52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 23
Prompt - Crime and Punishment PART FIVE
Jack Krafchenko was guilty of the murder of Mr. Arnold of Plum Coulee. On April 10, 1914, the Winnipeg Tribune published Krafchenko's speech to the court after his sentence was brought down. Of course he says “he didn't do it.”
Judge Mathers sentenced Jack Krafchenko to hang on July 9th
Krafchenko's lawyer started a petition for the public to sign in hopes of commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Alexander Krafchenko, Jack's father was interviewed by The Winnipeg Tribune reporter and said the father said he was a “good boy'. He was clever and mechanically inclined. When the reporter asked the father if he believed Jack was guilty, Alexander shrugged his shoulders and said; “I don't know. Maybe he did it but Jasy(sic) says not.”
Meanwhile Mr Hagel and Mr Westlake have been incarcerated in Winnipeg's local prison, but are about to be moved to the higher security Stony Mountain Penitentiary to serve their sentences. They cannot present their appeal until later in April.
A group of women in Winnipeg attempted to gather money together to help Mrs. Krafchenko and her child with expenses to come to Winnipeg from Graham, Ontario so she can be closer to her husband.
John Buxton who was the one who revealed the whole plot of Jack Krafchenko's escape and indeed revealed Jack's hiding place where he was found, has been in jail for the past 3 months. He was released April 23. The deputy attorney general entered a “Nolle Prosequi” or another words no prosecution. Upon his release, Mr Buxton immediately boarded a train out of town to the United States however he was turned back at the border because he had no proof that he was an American and he was an undesirable. Eventually he made it into the States where he changed his identity and was living in New York.
There are letters to the editors on both sides of the argument for commuting Jack Krafchenko's sentence to life imprisonment.
May 3 was the day that Mrs. Jack Krafchenko arrived in Winnipeg. She went to the jail immediately upon arriving and was allowed a 30 minute visit with her husband. She will stay in Winnipeg until her husband's death.
On May 14 Hagel and Westlake lose their appeal of their sentence. By May 20th Percy Hagel is disbarred from practising as a lawyer.
On July 8th the province
bought Krafchenko a new suit to be buried in. His last night was
spent in the presence of his spiritual advisor, Reverend Bertal
Heeney. Apparently 10 days before he died, he became a Christian. He showed penitence according to his spiritual leader by the fact he
had the means to escape his prison in the last days of his
incarceration but did not choose to do so. He demonstrated to Rev
Heeney how he had a bent spoon and used it to unlock his cell while
the Reverend was visiting. Thus the Reverend knew he was penitent and ready to accept his punishment.
Jack Krafchenko left a written letter of his version of the Plum Coulee Murder and gave it to Reverend the night before he died. He does not deny he was the one who robbed the bank but states that their was 2 others at the scene and it was one of their guns that killed the bank manager.
He did express sorrow for the pain he caused the Bank Manager's wife!
The sensational crime and punishment story of “Bloody Jack Krafchenko” was as interesting as any piece of crime fiction that I have read. I stumbled upon this story while researching my Great Uncle William Dyck. I was looking for his obituary in my newspapers.com data base. Well I never found the obituary.
However I did learn much more about my great uncle than I knew before. Mostly printed in The Winnipeg Tribune during the Krafchenko case.
His physical description was as follows: “Dyck is a thick-set powerful man. 5' 8” high in height, Weighing about 175 pounds. He is of sandy complexion with reddish moustache, and his faced is tanned from exposure.
At the preliminary trial as recorded in the paper we found out. “ Dyck of heavy tread and stolid of demeanour came in... He is a heavy thick-set man of unmistakable Mennonite type. His large and heavy features were utterly devoid of expression.”
He is was the “chauffeur” of the “murder car” in the Krafchenko story.
William Dyck had a very good memory. He described at great length every twist and turn of his wild ride with Krafchenko after the robbery and murder.
Owner of Mennonite livery / stable was Mr Dyck who was “a man unmistakable European peasant type, with heavy features and droping (sic) moustache and bushy eyebrows."
His Mennonite religion forbid him from taking the oath and thus he did an “affirmation” instead.
William Dyck was a livery stable keeper in the village of Plum Coulee. He had been located in the district for five years and had been in the livery business in the whole of his time during the whole of his residence here. He owned a Case Automobile and when shown a photograph of the “murder car” he said it was similar to it and may indeed be his.
William Dyck did know the notorious Mr. Krafchenko for some 8 months. He had a healthy fear of crossing him and thus states he was forced at gunpoint and by fear into doing what was asked of him.
William Dyck played poker with some unsavoury types in town.
In his testimony, he states he can't read English.
On the morning of the murder he did his usual activities. He milked the cow. Went home for breakfast, he did draying uptown (hauling goods for someone). Then he went to the bank to cash his cheques.
During his cross examination in the trial the defence for Kraf made it known that William Dyck was imprisoned for 9 month in Bismark, N.D for horse steeling. This was 15 years before.
The villagers of Plum Coulee had confidence in Wm Dyck and stated that there was no way he could be implicated in the murder.
An anonymous letter to the editor took offence at the defence lawyer calling William Dyck “a Liar”. He wrote; “William Dyck's evidence has been severely criticized, but here where he is well known people feel that he told the whole truth. The term “cattle thief” is an unjust term to use against a man whom 15 years ago when a young fellow was enticed by older fellows to assist in stealing a cow. Dyck is a honest hard-working man, husband of a wife and father to a half a dozen children. Is it any wonder this man was afraid of Krafchenko when it took a whole wagon load of fully armed constables to arrest him/”
I do not have any photographs of my great uncle however I do have a caricature of him which gives me some idea of what he looked like.
This 5 part blog has been a fun diversion to my ordinary genealogy. It did give me an idea of Great Uncle William Dyck's character and his physical description. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did researching it.
Wendy
