Fred Quilt's Death in 1971

[my5cents]

Thanks for the hint Iamsomeone. Whatever I find out, I WILL update.

[Glacier]

Two Alexis Creek British Columbia Detachment Constables had their lives turned upside down over false allegations that they had beat and stomped a man who later died of a perforated intestine.

On the evening of November 28th 1971, Constables #23794 Peter Eakins and #25162 Daryl Bakewell checked a pick-up truck that was parked on the road without it lights on. Inside the vehicle they found Mr. Fred Quilt, with his wife and two other natives, all smelling of vanilla extract. Fred Quilt was told to step out of the vehicle and when he complied he fell.

Quilt later died from complications related to a perforated intestine and at the Coroners Inquest, Mrs. Quilt and the others occupants testified that the police officers had beat him and that Constable Bakewell had stomped on him. Even though the Inquest cleared them of any wrong doing, the media had a hayday and published numerous scathing reports about police brutality in press. The two officers always proclaimed their innocence and several years later they were vindicated, when on her deathbed, Mrs. Quilt admitted that she and the others had lied and that she had accidentally run over her husband with their truck. Both officers continued on with their careers with Peter Eakins retiring in 2000 as a Staff Sergeant and Daryl Bakewell retiring in 1987 as a Corporal.

[grammafreddy]

YAY, Glacier!!! Got a link?

[Iamsomeone]

YAY, Glacier!!! Got a link?

I'm curious too.

[Glacier]

YAY, Glacier!!! Got a link?

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 2255190114

[KL3-Something]

Looks like maybe it's time someone went in and gave the Wikipedia piece a little touch up.

[Iamsomeone]

Well, it's not the Globe and Mail but it's a start.

I'm curious about something Glacier. How did you come across that? I search for people and facts all the time (genealogy) and don't know of any search engine that takes into account facebook posts. Did you just stumble on it or did you do a search using certain terms? Which search engine were you using? I know there are specialized search engines you can use depending on what you're looking for but you've got me stumped on this one!

[my5cents]

Glacier, you are fantastic. What grammafreddy, Iamsomeone and KL3-something said,, ditto.

So glad to find out I wasn't crazy (well about this anyway).

KL3-Something, yes the truth needs to be as easy as the lies are to find.

[Glacier]

Well, it's not the Globe and Mail but it's a start.

I'm curious about something Glacier. How did you come across that? I search for people and facts all the time (genealogy) and don't know of any search engine that takes into account facebook posts. Did you just stumble on it or did you do a search using certain terms? Which search engine were you using? I know there are specialized search engines you can use depending on what you're looking for but you've got me stumped on this one!

I can't remember what I Googled (I did use Google), but I think it was something along the lines of: "Alexis Creek Fred Quilt." It was one of the first entries.

ETA: Just Goggled the above four words, and it's the 5th entry.

[Iamsomeone]

Thanks Glacier. It's interesting (to me at least) that googling "Fred Quilt Facebook" won't bring up the Facebook listing yet using "Fred Quilt Alexis Creek" does bring it up. Neither search term brings it up on Bing. Anyhow, well done on finding that! It was like a needle in a haystack. And it surely is odd that it was so difficult to find.

My5cents, I just ran a search through a newspaper database and did come up with a wire feed that was sent out in August 1991. Both the Ottawa Citizen and Calgary Herald printed the same story so it's quite likely some BC newspapers did too.

I can't link to it as it's a restricted site but basically the story was about 5 different case histories with this being written about Fred Quilt.

FRED QUILT

Fred Quilt would have been just another native serving time in a British Columbia jail cell if something had not gone tragically wrong that day in 1971.

By the time police rushed the 55-year-old Stone Indian to hospital, it was too late. He died of internal injuries.

But internal injuries from what? Local natives, especially those from Quilt's Chilcotin community, believe his death was the result of a beating at the hands of the RCMP.

His mysterious death became one of the first cause celebres in native justice.

He became a household name in B.C. in the 1970s as police tried to explain his death.

The speculation has never been properly answered even after two inquests. The province's attorney-general ordered a second after the first inquest left more questions than answers. But the conclusions of the second were no better.

Suspicions were only raised further when an RCMP report came out a few years later saying Quilt's wife confessed on her death bed to accidentally running over the man with her pick-up truck.

Bill Wilson, B.C. vice-chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said the case clearly shows the distrust that exists toward the "white man's so-called justice system. Most natives viewed the inquest as a whitewash of the system."

He said natives also realized from the case that they can generate media attention and demand answers.

Or as Brad Morse, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa, says: "These situations happen all the time but fortunately in most cases, no one dies. But it is the death occurring that catches everyone's attention."

That's likely the part of the story you read so you really aren't crazy after all. Isn't it amazing how little press was given to the update.

[my5cents]

Yes, exactly Iamsomeone, we as a society place a lot of importance on police accountability. When something like this happens and we later learn the truth we MUST publish that message as strongly.

I don't know if this is a case of the RCMP, being a "fair target", but when it latter comes out that some member(s) of the First Nation community lied about the RCMP's involvement, they aren't.

