Nanaimo was the end of the trail for Klondike Killer

(Conclusion)

As we’ve seen, to Joseph Camille Claus goes the dubious honour of committing “the first cold-blooded premeditated murder...in the frozen north,” in this case the Stikine River country.

According to the Victoria Colonist, anyway. Claus, it should be noted, had yet to face trial let alone be convicted by a jury of his peers.

But the circumstantial evidence, so far as was known in Victoria in the spring of 1898, was pretty damning. The bodies of Claus’s prospecting partners, Charles Hendrickson and James Burns had been found axed and shot to death, and a man matching Claus’s description had been seen fleeing the scene.

Just a month before, the partners had left Nanaimo to seek their fortunes in the Klondike gold rush. Soon Claus would be back in Nanaimo to stand trial and, if found guilty, face a hangman’s noose.

Next week in the British Columbia Chronicles, the conclusion to this fascinating mystery of a century and a-quarter ago.

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PHOTO: The mighty Stikine River where gold seekers risked life and limb in 1898 has become a tourist Mecca. —peakadvisor.com