Nanaimo Was the End of the Trail for Klondike Killer

‘I am camped on the scene of a double murder committed this week.’

If it seems to be a long way from the frozen reaches of northwestern British Columbia’s Stikine River to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, it is. But no greater than the fabled long arm of the law, as was amply shown in June 1898 when 12 good citizens took their places in the jury box in a Nanaimo courtroom.

They were there to try Joseph Camille Claus for murder. As it happened, the trial’s taking place in Nanaimo brought the case full circle–Claus was from Nanoose and that’s where his story begins.

It’s one of B.C.’s lesser-known (by which I mean, least written about) homicides of old. Which is strange, given its Klondike gold rush backdrop and remarkable police work.

I’m sure you’ll agree after you read next week’s Chronicle.

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PHOTO: How many who visit Nanaimo City Hall today realize that they’re walking over where once stood a gallows that saw considerable use over the decades? —Courtesy of Belinda Wright