The Shallow Bay Axe Murderer
The minute she saw the mittens, Sarah Singleton knew John Pelley had killed her brother, and no tale the old trapper told her was going to change her mind.
She had to keep calm and use her wits, if she hoped to make it out of Shallow Bay alive.
Barely a week earlier, Sarah had been safe at home in Rocky Harbour.
Well, not home exactly. Sarah kept house for the Bird firm.
The Bird house provided board and lodging for men in Bonne Bay on firm business. Among them was John Payne. He worked at the local trading post and had spent the winter under Sarah’s care. The remainder of the rooms were filled with short-term guests including, much to Sarah’s delight, her brother, Richard Cross.
Richard worked as a trap line just north of town. It was a plum assignment. In the winter, he was able to snowshoe to his traps quickly. He could check them, gather his pelts and be back for Sarah’s home cooking several nights a week.
It was now April and the snow was beginning to melt. The wet, icy slush took a lot longer to cross than the cold, dry snow and his trips to the trap line were taking longer.
On top of that, he now had to head further north — all the way to Shallow Bay.
“I should be back by Thursday, Friday at the furthest,” he assured her.
Richard Cross Goes Missing
When Friday came there was no sign of Richard and Sarah began to worry. It wasn’t like Richard to make mistakes about these things. When she still hadn’t seen him by Sunday, she knew something was wrong.
There was only one thing to do: go look for him.
At first light on Monday morning Sarah set out. John Payne, who had gotten to know Richard and Sarah quite well over the winter, accompanied her. They followed the coast, trekking northward from Rocky Harbour.
Every few minutes they called Richard’s name but there was no reply.
As the daylight disappeared, they returned to Rocky Harbour.
On Tuesday morning they set out again, determined to search further. Again, they worked their way north along the coast.
This time they had no intention of returning to Rocky Harbour. If they didn’t find Richard, they’d continue north to Shallow Bay. There was a cabin there owned by trapper Joseph Rendells.
Richard had made use of the cabin in the past and, if he wasn’t there now, they’d spend the night there and start their search again in the morning.
All day they worked north, covering the nearly 30 miles from Rocky Harbour to Shallow Bay.
It was dark, when Rendells’ cabin came into sight.
Ol’ Pelley’s Cold Welcome
Trapper chopping wood, Bing AI
Standing outside the cabin was John Pelley or Ol’ Pelley as the people of Bonne Bay knew him.
He had an axe in his hand, scattered on the ground around him was a collection of small splits and kindling.
Sarah didn’t know Pelley very well but, what she did know, she didn’t like. People said he had a bad temper. He certainly looked it, she thought.
“Please,” she implored, “have you seen Richard Cross. He’s my brother, he should have been back days ago.”
Pelley didn’t respond right away. He looked at Sarah and John, a troubled expression on his face.
He took a slow breath and shook his head. “I haven’t seen Richard in a dog’s age. Not since early the winter.”
“What about Rendells,” asked John, “Is he here? Has he seen him?”
Again Pelley looked at Sarah and John, as if he were taking a measure.
“Rendells is gone check his traps,” he said with a scowl. “He doesn’t spend any time here. His traps are a ways back in the country, no telling when he might be back.”
There was no doubt about it, thought John, Ol’ Pelley was every bit as strange as people said, and he didn’t look the least bit pleased to see them.
Still, they were miles from home. There was nothing to do but to stay the night in the cabin with unpleasant man.
“We’re going to need to stay the night,” said Sarah, “We’ll start the search again in the morning.”
Pelley was in no position to refuse. However much he wanted the visitors gone, turning them away would look bad. It would look suspicious — it wasn’t the way people behaved on the coast.
He threw the cabin door open and stepped inside. The two travellers followed.
The cabin was a single, untidy room. There were bunks on the wall and a small table. The room was lit by the fire.
Pelley directed his guests to the kettle, dropped his axe by the door and went outside.
Beware the Weasel
Sarah and John wondered where he could have been — the night was dark, there was nowhere for him to go. Whatever he was doing, he didn’t make a sound.
Alone in the cabin they unpacked their rations, made a cup of tea and tidied away their things. Exhausted from their travel, they climbed into their bunks.
Suddenly the door burst open.
It was Pelley, in his hands he held a shotgun. He raised it in the air.
“Weasels,” he said by way of explanation. “They’d kill you in your sleep as soon as look at you.”
Sarah and John exchanged glances.
Pelley climbed onto his bed and sat against the wall, the gun in his hand. He didn’t say another word. He just sat, his eyes fixed on the fire.
All through the night he remained there, rising only to toss a junk of wood on the flames. Each time returning to the bunk, his hand resting on the gun.
When dawn came neither Sarah nor John had slept — Pelley’s behaviour was too strange, too frightening.
Finally, when the sky brightened, he left the cabin.
“There’s something wrong with him,” whispered Sarah, “we’ve got to go.”
Sarah and John grabbed their belongs and stepped out of the cabin. The morning was bright and crisp.
Sarah and John began walked around the the cabin, Pelley was nowhere to be seen.
The Mittens
Something caught Sarah’s eye.
