WEEK-END DRAMA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 110, 11 May 1936, Page 9

WEEK-END DRAMA

YOUNG DESPERADOES MAN-HUNT BY “MOUNTIES” DANCE THAT LED TO 7 DEATHS. This is the stark, simple story of a week-end—the last week-end—in the lives of three young Doukhobor lads, descandants of Russians who migrated to Canada many years ago. It also teils how the Canadian “Mounties” got their men, even if three gave up their lives to make good the proud boast of their famous corps. This week-end began harmlessly, with a dance at Benito, Manitoba, ouc Friday evening. It ended when a rifle bullet smashed through a log just outside the Banff National Park, 600 miles away in Alberta, and ploughed through the body of the last survivor of the three. That was Tuesday morning, just after dawn. The aftermath was seven funerals — one sergeant aud two constables of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a War veteran who was village constable of Benito, and the three Doukhobor lads, buried together in an obscure Alberta village. Burglary at a Store. The Doukhobor lads were Peter Voykin, aged 19, John Kalmakoff, aged 20, and Joe Posnikoff, aged 21. Posnikoff, the eldest, was po’itc and spoke exceptionally good English. Voykin, the youngest, was a quiet, well-man-nered youth. Kalmakoff, too, was popular. On the Friday afernoon the three young men borrowed an old car at Arran, Saskatchewan, the nearest village to their homes. Early that evening a store in Arran was robbed. The same Friday evening Pete, Joe and John arrived in the old ear at Benito, Manitoba, and took-three schoolgirls to a dance. The village constable of Benito, William Wainwright, veteran of the Royal Flying Corps, noticed they were driving without licence plates and ordered them to report to Benito next day. Later, the three drove back toward Arran. Constable J. G. Shaw, of the Mounted Police, was patrolling the road in a small sedan, looking lor the men who had robbed the store at Arran. He had picked up Constable Wainwright. They stopped Pete, Joe, and John on the road, questioned them, and ordered them out of their car and into the police car.

A Fatal Error. The three were then taken toward Pelly, where there is a gaol. The two constables were presumably riding in the front seat, and the other three behind. This was a fatal error as it turned out, but the boys were known — and no one thought of them as desperadoes. On Saturday night Joe, Pete and John took three girls at Preeceville, in the same district, to a dance. On Monday morning the bodies of the two constables were found. Early on Monday evening, three men in a car drove up to the eastern entrance to Banff National Park. They refused to register and drove eastward. Banff is 650 miles from Preeceville. But the description of the car and of the trio, circulated everywhere by the Mounted Police, fitted. Half an hour later a Calgary motorist driving to Banff found a car drawn across the road. The three men held him up at the revolver’s point and took £2 from him. Sergeant T. S. Wallace, of the Banff detachment, took Constables G. E. Coombs and Gray Campbell in his car and headed east. At the park gate they were joined by Constable G. E. Harrison, who had come in from Calgary. At the spot the motorist had indicted they found Joe, Pete and John - cornered rats now. Killed at the Wheel. THie headlights of the stolen . car played directly on the police car as it drove up. Wtihout warning too trio opened fire. Sergeant Wallace who had fought througli the war with toe Gordon Highlanders, and wore the Mons star —was driving. A bullet went through his chest and he slumped over tho»wheel. Constable Harrison, seated beside him, got a bullet through the throatFalling from the car, he rolled to the ditch, and lying on his stomach calmly shot out the headlights of the bandit car. He emptied his revolver, reloaded it and emptied it again in the brief but furious battle. Constable Harrison saved the lives of Coombe and Campbell by his markmanship even as he lay dying. The fugitives jumped from their car and took to the woods. The two unwounded constables lifted their dying comrades into the car and hurried for Canmore, a town in the foothills near by. Back with the forces now converging on the hunted trio went Constables Coombe and Campbell. The cordon was drawn tight, in spite of the handicaps of darkness and rain and the wild country. Cornered Again. Twelve miles east of Banff the three were cornered again. In the beam of a flashlight Constable Coombe discovered Joe Posnikoff. Three rapid shots stabbed the darkness, and Joe dropped in his stride, with a bullet through the heart. In the darkness the other two escaped. Snow fell in the early morning. Shortly after dawn, Pete and John were spotted making thiir way along a ridge under cover of the Umber, Wil-

liani Neish, veteran game warden, sure shot with a rille, fired three times. The first dropped Pete with a bullet in his stomach. The second missed. The third ploughed through a tog behind which Kalmakoff had dropped and penetrated his stomach. Desperately wounded, the young desperadoes offered no resitance when the police approached. They were taken to Banff and died there. The week-end party for Joe, Pete and John was over. _