The Pursuit of Ernest Cashel

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

Murray Malcolm, author of Murder in the Yukon, has once again drawn on his experience as a civilian employee for the RCMP to write The Pursuit of Ernest Cashel, the true story of a Calgary outlaw. Meticulously researched from trial notes, Mounted Police crime reports, telegrams, newspapers of the time, and many books and articles (some listed in his bibliography), Cashel’s story comes alive in Malcolm’s hands. Malcolm has skillfully sifted and organized his data and enlivened it with credible dialogue and detail. “While conversation is largely invented, I have tried to keep it consistent with the known actions of the individual characters and with their views as they are found in the various written records.... I have invented small details as necessary and, as with conversation, I have tried to keep these inventions plausible” (p.3). Not only does Malcolm excel at researching, organizing, and blending fact with fiction, he also writes well. The result is a first-class biography.

Ernest Cashel, a young American from Buffalo, Wyoming, first encounters the police when Chief English of the Calgary city police and Constable Pennycuick of the NWMP arrest him for forgery. His career as a romantic outlaw begins with his escape from English. Blessed with a trustworthy face and natural charm, Cashel imposes on people’s hospitality, “borrowing” horses and clothing. Eventually, he murders. Careful, logical police work and a long hunt finally corner Cashel. He is imprisoned, brought to trial, and sentenced to hang, but he escapes days before his execution. There follows a long, detailed retelling — well organized and presented by Malcolm — of the second pursuit of Cashel. Some representation of turn-of-the-century life in Calgary and the North West Territory (now Alberta) forms a backdrop to the story of the pursuit. Readers interested in police history will enjoy the details of the Calgary police-NWMP conflict as they jockey for supremacy, and they will appreciate the fascinating story of Mountie methods, organization, and idiosyncracies.