Boys Captured

Boys captured for murder that took place on Greater Winnipeg Water District, 1918. Courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba (n15801).


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From the Free Press archives:

In June 1918 cousins Mike and Nick Powdochuk (or Podelezuk), aged 14 or 15, were arrested for murder.

The crime took place in a Greater Winnipeg Water District railway camp, which, according to the City of Winnipeg Water and Waste Department, "was built to transport men and supplies for the construction of an aqueduct from Shoal Lake on the Manitoba-Ontario border to Winnipeg."

Mike was eventually tried for the axe murder of Louis Marcie, described by the then Manitoba Free Press as "an old logger."

"The deceased was not of a quarrelsome nature, but he sometimes got 'peeved,' and in that state, he had a peculiar habit of whispering to himself. The boys were apt to note his infirmity and make fun of him, but he had warned them against the annoyance they were inclined to give the man." (June 18, 1918)