James William (Sonny) Johnson, 44, and Eugene Scott Prince, 23, were both victims of the same 19-year-old killer who shot them to death on consecutive days in the British Columbia interior. Mr. Johnson had been a sawmill and construction worker before he became the owner of Ashcroft Taxi in the early 1960s. He was married with two daughters. On Monday, January 23, 1967 Mr. Prince picked up the man in Smithers and drove him out of town. About 15 miles (24 km) north of Smithers on the Morricetown Highway the killer ordered Mr. Prince to stop the car, clubbed him with a .22 calibre pistol and then shot him seven times in the back. The killer left the victim's body in the ditch and abandoned the taxi in Quesnel when it ran out of gas. Mr. Prince was partially buried by a passing snowplow and his body was not discovered until the following Friday night. In the meantime the killer turned up in Cache Creek where he called for a taxi from nearby Ashcroft and asked to be driven to Savona. He was picked up by Mr. Johnson. On the Trans-Canada Highway about six miles east of Cache Creek the killer asked Mr. Johnson to stop the car. The killer got out and when he returned a few minutes later he pointed the pistol at Mr. Johnson and said "This is a stickup." According to the killer Mr. Johnson grabbed for the gun and it "went off". Mr. Johnson was shot eight times in the right side of his body. As the killer took his wallet, Mr. Johnson "got out and walked away." His body was found on the roadside. The killer drove Mr. Johnson's cab to the Savona hotel where he registered and stayed overnight. As a result the police quickly identified him as a suspect. The killer apparently hopped a freight train and rode into Kamloops, about 26 miles to the east. There, while riding as a passenger in a third taxi he threw the murder weapon out the window and into the Thompsaon River. Divers retrieved it from the murky water after five days of searching. The killer was arrested in Kamloops and charged with Mr. Johnson's murder. After Mr. Prince's body was found he confessed to that murder as well.

James William (Sonny) Johnson is buried in Ashcroft Cemetery, Ashcroft, British Columbia. Photo by William Wall. (Source: Find a Grave: Ashcroft Cemetery.) The preliminary hearing was delayed pending a psychiatric report which found that the killer was "mentally destitute of the things that would prevent him" from carrying out the murders and also that he was "unable to feel the meaning" of his crimes. Neither Mr. Prince nor Mr. Johnson were robbed and no motive was determined for the killings. Neverthless, the jury at a sanity hearing found the killer fit to stand trial. He was convicted of murdering Mr. Johson and sentenced to be hanged on August 29, 1967, although the jury recommended clemency. The killer was not charged with Mr. Prince's murder. Canada at this time was moving toward the abolition of the death penalty. The last execution was carried out in 1963 and since then the federal government had commuted more than 40 death sentences to life imprisonment. The killer's sentence was commuted in January, 1968.