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Having just set out from Quebec City the previous day, in the early hours of May 29, 1914, the passenger ship Empress of Ireland sank in the Saint Lawrence River near Rimouski, Quebec. She was on a return trip to Liverpool, England and due to heavy fog, the ship collided with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad. Just two years after the Titanic calamity in international waters off the coast of Nova Scotia came the deadliest shipwreck in Canadian history. The event was so significant it is number 11 on the list of deadliest all-time Canadian disasters, just behind number 10, the Halifax Explosion. The collision occurred when most of the 1,057 passengers and 420 crew members were fast asleep. The aftermath was devastating; the liner plummeted beneath the waters in less than a quarter of an hour, resulting in the tragic loss of more than 1,000 lives.

On the morning of the 8th of July 1917, thirty-nine-year-old Tom Thomson, a renowned Canadian painter and skilled outdoorsman, set off well-supplied for a day-long fishing excursion in his canoe on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park in Whitney, Ontario. A canoe, later identified as Thomson’s, was found floating upside down in the lake later on the same day. When Tom did not return from his fishing trip the next day, his friends became concerned. Eight days after Thomson first set out, Dr. G. W. (Goldwyn) Howland, a cottager from Toronto, spotted Tom’s bloated and decomposed body floating in the lake. An examination of Thomson’s body uncovered a large bruise on the right side of his head, and blood had come out of his right ear. Thomson’s death was quickly ruled an accident, and no police investigation occurred. Thomson was laid to rest in Mowat Cemetery near Canoe Lake, where he’d died. However, Thomson’s older brother George demanded the body be exhumed. Two days later, Tom’s grave was re-opened, the casket removed, and he was re-interred on July 21 in the family plot beside the Leith Presbyterian Church in what is now the Municipality of Meaford, Ontario. Officially the matter was closed, but mythology has grown around Thomson’s death. In the intervening years since Thomson’s death, investigations by sleuths, amateur and professional, have come to various conflicting conclusions. Some agree with the initial findings that Thomson died due to accidental drowning. Others, however, suggest that Tom Thomson was murdered.

On a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon on the 15th of August 1914, in a house near Spring Green, Wisconsin one of the worst mass killings in the state’s history occurred when 7 people were axed to death, immolated, and the house they were in burnt down.It was a case that on its own would have made headlines - but it wasn’t just any house that was burnt - it was the world-famous architectural treasure named Taliesin that was left in rubble, a house created by the internationally renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The victims were Wright’s partner Martha Borthwick, and two children, her 9-year-old Martha, and 11-year-old John. Also slain were gardener David Lindblom, draftsman Emil Brodell, builder Thomas Brunkner, and Bruckner's 13-year-old son Ernest.Promo: True ConsequencesSources:https://www.messynessychic.com/2018/05/01/murder-in-the-blueprints-of-frank-lloyd-wright/https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/taliesinhttps://www.mentalfloss.com/article/28519/taliesin-tragedyhttps://la.curbed.com/2015/10/28/9906764/sowden-house-george-hodel-black-dahliahttps://www.nydailynews.com/news/justice-story/wright-mare-massacre-frank-lloyd-home-article-1.1591522https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86086068/1912-01-04/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1912&index=0&rows=20&words=Frank+Lloyd+Wright&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Wisconsin&date2=1912&proxtext=Frank+Lloyd+Wright&y=18&x=12&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1https://murderpedia.org/male.C/c/carlton-julian.htmhttps://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2017/04/murder-at-taliesin.htmlhttps://www.taliesinpreservation.org/Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 213:Toronto theatre magnate and enigmatic millionaire Ambrose J. Smalldisappeared 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 EncyclopediaCanada West | The Canadian Encyclopedia$1,750,000 in 1919 → 2022 | Inflation CalculatorBiography – SMALL, AMBROSE JOSEPH – Volume XIV (1911-1920) – Dictionary of Canadian BiographyDisappearance