Miscellany (cont’d)
Murder of Prostitute
Revelstoke has a very old cave district. I wrote about two caves currently owned by Toraji Asami and others way back in the series. A few years ago, there was a devil from Shiga Prefecture called Kudō. His wife had an English name, Jennie, and was involved in prostitution in Revelstoke. However, late one stormy night on the 19th of April in 1905, Kudō visited a Chinese person called Wong, leaving his wife alone at home. Then a brutal murder happened and the woman was killed by an unknown person with a twelve-and-a-half inch, sharp knife. Police worked hard to search for the murderer but it ended up to be in vain. It seems that she secretly had a white lover in Arrowhead or somewhere, which had been a source of trouble.
However, the man was not in town when the murder happened and police have proved that he had nothing to do with the murder. Another argument says that the woman was keeping two thousand dollars at some Chinese person’s place secretly from her husband, and the Chinese person murdered her in order to get the money. This rumor is still circulating even today. This Chinese person migrated to Canada 25 or 26 years ago and has lived in Revelstoke for 16 or 17 years. The person is a very influential figure but I will not reveal the person’s name, as this is a criminal matter. It is not productive to reveal the name anyway.
If you go to the police station in Revelstoke, you can see the woman’s photographs: One with her husband; a sloppier one in a wrapper and holding a dog; another taken after the murder by police for reference. In addition to these three photographs, there is also a photograph of a knife used in the murder. The image of the dead body is extremely brutal. Her hair is everywhere, her throat has an awful stab, her face skin is completely peeled off, vividly showing her vessels. It is so miserable that one cannot have a second look at it. What a fate that she was born with to become a prostitute after coming all the way to this country and to have her life end in such a pathetic way. Anyway, this incident gave a tremendous impact on the cave district at large, and it continues to be talked about in Nelson, Cranbrook, Fernie, Calgary, and elsewhere.
Prostitute fellows should be careful not to follow Jennie and have their face skin peeled off. They should become straight as soon as possible.