The Man Who Was Hanged by a Thread

From 1858 until 1950, the BC Provincial Police were responsible for maintaining law and order in British Columbia. Numbering only 100 men in 1900, they patrolled this vast area by horseback, boat, snowshoes and dog team until the arrival of the train, automobile and airplane. In these classic cases from the files of the BC Provincial Police, former deputy commissioner Cecil Clark brings to life the lawmen who upheld the peace and the criminals who disrupted it. A Texas gambler thinks he has committed the perfect murder, but his plans are foiled by Barkerville’s barber. A Quesnel family disappears in mysterious circumstances—their fate remains unknown to this day. Two men are brutally murdered at Osborne Bay in a case of mistaken identity, but did they ever receive justice? These dramatic stories provide a vivid window into BC’s frontier society and the challenges faced by the members of North America’s first territorial constabulary.