Postcard maker gone wild

Some of the most amazing West Kootenay postcards ever produced show the Rossland mines underground in the 1900s. I don’t know how the photographer managed to get such excellent images in extremely difficult light conditions. There are at least 13 cards in the series, taken in the LeRoi and Centre Star mines. While the photographer is unknown, it was probably someone from out of town given that some of them are labelled “Rosland, BC.” I have a couple, including the one seen below.

But while the image is impressive, it’s the message on this one that knocked me over. It’s dated Sept. 10, 1909 and reads in part “The man who took all these cards I am sending went crazy from drink last Monday and nearly succeeded in killing his wife and two children.”

The message doesn’t give the man’s name or say where the incident happened. There was nothing about it in the Rossland Miner. However, an exceptionally grisly murder occurred in Spokane on Sept. 1, 1909, committed by a former champion wrestler named John Glinderman or Glindaman. He beat and choked his wife to death.

Glinderman had two stepchildren, although neither was harmed. The murder happened on a Wednesday, not a Monday. Glinderman was a stock buyer and wholesale meat dealer; nothing suggests he was a photographer or ever visited Rossland. Still, the first words in the Spokane Press story were “Crazed from drink and jealousy …”

If this was in fact the incident the postcard writer was referring to, I think he/she was probably mistaken. Perhaps the photographer’s name was similar to Glinderman’s.

Updated on Jan. 20, 2018 to clarify that not all of the cards are labelled

‘Rosland.’ Thanks to Ed Mannings.