INTRODUCTION

Murder is always a mistake.
One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.
— OSCAR WILDE

There is a strong element of pragmatism in Oscar Wilde’s famous witticism on the dark subject of murder. Once the foul deed has been committed, it must be cloaked in secrecy to avoid punishment. Even though some countries, like Canada, no longer have capital punishment, there is always the prospect of a long prison term.

Volumes have been written by psychiatrists, criminologists, historians, and numerous experts about why people commit murder. People kill out of greed, jealousy, revenge, and ambition; or to get rid of an inconvenient spouse or relative. Sometimes people kill in blind rage, or while under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. Murder can also happen when another crime, like armed robbery, goes terribly wrong.

People are morbidly fascinated by murder. Murder has been a key element in literature since the biblical story of Cain and Abel. It is also the central theme of Hamlet and Macbeth, two of Shakespeare’s greatest dramas. In the modern age, murder stories have been the bread and butter of the movie and television industries. Some true-life murder stories, like those of Jack the Ripper in England and Lizzie Borden in the United States, have become legendary.

Murder has always haunted Canadian society. Between Confederation in 1867 and the last instance of capital punishment in 1963, more than 700 people convicted of murder were hanged in Canadian jails. This long list of documented executions does not include those from colonial times, nor does it cover convicted murderers whose sentences were commuted or murderers who were never caught. Unfortunately, sometimes murderers get away with it.

Some Canadian murderers acted impulsively. Others cold-heartedly planned their crimes, taking every possible precaution to avoid arrest. Their victims ranged from family members to total strangers. Their bloody deeds made headline news. Then, in typical Canadian fashion, they were forgotten.

No Canadian murder has ever gained such lasting international notoriety as those of the mysterious Ripper or the enigmatic Miss Borden. Even the names Clifford Olsen, Marc Lepine, Paul Bernardo, and Robert Pickton whose brutal multiple homicides shocked and sickened the Canadian people, are not familiar to many people beyond our borders. For that, the majority of Canadians are probably grateful: murder does not enhance the national image.

In London, England, tourists can go on Jack the Ripper tours of Whitechapel, where the killer stalked his human prey. And the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, Massachusetts, is a bed & breakfast and museum. Tourists to Canada won’t find similar attractions to titillate their morbid curiosity, though. At best, there might be a historic plaque marking the site of a noteworthy murder, such as the one on the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse on Toronto Island. And, though there have been a few plays and made-for-TV movies have been based on true Canadian murder cases, there have been no major feature films like The Boston Strangler (American, 1968) starring Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda, or 10 Rillington Place (British, 1971) starring Richard Attenborough and John Hurt. It isn’t because Canada doesn’t have intriguing, true tales of murder. It does. The following chapters are but a small sampling of homicide in our country before 1950. The crimes they describe were heinous; not at all the sort of thing one could do, and then talk about after dinner.