Ep 6 - MMIWG: The Murder of Rosalie
Show Notes
In 1889, a chilling murder shook Calgary, Alberta. Rosalie, an Indigenous teenager, met a tragic end in the Turf Club saloon, at the hands of William Fisk, who was known as 'Jumbo.' The brutal murder sent shockwaves through the town, but it reflected the grim reality of the time when violence against Indigenous people was systemically perpetuated. Fisk faced trial for Rosalie's murder, a case that carried the weight of proving the value of her life, equal to any other. This episode is being released in recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. Please see below for additional resources.
DIsclaimer: This episode contains descriptions of violence towards an Indigenous teenager. Please take care when listening.
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Understanding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, observed on September 30th, is a day to remember the Indigenous children who suffered in Canada's residential school system. It's a day to acknowledge the profound and lasting impacts of these schools on Indigenous families and communities, including the intergenerational trauma they caused.
This day also serves as a reminder that reconciliation extends beyond history textbooks. It's a call to action for all Canadians to support Indigenous communities in their journey towards healing and justice. We must acknowledge that the impact of colonialism is not confined to the past but continues to affect Indigenous people today. This extends to other issues providing access to clean water on reservations, removing systemic barriers faced by Indigenous peoples, and actively addressing cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG.)
Observing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is not a passive act. It's an opportunity for all Canadians to engage in meaningful actions. You can start by taking time to learn about the history and experiences of Indigenous peoples in your community, reflecting on the past, and understanding the ongoing challenges they face. It's also a day to support Indigenous communities and initiatives aimed at healing, reconciliation, and cultural preservation.
Ways to participate in the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation:
Wear an orange shirt on September 30th to show your support for the victims and survivors of residential schools
Support Indigenous businesses, artists, and creators
Participate in Indigenous events open to your community. There are lots of virtual events available too!
Resources:
What is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation? (Government of Canada)
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action (TRCC, 2012)
WEBINAR | Introduction to Reconciliation (Tamarack Institute, geared towards settler audiences)
More ways to participate in reconciliation (Amnesty International)
Additional resources (Downie Wenjack Foundation)
Case Photos
Episode Transcript
Lauryn: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone. Before we get into today's show, I wanted to ask a quick favor of you. If you've been enjoying the show, we'd really appreciate it if you could rate and review the show on your favorite listening platform. Ratings and reviews help us reach other like minded listeners, and it gives us an idea of how we're doing to make sure we bring you the best content that we can, and if you really like what you've been hearing, we'd really be grateful if you could share the show with your friends and family.
You can find us on all major listening platforms and on Instagram at Rooted in Crime. Now, on to the show.
Nima: Rooted in Crime contains coarse language and mature themes such as violence and sexuality, which some listeners may find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised. And an additional warning for this episode.
We'll be discussing the murder of an Indigenous girl. Quotes from historical sources and contextual discussions include particularly offensive language. We'll also be discussing sexual violence. Please take care when listening.[00:01:00]
Lauryn: Welcome to Rooted in Crime. I'm your host Lauryn Macdonald. And I'm Nima Hodoudi. And this is the podcast that uncovers hidden stories of historical true crime through the lens of genealogy. Together we're going to look at historical criminal cases from around the world using a modern perspective to dig deep into the secrets of the past.
This episode is being released on September 28th, which is two days before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day has been officially observed on September 30th since 2021 and is a federal statutory holiday to remember the children who suffered within Canada's residential school system, as well as their families and communities who continue to grapple with the intergenerational trauma it wrought.
We encourage you, our listeners, to not only observe this day, but also to begin your own journey of discovery. In our episode description and in the show notes, you'll find information on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, its significance, and ways you can actively participate in the [00:02:00] process of reconciliation.
When I first started working on this episode, I was trying to find a case pertaining to an Indigenous child who was then or previously in the residential school system. Yet, my search confirmed a stark and disheartening truth. These cases were rarely documented in historical newspapers. When Indigenous children did make headlines, it was often due to tragic accidents, runaways struck by trains, boys succumbing to injuries from farm equipment at residential schools, or children passing away on reservations.
These stories were typically brief, devoid of any identifying details of the child, their lives reduced to mere sentences. My research did uncover news articles related to the killings of Indigenous women and girls.
The prevailing narrative at the time framed Indigenous men as perpetrators of violence against Indigenous women, perpetuating a racist ideology known as the Indian Problem. This racist belief, widely held by European colonizers, painted [00:03:00] Indigenous peoples as uncivilized savages who needed assimilation into Euro Canadian culture to lead productive lives.
Today, we unequivocally reject this harmful ideology, but its prevalence was unmistakable in the way crimes against Indigenous peoples were reported, providing limited details for me to share. However, in my research, I did uncover a particularly gruesome case from Calgary, Alberta in 1889. This horrific crime received extensive news coverage, revealing the dangerous sentiments harboured by Canadian settlers towards Indigenous women and their communities in Western Canada.
Please be aware that the details of this case are deeply disturbing and graphic. On the winter evening of February 28, 1889, local blacksmith and saloon owner William Fisk made a shocking admission to Calgary's Chief of Police. In an excited state, Fisk revealed that he had taken an indigenous prostitute, a teenage girl named Rosalie, to a room above the nearby turf club, his saloon, where she tragically lost her life.
[00:04:00] When authorities arrived at the scene, they found Rosalie lifeless, lying face up on the bed in a pool of her own blood. Her killer had confessed, but justice remained elusive. This is the story of Rosalie, an indigenous teenager whose brutal murder in 1889 nearly went unpunished.
This case holds a special place in our hearts as it unfolds in our hometown of Calgary, Alberta, situated on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Tsuitsena Nation, the Ayarhe Nakota Nations, the Métis Nation Region 3, and all who call Treaty 7 in Southern Alberta their home.
Located about 220 kilometers north of the American border, Calgary's population stood at 1. 3 million as of 2021 and continues to [00:05:00] grow rapidly. Today it's renowned for its annual stampede, something we went to this year. Yes, we did. It was a lot of fun. Something that's deemed the greatest show on earth.
