Month: March 2022

Episode 213: Toronto theatre magnate and enigmatic millionaire Ambrose J. Small disappeared without a trace on December 2, 1919, only a day after having made a lucrative deal to sell his ownership interests in his chain of theatres including the Grand Opera House in Toronto. People interested in the case suspected one of two theories were the most likely for the tycoon’s abrupt disappearance — either Small had run off and had into hiding under his own steam, or someone had abducted and very likely killed him. This case has become one of Canada’s oldest mysteries as more than 100 years later, there is yet no answer as to Small’s ultimate fate.

Sources:

Ambrose Small Case | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Canada West | The Canadian Encyclopedia

$1,750,000 in 1919 → 2022 | Inflation Calculator

Biography – SMALL, AMBROSE JOSEPH – Volume XIV (1911-1920) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Disappearance of Ambrose Small – Wikipedia

The Doe Network: Ambrose Small – 1891DMON

The Mysterious Disappearance of Ambrose J. Small | Grand Theatre London

What Really Happened to Ambrose Small? | Maclean’s | January 15, 1951

How the mystery of Ambrose Small became Toronto’s most captivating cold case | The Star

The Mystery Of Ambrose J. Small, The Missing Millionaire – Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

Ambrose Small, Toronto’s most sensational mystery

The Grand Mystery of Ambrose Small

Ambrose Small, The Ghost of the Grand Theatre

Investigations following the finding of these human bones near Humber… News Photo – Getty Images

AMBROSE SMALL: CANADA’S COLDEST CASE CLOSED!

The Missing Millionaire by Katie Daubs | Penguin Random House Canada

Canadian Mysteries of the Unexplained: Investigations Into the Fantastic, the Bizarre and the Disturbing

Wild Talents by Charles Fort – Ebook | Scribd

Mysteries of Ontario by John Robert Colombo – Ebook | Scribd

Ghost Stories of Canada by John Robert Colombo, Jillian Hulme Gilliland – Ebook | Scribd

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 212: On the afternoon of January 27, 1993, the day before her 20th birthday, Sian Simmonds, a student who was working he way through school, was found dead in her basement suite in the Guildford neighbourhood of Surrey, B.C. She had been shot and bludgeoned. Neighbours had heard screams coming from her suite. Only days later, a man named David Schlender was arrested. Already on bail for the attempted murder of one of his cocaine dealers the year before, Schlender told police he’d been hired by another man, Brian West, to commit the murder in exchange for wiping an outstanding drug debt. The investigation of Brian West led to another man, Josephakis Charalambous, the Simmonds’ family doctor who had hired West to murder Sian. Eighteen months before her murder, Sian and her older sister Katie had filed grievances with the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons alleging sexual assault by Charalambous. Rather than face censure by the College and risk losing his substantial annual income, Charlambous had sought to silence the girls. As the truth came out about the doctor, his carefully constructed facade of the community minded healer came tumbling down revealing an ugly pattern of violence and predatory behaviour toward young women and girls.

Sources:

Betrayal of trust | Maclean’s | DECEMBER 12, 1994

R. v. West, 1997 CanLII 3157 (BC CA), < https://canlii.ca/t/1dzn4 >

R. v. Charalambous, 1997 CanLII 3363 (BC CA), < https://canlii.ca/t/1dznk >

Mountie Seduced My Wife. I Want a New Trial — PressReader.com

Charalambous v. Canada (Attorney General), 2009 FC 1082 (CanLII), < https://canlii.ca/t/26bkj >

Charalambous v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 FC 1045 (CanLII), < https://canlii.ca/t/gl077 >

Charalambous v. Canada (Attorney General), 2016 FCA 177 (CanLII), < https://canlii.ca/t/gs5q6 >

Charalambous v. Attorney General of Canada, 2017 CanLII 1337 (SCC), < https://canlii.ca/t/gx021 >

