Photo Credit: Blood on the Prairie Facebook page.

By Shane Clausing

Blood on the prairie

Local podcasters awarded grant to dig into infamous 1918 Grande Prairie murders

Mar 11, 2021 | 7:13 PM

Two local podcasters have been awarded $10,000 in funding by TELUS STORYHIVE to produce their new true crime podcast, Blood on the Prairie.

The Blood on the Prairie podcast is being created by Cris Seppola and Chris Beauchamp. The podcast will take a deep dive into the story of the unsolved mass murder case of six men in the Grande Prairie area, which occurred in 1918.

“It’s such an amazing story,” explained Seppola. “We thought this story was just such an amazing opportunity to be told in a podcast format because there’s not going to be as much visual assets to go along with that.

“There’s a lot of different interconnecting pieces that are very interesting and this is said to be the largest unsolved murder mystery in Alberta.”

A book was also written by local “armchair” historian Wallace Lloyd Tansem, titled Foulest of Murders: The Story of Grande Prairie’s 1918 Unsolved Murder of 6, which was published posthumously in 2012 by his family.

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“A man whose dying wish was to see his family publish it posthumously,” said Beauchamp. “We can’t wait to tell this story and share it with local and worldwide audiences.”

The two have arranged for some of Tansem’s surviving family members to appear on the podcast, as well as guests from the South Peace Regional Archives and prominent Alberta historian, Dr. David Leonard.

The podcast will also include narrated segments, interviews with well-known historians, archivists and local descendants.

This is the first time Telus STORYHIVE has awarded podcast grants, as normally they award grants for local filmmakers. In total, 15 podcasters from Alberta and BC received funds for their podcast.

Interestingly enough, Seppola and Beauchamp didn’t decide to apply for a podcast grant until the very last possible minute.

Seppola tells EverythingGP the initial deadline for the STORYHIVE application was on a Wednesday in November. However, the deadline was moved to a Friday for some reason. The two then found out about the murder mystery story on the Thursday.

Within 24 hours, Seppola and Beauchamp put their pitch together, submitted their application and eventually was awarded the $10,000 grant.

Both Seppola and Beauchamp are hoping the podcast will be available and ready to go in July of 2021. While the podcast won’t be uploaded for a while, the planning is already underway.

A big emphasis will be made on the production of the podcast.

“Both Chris (Beauchamp) and I are very skilled in audio production. However, we will be enlisting help,” said Seppola. “We will be hiring to get some custom music done and because this needs a lot more soundscaping than just a simple conversational project, we’re going to need to tap into those resources to make sure we have the best sounds available to give the story justice.”

Seppola is hopeful this podcast can be used to give back to the community and teach them about some of Grande Prairie’s unique history.

“I think the story itself is so interesting and intriguing. The story is not unknown, so I guess another goal would be to bring some of those pieces together, so people can just sit and listen and be absorbed in it.”

Seppola and Beauchamp encourage people to follow their podcasting journey on their Blood on the Prairie Facebook page. They also ask if anyone has information or documents they have about the story to reach out and let them know.