And the city has evolved into a diverse melting pot of long time residents and newcomers from across Canada and the world, including the two of us. But how did present day Calgary come into existence? The earliest archaeological evidence suggests human presence in southern Alberta approximately 12, 000 years ago, with various nomadic indigenous groups inhabiting the region over the next 10, 000 years.
In the early 18th century, the Tsuut'ina Nation, historically known as Sarcee, arrived on the southern Alberta plains. Their oral history recounts a split from the northern Dene in the 17th century, migrating southern alongside herds of bison, vital for both sustenance and safety, in a changing landscape threatened by the arrival of white colonizers.
As fur trade posts emerged in the remote interior, European colonizers introduced diseases and hunted bison for sport rather than [00:06:00] survival. In the mid 1800s, American settlers, having depleted bison populations in the U. S. plains, ventured north into present day Alberta for sport hunting and initiated the illegal liquor trade on the prairies.
Sport hunting. Sport hunting and whiskey and rum running, basically. Amazing. Good old Americans. So nice. Our lovely neighbors to the south.
Nima: Thank you so much, Americans.
Lauryn: We're joking, of course. We love you guys. Frontier outposts became centers, like I said, for rum running, gambling, and illicit fur trading as well.
By the 1870s, this territory became the Northwest Territories. Part of Sir John A. Macdonald's nation building vision to create a unified British nation stretching from sea to shining sea. To impose this British imperialist system, the Northwest Mounted Police, or NWMP, were formed in 1873. And in 1875, Fort Calgary was established as an NWMP outpost to police the area's developing settlements, curb illegal [00:07:00] activities, and most importantly to the federal government, ensure the Indians stayed away. In 1877, Treaty 7 was signed between the Crown and five First Nations in the region. Presented as peace treaties, these agreements were built on deception. The Canadian government exploited language barriers and differing concepts of land ownership, making false promises of peace and protection.
Indigenous groups were forced onto small reserves, unable to sustain their traditional ways of life. As a result of Treaty 7, the Tsuitsinit were forced onto a reservation south of Calgary, which holds the same boundaries today. This treaty was pivotal to the Canadian government in facilitating construction of the coast to coast railway.
It's always the railway.
Nima: It's always the railway. Yeah, at that time, too.
Lauryn: Yeah, for sure. In 1883, the Canadian Pacific Railway, or CPR, reached the Northwest Territories, opening a station at Fort Calgary and ushering in a wave of British Canadian and, quote unquote, desirable European immigrants to support the homesteading migration [00:08:00] scheme.
Nima: So the white ones.
Lauryn: The white ones and specifically Eastern European immigrants because they were thought to have really great farming skill sets.
Nima: Yeah, right, the farmers. Yeah.
Lauryn: So basically anybody with a great farming skill set or anybody who's a British subject. Or Americans, because they were close enough, basically.
It was only one year later, in 1884, that Calgary was large enough to incorporate as a town. William Fisk was among these early colonizers, originally hailing from the small eastern Ontario township of Iroquois. A little ironic that it's Iroquois, which is, uh, an indigenous group as well in, in eastern Canada.
Nima: Yeah, very ironic.
Lauryn: Fisk was born in 1857 and baptized under the name John Milton Williams Fisk, one of four children born to prominent parents Milton Fisk and Lydia Ann Williams. Milton was a well off merchant, and uncles on the Williams side of the family held various powerful positions in their Ontario and Quebec communities.
Fisk was closest to his uncle, William Buckboard Williams, a well known [00:09:00] Toronto Globe reporter who was allegedly sent to Fort Calgary on assignment in 1882 to critique the rapidly developing national railway construction efforts. That was breaking news how quickly the railway was being built.
Nima: What, that it was being built too quickly?
Lauryn: No, no, no, just it was breaking news that it was being built.
Nima: It was, oh, just it was...
Lauryn: Newspapers all across the country were literally sending reporters out just to report on how it was going. That it was being built. Yeah. And how, okay. So that's what took them out to Alberta. Or what is today Alberta.
Nima: That makes sense at that time for sure.
Lauryn: Fisk and his brother Thomas joined their uncle in this western relocation and decided they would stay out west permanently. Fisk ended up working for the local Canadian Pacific Railway as a blacksmith. In 1885, Fisk took up arms fighting against Louis Riel's Red River Rebellion. This earned him not just notoriety in town as a noble soldier defending against the Indian threat, but also earned him 320 acres of land which was awarded to most troops who fought under the Canadian government during the rebellion.
Nima: Wow.
Lauryn: Imagine how much that would cost today.
Nima: And this is What? [00:10:00]
Lauryn: Where he ended up getting his land plot, it's what is now, like, the downtown west end of Calgary.
Nima: Oh my god.
Lauryn: That's millions of millions of millions of dollars of real estate today.
Nima: I mean, I understand taking care of your soldiers like that Which we don't do now, but that's a lot.
Yeah Wow,
Lauryn: It didn't take long for Fisk's reputation to change in town However, he was given the nickname Jumbo during the rebellion, standing at 5 foot 10 with a large barrel chest and powerful arms from his blacksmithing. When he returned to Calgary, though, he brought with him steep drinking and gambling habits.
Nima: Uh oh.
Lauryn: At first, he could sustain these, but by 1886, he began selling sections of his land in present downtown Calgary, and this was done to support his vices.
Nima: Wow.
Lauryn: Fisk even became part owner of a slimy downtown saloon, the Turf Club, which sat at the corner of present day Center Street and 8th Avenue Southwest.
Fisk sold his interest in the saloon at the end of February, 1889, and took his proceeds to the nearby mountain town of [00:11:00] Banff for a drinking and gambling bender.
Nima: Wow, imagine selling your business just to go on a bender.
In Banff. Like, that's amazing. That would run you up quite the bill today. Oh yeah, it would.
Lauryn: The man known as Jumbo Fisk stepped onto the Calgary CPR station's eastbound platform, having come in from Banff on the afternoon of Thursday, February 28th. He reportedly began spending time with a young Cree girl, whom many white observers described as a prostitute named Rosalie. Despite the reports that the girl was Cree, she was actually from the nearby Sarcee Reservation and believed to be about 15 years old.
