James William (Sonny) Johnson
Ashcroft, BC / Jan. 24, 1967
James William Johnson, 44, was the second victim of a double murder carried out in the interior of B.C. He was killed by 19-year-old man on day after the same man shot Eugene Scott Prince, 23.
Prince, based in Fort St. James, picked the man up in Smithers. About 15 miles north of there the killer shot Prince seven times and dumped his body in a ditch. A passing snowplow partially buried the body and it was not discovered for four days.
Meanwhile, the killer abandoned Prince's taxi in Quesnel and somehow got to Cache Creek where Johnson picked him up. The killer shot Johnson in the head and left his body in the ditch alongside the Trans-Canada highway about 39 miles west of Kamloops. His cab was found abandoned in Savona, about 26 miles west of Kamloops.
The killer traveled on to Kamloops (apparently by freight train) where, riding in a third cab, he tossed the murder weapon out the window and into the Thompson River. The killer was arrested in Kamloops and the gun was found by divers after five days of searching the river bottom. Neither driver was robbed and no motive was determined for the killings.
The killer was remanded until March 6 pending psychiatric examination.
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