Just to the rear of the shack, almost covered in snow, were two pairs of snowshoes and some mittens.
Sarah recognized the mitts immediately — they were her brother’s, she’d knit them herself. She was willing to bet the snowshoes were his, too.
If Richard’s mittens and snowshoes were at the cabin, there was no way he was at the trapline. They were essential gear, he’d never have left without them.
She turned to John, “My poor brother is murdered! And Ol’ Pelly killed him, I know it!”
“Hush,” whispered John, “Pelley will hear! Don’t give him an excuse to turn that gun on us. He’s been thinking of it all night.”
Immediately the two frightened traveller began their trek back to Rocky Harbour. They knew that if they were going to face Pelley they would need reinforcements and, if Pelley suspected they’d found the mittens, there was no telling what he’d do to them.
The Next Day
After trekking all day Sarah and John made it back to Rocky Harbour. The next morning they assembled a group and went back to Shallow Bay. Again they hiked all day.
The sun was low in the sky when, about a half-mile from the cabin they encountered Pelley, still toting his gun.
When he saw the group his face darkened. He knew why they’d come.
Again, John asked him if he’d seen Richard Cross and John Rendells.
This time Pelley changed his story. Cross had been at the cabin, he said, but had left. Rendells, he claimed, was still in the woods.
Knowing the men’s snowshoes had been stashed behind the cabin, the team refused to accept Pelley’s version of events and, in a scuffle, they captured him. They bound him tightly with rope and marched him back to the cabin.
Through the night the team stood guard over their prisoner but he remained quiet, maintaining he knew nothing more about Cross or Rendells.
Pelley’s Confession
At dawn Pelley’s resolve seemed to break.
He turned to face Payne, who was keeping watch, “John, I have murdered them both and you may kill me if you please.”
“Why?” pleaded John, it made no sense. “What harm did poor Richard ever do you?”
Pelley shook his head, “None, he never harmed so much as a hair on my head and I’m gravely sorry.”
Still bound, Pelley guided the team to a small patch of forest, not far from the cabin. They scraped back the snow and grass to reveal the bodies of John Rendells and Richard Cross — their heads bore the fatal marks of a hatchet.
“Rendells sent me to cut wood,” explained Pelley, “and told me not to grumble about it or he’d knock my liver out.”
“I can take a lot from a man,” continued Pelley, “but a man’s got to be respected. I’ve got to have a chance to say my piece and when I’m not given that chance I see red.
“I struck him with the axe. It was over.
“Cross came out to see what the noise was and… I had to finish him, too. See?”
Pelley Pays For His Crime
With a confession secured, the team escorted Pelley back to Bonne Bay. From there the authorities took over and Pelley was transported to St. John’s where he stood trial.
He plead ‘not guilty.’
“I have pitched on this spot for [John Pelley’s] execution as most conspicuous for the purpose of its being seen by all the Crews of His Majesty’s Ships in this Harbour.”
Sarah Singleton and John Payne were called as witnesses and, with the help of their testimony, Pelley was convicted.
The sentence was death.
So as to be made an example, Pelley was hauled on sledge through St. John’s to an area known as The Barrens where, on the 5th of September 1809, he was hanged.
It’s there the dark story of The Shallow Bay Axe Murderer ends but for one, somewhat brighter, coda:
According to legend, John Payne and Sarah Singleton took advantage of their trip to St. John’s to become husband and wife.
They married before returning to Bonne Bay.
The Double Axe Murder Legacy
While the core of this tale appears true — in 1809, John Pelley was executed for axe murders committed in Shallow Bay (in modern day Cow Head) near Gros Morne National Park — the story has been told and re-told with varying details.
Western Brook Pond, Gros Morne National Park, NL
Some have said that Pelley was angered by Cross and Pelley encroaching on his trapline and that’s the real reason for the murders. It’s also been claimed that prior to coming to western Newfoundland Pelley had been a fugitive, on the run after murdering his wife.
I have based my telling of the story primarily on the testimony of Sarah Singleton as reproduced in Early Settlers on the Southwestern Shore of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula by Jane Hutchings. I took other elements from a telling of the story by Rev. John H. Moss as told in the newspaper column The Voice of Don (1964).
Singleton says Pelley claimed the murder resulted from an altercation while cutting wood. Whether we accept that comes down to our faith in Singleton and whether Pelley made an honest confession.
As the murders happened over 200 years ago, we may never know any more about them — there’s no one left to ask.
That said, one piece of physical evidence still remains.
The axe Pelley supposedly used in his double homicide is in the possession of the Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum in Cow Head.
Images of it are available online.
The Story on Stage
The story of Sarah Singleton and John Pelley has been dramatized by writer Berni Stapleton and performed on stage in Cow Head by Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador.
I haven’t seen it, but it sounds like an excellent show.
You can check out a brief video description below.
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Cow Head — Taking Pride in Our Past!, Community Stories.
The Voice of Don, The Western Star, Dec 9, 1963
The Voice of Don, The Western Star, May 19, 1964
Early settlers on the southwestern shore of Newfoundland's northern peninsula, Jane Hutchings, 1984
Axe, Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum
