THE SECRET LIVES OF SGT. JOHN WILSON. A True Story of Love & Murder

Softcover. A riveting story of passion, murder and retribution in Canada's early west. John Wilson went to Canada from Scotland in 1912, leaving his wife Mary (called Polly) and family with the promise to return in a year. In 1914 he joined the Mounties, and while stationed in a Saskatchewan village, he caught TB and fell hopelessly in love with the young woman who took care of him, Jessie Patterson. He would do anything for her, anything at all. John Wilson was tried and convicted for the 1918 murder of his wife. He was executed by Hangman Ellis on April 23, 1920. The only ex-police officer to be executed in Canadian history. Winner of the 1995 Arthur Ellis Award for Non-Fiction, The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson is played out against a backdrop of catastrophic events - World War I, economic depression, the TB and Spanish Flu epidemics. An account of a mounted policeman and the women who loved him. Illus., Afterword and Index. 224pp. trade size softcover. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. with no creasing to covers.