I drive past Wilkinson Jail or the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre on the way to and from work most days. There is a spirit who makes himself known occasionally.
This gentleman stands facing to my left looking straight ahead. He doesn’t look my way unless I request it; then only briefly. He is not a particularly tall man: average height, broad chest, clean shaven, short dark brown hair. He is nicely dressed in my vision and appears to wear a dark green vest, long sleeved shirt and nicely pressed pants. I’d say they were wool. He seems in good physical shape and shows himself as a man in his mid 40’s. He seems calm and confident by all accounts…
For some reason, he appears to me on the top floor of the facade. I see the windows when I drive past, but don’t know if there are rooms up there, or if there were in the past? He isn’t standing in a window per se but for some reason, draws my attention to the top windows, as though he was able to look out from that location (?) I am unclear and haven’t sat still long enough to ask what it is he’d like to share… He does say, however, that he was hanged at the jail. I’m curious, of course.
When he comes he shows himself as someone with a clear head, not a sinister personality. He seems almost surprised at his own fate. I have no sense of what era he lived. Time doesn’t have meaning for me in spirit unless there are other images in the surroundings of what I am offered in a vision. In this case, no indicators of time are present.
I’ve seen this gentleman many times over the years. Today I went on Google to see if there was any history to indicate a hanging at that location. The following appeared regarding the history of the building in the Times Colonist, September 27, 2013 (100 Years at the Wilkinson Road Jail):
“…the prison took its first prisoners, 38 of them, on Sept. 12, 1914… It was officially known as the Saanich Prison Farm…
During the war, the institution also saw its only execution. Scottish miner Robert Suttie, 46, by court accounts a good man except when drinking, was hanged on a temporary gallows on Jan. 5, 1915, for shooting his foreman, Richard Hargreaves.”
I can only assume it is the spirit of Robert Suttie who appears to me. One day soon, I will listen in to hear what he might want to share with all of us. Meanwhile, if anyone knows more about this incident, I would welcome their knowledge.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
With love,
Catherine ~
Note: As part of the interaction today, I am sending healing love and compassion for the Hargreaves family who lost a member of their family under grievous circumstances. There is much more to this story than greets the eye. I am beginning to see poor choices from more than one angle. Feel free to offer up your love and compassion for these people, even though they resided in our past. Compassion holds no boundaries. We can choose to hold space for healing in all ways. Time has no limits for love.
~
The spirit of Robert Suttie has stepped forward with a vision in relation to his case, although I do not comprehend its meaning. In the vision there is a young woman with long, flowing, light colour hair standing pressed against a wall. It occurs to me when seen in public this young woman would have her haired tied up neatly in a bun so I understand that she is standing in her home. She wears a long gown.
(In my vision I note this young woman is pressed against the wall in a fashion that indicates that she is protecting herself. I believe she has been struck in the face, and is leaning away from her assailant protecting herself and preparing for another blow. It is my feeling that Robert Suttie feels protective of her, although I do not understand how she is related to him. He indicates they are not kin, and I also get a sense there is a mother (?) or someone who is related to her who lives at a distance, either across Canada, or perhaps even further. Robert wants to bring my attention to her state of being in relation to his trial. Thank you Robert for sharing this vision. I will continue to try to make sense of this communication.
** (see below for a possible explanation of this vision!)
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I have found the following article describing the Robert Suttie case in what is titled:
The Gallows at Saanich (a newspaper?)
Between 1871 and the abolition of the death penalty in 1976, 139 British Columbians were sent to the gallows. Staff conducting historical research at Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre (VIRCC) discovered that one of these hangings took place on their prison grounds.
The condemned man was a 46-year-old Scotsman named Robert Suttie, a miner who was employed on a road gang near Oyster River. He was an intemperate sort who was described by his peers as “a friendly fellow unless he had been on the drink.” On the morning of May 14, 1915, Suttie got into a heated argument with his foreman. Later, while still under the influence of alcohol, he shot his supervisor dead.
Suttie was arrested and remanded in custody at the Old Victoria Gaol at Hillside until the newly built Saanich Prison Farm (now VIRCC) opened that September. A jury at the Nanaimo Supreme Court Assizes swiftly convicted Suttie of first-degree murder and on November 17, Justice H.H. (Denis) Murphy served him with the ultimate penalty.
A scaffold for the gallows was erected in the Saanich Prison yard behind the east wing of the main building. Suttie took solace in the Bible and asserted to the last that the shooting was an accident. However, the courts were undeterred. On January 5, 1916, hangman Arthur Ellis finally sprang the trap and Robert Suttie fell to his demise in front of a small gathering of judicial representatives and members of the press.
Twelve minutes later, Old Doc Helmcken pronounced him dead. His body was then released to the Reverend Inkster for internment in a pauper’s grave at Ross Bay Cemetery. The burial took place the following day.16
Footnote 16 – 16 Philip Williams, “The Gallows at Saanich,“ CorrTech Quarterly, Corrections Branch, Fall 2000, p. 12.
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There is an article written on The Haunted Walk Facebook page about Arthur Ellis, the hangman engaged to perform in the Robert Suttie case. According to this article, Arthur Bartholomew Alexander English used the name Ellis after a famous hangman in England in order to keep his profession a secret.
**From all accounts, Arthur ‘Ellis’ was a drunkard, a liar (he told his wife Edyth Grimsdale he was a salesman, not a hangman), a wife beater (Edyth accused him of domestic abuse when she left him in 1922) and a braggart who was known to regularly boast about his profession bribing people to buy him drinks to hear stories about his deeds as a hangman. I suspect Robert Suttie, who by court record (below) seemed to be a champion for the abused, meant to show me to irony of being hung by such a man. I will conclude the woman in the vision Robert showed me was Edyth Grimsdale, wife of Arthur English.
Read their account of Arthur Ellis’ character below:
https://www.facebook.com/hauntedwalk/posts/pfbid0dY9uq6fArH2Q9AszBz2WURpbGmUz8w1r9b8pUfzMx4AodUVJsgTJrsVscGjNTdHGl
Finally, here is a link to our National Library and Archives for actual court transcripts for the Supreme Court Case files for Robert Suttie.
https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?q=Robert%20Suttie&app=ordincou&IdNumber=313236
Thank you for your interest!
With love,
Catherine ~