Mike Browne

Episode 402: On July 31, 1987, an ordinary summer afternoon in Edmonton, Alberta, ended in catastrophe. A powerful tornado cut through the city’s southeast, killing 27 people and leaving entire neighbourhoods destroyed in minutes. In this episode, we examine the second-deadliest tornado in Canadian history through firsthand survivor accounts and direct statements from officials who faced a disaster few believed could happen in a major Canadian city. The day would later become known as “Black Friday,” a name repeated in municipal histories and anniversary coverage. On July 31 itself, it was still just another Friday afternoon.

Episode Sources:

Tornado, a report : Edmonton and Strathcona County, July 31st, 1987 : Alberta Public Safety Services
Edmonton Tornado (1987) | The Candian Encyclopedia
BELLWEATHER KENNELS CANADA – EDMONTON TORNADO 1987 by Tom Taylor
Edmonton Tornado | Wikipedia
The Edmonton Tornado | Environment Canada
Black Friday changed city, survivors | CBC News
This Was the Worst Tornado in Canada’s History | Reader’s Digest
Jul 30, 1988, page 92 – Edmonton Journal at Newspapers.com™
From the Edmonton community on Reddit
Edmonton Journal front page story of the Edmonton tornado July 31, 1987 (Black Friday)
Regina Cyclone | Wikipedia

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Episode 401: At the start of the twentieth century, Vancouver, B.C., was a fast-growing Pacific port. Most residents were white settlers of British or European descent, but Chinese and Japanese communities were already well established and growing. They lived, worked, and built businesses in neighbourhoods like Chinatown and Powell Street, playing a central role in the city’s economy while being denied political rights and social acceptance.

By 1907, economic anxiety and racial resentment had hardened into open hostility. Asian workers were blamed for falling wages and job insecurity, a message repeated by newspapers, politicians, and organized exclusionary groups. The riots that followed on September 7 were not sudden outbursts, but the result of years of public rhetoric that treated entire communities as threats. This episode examines how those ideas gave rise to violence on Vancouver’s streets.

Sources:
The 1907 Racist Riots – Union Zindabad!
The Asiatic Exclusion League Riot, 1907 — Published by BC Labour Heritage Centre
The Vancouver Anti-Asian Riots
Causes of the 1907 anti-Asian riots :
The Lessons of the Anti-Asiatic Riot
“Images” and “Issues” : the portrayal of Asians in the Vancouver Daily Province and the Vancouver Daily World, 1907 to 1908
Anti-Asian Riots of 1907 – British Columbia – An Untold History
Mayor Ken Sim
David Lam
Chinese Immigration Act
Chinese Head Tax in Canada
1907 Vancouver anti-Asian riots
Asian Labour History in British Columbia
A White Man’s Province by Patricia Roy | Internet Archive
W.L. Mackenzie King’s 1907 Report on Japanese Losses in Vancouver Riots
W.L. Mackenzie King’s 1907 Report on Chinese Losses in Vancouver Riots
The History of Canada Series: Trouble on Main Street: Mackenzie King Reason Race And The 1907 Vancouver Riots

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Episode 400: In October 1894, 18-year-old Frank Westwood was shot on the doorstep of his Parkdale home. The killing shocked Toronto and sparked a frantic search for a suspect. Weeks later, a mixed-race tailor named Clara Ford walked into a Toronto police station and was quickly accused of the murder. With no weapon, no motive, and a disputed confession, her trial exposed deep racial bias and divided the city. This episode looks at Clara’s life, the investigation that targeted her, and the aftermath of the trial that captivated Canada’s largest city.

Episode Sources:
Clara at the Door with a Revolver — Carolyn Whitzman (UBC Press, 2023)
Toronto Public Library – Digitized Toronto newspapers
Newspapers.com – Historical Toronto press coverage
City of Toronto Archives
Archives of Ontario – Mercer Reformatory & judicial records
Race on Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts, 1858–1958 — Barrington Walker
Afua Cooper – Black Canadian history resources
DEWART, HERBERT HARTLEY – Dictionary of Canadian Biography
JOHNSTON, EBENEZER FORSYTH BLACKIE – Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Death in the Queen City: Clara Ford on Trial, 1895 By Parick Brode
A blood-drinking monster? When this Toronto woman was accused of murder, the newspapers of 1894 went wild
A sensational Toronto murder from 1894 – Bill Gladstone Genealogy
Transcript: The Story of a Black Woman Accused of Murder in 1894 | Feb 15, 2023 | TVO Today
Interview: Carolyn Whitzman on the archival story behind novel Clara at the Door  – MOBA

