On Thursday, October 23 a manhunt
was underway, searching for George Dwernychuk. Described as being 45
years of age, 150 pounds, 5 feet, 5 inches, and of quiet manner, dressed
in blue trousers, mackinaw coat and a grey cap. His right eye was an
artificial one. He was wanted for the murder of Mr. and Mrs. John
Walanski, their daughter Mary, and John Darichuk. Mrs. Helen Huchaluk,
the seventy-four year old mother of Mrs. John Walanski was seriously
injured, but a that point still living. She died shortly after.
George Dwernychuk's wife was
living apart from him, and he blamed her family for their failed
marriage. On Wednesday evening he appeared in Smoky Lake, going to Alex
Festiuk's house. Festiuk drove him out to the Walanski's home. "I
am going to settle up with some people I had trouble with, then I am
going to finish myself. If you do anything to stop me, I will finish you
too," Dwernychuk said to Festiuk, according to the Oct. 23, Edmonton
Journal article.
Arriving at the Walanski home,
shot John Wolanski at the door. John's son, Alex, 18, was on his way to
saddle a horse and saw his father collapse. He took off running across
the field to the neighbour's house.
Mrs. Wolanski ran to the door,
only to be shot too. Her killer pushed his way inside ad shot Mary
Walanski, demanding to know where the others were. Mrs. Huchaluk was
shot.
Two children, Jenny, 13 or 14, and
Annie, 11, hid behind some clothing, and then slipped out of the house.
They ran to a neighbour's house, and then, for the next while, stayed
with Miss. Annie Chonko, a school teacher in the Kotzman school
district.
Wasyl Darichuk, a middle aged
farmer, was heading home when Dwernychuk saw the wagon approaching, and
fired at the man. Darichuk slumped forward, and the horses took him and
the wagon home.
The Edmonton Journal articles from
the time tell more about Dwernychuk than about the murdered family.
Dwernychuk had a house rented in Edmonton and lived in the upstairs
while renting the ground floor out to Mr. and Mrs. Forchuks. He was
apparently unemployed at the time, but two weeks before had had a job
digging a basement for a house. His wife had left him in July.
The search for him suffered a
false-alarm that evening, when the police were called to a hotel where a
Mr. Dwernychuk had registered at a hotel. Police were called, only to
discover that it was Fred Dwernychuk, the cousin of the wanted man. The
Edmonton Journal, October 24, recorded that he told the police, "I
tell you right quick if I see George. He's a bad man. Some time ago I
had a farm rented from him. He wanted me to do everything just like he
thought was right and told me that he would kill me, if I didn't. I
moved off the farm quick. He is a dangerous man. When you talk to him,
you have to stand a back a few feet or maybe he get mad about something
and give you a jab quick with a knife."
Then by October 24, one day after
the newspaper article had come out, and two days after the murder,
Dwernychuk had been captured by the police at Vegreville. N. E. Lakusta
had been translating the newspaper article about the murder into
Ukrainian for his friends when he noticed a man with a glass eye getting
up from the counter. He followed the man to the train station, and then
asking his friend, Zachariz Drapaka, to watch the man, he called the
police. Dwernychuk was arrested at the train station.
The trial took place on November
24, with several witnesses telling of Dwernychuk's hatred for the
Wolanski family. For example, Dwernychuk had told Peter Franchuk
"to tell the Walanskis to prepare their coffins as they would only
live until he, Dwernychuk, saw them."
Dwernychuk's defense loyal, Hugh
John MacDonald, argued that Dwernychuk had gone insane.
Dwernychuk's wife, Mrs. Sandra
Dwernychuk, was called to testify for the defense, telling of two times
when her husband had threatened her before. "We were trying to
drive some cattle into the barn and they were wild and would not go. He
go mad and said that the cattle were crazy and that I was just as bad.
Then he went into the house to get his rifle and said that he was going
to shoot me and the cattle. I got frightened and ran to a neighbor's
place." The second time, his threat was made with an axe. "He
came home late one night from playing cards. I told him that he
shouldn't play cards when we did not have enough money to pay the rent
and then I went upstairs to bed. He went out to the wood pile and got
the axe and came upstairs to where I was and told me it was my
last."
Mrs. Dwernychuk said her husband
had sent her to Edson to get work on June 27, 1930, but that she worked
there only one day and went, without telling her husband, to Kamloops.
The second witness for the defense
was John Forchuk, who told of having seen the accused in apparent fits,
stretched out and mumbling unintelligble things.
It took the jury only 48 minutes
to make their decision. On Tuesday, November 25, at 12:07 noon,
the jury announced that it had found George Dwernychuk guilty.
Dwernychuk was sentenced to death, with his execution date set at
February 11, 1931.