Fisk and Rosalie reportedly spent a few hours sitting at the bar of the saloon, and Fisk had a couple of drinks in that time. Around 4pm, he went over to the saloon owner, his former partner George Kelsey, and asked Kelsey if he had a dollar on him to take Rosalie upstairs for sex services. Kelsey kept a small bedroom above the saloon, and it seemed to be used by several regulars and Kelsey [00:12:00] himself for both sleeping and engaging prostitutes.
Fisk borrowed a dollar and took Rosalie upstairs. Kelsey went up afterwards to lock the door so no one would otherwise bother the engaged pair. Before long, the saloon patrons could hear low, persistent moans coming from the upstairs bedroom. After about a half hour, knocking was heard through the upstairs floorboards, which indicated to Kelsey that Fisk was finished and ready to come out.
Kelsey heard the moans as he unlocked the door. The last thing he expected to find when he unlocked the door was the scene of what quickly became known as Calgary's Jack the Ripper murder. Oh wow. I'll tell you about how Kelsey found Rosalie and Fisk, but after a quick break.
Nima: Okay.
Lauryn: And we're back.
We're back. And before we get into the details of Rosalie's murder, I wanted to put out one final disclaimer that the details of [00:13:00] her death are incredibly disturbing. Please take care when listening to this story. It was just before dusk that Kelsey went upstairs to unlock the door, having not yet turned on the electric light downstairs in the saloon.
As he approached the door, he could hear the moans still persisting from the small bedroom. He unlocked the door to find Fisk in the doorway, his face and arms covered in blood. In an excited panic, he blurted out to Kelsey that he didn't know if the girl was dead or alive, and he needed the saloon owner to check and see.
Nima: Wow.
Lauryn: Could you imagine? Hearing that as soon as you opened the door.
Nima: No, no, not at all.
Lauryn: Kelsey stepped into the room, still well lit from the orange prairie sunset filling the sky. Blood covered the walls and the bed, and Rosalie was laying face up at the foot of the bed, her eyes rolled back into her head.
Careful not to touch her, Kelsey lowered his ear to the girl's mouth and told Fisk that he thought he could hear the girl breathing. Kelsey didn't take a closer look at [00:14:00] Rosalie, and it wouldn't be until later that evening that he claimed to know the true extent of her injuries. Relieved, Fisk said he was going to head to the Windsor Hotel down the street for supper.
Nima: What?
Lauryn: Yeah, and Kelsey remarked the blood on Fisk's face and told him that he needed to wash himself up before he went out. He went downstairs, so Kelsey, sorry, went downstairs, and brought up a wash basin for his former business partner. At no point did he ask Fisk how what was supposed to be a half hour of sex resulted in brutality to the point of questioning if the girl was alive.
Nima: Mm hmm. No doubt.
Lauryn: What the actual fuck? What is going through their heads right now?
Nima: Yeah, I, uh, this is crazy.
Lauryn: I mean, it's obvious that they have no regard for her well being.
Nima: No, because they're more worried about him cleaning up for fucking supper. Yeah.
Lauryn: It was around 6 p. m. when Fisk left the turf club to have supper at the nearby hotel.
Kelsey also left to have supper elsewhere shortly after Fisk, leaving some saloon patrons to remark that [00:15:00] Rosalie had not come downstairs with the two men.
Nima: They both left?
Lauryn: They both left.
Nima: What?
Lauryn: A couple of patrons decided to go upstairs to see who or what had been causing the moans, only to find that the upstairs bedroom was again locked.
The soft but pained moans continued from inside, and the men returned downstairs without knowing the extent of the carnage behind the locked door. Sometime after 7pm, Fisk returned to the saloon, and when Kelsey returned around 7. 30, he asked the saloon owner to come upstairs with him again to see if he now believed the girl was dead.
Kelsey listened for the girl's breath once again, but this time couldn't hear the faintest of sounds. Rosalie was dead.
Nima: I mean, you had a chance before. Like, anyways.
Lauryn: Fisk asked what he should do, and Kelsey said that he needed to report this to the police at once. In his excited state, Fisk ran out of the saloon and down the moonlit street.
He first ran into his friend, former mayor George [00:16:00] Murdoch, who upon hearing the story also told Fisk he needed to find police chief Dillabough immediately. He eventually found Dillabough and told him that he had taken a prostitute who died on his hands. Those were his exact words. He also told the police chief that he was able to put up 1, 000 of cash for bail immediately if needed.
Nima: Wow. Right away.
Lauryn: So he's very concerned about himself and himself only. Of course. Dillabough took Fisk into custody and called for town doctors Dr. Pare and Dr. Lafferty to examine the girl, whose body is still laid in the bedroom above the Turf Club saloon. Rosalie had been murdered, and a coroner's inquest was called to investigate what the newspapers had been calling a, quote, mysterious affair, unquote.
Which I think this case is the absolute farthest thing from.
Nima: A mysterious affair.
Lauryn: A mysterious affair.
Nima: We know exactly what happened here.
Lauryn: The news of Rosalie's murder had quickly spread throughout town, and even seemingly more quickly to the nearby Sarcee Reservation, where Rosalie's family lived. [00:17:00] The inquest began the next day, Friday, March 1st, overseen by a jury of six townsmen.
The courtroom was filled with Fisk's friends and neighbors, the white men, while Rosalie's family, the Indians, were forced to remain outside the courthouse, just blocks away from where their beloved daughter, sister, and friend had been brutally murdered.
Nima: Wow, that's nice. It's totally fair. Yep. Justice.
Lauryn: Dr. Lafferty was among the first to give his testimony during the inquest, where the public first learned about the horror that occurred in the Turf Club's upstairs bedroom. Please take care while listening to these details. Upon walking into the room where Rosalie lay dead, Dr. Lafferty immediately noticed the bed which was completely drenched in the young girl's blood, along with the blood spatter covering the floor and the wall beside her.
Above her lifeless body was a bloody handprint, and more streaky handprints were around the door and doorframe. The two doctors examined Rosalie together, and found that she had been torn internally, which looked to have been done by hand [00:18:00] rather than by any kind of instrument. What? Dr. Pair performed a more thorough exam the next day, when her body had been removed from the crime scene.
