By Joel van der Veen
August 30, 2010

BLADWORTH - Like many families in the early twentieth century, the Northcotts came west seeking work on the prairies, Canada's new frontier.

Cyrus and Louise Northcott moved from Ontario to Saskatchewan around 1904 with their daughter Winnifred, settling near Bladworth. They only stayed here for a few years, moving further west to Vancouver around 1913, and later relocating to the Los Angeles area.

During their time in Bladworth, Louise gave birth to a son, Gordon Stewart, born in November 1907.

Just over twenty years later, the young man became infamous as the culprit behind the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.

Accused of molesting and murdering several boys on the Northcott family's ranch in Wineville, Calif., Gordon fled to Vernon, B.C., but was arrested and extradited back to Los Angeles. He was ultimately convicted and hanged at San Quentin Prison on Oct. 2, 1930.

Although Northcott's life and crimes have inspired intense, lasting interest - plus several books and a 2008 movie, Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie - his early years in Saskatchewan and British Columbia remain shrouded in mystery.

"I think very few people do know about it," says Tony Mostrom, a Los Angeles-based commercial illustrator and freelance journalist currently working on a book about Northcott.

Mostrom has long been interested in L. A. history and has recently been hired to write a local history column for The Los Angeles Times. An avid reader of true crime, he first discovered the story in the early 1980s, and began researching the Northcotts in earnest about 15 years ago.

"(I thought), 'Well, here I am in Los Angeles, and I have potential access to archives and stuff,'" recalls Mostrom. "As life went on I had to put it away for a while."

Recently, he has been in contact with people in the Davidson area, looking for information about the Northcotts' brief stay in the region. He also plans to visit Saskatchewan and British Columbia early next year for further research.

Information on the family's life in Canada is scarce, Mostrom says, and their frequent moves make it harder to track down any precise details. They may have moved to Davidson at some point while they lived in the region.

"(Cyrus) followed work wherever it took him," he says. "I'm kind of following them, trying to trace them as best I can."

Mostrom also contacted geneologist Debbie Shearwood, who often does ancestry and historical research for local families. She looked through the archives of both The Davidson Leader and The Bladworth Progress, a long-defunct newspaper serving the area in the early twentieth century, of which only one issue - dated Sept. 13, 1906 - is known to exist.

Although she found references to Northcotts in the newspapers, she didn't find any birth announcements or any detailed information about the family.

Bladworth and District Memories, a local history book published in 1978, refers to their daughter Winnifred as being married to dray operator Jack Clark.

It also mentions that her parents, who are not named, lived on the land later occupied by Joffre Turner. He bought the land in 1946, and in 1994 sold it to his son Ron, who occupies the land today.

Turner says he's heard about the Northcotts all his life, but living on their former land doesn't faze him at all.

"It's kind of interesting," he says, "but it happened so many years ago."

The Turners built a new house on the property in 2003, replacing a previous house that dated back to the 1920s. None of the buildings from the time of the Northcotts' residency remain on the property.

Longtime Bladworth resident Lee Walker, who turns 83 in October, recalls hearing about the Northcott family many years after they left the area.

He says the late Stewart Morrison of Bladworth once told him a story about being asked by a doctor to assist with a birth in the Northcott family. But according to historical records, Morrison didn't arrive in the area until 1912, so it wasn't Gordon's birth he was recalling. Morrison died in 1967.

Meanwhile, Mostrom continues his research. He says he was pleased with Clint Eastwood's film adaptation of the story, although it focuses a great deal more on Christine Collins, the mother of one of the missing boys thought murdered by Gordon Stewart Northcott. He was especially impressed with Jason Butler Harner, the actor who played Northcott.

Mostrom later had the chance to meet Harner, telling him how much he enjoyed his performance and about the book he was working on. Harner asked him if he had any idea how a person could commit such gruesome crimes.

"It is still pretty much a mystery," says Mostrom. "But I'm still digging into it."

(Mostrom is interested in hearing from anyone in Bladworth whose family history there dates back to the early twentieth century, or who might have any information on the Northcott family. He can be reached through Facebook or by email at tonymostrom@hotmail.com.)

The leaderonline is a division of The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada.