kanagan”

)

IT WAS about a quarter to nine on a
frosty night—the night of March 16th, 1912
to be exact—that the door of Chater &
Taylor's general store and post office at
South Kelowna, B. C., slowly opened to
fa customer. It was a man, roughly
sed, his heavy work pants tucked into
mud-spattered high laced boots. A well
worn mackinaw coat and a cloth cap pulled
low over his eyes completed his garb.

Fred Taylor, part owner of the premises,
a man named Ed. Small and a boy named

pes Roy Randall were
in the store at the
time. The trio
stared incredu-
lously at the
stranger. Not that
they were con-
cerned with his at-
tire. It was some-
thing else that riv-
eted their atten-
tion.

For round the
lower part of his
face the intruder
wore a dirty hand-
kerchief and in
his right hand he
gripped a menac-
ing 40.44 Colt re-

Ed Small, who was in
Chater & Taylor's store

when it was held up by volver!
Walter B. James. Mr. “Stick up your
Small is now a guide in hands,” snapped

the Cariboo country.

_—Photo courtesy Mrs. A. H.
’ Raymer

the intruder.

Slowly, reluct-
antly, Taylor and
his companions raised their hands.

“That's right—keep “em that way!” came
the ominous injunction through the hand-
kerchief. Keeping the men covered the
bandit stepped slightly to one side and
swiftly appraised the annex used as a post
office. As his eyes momentarily left the
store’s occupants, young Randall, nearest
the door, slipped out on to the verandah
and fled down the road.

With an oath the gunman bounded after
him. For a second he halted outside the
door. Then the night silence was shattered
by the crashing blast of the 40.44 as the
desperado fired at the boy’s retreating figure.
- Coolly re-entering the store the robber
made for the till. It was empty.

INTER EDITION

| f urder on the Steamer

Warning for All Police Officers.

“Come on, you’ve got some money around
here. Where is it?” he barked at Fred
Taylor.

Then his eyes caught sight of a small
safe.

“Open that up,” he commanded. Taylor,
stalling for time, slowly opened the safe,
and the man with the gun scooped up the
meagre contents of a tin cash box with his
left hand. Then with a final snarled threat,
he backed out of the door and disappeared
into the night.

Thus commenced the brief career of one
of the most quick-witted and cold-blooded
criminals ever to throw down the gauge of
battle to the forces of law and order in
B. C.’s Okanagan Valley.

In the meantime young Roy Randall had
burst breathlessly into the crowded bar-
room of the nearby Bellevue hotel. It was
Saturday night and the aftermath of a big
rugby game. Some thirty or forty football
enthusiasts crowded the bar, and Randall
had a hard time at first making anyone
understand what was amiss. Const. John
Tooth, veteran provincial police officer was
then stationed at Kelowna and when he
heard of the occurence he lost no time in
making a thorough search of the locality
and flashing word of the holdup to nearby

_ Provincial Police stations.

Although the immediate search failed to
disclose the robber’s whereabouts, there was
no doubt of his identity. He had been
recognized as Walter Boyd alias Walter
Boyd James, 24-year-old labourer from
Goodrich, North Dakota, alleged to be a
deserter from the U. S. Army. He had
been working for some time for the Belgo-
Canadian Fruit Lands. James, reputed to
be a crack shot with either pistol or rifle,
had often expressed his contempt for
Canadian laws and Canadian police officers.
General opinion was that, armed, he would
be a tough customer to capture.

At Penticton, 40 miles away, Provincial
Const. Geoffrey H. Aston was stationed.
Aston, a soldierly figure who had served in
the 17th Lancers and the North West
Mounted Police, had received a description
of the bandit from Tooth, and immediately
acquainted Penticton’s Chief of Police,
Michael Roche with details of the Kelowna
crime.

And it was at Penticton, two days later,

x

By
INSPR. C. CLARK

ova

Provincial Constable Geoffrey H. Aston of Penticton Detachment Had His
Prisoners Safely Under Lock and Key—But a Slip Had Been Made—a Slip
Which Invited Grim Tragedy—This Thirty-year-old Crime Still Points a

that James, with a companion, entered the
B. C. Hotel on Front Street at about 11.00
o'clock at night and asked for a room. One
of the proprietors named Thompson, recog-
nized the gunman by the description cir-
culated by the police and, on the pretext of
having no accommodation, directed the two
men to a rooming house. He told them if
they were unsuccessful at the address fur-
nished, they could come back and he would
try and fix them up.

As soon as the two men left, Thompson
slipped around to the police station and
communicated his suspicions to Const.
Aston. Obtaining the assistance of Chief
Roche, and with Municipal Constable Wm.
Pope, the trio of police officers headed for
the B. C. Hotel.

The officers were in luck, for James and
his companion had returned and were
quietly sitting in the lounge with their
backs to the street door. Drawing their
guns, Roche and Aston slipped into the
lounge and before the surprised James could
reach for a weapon, he was quickly over-
powered and handcuffed. His companion,
who gave his name as Frank Wilson pro-
fessed no knowledge of any crime but was
held for further questioning.

oe As the Kel-
owna bandit
was pulled to
his feet, Chief
Roche took
possession of
the .44 revol-
ver which
James carried
in a_ holster.
Wilson was
unarmed.

To return
the prisoners
to Kelowna
necessitated a
trip on the
lake steamer
Okanagan
which left
Penticton
northbound at 5.30 the next morning. It
was about 1.00 a.m. when the three police
officers took their charges to the Okanagan
at the ferry landing.

Aston and the prisoners were assigned to

blooded and crafty criminal.

Page Seven