Gordon Bishop, 29, drove for Vet's Taxi in Wallaceburg, ON. Sometime after midnight on January 8-9, 1957, he was parked on the Vet's taxi stand when four Aboriginal men hired him to take them to the nearby Walpole Island Indian Reserve (now Walpole Island First Nation). A ferry operator took them across across the river to the north end of Walpole Island. After dropping off two of the men Mr. Bishop drove the other two, aged 27 and 19, to the 27-year-old's house. Mr. Bishop and the two men knew each other by name. He had driven the 27-year-old to Walpole Island on several other occasions. They reached the house before 2 a.m. according to a neighbour who said he heard a few minutes of loud talking and then a "series of screams". Soon afterward a car that had been parked by the roadside sped away with its lights out. The neighbour went to the house to investigate by the light of a couple of matches but saw nothing out of the ordinary and went home. At 2:15 a.m. Violet McRea, the resident nurse at the Walpole Island medical station, was awakened by someone ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door. When she opened the door she saw a light coloured car drive away. Mr. Bishop was lying on the front steps. He had been shot in the chest. Nurse McRea was unable to lift Mr. Bishop so she called the nearby R.C.M.P. detachment for help. Constable David Heenan arrived shortly afterward and helped carry the wounded man into the nursing station. Constable Heenan was quite sure that Mr. Bishop recognized him. Mr. Bishop tried to talk but was unable to say anything and died within a few minutes. The Ontario Provincial Police quickly traced Mr. Bishop's movements back to the scene of the shooting and identified the suspects. The two were arrested at the house of the 19-year-old's sister on the Sarnia Indian Reserve, about 50 km from Walpole Island. The arrests came less than nine hours after Mr. Bishop's death. Both men were charged with murder. The 27-year-old said he did not have enough money to pay Mr. Bishop when they arrived at his home but told the cab driver that he had "something in the house in which he might be interested." Mr. Bishop followed the 27-year-old into the house while the 19-year-old, who claimed to be sick, remained behind in the car. Although the house was in darkness the man retrieved a gun and held it in his right hand, pointing at Mr. Bishop, while he struck a match with his left hand. When he saw the gun pointing at him Mr. Bishop allegedly pushed the killer, causing the gun to go off. Mr. Bishop fell to the floor but was able to get up and stagger outside. The two men put him in the taxi and drove him to the Walpole Island medical station where they left him on the front steps. Then they drove to the home of the 19-year-old's sister. The younger man's brother-in-law testified that he made several trips with the two men in Mr. Bishop's car during the next few hours, including a trip to a Sarnia bootlegger who sold them two cases of beer. The killer paid for the beer. [Next column]

White's Trading Post, Walpole Island, circa 1955. (Source: Neat Old Pictures collected by Kendall Sands on his web site Bkejwanong: Walpole Island First Nation) The two men told the brother-in-law that they had borrowed the car from a friend. The killer had removed and discarded the taxi's roof light but the brother-in-law noticed that the car was equipped with a two-way radio. While they were at house on the Sarnia Reserve the killer waved a small gun around and said he would shoot the first policeman who came in the front door, but he obeyed the younger man's sister when she told him to put the gun away. It was later found hidden in a tea kettle. Dismissing the killer's story as "fantastic and incredible", the Crown prosecutor alleged that the two men planned to murder and rob Mr. Bishop from the beginning. Mr. Bishop was known to have been carrying considerable money but no money was found in his wallet. His empty coin changer was found in the taxi's glove compartment while "a row" of nickels, dimes and quarters was spread across one room of the killer's house. Mr. Bishop's torn and bloodstained shirt was on the back seat of the car. The killer said he accidentally tore off Mr. Bishop's jacket and shirt while trying to help him into the taxi. A jury convicted the killer of manslaughter and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The 19-year-old was acquitted, but he was immediately re-arrested for parole violation and for his part in the theft of Mr. Bishop's taxi. He was sentenced to reform school at the Burwash Industrial Farm. In 1960 the 19-year-old and another man escaped from Burwash and stole a car that they found parked along a road with the 80-year-old driver sleeping inside. They locked the man in a log cabin after threatening to kill him, but he freed himself and notified police. The pair were quickly recaptured and sentenced to serve the remainder of their time -- two and a half years -- in Kingston Penitentiary.