Walter T. Ross : Lawman and Conman

Card covers, 139 pages, 8.5x5.5 in - 21x13 cm, B&W photographs.

Covers very lightly scratched, back cover lightly bumped at top. Gift inscriptions by previous owners to front pages.

Elmer McInnes and his wife Lauretta are Saskatchewan authors whose historical biographies focus on criminals and law enforcement agents in the North American west. In this volume, they trace the life of Royal Northwest Mounted Police officer turned criminal Walter T. Ross (1881?-1956). The book begins with Ross’ arrival in Saskatchewan in 1906 and short, checkered stint as a police officer near Yorkton. Following time in prison for a forging operation Ross worked as a rancher and an oilman, but his business dealings remained suspicious. Supplementing family stories with archival sources, the authors trace Ross’s schemes across Saskatchewan, Montana, and England (where he lived briefly with McInnes’ grandmother’s family). A tale of persistent entrepreneurial crime in Saskatchewan. McInnes’ business card is laid in.

9780968832974