He found that Rosalie had been severely beaten. Her breasts, abdomen, and thighs heavily bruised. Her vagina was extremely swollen and protruding. All but an inch of her labia had been ripped off of her body and could not be located. Internally, she had been torn through her vagina and uterus into her peritoneum.
Her bowels had been mangled. Her lungs had congested with blood to the point where she began to suffocate, but this did not kill her. Upon examining her skull and brain, she was found to have brain swelling at the back of her head due to head trauma. The doctors observed that the pieces of Rosalie's flesh had been torn away and were on the floor beneath her.
She had bitten through her lips, most likely while gritting through the pain. and left eight different bite marks in her lips as a result. Dr. Pare testified that the [00:19:00] injuries were sufficient to cause shock and hemorrhage resulting in death.
Nima: That's insane.
Lauryn: This is probably the most brutal murder I've come across in any of my research so far.
Yeah. I, I mean, like, even just reading that back is incredibly difficult to look at and say out loud.
Nima: Yeah, that's, that's a lot. Like, my heart's definitely racing. You know and like it makes sense because for those of you who don't know obviously I don't do any of the research It's all Lauryn who does it and during this episode there were Many many moments where Lauryn was crying or needed to just take a break.
So Makes a whole lot of sense now.
Lauryn: Yeah, I mean I I can't even begin to imagine Being in remotely that position Yeah To have been so scared and terrified. I'm sure just because this man is clearly so violent Yeah, and in those in those final moments to be literally torn apart while you're still alive.
Nima: Yeah, [00:20:00] I don't even want to think about it
Lauryn: It's yeah, it's heartbreaking doesn't even begin to describe
hundred percent. Yeah
Dr. Lafferty's testimony was similar, and he gave additional descriptions of the crime scene and items found in the room. He said that Rosalie had 14. 50 on her person, which I unfortunately couldn't get an exact value for in today's dollars, but it would have been worth at least several hundred dollars Canadian.
Right. I want to pause for a moment to comment on the testimonies given by the doctors, since they absolutely do not bring Rosalie justice in their descriptions of the crime scene. Both doctors said during their testimony that the injuries which Rosalie sustained could not have been self inflicted and had to have been caused by someone else, since the pain would have been far too great to cause to oneself.
I don't understand at all why this point even had to be made in the first place, since it's incredibly obvious to us that in their testimonial details, Rosalie in no way could have done this to herself. Yeah. How [00:21:00] the fuck do you brutalize yourself like that?
Nima: Yeah, how, why would you like that? There's no way, you couldn't.
Lauryn: No. You, I, there, you couldn't.
It's physically impossible in my opinion. Yeah,
Nima: I don't think you
Lauryn: And this did make me wonder if there was an inherent belief that because Rosalie was Indigenous, that she could be capable of causing such injuries, and thus the doctors felt that they need to clarify the wounds were self were inflicted by someone else.
Nima: Insanity.
Lauryn: The remaining testimonies came from George Kelsey and several patrons who saw Fisk take Rosalie upstairs prior to the moans and the knocks they heard above them. The coroner's jury came to the following verdict after just one day of hearing witness testimony. We, the jurors of Our Sovereign Lady the Queen, appointed to inquire into the death of the squaw named Rosalie, find that she came to her death by violence at the hands of William Fisk, known as Jumbo, between the hours of 4 p. m. and 6 p. m. on Thursday, the 28th day of February, [00:22:00] 1889 at the Turf Club Saloon, situated on McTavish Street in the town of Calgary. Fisk was subsequently charged with Rosalie's murder and taken to the NWMP barracks to be held until his preliminary hearing the following week.
You may have noticed that in this verdict, Rosalie was called a squaw. This word is an incredibly derogatory term for Indigenous women, which has been used historically and contemporarily to reinforce racist and misogynistic attitudes against them. Mhm. Until recent decades, however, this word had been used liberally in the Canadian vernacular and even officially so in legislative and legal contexts.
Yeah. So just to understand, it is incredibly disgusting to use this word and I'm only going to be using this word in the context of quotes and if it's relevant to the discussion. Totally. But this is something that was legitimately used in law, in contracts, you know, it's how she's being officially addressed in the coroner's jury verdict.
This is how [00:23:00] indigenous women are viewed.
Nima: Pretty fucked.
Lauryn: Much of the news coverage around Rosalie's case reduced her to such derogatory words. The Calgary Herald, for example, had one sub headline on March 2nd, 1889, that read, quote, An unfortunate squaw murdered and mutilated. A mysterious affair. End quote.
Nima: That's so gross.
Lauryn: Other coverage from the Herald, which ran across North America, included descriptions of Rosalie like the following. "Deceased was a Cree Squaw who evidently had not been at all bad looking in her way. She is said to have been a very dissolute character and to have gone by the name Rosalie."
What a description. So they're just making her out to be some... Worthless prostitute, you know, they put her name in quotes actually in the article.
Nima: Wow.
Lauryn: So it's as if it's not even a legitimate name.
Nima: It's like she's not even real, yeah.
Lauryn: They're completely dehumanizing her.
Nima: Amazing.
Lauryn: Along with these reports ran letters to the editor which revealed the common sentiments in [00:24:00] the Tsuut'ina people.
One letter was titled, Keep the Indians Out of Town, and opened with the following, The tragedy of Thursday night is but another proof of the necessity for keeping the Indians out of town. The visits of the Indians to the towns result in good neither to themselves nor to the tradespeople. Wow. It was clear that Rosalie's death did not matter to the colonizers, who had become so desensitized from and accustomed to the brutal killings of Indigenous peoples.
Nima: Clearly.
Lauryn: This part of Rosalie's story bears so much pain. She was tortured. She suffered a sadistic, murderous death at the hands of a vicious killer, a white man. And yet this served as justification to persecute her community. Mm hmm. Following the coroner's inquest, Chief D'Ilibeau tried to organize Rosalie's burial at the Catholic cemetery since she and her family had been [00:25:00] baptized some years prior.
