Overview

Rough & Messy Justice vividly portrays Alberta's Crowsnest Pass of 1920, a rugged Rocky Mountain region shaped by its mining economy and diverse culture. An armed CPR train robbery spirals into a deadly shootout at the Bellevue Café, where police clash with Russian outlaws fresh from Montana's mines. A surviving bandit escapes, triggering a relentless manhunt. When captured, his trial becomes a spectacle marred by overt racism in the press, law enforcement cover-ups, and a judge and jury riddled with bias. With a weak defence lawyer, unreliable witnesses, and critical legal missteps, the proceedings lead to a tragic execution. This gripping true crime account exposes systemic corruption, racial prejudice, and the fatal flaws in Canada's early justice system. By confronting these injustices, Rough & Messy Justice challenges assumptions about fairness and equality under the law, offering an exploration of historical crime and consequence.

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9781990735660

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Reviews

""The Wild West, reminiscent of a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid escapade....Thoroughly researched and well-written, Rough & Messy Justice is an engaging and intriguing read about a judicial system vastly different from today's criminal justice."" Hon. Peter W.L. Martin, Justice (Ret.) Alberta Court of Appeal

Author Information

Dr. W. Keith Regular holds a Master of Arts in History from the University of Calgary and a PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Specializing in modern Indigenous and non-Indigenous social and economic relationships, his current research focuses on legal history and the dispensing of justice in the early 20th-century Canadian West, particularly in the Crowsnest Pass. He is also author of the book Neighbours and Networks: The Blood Tribe in the Southern Alberta Economy. Keith lives in Cranbrook, B.C.

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