A pair of Grande Prairie podcasters are set to dig deep into one of the biggest, and perhaps most famous whodunnit in the history of Alberta.
“Blood On the Prairie”, will look into the June 1918 murder of six men of eastern European descent on two farms just outside of the city. The series of murders, despite two trials, and plenty of media coverage at the time, remains unsolved.
Project Lead Cris Seppola says the project she and video lead Chris Beauchamp are able to move forward with thanks to a $10,000 grant from Telus STORYHIVE, will hopefully provide insight into a case that has been a topic of discussion for well over a century.
“It’s such an intriguing story, and there are so many theories, questions, and inferences as to what happened,” she says.
“There are pieces of information kind of spread out through the province… and there are people who get deep into the story, have written books about it… and this is a new way to tell the story.”
Seppola, says they have reached out to several local historians, including South Peace Regional Archive Executive Director Alyssa Currie, and historian Dr. David Leonard, who has published articles and books on the case. Seppola adds they hope to try and piece together a conclusive rundown on not only the crime itself but how it impacted life in Grande Prairie more than 100 years ago.
“We have a whole gamut of trails to follow when it comes to more things to read… and now that we can get into that research, we can follow those trails,” she adds.
Seppola adds the podcast format will hopefully be able to bring the story to life.
“Being able to use sound, interviews, conversation, and music to really put the listener in the place that this happened,” she says, “I think it brings the story to life so much more, and we feel so fortunate to be in a position to have this opportunity.”
The finished podcast will be released in August 2021.
