The Skull-Faced Bishop

St. Andrew's Cathedral was believed to be haunted as early as 1890. Construction had only just begun on the new cathedral, when a lone gunman shot and killed an innocent man—David Fee—as Christmas Eve Mass was letting out. According to court records, during the subsequent trial, the defendant's lawyer argued that his client had mistaken David Fee for "a ghost." The site was believed to be haunted by the murdered bishop buried there.

Charles John Seghers: Priest and Bishop in the Pacific Northwest 1839-1886: A Biography by Gerard G. Steckler provides a well-researched overview of the bishop's life and death. Born in Belgium in 1839, Charles Seghers attended a college that was founded to provide America with English-speaking clergymen. He responded to an appeal for the colony of Vancouver Island, arriving in Victoria in 1863. By 1873 he was named Bishop of Vancouver Island.

In 1886, Seghers decided to go on a mission to the remote regions of Alaska, "spreading [the] Divine Saviour's gospel among the heathen." He brought with him two other priests, an Irish assistant, and a French-Canadian labourer. The goal was to travel overland from the Yukon River in order to reach a particularly remote village before the Protestants did. The trek would be a vigorous November journey through harsh weather and over rough terrain. Used to hardship, the priests led by Bishop Seghers embraced the assignment as a matter of faith and duty. They set sail, landed in Alaska, and then started their overland journey almost immediately.

It wasn't long before Francis Fuller—the Irishman—began to demonstrate symptoms of "insanity." By today's standards, Fuller would have likely been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He heard voices, for example, saying that his travel companions were part of a conspiracy to kill him. When the French labourer disappeared, the priests believed that he had simply become tired of Fuller's increasing instability. In later years, reporters would speculate that he might have been Fuller's first victim.

Bishop Seghers believed he could control Fuller, despite the concerns of the other priests. Frustrated with the situation, the bishop sent the priests on a side mission while he and Fuller carried on with three First Nation guides. One of the guides left the party at a trading station. The remaining members continued on their way. Fuller began to act more and more erratic.

On the morning of November 28, 1886, Fuller shot Bishop Seghers through the heart as he leaned over to gather his gear. The man died instantly in front of the two horrified guides. Fuller immediately began to act even more bizarre, shaking one of the guide's hands while expressing to them that "the man" needed to be killed. The guides wrapped up the body and left to get help with Fuller accompanying them willingly.

The party reached the village that day. No one knew what to do with Fuller. He wasn't immediately incarcerated, but was instead sent to another village for the winter, away from two local white women who had expressed "terror" at being in his presence. Fuller continued to act strangely over the duration of the winter, apparently changing his story as to what had happened several times.

It wasn't until spring that the other priests learned of the bishop's death. By the time the body was recovered from the site of the murder, his face had been partially eaten by mice. Bishop Seghers' body was moved to the cemetery at St. Michael in Alaska and finally buried in July of 1887.

The trial against Fuller was disappointing, at least for those who'd revered the bishop. Unable to decide if Fuller should be hanged for first-degree murder, or if he was "not guilty" due to reasons of "insanity," the jury instead chose a compromise: Fuller was convicted of manslaughter, sentenced to ten years of hard labour, and fined one thousand dollars. People were outraged. They thought that the man was either guilty or he wasn't. Fuller had admitted to killing the bishop; his reasons for the act changed with each telling, but never his admission of guilt.