Post House

AS RUMOR HAS IT:

Verdict – GUILTY!
Sentence – The prisoner shall be hanged by the neck until dead!

For his complicity as one of a trio of brutal and greedy serial killers, Al Riley met his maker on the gallows at Kamloops in 1895. The yellowing court document that records the sentence hides the drama that was enacted over a number of years at the 108 Mile Hotel, a stopping place on the Cariboo Wagon Road.

The 108 Mile Hotel or Post House as it was known then, was built in the 1860’s primarily to serve the host of prospectors and opportunists either going to or returning from the Cariboo Gold Fields. Being so close to the 100 Mile Rest Stop it was probably not used by the stagecoaches that plied the Cariboo Wagon Road. However, its proximity to the easily accessible lake and abundant grazing made it an ideal stopover for the huge strings of pack mules that carted supplies to the gold fields. (Recent work on the site lead to the discovery of a well preserved mule shoe which would definitely have been used by a muleteer such as the famous “Cataline”. Mules would not have been shod for work around the hotel.)

The men who drove these mule trains were tough and hard working. They were known as hard drinkers as well. “Cataline,” whose real name was John Jacques Caux, would, before finishing a whole bottle of cognac, rub some onto his hair to help it grow. (It obviously worked, as photographs in his later years show him with a full head of hair!)

As well as offering the usual food, board, and lodging, the 108 Hotel had a reputation for cheap girls and liquor. In later years it was to be known for the many murders that were perpetrated there.

Selling Services

Girls were extremely scarce in the gold fields and Agnus made these her stock in trade. It is said that if they did not work for her willingly she would physically capture them, chain them in the attic, and then sell their charms to lonely miners, either for the night or as a “wife” to cook and clean and keep him warm during the long winters!

It was in this year, 1875 that the first murder attributed to this trio occurred. In March, Henry Dawson, who had a prosperous claim near Barkerville, arrived at the hotel with $11,000 in gold.

Whether he wanted to buy a girl outright or just for the night we will never know, but because he was obviously rich he was shot in the back and his gold and horse were stolen. They then took his body and dumped it in a nearby lake. Al Riley then reported that Henry Dawson’s horse had been found running loose near the hotel. A search party the following day found his “battered body in a lake between the 100 Mile House and the 108 Post House.” At the time it was listed as just one of many unsolved murders.

During the next 10 years Agnus MacVee was instrumental in the murders, by gunshot and probably poison, of over 50 miners and gamblers and an unknown number of women. The magnitude of these atrocities went unnoticed because they murdered and robbed only those who were traveling alone. Countless hundreds of miners died or went missing on their way to or from the goldfields and there was often no one waiting at home for them, to notice whether they returned or not.

Skullduggery

Apparently Agnus had an eye for men as well, and this could have been the cause of her downfall. In the late spring of 1885 a successful gambler from Fort Langley named MacDonald stopped at the 108 Hotel and purchased a 19-year-old girl from Agnus for $4000. Instead of murdering him and taking his gambling stakes, she let him and the girl leave for the gold fields.

Agnus may have fallen for this blonde-haired opportunist, and hoped to see him again when he left the gold fields. Maybe she intended to kill him on his return when he had divested the miners of their gold! However, when McDonald and the girl left the hotel they were followed by Agnus’ husband Jim. Several miles up the road he shot and killed McDonald and stole the rest of his money. The young girl managed to escape unharmed.

When Jim MacVee returned to the hotel he was unable to keep his secret from Agnus. The next morning she spiked his breakfast with poison and he died in agony for his exploits. Agnus and her son-in-law were loading Jim’s body onto a wagon when a number of North West Mounted Police rode into the yard.

The girl, who had escaped when Jim murdered McDonald, had met the patrol in her desperate flight to safety. She identified the dead Jim MacVee as McDonald’s murderer. She also accused Agnus MacVee and Al Riley of murdering other travelers of the Cariboo Wagon Road, and of murdering some of the less cooperative girls.

A search of the hotel revealed some of its grisly secrets. Several girls were found chained in the attic. McDonald’s money was found in the hayloft where Jim had hidden it. Bones and teeth were discovered in the ashes of some of the fire places, where Agnus and Al had burned bodies of unfortunate girls. Dawson’s pocket watch with an inscription was also found that put the blame for his murder pointing towards Agnus. Both Agnus and Al were arrested and taken to Fort Kamloops to stand trial.

Telling All

Hoping to get a lighter sentence, Al Riley made a complete confession. As a result of this confession an extensive search was made of several of the lakes to the north of the 108 Hotel, and a total of 49 male bodies and skeletons were discovered. None were ever identified.

Agnus MacVee never came to trial. She thwarted the hangman’s noose in Scotland and she did the same at Kamloops. Somehow she managed to hide some poison when she was arrested and committed suicide in June 1895. Al Riley’s hope for a lighter sentence was to no avail and he was hanged soon after his trial.

Al’s death would have been the end of this episode of atrocities, except for that yellow metal that started it all, GOLD!

Over the 10 years or so that this family had preyed on prospectors and other unsuspecting travelers, Agnus was reputed to have accumulated a vast fortune in gold coins and nuggets, in excess of $150,000. Only McDonald’s was found during the search of the hotel at the time of the arrest. It was rumoured at the time that Agnus had buried the proceeds of each murder in different places on the property.

When the hotel was completely torn down in 1892 to be replaced by a new building, there was no trace of this lost fortune. In 1924 a rancher dug up a cache of $2,500 in gold less than one mile from where the original hotel stood.

More recently, when Block Bros. were clearing the site for the 108 Airstrip a machine operator uncovered another $6,000 in gold coins and nuggets. With only a small amount of the original fortune recovered, at today’s value of gold this means that over $1,000,000 is still buried, hidden by Agnus MacVee, probably within one mile of her home!

Today, the 108 Mile property is a Heritage Site. Some of the original buildings still stand as a reminder of the not too distant past when the Cariboo Wagon Road was often a one-way journey towards the gold fields which ended at the home of Agnus MacVee and her family.