The Legend of Donald Morrison
Notorious Canadian Outlaw
Donald Morrison, son of Scottish immigrant Mudro Morrison, hired a
lawyer in 1888 to challenge the terms of a mortgage his illiterate father
took out against the family farm. The lawyer was in cahoots with the
moneylender, named McAulay, and the Morrisons were bilked out of
their farm. During the supposedly legal takeover, the Morrison farmhouse
and barn burned down, and McAulay hired gunslinger Lucius "Jack"
Warren as a "special constable" for the sole purpose of arresting Donald
Morrison for arson. Warren challenged young Morrison and when they
met face to face on the street that afternoon, Donald Morrison shot and
killed Warren.
Detectives, police, jail guards and soldiers hunted Morrison, who held on
to the hope that justice might somehow, someday prevail. Sympathetic
friends harbored him for nearly a year, but Morrison was captured in an
ambush and made to stand trial.
He was sentenced to 18 years hard labor. His friends and supporters
were shocked. With no fight left in him, Morrison chose to succumb to
starvation and died in hospital June 19, 1894 - four days after a
recommendation for his release claimed that he was no longer a threat to
authority. The hunt for Donald Morrison remains one of the longest and
most extensive manhunts in Canadian history.
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