Way out in the middle of nowhere, Ernest Cashel, 21, a fugitive from American justice, signed on with Canadian rancher Isaac Belt. He was to be the odd-job man at Belt’s Red Deer River spread. The next thing people in the vicinity of that lonely outpost heard was that Rancher Belt and his new hired hand had disappeared, along with the rancher’s horse, guns, and money.

Cashel turned up on the outskirts of Calgary and when it was noticed he was wearing the rancher’s clothes he was detained. When the body of Isaac Belt was discovered a week later with a bullet hole in his chest, Cashel was charged with murder and sentenced to be hanged on December 15th, 1903.

His brother John was the last visitor to his death cell – ostensibly to say a fond farewell. John slipped a couple of loaded guns through the bars and later that night Ernest Cashel escaped into the night. He was at large for more than a month before he was caught hiding in an old farmhouse. He was hanged on Tuesday, February 2nd, 1904.