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).
1 At a meeting of the Supreme Court of
British Columbia in
Lillooet on
15 October 1863,
Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie sentenced Armitage to death.
2 On
24 November 1863, Armitage was hanged from the infamous “Hangman's Tree.”
3 Some sources claim that William Armitage was an alias for a man named George Storm.
4