Ten British Columbians met violent, shocking and mysterious ends between 1895 and 1928. But the victims were denied justice and their stories have been forgotten.

Without Justice exposes investigations into violent crime that reveal an early multicultural society’s struggles for equitable justice. Historic cold cases in the book include Man Quong, the well-known manager of the Chinese Theatre who navigated a fraught underworld of opium-dealing tongs and was fatally thrashed and thrown from the theatre’s stage. The horrendous murder of Agnes had citizens and the press believing the dreaded Jack the Ripper could be among them. The foggy inlets of the north coast were not a refuge for two troubled veterans of the Great War: one died from a gunshot, while the other disappeared, leaving a desperate note proclaiming his innocence.

Linda J. Eversole reveals the impact of Victorian-era innovations in forensics (fingerprinting, mug shots, chemical analysis) that were just coming into regular use at the time of these baffling deaths. Although the investigative work at the time brought the victims no justice, Eversole’s new research sheds fresh light on these cold cases.