The Catholic Church refused to bury Rosalie on the ground since she had, quote, died in sin, unquote, as a prostitute. Amazing. Dillabough consequently appealed to the Protestant Mission, who allowed Rosalie to receive a Christian burial at their cemetery. Her funeral was held outside of the town's fire hall, and her parents, sister, and brother, along with other family members and friends, made a point of giving her open casket their final goodbyes.
So they got to see at that point the state that her body was in.
Nima: That would be so tough. Oh, my. I already don't like open casket, but...
Lauryn: Again, I, I mean, the descriptions that I got to read obviously were a little bit more detailed, but not really. So even we don't truly know the extent of what was done to Rosalie.
Nima: Yeah. I don't even want to begin to imagine that.
Lauryn: Rosalie's family demanded answers for her murder. How could this have happened? Was she killed just for [00:26:00] the money that she had on her person? Or was it for a more sinister reason? Would justice be served? While Rosalie's family mourned her painful loss, rumors spread quickly around town that Fisk was obsessed with the Jack the Ripper murders from
Nima: Hmm.
Lauryn: Victorian psychologists believed that a contagion was spreading, where men would become so fixated on these horrific crimes that they felt compelled to commit them themselves.
Nima: Interesting.
Lauryn: That's pretty fucked up, but it's not that fucked up.
Nima: I can see that though.
Lauryn: No, yeah, it's not that fucked up. To think that people get inspired by something so brutal and think, Hey, I can go have fun with doing these exact same things to the same types of vulnerable people.
Nima: If your mind's already there or something has taken you there and triggered you, I mean.
Lauryn: And especially with his background as a soldier in the rebellion, where they were literally going in and killing Métis groups because they were defending what was, in my opinion, [00:27:00] rightfully their land and their settlement to defend, and in any case, He probably became very accustomed at that point to just killing indigenous people without any sort of regard, you know?
That's probably what they did to these soldiers was condition them to just see these as, you know, animals that you'd be out hunting like you otherwise would on any given day with your buddies. For sure. So it's, yeah, like I said, it's fucked up, but it's not that crazy to think that that could happen with the background that he's coming from.
Nima: No, not at all.
Lauryn: So the question really came, had Jumbo Fisk become Calgary's own Jack the Ripper? I'll let you know after a quick break.
Nima: Sounds good.
And we're back.
Lauryn: We're back. The trial began on Thursday, April 4th, 1889, before Justice Rouleau. The Crown was represented by John Costigan, and E. P. Davis appeared on behalf of the defense alongside Mr. Tyrell, a [00:28:00] prominent Eastern Ontario lawyer who Fisk's mother had arranged to assist in her son's defense.
The courtroom was again filled to capacity, with those unable to watch from outside crowding around the windows trying to catch a glimpse of the proceedings. Rosalie's family was again not allowed to be inside of the courtroom, and waited outside to hear the news regarding the trial and to their beloved girl's death.
The room was silent when Fisk entered, all eyes staring upon him. His face turned bright red when the murder charge was read against him, to which he pleaded not guilty. Wow. Imagine. In his opening remarks, Crown Attorney Costigan asked the jury to put aside any bias or knowledge that they may have had of the accused or the case, and to look at the events presented by both sides to determine guilt or innocence.
Costigan equally added that he undoubtedly had sufficient evidence to prove Fisk's guilt. He told the court he was aware of the belief held by many that, quote, Rosalie was only a squaw. Her death does not matter much, and [00:29:00] urged the jury to abandon such thinking for these proceedings. He went on, The unfortunate young squaw was a human being and as dear to her mother, father, and friends as the dearest child of any of the jurors.
She was moreover a Christian, and had a soul as dear to its creator as that of the best and purest of human beings, and the man who sent that soul before its time to its creator should be punished. The crown not only had to convince the jury that Fisk was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but that Rosalie's murder was considered a crime equal to that against any white girl.
Nima: Wow.
Lauryn: He literally had to convince them that she has the same worth and is a human being like any other being.
Nima: Unreal. I mean, no surprise back then, but tough to hear.
Lauryn: The trial's evidence was quite similar to that of the coroner's inquest, although some additional details were provided around the conversations Fisk had with the men who had first been notified of Rosalie's murder.
Dr. Lafferty gave his account of the accused's version of events from that evening. [00:30:00] Apparently, earlier in the afternoon, Fisk had gotten to a street corner near the saloon and spotted a group of Indigenous women. He pointed to them and made a come hither motion, and Rosalie emerged from the group. The two went upstairs and had sex twice, and it was after the second engagement that Rosalie was non responsive.
Fisk alleged that there was no blood at this point, and he was not aware of Rosalie's wounds.
Nima: Okay.
Lauryn: I mean, that's not an outright lie. Dr. Lafferty spoke about the postmortem again, this time including details about bruising and marks in the shape of a man's hand around Rosalie's throat. Parts of Lafferty's testimony were so gruesome that they were deemed unfit for publication.
He was firm that these wounds were as a result of extreme violence caused Rosalie's death. Rosalie's father, whose name was given as Newgrass, went on the stand with an aid of a Métis interpreter. There was great difficulty with being able to translate the conversation, and ultimately the only [00:31:00] established testimony from Newgrass was that he had not seen the state of his daughter's body until her casket was opened at her funeral.
NWMP Constable McGowan, who had also attended the crime scene that evening that Rosalie was murdered, testified to the extent of blood found in the room and down the hallway, including the distinct bloody handprints on the wall above the bed and on the door. What made them so distinct was the fact that each handprint had only three fingers and a thumb, rather than four fingers.
Once McGowan said this, the prosecutor asked Fisk to raise his left hand to the jury, which revealed that he was missing his pinky finger, which was then said to have been amputated during the rebellion a few years prior.
Nima: Oh, interesting.
Lauryn: So his handprint, or the handprint found on the wall, does completely match.
What he's showing in court on his left hand. When asked by defense attorney Tyrell, McGowan did say that he could not be sure that it was a left hand that made the marks on the wall. So trying to say maybe it was a thumb that got taken [00:32:00] off and it's actually the the right hand on the wall.
