Slumach: murderer of women?

C. V. Tench in "The Gold Mine Murders of Nine British Columbia Women," Liberty, July 1956, gave the women names and faces and a life, but the idea of Slumach as a repeat murderer of women was not Tench’s.

Prior to this, in a 1951, the murder of women was presented by Chief August Jack Khahtsahlano. He was then in his eighties and "the only Indian still living who knows the whole story."

Chief Khahtsalano may well have been inspire by a January 1947 article, "Hoodoo Gold!" by Clyde Gilmour raising he possibility that Slumach murdered up to eight "squaws." Before that, in June 1942, a similar story written by W.W. Bride, titled "The Bluebeard of Lost Creek Mine," appeared in BC Provincial Police's The Shoulder Strap, .

But the origin of this legend lies probably in a story written by Jack Mahoney for the Province, 30 June 1939, from which the following: "Slummock was a tough character, and it was believed but never proven, that he had drowned three of his Indian "wives" near Siwash Rock at the mouth of Pitt Lake to prevent them from divulging the location, which they had been fortunate enough to learn, of his find."