inlay

ouble Tragedy on the

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By
CLEM RUSSELL

oe

March on the Finlay River and the Cold Northern Moon Shone on the
Crumpled Bodies of Two German Trappers as They Lay on the Ice —
Partners in Life and in Death—The Double Slaying of Hans Pfeuffer and
Eugene Messmer Was a Challenge to the Provincial Police and Ended With
Another Murderer Stepping on to the Gallows at Oakalla.

TO CANADA in 1930 from out of
the brewing cauldron of hatred soon to
sear Europe came slim, studious Hans
Pfeuffer from Bavaria; and stocky, ath-
letic Eugene Messmer from Lake Con-
stance, with high hopes of a new life,
as thousands before them from a war-
stained Old World.

“For men arrived from a Germany
racked by inflation and sullen brooding,
the hard times and breadlines universal
in the “Hungry ’30’s’” were but a chal-
lenge; for broad horizons loomed — the
Canadian West—where they met by
chance on adjoining farms near Edmon-
ton, Alberta.

Prospecting trips in the Canadian
Rockies ripened their friendship and
when, in their elusive search for min-
erals, they found a new wealth out
of Finlay Forks, B.C., they took out
naturalization papers to trap for seven
years for rich, shimmering pelts of
marten, fisher and glossy beaver in a
sanctuary remote from an uneasy world,
restless on the eve of the holocaust.

They were satisfied to be apart from
the world, spending days when frost
popped the bark of trees like machine-
gun fire in the intense cold or nights
when the “Dancing Ghosts” flickered in
a Northern sky, changing their base
cabin into a show place through uphol-
stery skill and carpentry, utilizing moose
hair for stuffing and hides for covering
deep chairs.

The war affected them little, except the
first hysteria when their rifles were taken
from them and they lived on roots and
berries two seasons while learning how
to club game.

Then the fate they had dodged by
escaping the Madman of Europe caught
up with them.

On Tuesday, March 7th, 1944, Jack
MeKenzie MacGuire, 25, post manager
of Fort Grahame for the Hudson’s Bay

ompany, started out with Jimmy Ware,
grandson of the founder of Fort Ware,
to travel south with Ben Corke, to whom

FIFTEENTH EDITION

they said good-bye 25 miles south of the
fort next day about noon.

TRAGEDY ON RIVER

“There’s a dead man on the ice,’ ex-
claimed Jimmy Ware toward dusk as
he guided the dog team about five miles
further down-river than where they had
left Corke.

“You're crazy,” retorted MacGuire, in
the lead, then hastily corrected himself.

~ “Good God, it’s one of the German boys.

He based his identity on the Chestnut
pattern of the snowshoes worn by a
figure frozen face downward into the
ice by recurrent thaws.

As the dog team whined uneasily, the
two men stood uncertainly in the dusk
with but a single thought, “Is his part-
ner ‘bushed’— and nearby?” The thought
of a crazed trapper lurking near was
too much, and they speedily headed back,

~ stopping overnight with Ben Corke before

completing the journey to Fort Grahame.
Radio interference prevented them con-
tacting B.C. Police in Prince George
until noon Saturday, March 11th.

As they were retreating north, Donald
Wallace Gilliland, 29, a robust prospector,
heard growls of a menacing dog while
en route from Finlay Forks to take a
prospecting party down the Omineca
from Fort Ware.

The dog, a huge black Newfoundland,
prevented him examining the body so

he went to the cabin and, in order not
to destroy any evidence, camped in the
woodshed, the fire outside attracting
the dog during the night as it grew
lonely for human companionship. Gilli-
land checked the large number of furs
in the cache adjoining the cabin, figured
none had been stolen, then headed back
south to Finlay Forks which he reached
by forced march on March 11th.

And late that afternoon Sergt. George
H. Clark, in charge of Fort George sub-
division, B.C. Police, received word from
both Fort Grahame and Finlay Forks,
which are 55 miles apart and 200 odd
air miles from Prince George, that the
body of a trapper had been found.

Const. Harry McKenney, in charge of
the district detachment and a veteran
of the North, made hurried but careful
preparations to leave by Canadian Pacific
Air Lines plane next day, piloted by
Capt. Pat Carey. The two were close
friends from similar trips made in bring-
ing out prisoners or the victims of other
crimes.

The plane landed on the Finlay River
a mile below the cabin, Const. McKenney
trudging up-river until he found the
body clad in moccasins, heavy khaki
pants, blue-black mackinaw, with a green
zipper sweater coat underneath and cap
pulled over the ears, lying on its back
frozen four to six inches into the ice.

He made a startling discovery. Be-

The murdered -trapline partners: (right) Eugene Messmer who was shot twice in the back and

(left) Hans Pfeuffer, who was left to freeze to death when severely wounded. Pfeuffer is seen

holding two beaver pelts in stretchers in the late Spring, and Messmer is photographed after
. slaying a maurauding bear.

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