EPISODE 256 WHO WAS GERALD PRIEST? HE FOUND OR STOLE 70 TONS OF SILVER ORE (STORY 2)

Gerald Priest took this  photo of his family…powerful photo.  Yukon in June…spring time.

EPISODE 256    WHO WAS GERALD PRIEST?   HE FOUND OR STOLE 70 TONS OF SILVER ORE, (Story 2)

                            (subtitle  THING ONE AND THING TWO)

alan  skeoch

Feb. 2021

Gerald Priest was believed to have stollen 70 tons of silver ore worth upwards of $200,000 from  United Keno Hill Mine

company.  Stollen from the  mine  and hidden various places. This was not some nickel / dime theft.  Big time.

He  denied the charge stating that the ore came from a boulder  that had rolled onto the Moon claims which he

and a partner owned.  

Who was Gerald Priest?   No-one really knew much about him until his youngest daughter wrote A Rock  Fell on the

Moon in 2013…fifty years after the event;

I think her description of her father reveals that Gerald Priest was quite a  normal guy.  Nice father.  Could have

been.  Yet…..

Gerald Priest on the right with the roll your own cigarette and rifle. Dark Glasses.

THING ONE  AND  THING TWO  (from Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, 1957)

“Ring…Ring…Ring! “ sounded  the newly installed telephone at the Priest home in Elsa.

“yes, yes…Alicia is here.”  said Alicia’s mother Helen.

“Phone call for you Alicia.” , a little girl at the time.

“Hello, who is this?”

“This  is the BIG BAD WOLF, and I am coming to eat you up.”, said Gerald Priest from  his

assay office at United Keno Hill Mine in the company town of  Elsa, Yukon Territory, one of

the largest silver mines in the world in the late 1950’s and 1960’s.  Alicia was either terrified

or consumed by giggles and  laughter.  She never said which.  I prefer the latter.

Why tell you this story?  First, I found the story amusing.  The kind of story my dad might

have told Eric and I when we were very small and  easily frightened.   Secondly, I want

my readers  to try and understand  Jerry Priest, a man who changed  from an idyllic husband

and father into a master criminal.

Alicia Priest, his youngest daughter, draws a  wonderful picture of  Jerry.  Her prose is faultless

revealing, touching, sometimes  unforgiving, at other times warm and loving.  I think you need 

this biography.  It will help you understand his story.   Jerry was  a nice guy.   A little private but all the same a nice person to share

a beer with if given the chance.

Jerry was born on August 27, 1927 in Edmonton.  His parents  dirt were poor and remained so  all

their life.  They never owned a home but rented places  in communities  across  western Canada.

Three boys.  Jerry was the middle child and resented his father’s favouritism of his  older brother Bill.

His mom, Alice, was  disowned  at 18 when she loved and married Bertrom, a  printer by trade.

Out of sync with his times in that he remained wedded to cold type.

As I read these descriptive  words I thought of Steinbeck’s Grapes of  Wrath families.

They moved around a lot.  Depression family…dirt poor.  Powell River, Nelson, Prince Robert, Kimberley, 

 Kitimat, Williams Lake, Maple Ridge, Slocam City, and others. “Occupational Nomads.” Poor with no

prospects of anything  better.

He finished  High School in Nelson, enrolled in the University of Alberta in chemistry for a short time

then took a short course in assaying techniques…i.e. determining the mineral content of

ore samples.

“Dad grew into a  quiet, clever, well-read and well-spoken young man” with all the attributes of a gentleman

who could preside over business meetings.   Flip side … Jerry was at ease leading a string of

pack horses through the Rocky mountain wilderness.  But when his guard was down “he squirmed

in his own skin…a fretter, a finger kneeder…out of step with his times.”  Shy in that he “disdained parties, 

crowds, and  gatherings of more than three or four and  was most at home when seated at a kitchen

table with a dog at his feet, a cup of  coffee or a freshly rolled cigarette in hand and one agreeable

companion across  the table, preferably female.”  (P.16,17, A Rock Fell on the Moon)

He had a cruel streak. “he could trigger my tears by scowling in my direction”  when Alicia was two  or three

years old.  “Mom would say ‘Stop it, Jerry’ and he  would lean over and kiss me.”  Jerry was witty,

affectionate and  ” original” most of the time.  He would give us the “works” which entailed

tickling us “until we screamed  for mercy”.  In winter, when the snow was deep he would throw us

“full force into snowbanks.”

Jerry loved practical jokes and  once persuaded his wife to drink a full spoonful of Tabasco sauce.  She

choked and spat and did a full Ukrainian cossack dance then “collapsed in a fit of breathless giggles.”

He pulled off the “let  me put a string around the  tooth trick” successfully “Don’t worry, I won’r pull

the string.” followed “Yank!”  Tooth out.  I did this trick with my own brother.  String from his loose tooth

to our bedroom doorknob. “Don’t want this done.”  Eric said.  So I exited in a huff and  firmly closed the

door.  Wham!  Tooth came out;  His trust in me however was another matter.   The story made me

see  Gerald as a  normal person. No comment required from readers.

Helen’s story is powerful.  A great mother…seamstress.  She  made  clothes

for the family…in this case deerskin jackets.  Her story comes next.  Global

in its reach.  Tragic in its consequences.  Loyal to the end.

He  was an outdoorsman. For four summers from  1958 to 1961 he ventured through  the Rocky 

Mountain wilderness on a horse  with a pack horse in tow.  Helen went with him on some of

these jaunts while her mother babysat the kids.  A solid  marriage.  A camera buff, he photographed these

trips with joy and  then turned  his  lens  of  his wife Helen and daughters Vona and Alicia both

of whom were born in the Mayo Landing clinic, not far from Elsa.  They were children of the northland

with a father that fitted into his  home and his surroundings.

Jerry loved sing cowboy songs while picking his guitar and puffing on a mouth organ strapped

to his mouth.  The Priest’s subscribed to Book Clubs.   Obviously the children were  up to date

since Gerald called his girls ‘Thing One and Thing Two’ .  Names he took from Dr. Seuss’s

Cat in the Hat which had just been published.   

He was  indeed an ideal father.   How could Jerry become one of Canada’s great con men?

A mega thief?

I suppose the simple  answer is that people change.  Is greed our fatal flaw?

I want you to know Jerry as we explore his heist.

THE CAT IN THE HAT

Dr. Seuss 

“I think I will call them Thing One and  Thing Two”

excerpt

Next Episode:   Helen Preist