of Ambrose Small - WikipediaThe Doe Network: Ambrose Small - 1891DMONThe Mysterious Disappearance of Ambrose J. Small | Grand Theatre LondonWhat Really Happened to Ambrose Small? | Maclean’s | January 15, 1951How the mystery of Ambrose Small became Toronto’s most captivating cold case | The StarThe Mystery Of Ambrose J. Small, The Missing Millionaire - Ripley’s Believe It or Not!Ambrose Small, Toronto’s most sensational mysteryThe Grand Mystery of Ambrose SmallAmbrose Small, The Ghost of the Grand TheatreInvestigations following the finding of these human bones near Humber… News Photo - Getty ImagesAMBROSE SMALL: CANADA’S COLDEST CASE CLOSED!The Missing Millionaire by Katie Daubs | Penguin Random House CanadaCanadian Mysteries of the Unexplained: Investigations Into the Fantastic, the Bizarre and the DisturbingWild Talents by Charles Fort - Ebook | ScribdMysteries of Ontario by John Robert Colombo - Ebook | ScribdGhost Stories of Canada by John Robert Colombo, Jillian Hulme Gilliland - Ebook | ScribdSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 172 - To curtail social ills like alcoholism, family violence, and other unsavoury behaviours, religious and puritanical proponents of the Temperance Movement demonized alcohol throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. After numerous U.S. states had become ‘dry’ outlawing the production and sale of alcohol in the years prior, in 1919, the United States ratified the 18th amendment to their constitution, which banned the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within the country’s borders. As hoarded supplies quickly began to run dry over the next ten years, Americans looked outside their borders to keep the liquor flowing into the country.  Scores of Canadians stepped up, flouting the laws to move alcohol across the 49th parallel. Many were entrepreneurs with a daredevil spirit, a means of transportation and a desire to make a quick buck, but others were psychopathic, dangerous, mob-connected killers. We’ll talk about a couple of them here. Mike Browne's new book, MURDER, MADNESS, AND MAYHEM: Twenty-Five Tales of True Crime and Dark History, is available this November from Harper Collins Canada! You can pre-order your copy now: https://bit.ly/3oSnKXS Sources: [Prohibition: An Interactive History – Mob Museum] [Women Led the Temperance Charge – Prohibition: An Interactive History] [Captain Jack Randell] [Captain Jack Randell - Classic Sailboats] [The Sinking of The I’m Alone] [Heaving To Is a Valuable Skill for All Sailors] [Story of the I’m Alone | Decora-chan | Prince Edward Island] [Ernest Hemingway - Biographical - NobelPrize.org] [The Whisky King - Trevor Cole - eBook] [Molls of a mobster | Maclean’s | OCTOBER 5, 1987] [Biography – STARKMAN, BESHA (Tobin)] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 149:William Avery (Billy) Bishop was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, on February 8, 1894. When the First World War broke out, as with many young men of his day, Billy was off to Europe to do his part. By the end of the war, Bishop claimed he had survived more than 170 air battles and said he had shot down seventy-two German aircraft. This number left Bishop only three behind René Fonck of France and eight behind The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, who had 80 kills. These numbers made Bishop the top Canadian and British Empire flying ace of the war and Canada’s most storied veterans. But Billy’s story does come with some controversy. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bishop https://www.scribd.com/book/230095060/The-Courage-of-the-Early-Morning-A-Biography-of-the-Great-Ace-of-World-War-I https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/people-and-stories/billy-bishop https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/100-stories/Pages/bishop.aspx https://www.constable.ca/caah/bbishop.htm https://www.owensound.ca/en/billy-bishop-museum.aspx https://valourcanada.ca/military-history-library/billy-bishop-vc/ https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/william-avery-bishop https://www.theworldwar.org/explore/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/billy-bishop https://www.nfb.ca/film/the-kid-who-couldnt-miss/ https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/educational-magazines/william-billy-avery-bishop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc2LjoXbX-c Classic WW1 Fighters Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 137 - At 9:30 a.m. on Friday, June 19, 1914, the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history