Joseph Watkins

Joseph Watkins was a Sons of Liberty in New Liverpool. He had been previously charged with throwing a brick through the front window of the local office of the League of Coloured Citizens but had been released before the trial for lack of sufficient evidence. Colonel Thomas Bushell reviewed his file after the theft of The Two Georges and decided to interview him the next day.

Bushell arrived at Watkins' apartment the next day with a warrant and two squads of RAMs. Watkins had the look of a street tough and a large tattoo of an eagle on his chest with a smaller one on his right bicep. He was tall, around six foot four and wide through the shoulders. But, being outnumbered, he did not prevent the RAMs from entering his apartment.

The officers systematically searched the apartment while Bushell spoke with Watkins. Clarence Malmsey searched the closet, throwing out the clothing one piece at a time and then tapping the wallboards with his nightstick looking for hidden spaces. Everyone heard the hollow thud when Malmsey tapped one spot. At that point Watkins made a run for it but was overpowered and shackled by Bushell and several RAM officers.

Malmsey pried off the board and pulled out a long, thin, rectangular package wrapped in thick brown paper for passage through the mails. It was postmarked Skidegate, QCI which Bushell realised, after a moment, was the Queen Charlotte Islands. Inside was a Nagant rifle, a Russian make.

Bushell thought this cracked the case wide open but the rifle turned out to have never been fired and so could not have killed "Honest" Dick.