neighbour because he needed the man’s money to feed his family. After hitting Czayka over the head with an axe and taking his cash, he buried the dead man under a manure pile in his yard. Some months later he built a pig pen over the grave. He told the officers that when asked by neighbours about his friend’s disappearance, he told them Czayka had gone missing in a blizzard and likely perished.
Although all that remained of Czayka was bones, a four-inch hole in his skull corroborated Kooting’s statement. At trial further corroboration was offered by his son, who testified that on the night of the murder he was sitting on the stairs of his parents’ home when his father came in and informed his mother that he had just killed their neighbour. The young man told the court he later found blood-soaked clothing hanging in a shed and bloodstains on the hay rack his father used on the evening of the murder. The only issue at trial was whether Kooting’s confession should be admitted into evidence. A Shoal Lake doctor testified that although Kooting was sick when he confessed to murdering Czayka, he was both physically and mentally fit to make “an intelligent statement.” [6] The jury was convinced. In less than an hour it returned a guilty verdict.
Shortly before 8:00 a.m. on the third Friday in February 1926, Kooting was led from his death cell in the provincial jail at Portage la Prairie to a scaffold erected in the prison yard. The priest who spent the evening with the condemned man recited prayers for the dying as the procession made its way to the foot of the gallows, with Kooting responding in a clear, emotionless voice.
The trap was sprung moments after the group reached the scaffold. Although witnesses later said the execution was carried out without a hitch, the coroner presiding over the inquest that followed noted that Kooting died from strangulation, rather than a broken neck. The dead man was buried in an unmarked grave in the yard of Portage jail.
The other Manitoba murder that resulted in the death of a “confessor” bore striking similarities to the crime committed by Kooting, although this time suspicion was aroused when the illiterate man the killer suspected of having an affair with his wife left behind a suicide note.
By 1935 John Pawluk had farmed north of Winnipeg for years. His relationship with his wife was not good, and had not been for years. On at least two occasions Julia disappeared for days before returning to her husband and their three young children. That was why the police were neither surprised nor alarmed when Pawluk reported his wife missing four months before her alleged lover was found shot to death.
Genio Bulega lived near the Pawluks. The day he died a neighbour arrived at the home of the retired farmer to ask for help loading hay. He found the yard strangely quiet, and decided to enter the residence to investigate. He found Bulega sitting in a chair, the top of his head blown off. A shotgun lay beside his body. One end of a piece of binder twine was tied to its trigger, and the other end was wrapped around one of the feet of the dead man. On a table across the room investigators found an unusual, unpunctuated, bloodstained letter, held in place by a carving knife. Officers immediately became suspicious when they opened the suicide note. It was dated more than a month before its author allegedly shot himself, and urged police not to suspect Pawluk of killing his wife.
Please don’t bother anybody about [Julia Pawluk] she was at my place on Monday ... she want me to go away with her and I told her I couldnt go with her she had been bothering me all summer I couldnt go with her and I cant stand her now wherever she went ... don’t bother him [John Pawluk] any because he is not to blame for anything this all I have to say goodby everybody please dont bother about his wife. [7]
Any doubt investigators might have harboured that Bulgea was a murder rather than suicide victim was
Although all that remained of Czayka was bones, a four-inch hole in his skull corroborated Kooting’s statement. At trial further corroboration was offered by his son, who testified that on the night of the murder he was sitting on the stairs of his parents’ home when his father came in and informed his mother that he had just killed their neighbour. The young man told the court he later found blood-soaked clothing hanging in a shed and bloodstains on the hay rack his father used on the evening of the murder. The only issue at trial was whether Kooting’s confession should be admitted into evidence. A Shoal Lake doctor testified that although Kooting was sick when he confessed to murdering Czayka, he was both physically and mentally fit to make “an intelligent statement.” [6] The jury was convinced. In less than an hour it returned a guilty verdict.
Shortly before 8:00 a.m. on the third Friday in February 1926, Kooting was led from his death cell in the provincial jail at Portage la Prairie to a scaffold erected in the prison yard. The priest who spent the evening with the condemned man recited prayers for the dying as the procession made its way to the foot of the gallows, with Kooting responding in a clear, emotionless voice.
The trap was sprung moments after the group reached the scaffold. Although witnesses later said the execution was carried out without a hitch, the coroner presiding over the inquest that followed noted that Kooting died from strangulation, rather than a broken neck. The dead man was buried in an unmarked grave in the yard of Portage jail.
The other Manitoba murder that resulted in the death of a “confessor” bore striking similarities to the crime committed by Kooting, although this time suspicion was aroused when the illiterate man the killer suspected of having an affair with his wife left behind a suicide note.
By 1935 John Pawluk had farmed north of Winnipeg for years. His relationship with his wife was not good, and had not been for years. On at least two occasions Julia disappeared for days before returning to her husband and their three young children. That was why the police were neither surprised nor alarmed when Pawluk reported his wife missing four months before her alleged lover was found shot to death.
Genio Bulega lived near the Pawluks. The day he died a neighbour arrived at the home of the retired farmer to ask for help loading hay. He found the yard strangely quiet, and decided to enter the residence to investigate. He found Bulega sitting in a chair, the top of his head blown off. A shotgun lay beside his body. One end of a piece of binder twine was tied to its trigger, and the other end was wrapped around one of the feet of the dead man. On a table across the room investigators found an unusual, unpunctuated, bloodstained letter, held in place by a carving knife. Officers immediately became suspicious when they opened the suicide note. It was dated more than a month before its author allegedly shot himself, and urged police not to suspect Pawluk of killing his wife.
Please don’t bother anybody about [Julia Pawluk] she was at my place on Monday ... she want me to go away with her and I told her I couldnt go with her she had been bothering me all summer I couldnt go with her and I cant stand her now wherever she went ... don’t bother him [John Pawluk] any because he is not to blame for anything this all I have to say goodby everybody please dont bother about his wife. [7]
Any doubt investigators might have harboured that Bulgea was a murder rather than suicide victim was
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