occurred at Hillcrest, Alberta, in the Crowsnest Pass region of western Canada. Episode written by Josina de Bree Sources: Anderson, Frank. “Hillcrest Mine Disaster” (Triumph and Tragedy in the Crowsnest Pass. Diana Wilson, Heritage House Publishing, Surrey, BC, 2005) www.crowsnest.bc.ca www.crowsnest-highway.ca www.hillcrestminedisaster.com Archival Holding PR0740. Provincial Archives of Alberta. https://hermis.alberta.ca/paa/Details.aspx?ObjectID=PR0740&dv=True&deptID=1 https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/canada/Canada3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_(Handel) http://www.indsci.com/the-monitor-blog/carbon-monoxide-carbon-dioxide/ https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/hw193731 https://alchetron.com/Hillcrest-mine-disaster https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2466176980 Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 129: In May of 1914, before the outbreak of WWI, a Japanese steamship called the Komagatu Maru anchored in Burrard Inlet in the Vancouver harbour. There were 376 people aboard led by a man named Baba Gurdit Singh Sirhali. Mostly from the Punjab area of India they dreamt of emigrating to Canada for a better life. Thanks to exclusionary Canadian immigration policies meant to prevent immigration form certain countries, including India, the ship was not allowed to dock. They sat in harbour, without adequate food and water for more than two and half months awaiting court challenges. They were deported in late July and led out of the harbour under naval escort. On returning to India they were diverted away from Calcutta, and when they finally landed a riot broke out with British forces during which 29 unarmed passengers were shot, 20 of whom died. Sources and Further Reading: http://komagatamarujourney.ca/intro https://globalnews.ca/news/2708235/what-was-the-komagata-maru-incident-and-why-does-it-matter/ https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/speeches/2016/05/18/komagata-maru-apology-house-commons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wx1KLtRgQY&feature=emb_logo Full Trudeau Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIZUpTxdYZw Canada Apologizes for Racist Incident 100 Years After Rejecting Komagata Maru Ship of 370 Immigrants https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17448727.2014.895546 The Sikh Formations journal article, GHADAR MOVEMENT: A LIVING LEGACY by Nishant Upadhyay https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/komagata-maru-racist-actions-1.5607242 https://pier21.ca/explore/online/tell-me-more-about/komagata-maru https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/canadian-immigration-acts-and-legislation https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Komagata_Maru https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/komagata-maru https://humanrights.ca/story/the-story-of-the-komagata-maru Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 98 - After a life long career as a notorious thief, safe cracker, international bank robber and jail break artist in 1913, charismatic Bloody Jack Krafchenko made his final score; the bank in his home town of Plum Coulee, Manitoba. During the daytime robbery the bank's manager, H.M. Arnold was shot once and killed by the fleeing bandit. After a few days Krafchenko was apprehended in nearby Winnipeg. Before he was to  go on trial for his life, he escaped from prison again, using his as yet undiscovered cache of riches as leverage to bribe his own lawyer, a prison guard and two other men into assisting him. Sources: R. v. Krafchenko, 1914 CanLII 618 (MB QB), R. v. Hagel, 1914 CanLII 769 (MB QB), R. v. Lakes, 1988 CanLII 3343 (BC SC), Manitoba History: The Story of “Bloody Jack” Krafchenko Memorable Manitobans: John “Bloody Jack” Krafchenko (1881-1914) Winnipeg Police Service - Bloody Jack Settling the West: Immigration to the Prairies from 1867 to 1914 | Pier 21 Finding ‘Bloody Jack’ beyond the perimeter  – Spectator Tribune West End Dumplings: The Toronto Street hideout of “Bloody Jack” is for sale! John Larry “Bloody Jack” Krafchenko (1881-1914) - Find A Grave Memorial Self-incrimination - Wikipedia Canada Evidence Act Bloody Jack: Dennis Cooley, Douglas Barbour: 9780888643919: Books - Amazon.ca Ben Bertram Full text of “Vulcan Advocate” Running With Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws Catalog / Sears, Roebuck and Company. Spring 1910 (no.120) Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 048 commemorates the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice ending hostilities of WW1.