Nima: Oh, I see. Okay. Sure, but it's a stretch, I think,
Lauryn: But the defense attorney is doing his job, right? He's trying to poke holes in this. The Crown did not call any other witnesses after this point and closed their case. However, the defense called several character witnesses to finish giving their evidence. Several of Fisk's friends testified that he was a quiet, good hearted, inoffensive man, and his brother told a story of when he had rescued some people from drowning back in their hometown some years prior.
The Weekly Albertan reported that it was at this point that Fisk began to weep in the prisoner's box. At no point previously in the trial proceedings had he cried or shown any other signs of emotion. So only when the people are speaking about him and how great he is that he seems to be moved. Dr. Pare's testimony at the trial particularly shocked me when speaking to how he believed such violent injuries could have been caused, and this is from the Weekly Albertan. He said that the [00:33:00] hand could be inserted into the body without much pain if the woman consented, and he was under the opinion she permitted it.
After getting past the bones, the hand would accidentally shoot forward, and then the trouble of getting it out would arise. And he thought this would cause the wounds found on the body, and that this shock caused death. Okay. What do you think of that?
Nima: Bullshit? I mean, there's nothing else to say about that?
Lauryn: Yeah, he explicitly suggested to the jury that Rosalie's death was accidental despite the brutal carnage his colleague Dr. Lafferty had just testified to. Yeah, that's fucked. And the Crown Attorney Costigan was quick to cross examine and point out that the witness's testimony was contradictory to his colleague as well as his own testimony from the coroner's inquest.
Mm hmm. Because there, he said, This was done by someone's hand. This was brutal. This was vicious.
Nima: Yeah, nice try.
Lauryn: Two expert witnesses, other town doctors, were called by the defense [00:34:00] and testified that based on the descriptions given by Lafferty and Pare, they felt the wounds could have been caused accidentally.
Yeah, I bet. Keep in mind, they didn't examine the body. They've just gone off of the post mortem exam results and speaking to the doctors who did examine her.
Nima: Then it's not really relevant in my opinion. No, I didn't see the body You're just saying these guys said some things and we agree with that. Yeah, thanks.
Lauryn: And just kind of thinking back to expert testimony that we heard in the Hattie Bull case where they you know Said she could have done this to herself.
There's definitely this element of victim blaming where and again because Rosalie is indigenous I do think there's this belief that she's capable of wanting these things They're saying here if she had consented to it, then it could have been caused accidentally, right? So they're implying that she wanted these things.
She was totally in on this and it was just A mishap and ultimately an unfortunate accident. [00:35:00] How the fuck do you brand that as this?
Nima: Well, it's the experts that are saying it.
Lauryn: The defense closed their case on the evening of Thursday, April 11th, and the proceedings neared their end as the journey prepared to deliberate and deliver their verdict the next day.
Defense attorney Davis gave his closing remarks first, agreeing that the crime, as described by the Crown, was horrific and that only a brutal man could commit such an offense. He argued that his client was clearly the type of man as described by those close to him, and since he turned himself in right away, he could not have had the intent to commit such violence.
Nima: Great argument.
Lauryn: Davis additionally added what were, in my opinion, disgusting, victim blaming remarks in an effort to further show any harm caused by Fisk. was accidental. And again, this is from the Weekly Albertan. He showed how the death might be caused accidentally but not criminally and with the consent of the victim and accounted for by the moaning, by saying it might be the guttural [00:36:00] sounds of the squaw in her own language and not necessarily an indication of pain.
Nima: What?
Lauryn: So, because we can't understand this indigenous language that she definitely speaks, What? These moans were not moans of pain. No, no, no. That's her pleasure in her language. What the fuck?
Nima: That's, that's another level. of fuckery.
Lauryn: But again, it's the way that they're rationalizing this us versus them. She is a part of the other who we do not want a part of our society.
Nima: Yeah, not a human really, right? Like that's what they're really showing.
Lauryn: Let's continue to dehumanize her and make it so that we can accept this death as accidental misadventure. Davis also instructed the jury to remember the differences between murder and manslaughter as they deliberated. It was clear that the brutal violence Rosalie experienced was perverted into a [00:37:00] consensual mishap because the reputation of a white man far outweighed the death of Indigenous girls.
Costigan's closing remarks reinforced that the accused's confession and Dr. Lafferty's testimony without a doubt proved that Fisk was responsible for such a heinous murder. Justice Rouleau addressed the jury before they deliberated and made his opinion of the case clear. He firmly instructed the jurors to consider if what Fisk had done was murder or manslaughter.
He also told them to consider the deplorable fact that Fisk and Kelsey at no point sought medical help for Rosalie when the injuries were so clearly extensive. So it's great that he's a saying consider intent know the difference between murder and manslaughter. Also, look at what they did to leave her.
That is very, very central to the intent there. Yeah, I'm very glad he pointed that out. 100%. The jury went out to deliberate just after 2 p. m. and the courtroom spectators expected they would only be out a short while. To the surprise of many, the jury could [00:38:00] not come to a consensus and court was adjourned at 7 30 p. m. until the next morning.
Nima: Wow.
Lauryn: On Saturday, April 13th, court resumed and the jury was prepared to give their verdict, having deliberated privately overnight per the judge's instructions. The foreman of the jury rose and delivered a not guilty verdict to the astonished courtroom of spectators and reporters.
Nima: What? Not guilty.
Lauryn: They found him not guilty.
Nima: Amazing. Great jury.
Lauryn: Justice Rouleau, however, refused to accept this verdict since he had instructed the jury to deliberate on if Fisk had committed murder or manslaughter since the evidence proved undeniably that he killed Rosalie. 100 percent. Rouleau considered this a denial of justice and dismissed the jury to redeliberate.
Nima: Oh, I would just get a new jury. I'd just call that a mistrial.
Lauryn: Hold on, hang tight. The jury returned after an hour and the foreman announced they could not come to a consensus under the judge's instructions. Rouleau dismissed the jury and the case was remanded until the next court sitting in [00:39:00] July.
Nima: Yep, that's exactly what should happen.
Lauryn: Yeah.
