Crimes of the Century: Manitoba's Most Notorious True Crimes

Louis A. Knafla is a professor of history at the University of Calgary,
the coeditor of Law, Society, and the State: Essays in Modern Legal
History, and the author of Lords of the Western Bench.

This collection comprises a series of articles on famous Manitoba
criminals: Emily Hilda Blake’s shooting of Mary Lane, her employer’s
pregnant young wife, in 1899; the notorious robber Jack Krafchenko’s
shooting of bank manager Henry Arnold in 1913; Bill Wolchock’s
bootlegging in the 1920s and 1930s; Earle “The Gorilla” Nelson’s
female stranglings of the 1920s; Ken “the flying bandit”
Leishman’s heists of the 1950s through 1970s; Alexander Kasser’s
fraudulent takings from the Churchill Forest project of the 1960s and
1970s; police officers Barry Nielsen and Jerry Stolar’s brutal slaying
of Paul Clear in 1981; and the vicious murders of Cree Natives Helen
Osborne in 1971 and J.J. Harper in 1988.

Utilizing the work of historians, newspaper files, and interviews,
Redekop tells his stories with a degree of suspense and a florid style.
There are a few themes that permeate the work, including the painful
consequences of the murders and the black humor of the thefts. The
article on Wolchock, a Manitoba version of Robin Hood, points out the
dilemma posed by someone who flaunts the law while serving as a gracious
employer and supporter of the poor. There is also respect for policemen
and the dangers they face (as well as a list of those who were killed in
the line of duty). The copious illustrations are excellent, and there is
a comprehensive index.