The arctic has been, for centuries, the stage of numerous deaths, some of them were provoked by starvation, exposure, Polar bear attacks, etc. but some of these deaths were provoked for the same people who participated on these expeditions. The frontier between what was called "executions"in the official transcriptions of the journals or what could had been called "Crimes" is sometimes a thin line and, depending on the point of view, the "Execution" denomination could be considered even arguable.
This is not an exhaustive list, but to my mind come these cases:
Robert Hood and Michel Terhoaute, First Franklin expedition descending the Coopermine river in 1819.
Robert Hood was allegedly, and almost certainly, killed by the indian Michel Terohaute while they were on their way back towards Fort Enterprise. The things were terrible wrong, John Franklin had gone ahead with the rest of the party leaving at Hood, Dr Richardson, John Hepburn and Michel behind. Michel Teroahute shot Hood in the back of his head after a bitter discussion while they were camped. In this case the situation was clear, it seems that it was actually a crime (Fergus Fleming in "Barrow Boys" suggested boldly that Hood could have been killed to be eaten for the rest of his British mates).
When Dr. Richardson and the sailor John Hepburn decided to move forward towards Fort Enterprise Midhel Terohaute began to behave strangely and violently. John Richardson then killed him shooting him in the head. This was officially considered an execution, though Willard Wentzel, the Northwest Company representative asked for doing a proper investigation, but nobody listened to him.
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| Dr. John Richardson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Richardson_(naturalist) |
Patrick Coleman Second Hall expedition to locate the alleged survivors of the Franklin last expedition. 1868.
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| Charles Francis Hall http://www.librarything.com/author/hallcharlesfrancis |
Hall asked for the rifle which one of the sailors had, went to his tent, took a revolver, came back to the tent and shot Pat. The poor man agony lasted two weeks before dying. Some of the Inuit witnesses said that they were afraid of the life of Hall because the discussion was very violent. However, one of the sailors said time after that the situation could have been controlled with the proper management, perhaps for a more tempered man than Hall.
This is not clear if it was an execution or a crime or none of both, it seems that Hall acted in self defence, but the fact that Patrick was unarmed and that Hall could have gone to his tent and return with his gun without being stopped by the sailors suggest that the things weren´t so extreme.
This is not clear if it was an execution or a crime or none of both, it seems that Hall acted in self defence, but the fact that Patrick was unarmed and that Hall could have gone to his tent and return with his gun without being stopped by the sailors suggest that the things weren´t so extreme.
Thomas Simpson Return expedition to England 1840
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| Thomas Simpson http://becomingcanada.tumblr.com http://becomingcanada.tumblr.com/post/26831393447/july-9-1837-thomas-simpson-and-peter-dease |
This is one of the darkest stories of crime of the Arctic. Thomas Simpson was on his return trip towards England after the authorities had not answered his proposals to complete the location of the Northwest Passage. On his way back, the description of his death says that on June 14 he and some of his Indian mates died in a shoot-out. it seems that Simpson had become crazy, violent and paranoid. Thomas even thought that some of the Indian were trying to kill him. He killed them, and the rest of the men fled. These men found him dead of a shot and his gun was besides him.
Private Charles Henry Greely expedition in 1884
About this specific matter I have few things to say, a complete and thorough description of the facts was done by Glenn Stein on his wonderful article: "An arctic execution" which is available here:
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic64-4-399.pdf
This is perhaps the clearest case. The commander of the expedition ordered his execution, and the order was even written down. Therefore, this was clearly an execution. What perhaps it wasn´t so clear is that the facts had happened as it was told in the oficial account of the expedition and that is the reason why I reccomend, to those who haven´t do yet, the reading of the Glenn´s article.
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| Private Charles Henry http://www.executedtoday.com/2013/06/06/1884-charles-henry-lady-franklin-bay-expedition-arctic-execution/ |
About this specific matter I have few things to say, a complete and thorough description of the facts was done by Glenn Stein on his wonderful article: "An arctic execution" which is available here:
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic64-4-399.pdf
This is perhaps the clearest case. The commander of the expedition ordered his execution, and the order was even written down. Therefore, this was clearly an execution. What perhaps it wasn´t so clear is that the facts had happened as it was told in the oficial account of the expedition and that is the reason why I reccomend, to those who haven´t do yet, the reading of the Glenn´s article.
Well, I am sure that there are a much higher number of "crimes-executions-self defending killings", but to my mind only comes these ones right now. Anyway, one thing is clear, the Arctic, a place on which I have never been, seems to exert a great and magnificient attraction towards the sensitive people and it makes arise on them the best and most wonderful feelings, but it seems that it has also the capability to transform other kind of people on murderers and paranoids. Cases of paranoid seems to be frequent on these latitudes and, perhaps justified or not, this paranoia usually ended with a murder or with a dead.
To me it is clear that the power of those regions are beyond the limits of understanding of those, like me, who have not been there and that a person, no matter how strong this man or woman could be, phisically or mentally, it is no more than a puppet on the claws of its nature.
To me it is clear that the power of those regions are beyond the limits of understanding of those, like me, who have not been there and that a person, no matter how strong this man or woman could be, phisically or mentally, it is no more than a puppet on the claws of its nature.
