCE GEORGE B.C.

P.O. Box 789
Se ee re en ee

Page Twenty-four

ROUGH LUMBER

KILN DRIED DRESSED

Ask for Nosco Brand Western White Spruce e@ Northern Fir

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C.

THE SHOULDER STRAP