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Episode 399: As the clock strikes midnight, not everyone welcomes the New Year with champagne and resolutions. In this episode of Dark Poutine, we explore the darker, stranger, and sometimes dangerous traditions used around the world—and across Canada—to chase away bad luck and invite prosperity. From gunfire and forgotten parades in Newfoundland, to Hogmanay superstitions, poverty-banishing rituals, icy polar bear swims, and fire-lit celebrations meant to ward off evil, these customs reveal what people have been willing to risk for a clean slate. We also venture beyond Canada, examining ancient sacrifices, ritual fights, smashed plates, burning effigies, and other unsettling ways humanity has tried to reset the calendar. It’s a look at New Year’s Eve not as a party—but as a threshold, where superstition, fear, and hope collide. 

Episode Sources:
Guns, parades and superstitions: A host of forgotten New Year’s traditions in N.L. | CBC News
Out with the old, in with the new — East Coasters share their unusual past and present New Year’s Eve traditions
Newfoundland and Labrador Customs
New Year’s Day in Canada: Traditions, History and Insights
New Year’s levee
Top safety tips for New Year’s Eve revellers
35 Crazy New Year’s Eve Celebrations Throughout History
Bizarre New Year’s Eve Traditions From Around the World | Ripley’s Believe It or Not! | Aquariums, Attractions, Museums
Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 6.COM 13.26
New Years in Ecuador: Yellow Panties and Effigies
The Traditional Fighting Festivals of Peru
Divers had Set the Christmas Tree Underwater of the Baikal Lake
6 traditions from around the world for marking a Jan. 1 new year | CBC Life

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Episode 398: It was supposed to be a quiet Canadian Christmas—until every butter tart in the country vanished overnight. From Nanaimo to Newfoundland, kitchens were left empty, bakers bewildered, and the RCMP at a loss. When the case turns strange, Santa Claus himself steps in, uncovering a nationwide confectionery conspiracy that leads to old grudges, familiar faces, and a suspect far closer to home than anyone expected. Dark, absurd, and very Canadian, The Great Canadian Butter Tart Heist is a holiday mystery where justice is sweet, but never simple.

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Episode 397: In April 1895, two young women, both twenty-one, from San Francisco’s Emmanuel Baptist Church vanished days apart. Blanche Lamont, a dedicated teacher-in-training, and Minnie Williams, a hardworking domestic with dreams of her own classroom, both entered the same church and never left. Their bodies were later discovered inside the building, setting off one of the most sensational murder trials in California history.

This episode explores the lives of Blanche and Minnie, the discovery of their deaths, the investigation that followed, and the arrest and trial of Canadian-born medical student William Henry Theodore Durrant, accused of killing them.

Sources:
Clara at the Door with a Revolver — Carolyn Whitzman (UBC Press, 2023)
Toronto Public Library – Digitized Toronto newspapers
Newspapers.com – Historical Toronto press coverage
City of Toronto Archives
Archives of Ontario – Mercer Reformatory & judicial records
Race on Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts, 1858–1958 — Barrington Walker
Afua Cooper – Black Canadian history resources
1897 film of convicted killer Durrant shapes prison policy –
Theodore Durrant
Sympathy for the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco
By Virginia A. McConnell
Theo Durrant — The Origin of Monsters — Crime Library on truTV.com
True Detective Mysteries, February 1929: Internet Archive
The tale of the ‘Demon of the Belfry,’ San Francisco’s forgotten Jack the Ripper

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Episode 396: In this episode, we learn about an enigmatic narcissistic psychopath who led the Californian cult called The Children of Thunder. Glenn Taylor Helzer, and the other leadership was comprised of his brother Justin Helzer and their follower Dawn Godman. Raised in a strict Mormon home, Taylor’s life spiralled after years of mental health trouble. By 2000, the trio had formed a cult under Taylor’s delusional leadership. That summer, they murdered Ivan and Annette Stineman, Selina Bishop (daughter of guitarist Elvin Bishop), Jennifer Villarin, and James Gamble. The crime spree and investigation shocked authorities and families, exposing how Taylor twisted faith and loyalty into violence.

