William Armitage, originally from Liverpool, murdered
Thomas Clegg in the
Williams Lake area. Authorities arrested Armitage but never caught his accomplice (although a body
was discovered in the
Thompson River and based on the tattoos on the body authorities supposed it to be the accomplice). At a meeting of the Supreme Court of
British Columbia in
Lillooet on
15 October 1863,
Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie sentenced Armitage to death. On
24 November 1863, Armitage was hanged from the infamous “Hangman's Tree.” Some sources claim that William Armitage was an alias for a man named George Storm.