Years after Wally Tansem?s death, his wife and daughter publish ?The Foulest of Murders? in his name
By ADAM JACKSON Herald-Tribune staff
Updated 4 hours ago
Even has we approach 100 years since one of Grande Prairie?s oldest mysteries, a newly published book is bringing back memories for one family.
When Wally Tansem died in 2001 at the age of 74, a promise was made to him by his wife, Doris, and his daughter Brenda to publish the book he had worked on for the previous 10 years ? The Foulest of Murders.
The book depicts background information and detailed investigation from then-North West Mounted Police and the Alberta Police Service on an unsolved murder of six that occurred in Grande Prairie in 1918.
On June 20, 1918, the bodies of Joseph Snyder and his son Stanley Snyder were discovered charred inside a shack near Grande Prairie. A .38-caliber Ivor Johnson revolver, with five discharged shells in its chambers, was found near the hand of Joseph.
Four days later, Ruthenian minister Frank Parzychowsky and three trappers ? Charles Zimner, John Wudwang and Ignace Patan, were found murdered on the Patan farm 6.5 kilometres northwest of the Snyder farm.
The murders have often been referred to as the ?Crime of the Century.?
The books are available online at www.websd-foulestofmurderscom.webs.com.
?He worked on that for 10 years before he died ? he was working on the very last chapter just doing finishing touches on it when he just couldn?t work on it anymore,? said Tansem, adding that Wally had worked on the book up until two days before he died.
Although the book was near complete in 2001, Tansem found it difficult to work on it without Wally.
?He asked me to get it published and I promised him that,? said Tansem. ?We had done a lot of research on it together and I just couldn?t work on it without him.?
Tansem says the book laid like an elephant in the room for years, before she decided to get working on publishing.
Daryl White, a history teacher at Grande Prairie Regional College, became interested in the case and the material that accompanied it and immediately become interested in getting the book on track.
?Now, all we have to worry about is selling it,? said Tansem.
Tansem adds that a combination of Wally?s family history and a passion for writing. He spent much of the 1960?s writing for the Herald-Tribune and the Peace River Record-Gazette, before finally becoming the Postmaster for the busy rural routes of Wanham.
His father and uncle, who homesteaded in Wanham in 1917, would often talk of the murders that happened and wonder how the murders were never solved.
After his retirement in the early 1980s, he started up a small business before eventually selling the company.
In 1985, he was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder and underwent multiple surgeries to battle the disease.
In the early 1990s, Wally decided he wanted to write again.
He worked tirelessly, says Tansem, making multiple trips to the Provincial Archives of Alberta in Edmonton and making numerous calls to the U.S. as well as eastern Canada to track down some of the people involved.
Adam.jackson@sunmedia.ca
Comments on this Article. You are currently not logged in.
Topic guidelines: We welcome your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers.
Source: http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3601810
dianna agron million hoodie march tebow trade mike the situation jacksonville jaguars jacksonville jaguars benjarvus green ellis
No comments:
Post a Comment