White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1938-07-01
lN1e ens s5 cd
by Captain
G. Elliott Nightingale
Copyright, WNU
THE SKULL WITH Il HOLE
IN ITS FOREHEAD

THEY found the headless body Of
= an aged man on the banks OF the
Bow river right after the ice had
gone out, and right away there was
a check-up to find out who was miss.
ing. That was in June, 1910. Sew
eral months passed and then, just
as the beautiful Bow was beginning
to freeze up again, a trapper Stun
bled over small boulder. Later
on, upon examining the round thing
that had tripped him, the trapper
realized that he was handling
human skull. Like good Canadian
he was soon in touch with the Royal
Mounted.
A physician and surgeon exam
med the remains. He announced,
a little while later, that the man
had been about fifty or sixty, had
iron-gray hair, and that the hole
in the forehead had been made by
a bullet of 20 caliber, and that the
bullet had been found inbedded in
the skull. Moreover, there had been
another bullet found in the body.
Soon all interest was centered
upon the absence of one of the first
settlers, an Englishman named
Peach. In no time the Mounted
discovered that Peach had sold out
to a man named Robertson and
had then returned to his home in
England. Robertson was soon be-
ing questioned in town hundred
miles away, and he corroborated
the information of the deal with
Peach. Later it was learned that
Robertson had moved to Calgary
after having bought the Peach
homestead and that he had left or
ders that all mail for Peach be for
warded on to his address in Cal
gary. Well, this was really the first
'break" for the Mounted. Why
should Robertson want Peach's mail
forwarded to him?
Robertson was again questioned,
this time by a Mounted policeman
he had never seen before but who
knew the results of the first inter-
view.
Robertson's story changed color
entirely during this second question
ing, but the Mounted policeman
kept this discovery entirely to
himself. Some days later another
Man of the Mounted had quiet
little chat with Robertson, and again
the latter's story changed complete
ly. Surely Robertson was tying him.
self up. Visiting the town of Nc
Leod, he got drunk and was
soon Boosting that he had made a
cleanup in the Yukon gold fields and
was returning to his home in the
states. And, as he sat boasting
how tough he had been in his time,
constable of the Mcleod detach-
ment walked in and very quietly ar
rested him for the murder of Tuck
er Peach. Back in Calgary, Rob-
ertson tied himself in such knot of
lies and falsehoods that there was
nothing else to do but confess. Ills
confederate, one Fisk, had fired the
first shot, into Peach's forehead.
He, Robertson, had fired the second.
Fisk had learned that Peach had
large amount of money hidden
somewhere about his homestead
cabin, and was scheming to get it
when he met Robertson who was
planning to buy the Peach home.
stead. BUY it," advised Fisk, "then
we'll knock him (Peach) on the
head and get your money back.
Then We'll ransack the cabin and
find the two thousand he has hidden
somewhere in it. After that, you
take the homestead, and I'll, take
the horses, and we split his money
between us when we find it,"
No one knows to this day whether
Fisk and Robertson found the old
mans hoard, but they do know that
Canadian law worked fast, and