The Madam Who Shot the Mountie: How a brothel-keeper in 1880s Edmonton crossed the law – and won
By Laurie Bertram This piece was first published in the University of Toronto Magazine. On May 23, 1889, a packed courtroom in Edmonton watched as “Big Nelly” Webb, the most famous woman in town, answered to the charge of shooting a member of the North West Mounted Police. Several months earlier, Constable Thomas Cairney had been found seriously wounded on… Read more »