[Donald G]

The cause of Fred Quilt's death, like the murder of the young native girl at Wounded Knee was completely fabricated in part by people from the Red Power movement that came up from the U.S.A. during the 70s. They invented a similar story about the police (FBI) at Wounded Knee murdering a young native girl from that area. The media fed on both allegations for months repeating the same completely false allegations over and over again. The Quilts and the police officers were nothing more than pawns in a much larger game being played at the time. That both the RCMP and justice were unfairly savaged was of no concern to those involved. Nor of the media who continued to publish the completely false stories for months.

Years later on her death bed Fred Quilts wife admitted to running over him with the vehicle and causing his injuries during a drunken party.

A few years back a NATIVE male from Vancouver was convicted of murdering the young native woman at Wounded Knee during the same time period. For years the FBI had actively been accused of calously murdering her. It was proven that she was actually killed at the behest of the native leaders at Wounded Knee because they thought she was giving information to the police.

That is a similar time period during which the RCMP were further blackened for burning a barn down east to stop the FLQ and Red Power from meeting and joining forces. A violent FLQ "cell" had kidnapped the Quebec Labor minister and kidnapped and murdered a British Government official. The fact that the RCMP had saught and been given legal interpretive clearance regarding the law FROM THE THEN PET LIBERAL GOVERNMENT was completely lost in the two hearings that were subsequently held to satisfy public reaction to the somewhat true/mostly false picture presented by the media. Nowhere in the three volume report was it identified that the police did anything without being assured thay had to power to do what they did. In spite of the evidence the old RCMP (S&I) Units were disbanded and a new civilianized CSIS Agency formed. There are still many people around who lived through those years and know the truth. I am one of them.

The public atmosphere enabled Trudeau to rewrite the Canadian Bill of Rights, call it a Charter and have our Canadian Rights completely reinterpreted to give criminal and criminal defense lawyers all but complete say over which pieces of evidence that went to prove guilt or innocence would be admitted into court and which would not. Under the previous interpretation ALL evidence that went to prove guilt or innocence WAS admitted into court and juries could make of it what they would.

The clarifying information from BOTH incidents was given a small paragraph buried in the back pages of the same newspapers who had spent months spewing malicious and destructive unsupported allegations about how terrible the police were.

The BCCLU in BC is famous for making completely false allegations about the police. Including saying that a video existed that depicted a VPD officer shooting a person in cold blood. It was later clearly proven that no such video existed and that the officer had been fully justified in using the force to which she had to resort.

I found it reprehensible that a person that the Quilts knew and trusted, who had spent years in the area, offered to speak with the Quilts and find out the truth when the allegations were first made. The RCMP LEADERSHIP refused to allow that police officer to do so. I also subsequently spoke to one of the two police officers accused a few years later. He was severely damaged by the situation and received little to no support from the RCMP. It is one of the reasons that I blame RCMP leadership and the media for most of the similar allegations that appear today.

How do we look rather than what can we do continues to be the guiding light of RCMP leadership. How many papers can we sell has been and remains the guiding light of the BC Media. People are using the BCCLA as a political stringboard into politics rather than a search for honest justice. Take a look at the newly elected member for Vancouver- (Christy's old riding) if you want a classic example of that happening. His political move just before the election was to invite an "expert" from New York to make a trip through northern BC with him that resulted in a large number of allegations being made regarding malicious wrongdoing by the police. The whole thing evaporated after he was elected as an MLA. Absolutely reprehensible.

[charlie22010]

I am new to this site but find my first read very interesting. I am working on a book about the two victims of the Quilt accusations. I am trying to find the newspaper articles about the confession but it has been a struggle. I do know that the confession got very limited coverage and the two members were left hanging. The police investigation began from Kamloops about mid January 1977 following a tip from Williams Lake. The confession did result in a very quick name clearing for another of her victims who had spent several years in jail.

[Tero]

I am new to this site but find my first read very interesting. I am working on a book about the two victims of the Quilt accusations. I am trying to find the newspaper articles about the confession but it has been a struggle. I do know that the confession got very limited coverage and the two members were left hanging. The police investigation began from Kamloops about mid January 1977 following a tip from Williams Lake. The confession did result in a very quick name clearing for another of her victims who had spent several years in jail.

I know two RCMP members that would have followed Eakens and (I forget the other's name) at the detachment in Alexis Creek in the 70's. One of them is my dad - we were stationed there from 1977 to 1980.

[Donald G]

The BCCLA used to routinely come up with any number of similarly completely unfounded accusations against the police under their previous leadership when IMO the previous leader was using the position to enhance his NDP election chances. After he was elected as an MLA and the leadership changed the BCCLA seem have to have adopted a more honest position on most issues since then.

How the previous leader was elected in Vancouver-Point Grey I will never know. More false allegations I guess. His classic false allegation that a VPD officer had shot and killed a derelict person was particularly similar to the Fred Quilt and Wounded Knee situations.

Unfortunately in Canada people are at liberty to knowingly make such irresponsible and reprehensible allegations against the police without any evidence whatever.