Episode Sources:

Shackles, Ski Masks and a Power Saw — Murderous Glenn Helzer and Justin Helzer called their cult The Children of Thunder — Crime Library
How Not To Get Away With Murder: Glenn Helzer And The Children Of Thunder
Glen Helzer | Wikipedia
Body Parts Identified / Disparate Tragedies’ Common Ground Is Death, Suspects
Grisly clues unfolding in Delta case
Blues Guitarist’s Daughter Killed
Murder, Madness and Mayhem by MIke Browne
20240418175434277_Cert Pet GlenTaylorHelzer
People v. Helzer
People v. Helzer, 317 Cal. Rptr. 3d 246 | Cal., Judgment, Law, casemine.com
Justin Helzer hangs himself in prison

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Episode 395: On a cold December day in 1983, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, was shaken by a deeply unsettling crime. Dr. Edith Wightman, a respected scholar, was discovered dead in her office: bound with tape, handcuffed, and suffocated with a cloth. The investigation took an even stranger turn when police arrested Michael Allen Crowley, a chemist from Welland, who had been seen on campus in disguise, dressed in women’s clothing and a wig. With no personal connection to the victim, and the bizarre methods used, the murder left students and faculty reeling, and raised questions still unanswered to this day.

Sources:
A Brief History Of McMaster University
History of McMaster
WIGHTMAN, Edith Mary | Rutgers
Dec 19, 1983, page 1 – The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com
Dec 24, 1983, page 16 – The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com
Edith Wightman – Search – Newspapers.com™
Michael Alan Crowley – Search – Newspapers.com™
“72 Hours: True Crime” Murder on Campus (TV Episode 2005)
Canadian News Briefs – UPI Archives
Edith Wightman | Wikipedia
1984_3Winter
https://www.reddit.com/r/McMaster/comments/jl1ew5/trying_to_find_details_of_on_campus_death/
Review: [Untitled] on JSTOR
Wightman: Gallia Belgica (Book Review)
Detectives say Robert Garrow now ‘best suspect’ in 1973 Komorowski murder | CBC News
Adele Komorowski Homicide

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Episode 394: On an August night in 1991, the quiet fields near Carp, Ontario, were interrupted by strange lights arcing across the sky—a sight so odd it left locals searching for answers. Soon, anonymous packages began to arrive, sent to UFO researchers all over Canada and the United States, packed with photos, documents, and a tape showing what appeared to be a UFO blazing above the marsh. The sender called himself “Guardian” and claimed this was not the first time such events occurred near Carp. Suddenly, what started as small-town talk exploded into one of Canada’s most perplexing UFO stories, a bizarre mystery that remains debated to this day.

Sources:

The Carp-Guardian Case – The Most Controversial UFO Case in Canadian History
Guardian UFO Tape
Guardian UFO | Unsolved Mysteries Wiki – Fandom
The Mysterious Canadian UFO Sighting – Unsolved Mysteries
“Guardian”: The 30th Anniversary Of A Bizarre UFO Incident near Carp, Ontario
A mysterious VHS tape, a military bunker, and UFO sightings near Ottawa | UFO Town
We investigated an alleged UFO sighting near Ottawa | CBC Documentaries
Searching for Guardian: Filmmaker re-examines mystery of Carp UFO sighting
Living in Carp Ottawa Canada
Village of Carp
I was a teenage UFO investigator who explored an infamous alien sighting near Ottawa | CBC Documentaries
abduction – lindaseccaspina
U.S. Lawmaker: Underwater UFO Bases Hide Aliens
Aliens may have underwater bases on Earth: Burchett | NewsNation Prime
House committee holds UFO hearing | full video
Why Do UFO Sightings Keep Happening Near Nuclear Sites?
The Diefenbunker and the Legends of Carp

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Episode 393: On a cold February day in 2022, tragedy struck the small communities of Creston and Kimberley, British Columbia. Julia Howe, a familiar face to her neighbours, was found lifeless in the bathroom of her partner’s home. Just hours later and nearly a hundred kilometres away, David Creamer, a father and trusted friend, was discovered dead in his own house. Both initially believed accidental or natural, no one suspected that these two deaths would soon be linked.

The true story was finally revealed, albeit in a peculiar manner. The connection between the deaths was finally revealed when Mitchell Earl McIntyre, a man known to both victims, confessed to hospital staff that he was responsible for both deaths. The problem was that, at first, no one believed him. It was the killer’s insistence and admissions of guilt that finally cracked the case.

Sources:

2024 BCSC 774 (CanLII) | R. v McIntyre | CanLII
2024 BCSC 2026 (CanLII) | R. v McIntyre | CanLII
Obituary information for Julia Ann Howe
Online Tribute for David Creamer
‘You need to detain me’ | Kamloops News
B.C. man who confessed to 2 killings not arrested until a month later
McInytre murder trial underway | My East Kootenay Now
BC man allegedly confessed to two killings originally ruled as accidents
B.C. man charged with woman’s death reportedly also admitted killing someone else
BC homicide suspect confessed to 2 killings weeks before arrest, court documents show
Second-degree murder trial moved | Kamloops News
Accidental Deaths That Were Really Homicides | Tyee

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