Every time I passed the location of the old North West Mounted Police post of Hootchikoo on the Yukon River, I had the canoes come together and we drifted. It was the perfect time to relate one of the most grizzly murders that happened at the time of the Klondike Goldrush. Fred Clayson, a Skagway gold buyer and Lynn Relfe, a young bartender from Dawson City were leaving the Yukon and travelling together. They had stopped at Minto, one of the roadhouses built to feed and shelter travellers between Dawson and Whitehorse, Yukon. There they met Ole Olsen, a telegraph lineman, who invited them to join him for Christmas dinner with his friend, Corporal Ryan of the NWMP at Hootchikoo. They all left Minto together on Christmas day, 1899 . They never arrived for their dinner.
George O’Brien, an unsavoury character with a criminal background, and an accomplice were waiting in ambush to rob unsuspecting travellers. Relfe, Clayson, and Olsen became their victims. They were shot, belongings stolen, and their clothes burned, before their dismembered bodies were stuffed through a hole in the ice of the Yukon River.
After the murder, O’Brien is believed to have killed the only witness to the crime, his accomplice. He then slowly continued on his way up the Yukon River. At Tagish he was arrested for theft, but not for the yet unknown murders of Relfe, Olsen, and Clayson.
The failure of Olsen to arrive at Hootchikoo caused suspicion to grow that something bad had happened. Telegraph communication between various NWMP posts confirmed that the three men had not been seen. At about the same time, Clayson’s family had hired a private investigator, Philip Maguire, to search for the missing and overdue Fred.
NWMP Constable Pennycuick and Maguire teamed up to find some evidence of what could have happened to Clayson.
They made their way to the area that the three missing men were last seen and to where O’Brien was seen at about the same time.
They located O’Brien’s camp and began a meticulous piecing together of a terrible murder and the accumulation of evidence that would convict the murderer. They found:
- Remnants of burned clothing
- Frozen blood on a trail to the river
- Receipts in Olsen’s name
- A tooth which later matched Relfe’s shattered jaw
- Business keys belonging to Clayson
- Shell casings that matched O’Brien’s rifle left behind
- An axe that the murders used to create an ambush blind
They carefully catalogued all the evidence. There was enough here to charge O’Brien with murder, but locating the bodies and confirming that a crime had taken place, would cement their case. Finally the ice on the Yukon River melted and the bodies were found, confirming the brutal nature of the crime.
O’Brien, who was being held in a cell at Tagish, was arrested in June 1900 for the murders of Olsen, Clayson, and Relfe.
T
he trial took place the following July in Dawson City. It was covered nationally by newspapers. A very strong case was presented by prosecutors in the form of physical evidence and testimony of over 60 witnesses. Together they painted a complete picture of what happened.
After less than two hours of deliberation O’Brien was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang on August 23, 1901. He maintained his innocence to the end, cursing all those who had a hand in his forthcoming execution. It was 7:35 a.m. when the trapped door opened and O’Brien was executed for murder of Clayson, Relfe, and Olsen. A small, silent group of men watched his final moments. There were no tears.
Interested in testing your sleuthing? Sgt. Higgins of the N.W.M.P. Gold Bottom Detachment, just outside of Dawson City, is investigating the murder of a prospector on his claim. He has released the evidence that he has mustered in the hope that someone can help solve this crime.
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