The case reopened on July 10th with a new jury, again comprised of four local men. Only four jurors were chosen because both the case and Fisk himself were so well known by townspeople, it was far too difficult to find an impartial jury. Wow. So previously there were six jurors, this time around there's only four.
And today we would have twelve, typically. Yeah. Essentially, the same witness testimonies were provided as in the first trial, and proceedings lasted just five days, coming to an end on Sunday, July 15th. This time in his instructions to the jury, Justice Rouleau was explicitly clear. He stated firmly that they needed to consider the evidence at hand and remove any bias surrounding the victim.
And this is a direct quote from his instructions to the jury. Okay. "It made no difference whether Rosalie was white or black, an Indian or a Negro. In the eyes of the law, every British subject is equal." Wow. I found that particularly interesting because I, in [00:40:00] my opinion, don't think many quote unquote British subjects, at least in Western Canada, saw Indigenous peoples as a part of being under the British Empire as British subjects.
So in doing that, I think here, he's not just saying, you know, don't consider her race, but by making that comparison, every British subject, she is a human just like every single one of you.
Nima: She's a human. Exactly.
Yeah.
Lauryn: He also said that he didn't want to be prejudicial, but had to bring up the fact that Fisk and Kelsey left Rosalie in excruciating pain rather than seeking the medical attention she clearly needed.
Rouleau saw this as so cruel and inhumane that he felt compelled to mention it during his address both times. Fair enough. And this time around, he was again firm that Fisk was responsible for Rosalie's death, and the jury had to decide whether intent was there or not for him to be guilty of either murder or manslaughter. So again, just becoming more and more explicit. At 7. 30pm, after two hours of deliberation, the jury gave their verdict. Oh.[00:41:00]
William Fisk was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Rosalie, and he would be sentenced the following Monday, July 25th.
Hmm. Manslaughter, not murder. Yeah. So he's not gonna hang for Rosalie's death. Yeah. He was ultimately sentenced to 14 years imprisonment at Stony Mountain Penitentiary in Manitoba, where he would serve hard labor for his crimes.
Oh, okay. There's no way to begin to describe how that... Is not enough. Well, I'm aware , of course, you know, that's just from my perspective.
Nima: Mm-hmm. , I mean, I obviously it's, it wasn't manslaughter. I think it was murder. Yeah. Um, you know, whether it was second degree or first degree, I don't know. But there was intent of sorts.
Lauryn: Yeah, in today's world, I think it would be either first or second degree murder. I don't think manslaughter would have even been on the table.
Nima: No, it wouldn't. Um, so that's rough. You know, 14 years of hard labor, that's not great either. I mean, it's great that they gave him a sentence of something. Yeah.
It's [00:42:00] nice that the justice was like, hey, no, like, we're doing this.
Lauryn: Yeah, this man has committed a heinous crime. You just have to figure out what the intent was to then Yes. Justify his punishment. And of course. The jury of his peers, not of any of her peers, are going to be sympathetic to him. And in my opinion, I, I think there was probably some resentment on the jury that they even had to be doing this a second time because people widely liked this guy and often, you know, it wasn't even considered a crime in the first place.
Just like we saw the Crown Attorney bring up.
Yeah. Yeah. So. It's, it's unfortunate by our standards, but again, justice was served. Yep. Somewhat. Some form of justice. Virtually all reporting on the case stopped after Fisk's sentencing, and contemporary sources about the case typically end their story here.
Fortunately, I was able to find out some more information about Rosalie and Fisk, which I'll share with you after a final quick break.
Nima: Sounds good. [00:43:00] And we're back.
Lauryn: We're back. Despite being given a 14 year sentence, Fisk was released by 1901 and was living in Winnipeg at the time of the 1901 census, which was taken in June of that year. So at best, he served just shy of 12 years. He doesn't seem to appear in any Winnipeg city directories before this time, so it seems like he hadn't been out of prison for long at the time of the census being taken.
By October of 1901, he had made his way to Dawson City, Yukon, as he appeared on the territory census that had been taken that fall. The details provided on the two 1901 census records are virtually the same and match Fisk exactly, so I'm certain that he made the move up north. By 1904, he appeared in Vancouver City directories, being listed in occupations like carpenter, electrician, and blacksmith over the next few years.
He stopped appearing in Vancouver directories by 1907 and was back living in Dawson City by the [00:44:00] time the 1911 census was taken. Unfortunately, Dawson City historical directories aren't consistently available for these years of the early 20th century, so I can't confirm his exact movements in this period.
Interestingly, I was able to find a June 1915 U. S. border crossing record, which shows that Fisk crossed into Washington state from Vancouver, where he once again resided. The record noted that Fisk was heading to Seattle to look for work, and he'd be returning in one week if he wasn't able to secure employment.
It also stated he may next head to Dawson City, since he had lived there previously. Hmm. This is the last record that I was able to find about Fisk. I couldn't find him in any Seattle directories, U. S. census records, or any Canadian records after this point. He was 57 years old when he crossed into the U. S., so it isn't unreasonable to speculate that he may have died at a time between major record upkeeping and perhaps death records from where he died may not be available. For sure. In any case, I kind of am glad we don't know what happens to him in the end, because fuck this guy.
Nima: Yeah, who [00:45:00] cares.
Lauryn: We don't need to give him that recognition or honor in his death because he absolutely doesn't deserve it, so.
No. Regardless of how the rest of his life went on, he got to continue living his life after senselessly and inhumanely ending Rosalie's. Although there's no evidence to show that Fisk reoffended with his transient nature and obvious interest in preying upon those who are vulnerable, I wouldn't be surprised if Fisk was running from someone or something with all of these movements.
Mm hmm. Very possible. Fisk's infamy lived on in news articles over the decades, when newspapers would run snippets from old articles published years before. They always published the details about Fisk, like where he came from and that he had fought in the Rebellion, but often they didn't even bother to include Rosalie's name, continuing to reduce her identity to that of the squaw killed at the hands of Jumbo Fisk.
These lookback articles echoed the prejudicial hate that had been ingrained by colonizers decades and centuries before. Coming back to Rosalie's story, I found the news coverage around Rosalie's funeral and case proceedings to show a [00:46:00] somewhat conflicting juxtaposition in how Calgarians felt about the case.
