31 August 2005
Student Sleuths Asked to Help Solve 1924 Murder
The overnight Kootenay-to-the-Coast train pulled away from Nelson on its regular run
to Vancouver. But the journey of the westbound train would turn out to be anything but ordinary - and the event remains a mystery to
this day.
Just after 1 a.m. on 29 Oct 1924, high in the mountains near Farron Station, a terrific explosion rocked a day coach. The
blast destroyed the car, blowing off the roof.
Rescuers faced a horrible scene. One body was burned beyond recognition. Another, with a grievous head wound, was found 15 metres from
the rails. He was John McKie, a newly elected Conservative member of the B.C. Legislature.
Next to him was the body of a bearded man, whose leg was severed. In all, nine passengers were killed in the blast and 11 suffered
serious injuries.
At first, officials thought a gas tank used for lighting was responsible, or perhaps a prospector's dynamite supply had ignited, though
there were no miners on the passenger list.
At daylight, the wreckage was examined by police and investigators from Canadian Pacific Railway. They determined the destruction was
no accident: Unknown culprits had committed an assassination.
And the target wasn't the politician, but rather the bearded man, Peter Vasilevich Verigin, known as Peter the Lordly.
The 65-year-old Mr. Verigin was the charismatic leader of the Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood, a sect of
Russian Christians better known as the Doukhobors. The so-called "spirit wrestlers" had arrived in 1908 to form
several settlements in the Kootenays and Boundary district of British Columbia. They lived an austere, communal life.
Outsiders were suspicious of their pacifist ways and resentful of their economic success. And the community itself was experiencing the
pain of fissures that would divide the sect for years to come.
The bombing that killed Mr. Verigin remains one of the most notorious crimes in B.C. history, all but forgotten and still unsolved.
Now two University of Victoria historians are asking student sleuths to try to crack the case. It is one of three new Great Unsolved
Mysteries in Canadian History to be presented on-line at canadianmysteries.ca.
"You get students hooked in the infinite mystery of this - who did it, why they did it - and they will delve into the most arcane
details," says associate professor John Lutz.
The Web project, now in its second year, provides texts, documents and photographs for students from kindergarten to Grade 12. Along
with the Verigin case, students will also be asked to be on-line detectives for two other mysteries.
The first is set in 1734 in Montreal, and involves a black slave named Marie Angelique who was tortured before confessing to setting
a fire, for which she was executed. She was accused of setting the fire to cover her escape with a white lover. Yet, she had not fled,
staying instead to help her mistress rescue possessions. Students will be asked whether she did indeed set the fire.
The other case is that of the Black Donnellys, which has fascinated historians for more than a century. On the morning of
4 Feb 1880, a mob attacked and killed a farmer and his family in the village of Lucan, Ont. Two trials ended without
convictions in the massacre.
One of the new features on the website this year will be a series of sophisticated questions for middle and high school students.
Those examining the Verigin mystery, for example, will be asked to describe the role xenophobia played in newspaper coverage of the
Doukhobors.
"The Doukhobors are the ultimate dissenters," says Larry Hannant, an adjunct professor of history at UVic, who is writing a
book about Mr. Verigin. "We see in the Canadian state some tolerance and very severe treatment sometimes."
So, whodunit?
If it was indeed an assassination, the list of suspects is a long one. Peter the Lordly, who was born at Slavyanka, Russia, in 1859,
was a dynamic character. Exiled to Siberia after his arrest by Tsarist police, he followed a mass exodus of Doukhobors to Canada on
his release. He joined colonists in Saskatchewan in 1902 and then led many to British Columbia six years later.
"The figure of Peter Verigin stands majestic and all-powerful," a provincial commission examining the Doukhobors
reported in 1912. "He is a father to his people, teaching, guiding and encouraging them."
A wire dispatch at the time of his death was less circumspect, describing him as a "suave, foxy old patriarch."
Among those killed on the train was his travelling secretary, 20-year-old Mary (also Maria) Strelaeff. Was she more than
a secretary? Had her friendship with Peter the Lordly angered his long-time companion, Anastasia (Holobuva) Lords? Or had
a dissident Doukhobor killed the leader? Could Stalin have found reason to kill Mr. Verigin? Or could the Canadian state have had a
reason? Or, could his son, Peter Petrovich Verigin, who later succeeded his father, have ordered the killing?
Clearly, there are plenty of angles for students to explore, and no doubt there will be plenty of interest in the
history-mystery project, which is funded by a grant from Heritage Grant. Last year, the site registered 109,708 user
sessions, an average of 300 a day.
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