Eugene Scott Prince
Fort St. James, BC / Jan. 23, 1967
Eugene Scott Prince, 23, was the first victim of a double murder carried out in the interior of B.C. He was killed by 19-year-old man who shot James William Johnson, 44, the next day.
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.
A taxi driver who knew Eugene Prince remembered him on his web page:
This Story is about a friend a real Taxi Driver named Eugene. Eugene was four or five years older than me. We met by way of his brother Kenny who was one of my childhood buds.
Eugene worked for a taxi operator full time in a sparsely populated Area in Northern British Columbia. Fort St. James is small community one hundred miles north east of Prince George.
In the old days most of the native population got around by taxi as cars were luxuries. The Cab Company at the time would give credit for the ride home plus other lucrative benefits e.g. (Bootlegging) On the merit of your word or ability to pay for services rendered.
So on with the story one night I was late from a basketball game played at the Saint Mary Gorette Catholic School. Our Farm was some six miles from town and I had made the trek several times before so I headed out for the long clay gumbo trail.
I had walked about two miles when Eugene came along and give me a free ride home. On the way home we discussed may things as Cab Drivers often do. He told me if I ever need a ride that I had good credit with him and if in need call. So I did on several occasions and were became friends.
Well the years went by and I left the town explore the world to see where it would led me. Little did I know I would soon be driving my own Taxi and remembering an old friend.
(Source: www3.telus.net/THE_WOODS/taxistories.html#EUGENE)
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