There was a significant portion of settlers who truly hated the local indigenous groups and believed that Rosalie's death did not matter. Despite these types, the Council of Calgary made what I believe were well intentioned efforts to help Rosalie's grieving family in the ways that they could immediately following her death.
The Town Council, along with Chief Dillabough, oversaw her funeral arrangements and took on all costs for her burial.
Nima: That's good.
Lauryn: I mean, it's the least they could do.
Nima: No, no, for sure. For sure.
Lauryn: Like I said, good intentioned, but... The Councilman chose a nice oak casket with silver ornaments, and kept streets clear for her funeral service and procession near the town fire hall.
It was reported in the Weekly Herald that Rosalie's brother had spoken at her funeral, and with the help of a Métis translator, told the crowd of townspeople that they were thankful Rosalie had been given as nice a funeral service as any white lady could have received. This was widely reported, so I do believe that he did thank the town for the funeral [00:47:00] service.
But I am skeptical as to how accurate the reporting was on what he actually said. For sure. With the translators and everything. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the newspapers either took the liberty to or were instructed to report This, you know to help calm tensions in town for sure while also helping to further, you know Their typical white saviour narrative we we did everything right, you know, our hands are clean of any guilt The guy's in jail.
What's done is done. Exactly. It was also reported that the Department of Indian Affairs felt that the council's casket choice was excessive and ornamental and only reimbursed the town 29 of the 50 it cost to bury Rosalie. So the federal government's position is that, you know, the going rate here for a plain pine casket with burial costs is 29.
That's all she should have been given. So, because of this, the city of Calgary, or town of Calgary, they actually covered the remaining costs because they weren't going to leave that hanging.
Nima: That's so stupid.
Lauryn: This issue was reported on in a September 1889 edition of the [00:48:00] Weekly Herald, and the article stated that the people of Calgary did support the council's decision to pay for the funeral expenses that the Department of Indian Affairs didn't cover.
Yeah. News articles made considerable mention that there was no animosity towards the white settlers as a result of how the town council Handled Rosalie's murder and papers were equally quick to quote her brother to support these claims Immediately beside the September 1889 article praising the town council letters to the editor were printed touting the racist and prejudicial Ideology that indigenous communities needed to be segregated from the colonizers.
Otherwise acts of violence like Rosalie's murder would be inevitable Yeah, so it was still strikingly obvious despite what news officials are saying, what government officials are saying, the townspeople still are holding this incredibly racist belief that we need to have them out of here.
Nima: It's still like that today, I guess.
Lauryn: Oh, it definitely is. I mean, the reservation system is still... Alive and well. It's alive and well. Yeah. There are so many ways [00:49:00] that in our legal system Indigenous people are not afforded the same rights as others. Yeah. They widely represent a large population of prison populations, but They only account for an overall small portion of the Canadian population compared to other ethnic and racial groups.
Mm hmm. So, these injustices are continuing to exist today. Yep, they're still around. Unfortunately, not much else is known about Rosalie. However, her legacy has continued to live on in recent decades. In 1987, Edmonton born author Katherine Govier released her historical fiction novel Between Men, which tells the story of a history professor who becomes obsessed with Rosalie's case.
Govier was able to access transcripts from Rosalie's trial and found out more details about her that had not been published in newspapers nearly a hundred years prior. Interesting. It turns out that Rosalie wasn't actually a prostitute, and she had received some kind of religious schooling at a local covenant.
I'm not sure if this was some kind of government run [00:50:00] Indian day school, or if it was just schooling at the kind of like small local religious level, but in any case, Rosalie was not a dissolute character like the papers described her to be. Of course. She was a teenage girl who I think was just in the wrong place in the wrong time, and she was young, naive, scared probably and definitely taken advantage of. Oh yeah. My information here comes from book reviews, coming back to Katherine Govier, since I haven't actually been able to get a hold of the copy of Between Men to see if she was able to provide any more details about Rosalie's upbringing and the kind of young woman she was becoming.
The trial transcripts aren't publicly available online, so I haven't been able to consult these for myself to see what other information may exist about Rosalie. I hope to continue to consult these down the line and I'll provide it. Any further information that I can in the future. Coming to the end of the 19th century, Rosalie's murder was one of the few cases of white violence towards Indigenous women and girls that was widely reported on [00:51:00] and resulted in a conviction.
Horrific crimes like this towards Indigenous individuals, especially women, largely went unreported because they weren't viewed as crimes. Rosalie's murder serves as a haunting reminder of the continued injustices faced by Indigenous women in Canada. While these details of her life remain largely hidden, we are left to imagine the dreams she might have had, the aspirations she carried, and the love and laughter that filled her days.
And I think, after all of that, that's how we should remember Rosalie. For sure. As we conclude this episode, we must recognize that Rosalie's case is not an isolated incident. It's a part of a broader pattern of violence, discrimination, and injustice that Indigenous people in Canada have faced for generations.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a solemn reminder of this painful history, but it also serves as a call to action. In this episode, we've barely scratched the surface of Rosalie's life, and I hope to share more of her story with you in the future. We encourage you, our listeners, to delve deeper into the history of Indigenous peoples in [00:52:00] Canada, to engage with their stories, and to support efforts towards reconciliation.
In the episode description and show notes on the Rooted Genealogy website, you can find more information about the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and resources for continued learning. And that's it for today's episode.
Nima: That's it. That's all.
Lauryn: Thank you again so much for listening and continuing to show us your support.
If you liked the episode, please leave us a rating and a review on your favorite listening app. We also have an audience question posted for each episode on Spotify, so if you're listening on Spotify, we'd love to know your thoughts.
Nima: You can find us on Instagram @rootedincrime, and you can send us an email at rootedincrime@gmail.com. The link is in the description to show notes, resources, case photos, the episode transcript, and more. If you'd like to support the show, you can find us on Patreon at patreon.com/rootedincrime.
Lauryn: And a special thanks to Lindsay Macdonald for writing and producing our intro and transition music.
And that's it, everyone. Until next time.[00:53:00]
Sources
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