Includes bibliographical references, Internet addresses and index.

Just after midnight on April 21, 1842, John McLoughlin, Jr. -- the chief trader for the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Stikine, a remote trading post on the Pacific Northwest coast -- was shot to death by his own men. They claimed it was an act of self-defence, their only means of stopping the violent rampage of their drunk and abusive leader. Sir George Simpson, the HBC's Overseas Governor, took the men of Stikine at their word, and the Company closed the book on the matter. The case never saw the inside of a courtroom, and no one was ever charged or punished for the crime. New archival research and forensic science -- including ballistics, virtual autopsy, and crime scene reconstruction -- unlock the mystery of what really happened that night. This is a tale with larger-than-life characters and dramatic tension. It is also the story of Canada's north and its connection to the Hudson's Bay Company. Forensic anthropologist Debra Komar uses the modern tools of forensic science to re-investigate historical crimes. She is the author of The Ballad of Jacob Peck and The Lynching of Peter Wheeler.