 | irishgit (138)
02/16/2007 |  One of the more interesting unsolved crimes of the twentieth century, full of bizarre turns and peccadillos among the political and socially prominent.
Janet Smith was a 22 year old nursemaid in the household of a socially prominent Vancouver businessman, who was murdered in 1924.
A coroners inquest found that she had committed suicide or accidentally shot herself, conveniently overlooking the evidence of two doctors who had examined the body and determined that the damage done to the woman could not have been done by a bullet, and ignored the unusual burn marks on the victim's torso.
Rumors quickly began to spread throughout the city suggesting that Smith had been killed, and possibly raped, by a member of Vancouver's high society, and a second inquest decided that Janet Smith had been murdered by persons unknown. No arrests were made and the case appeared to die.
It came alive again when a group of vigilantes dressed as Ku Klux Klan members kidnapped a Chinese houseboy from the front lawn of the house of the murder. For six weeks, he was shackled to the floor of an attic, and subjected to frequent beatings, death threats, and other forms of intimidation to force him to tell what he knew about the Smith murder.
He was later found wandering and delirious late at night along a lonely stretch of road and was charged with the murder of Janet Smith. The B.C. Attorney General told a reporter that he knew that the houseboy was innocent, but that the Crown wanted to use his trial to flush out the real murderer, an admission which persuaded a Vancouver grand jury to order the houseboy's release.
Shortly thereafter, kidnapping charges were laid against Point Grey (then a separate part of Vancouver) reeve (mayor), police chief, and four police constables. Also accused were three Canadian Detective Agency operatives who had worked for the municipality. The men accused the provincial attorney general of having sanctioned the kidnapping. He denied these accusations on the floor of the legislature, but it destroyed his political career. Charges against the Point Grey officials were eventually dropped.
Any number of theories have been put forward for the motivation for the murder and possible suspects. Smith's employer had been involved in a major drug smuggling ring in London, England in the early 20s and there were wide spread rumours of romantic liaisons, deviant orgies and the like. An enduring and quite intriguing mystery.
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