Doctor denied day parole 27 years after hiring hitman to kill teen | Vancouver Sun

Scandalous Case had Public Riveted — PressReader.com

Documentary pays tribute to parents of murdered children – New West Record

Family Physician Hired a Hit Man to Silence Her…Permanently – Medical Bag

Serving Life 25-One Guard’s Story — Scribd

Dr. Death M.D. by David Pietras – Ebook | Scribd

Doctors Who Kill by Carol Anne Davis – Ebook | Scribd

Fatal Prescription: A Doctor without Remorse by John Griffiths | Goodreads

Medical Ethics | The Canadian Encyclopedia

About CAVEAT

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 211: On January 27, 1896, in the tiny community of Bear River, Nova Scotia, popular fourteen-year-old Annie Kempton was brutally murdered in her home while her parents were out of town. The crime, papers said, was the worst ever seen in the province up to that point and there was an outcry for swift justice on the heels of the slaying. Two days after the crime, Peter David Wheeler, 26, an immigrant, was arrested and charged with the murder. In July of that year, Wheeler was found guilty of the crime and after his trial, made a confession that some have come to see as coerced. He was hanged less than 8 months after the murder in the middle of the night as a crowd was allegedly on their way from Bear River to lynch him.

Sources:

Nova Scotia Archives – Admiral Digby Museum

Place-names of the Province of Nova Scotia : Brown, Thomas J : Internet Archive

In search of justice for Peter and Annie | The Chronicle Herald

Bear River Historical Society | Nova Scotia, Canada

Peter Wheeler, Murder of Annie… – Admiral Digby Museum | Facebook

Justice Denied – Atlantic Books

Stories of our Local Characters

The Lynching of Peter Wheeler by Debra Komar – Ebook | Scribd

Maritime Murder: Deadly Crimes from the Buried Past eBook : Vernon, Steve: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store

Graveyard Tour | Fall For Bear River

Annie Kempton (1881-1896) – Find a Grave Memorial

Folksongs from Southern New Brunswick : Creighton, Helen, 1899- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Bear River tragedy retold in ‘Annie Kempton’ | SaltWire

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 210: In the summer of 2003, Ardeth Wood, a 27-year-old PhD candidate studying philosophy at the University of Waterloo, was enjoying a well needed break at her parent’s home in the Orleans neighbourhood of Ottawa. In the early afternoon of August 6, 2003, wanting to take advantage of a beautiful, warm summer day Ardeth borrowed her brother’s bike to go for a ride. Ardeth never came home.

Ardeth’s disappearance triggered one of the largest searches in Ottawa’s history up to that point covering the almost 200 kilometres of bike paths around the capital city and its suburbs. Five days later, Ardeth’s body was discovered. She’d been drowned on purpose and then hidden by her killer in a densely wooded area along the banks of Green’s Creek. Police had no suspects. Fearing for their own safety, many of the residents of Ottawa were terrified to use the parks and bike paths for some time even with increased police patrols. It would be more than two years before charges were laid against the man accused of Ardeth’s murder.

Sources and Further Reading:

The Disappearance of Ardeth Wood An Anthology of True Crime by Pete Dove – Ebook | Scribd

Ardeth Wood – Wikipedia

Murder She Solved – The Pathway Predator – Dailymotion Video

Ardeth WOOD | Obituary | Ottawa Citizen

Ardeth Mary Margaret Wood (1975-2003) – Find a Grave Memorial

The value of virginity? « knitnut.net

University of Waterloo — September 10, 2003: Scholarship remembers murdered grad

A Mother’s Grief – The Healing Power of Forgiveness | Nourished Motherhood Blog

Archived Ardeth Remembered

Archived A death that touched an entire city

Ardeth Wood murder resonates 10 years later | CBC News

Interview with Colum Wood — YouTube

Global study on homicide

Kristen Gilchrist (2010) “Newsworthy” Victims?, Feminist Media Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2010.514110

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices