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In the quiet, close-knit community of Fosterville, New Brunswick, a crime of unspeakable horror shattered the peace on November 26, 1924. Two young sisters, Cynthia (14) and Necia Foster (10), were found bound, gagged, and brutally murdered in the lakeside camp of their uncle, Harry D. Williams. The sheer brutality of the crime sent shockwaves through the region, making it one of the most infamous cases in New Brunswick’s history.

The history of Chinese immigration to Canada is a story marked by adversity. Chinese labourers played a pivotal role in building the Canadian railway under harsh conditions, yet faced institutional discrimination, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923, which limited immigration and separated families for years. Despite these challenges, the Chinese community's resilience has left an indelible mark on Canadian culture. Today, we honour their contributions and recognize the need to confront our history's shadows, striving for a more inclusive Canadian identity that values people of all backgrounds.

On July 9, 1928, the Alberta Provincial Police were alerted to a mass murder at the Booher farm in Mannville, Alberta. Upon arrival, they discovered the bodies of Rose Booher, her oldest son Fred, and two hired hands, Gabriel Grombey and Bill Rozak, all shot dead. The younger son, Vernon Booher, was unharmed. He’d been out in the fields working that evening and, after hearing shots, ran back to the house to his mother and brother dead. It was he who’d sounded the alarm. Two Booher daughters were in town during the incident. The father of the family, Henry, also away during the killings, was devastated. Vernon displayed little emotion and soon became the number one suspect in the slayings. He denied involvement, and the murder weapon, a rifle, was missing. Dr. Adolph Maximilian Langsner, an Austrian criminologist and psychiatrist who claimed he could read brainwaves, was brought in to assist. He claimed he read Vernon’s mind, and confirmed he was the killer. Langsner also directed police to the missing firearm, claiming he’d drawn a map taken from Vernon’s thoughts. Presented with the formerly missing rifle, Vernon confessed, stating he killed his mother over her disapproval of his girlfriend and then eliminated witnesses. But his confession was disallowed. Why? His defence attorneys claimed Dr. Langsner had coerced him into it through hypnotism.

Aurore Gagnon is probably one of the most tragic figures in twentieth-century Canadian history. She was only ten years old when she died of exhaustion and blood poisoning in her hometown of Sainte-Philomène-de-Fortierville, Quebec, on February 12, 1920. An autopsy revealed at least 54 wounds on her body, presumably inflicted over time by her stepmother Marie-Anne Houde and her father, Télesphore Gagnon. Both were later convicted for their roles in the little girl’s death. Aurore Gagnon’s story has left a lasting impact on Quebec's cultural memory, inspiring plays, films, and discussions about child abuse and children's rights in the province.

In January of 1922, the first of a series of fires broke out on a farm in the small rural community of Caledonia Mills in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia. The family who lived at the farm, Alexander, 70, and sixty-nine-year-old Janet MacDonald, 69, and their 15-year-old adopted daughter Mary-Ellen, claimed the unexplained blazes, 30 in all, had begun in rapid succession in places not close to either wood stove. The fires and other terrifying occurrences that drove them out of the home, they believed, were caused by a malicious poltergeist bent on their destruction and focused around Mary-Ellen. News of the events brought renowned international investigators of things paranormal, even catching the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories.

Between 1926 and 1928, a sinister darkness was afoot on a small chicken ranch in Wineville, California. When he was only 19, Gordon Stewart Northcott, a Canadian, had abducted, raped, tortured and murdered at least three and as many as 20 others. His victims were predominantly prepubescent boys. He sexually assaulted and released numerous others. When a portion of the truth came out, much of it was told by Northcott’s nephew, 13-year-old Sanford Clark. Northcott had brought Sanford with him from Canada two years before. Northcott viciously raped and beat Clark numerous times before tiring of him as he aged. Afterward, through fear and intimidation, Northcott coerced his nephew into assisting him in committing and covering up the murders of his victims. Even Northcott’s mother, Sarah Louise Northcott, helped in some of the crimes to keep her son out of jail.

The strongest earthquake ever recorded in eastern Canada, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, occurred at 5:02pm Newfoundland time on the 18 of November in 1929. It was felt as far west as Ottawa and as far south as New York City. The quake, centred around 250 km south of Newfoundland along the southern edge of the Grand Banks caused a massive sub-ocean landslide. Two and a half hours after the quake a series of tsunami waves smashed into Newfoundland’s isolated Burin Peninsula devastating property, upending the fishery and causing 28 deaths.

Episode 205: In this Away Game we are off to post World War One Germany where in the early 1920s, a brutal serial killer, Fritz Haarmann, killed at least 27 young men and boys. Many of his crimes, it appears, were committed to impress his lover, a man named Hans Grans. Although Haarmann admitted it was he who murdered and dismembered the victims, he claimed that ultimately, in a few cases, it was Grans who chose who was to die.Sources:Weimar Republic - HISTORYList of German serial killers - WikipediaAuthor & Radio Host | Alan R. WarrenButcher of Hanover: Fritz Haarmann by Alan R. WarrenSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 183 - Early on a cold morning on January 7, 1922, two Montreal city Public Works Department employees, on their way to their works shed, discovered the body of a man laying on the frozen ground near the corners of Coolbrook and Snowden Street. The man, who’d been shot was later identified by a Catholic Priest named Adélard Delorme as his half-brother, Raoul Delorme. When police investigated they were surprised that their evidence pointed to one, very unusual suspect. This case would become important, not only for the oddity of its perpetrator and the groundbreaking forensics used to break the case but also for its shocking outcome. Sources: My version of the Delorme case : Farah-Lajoie, Georges Delorme v. Sisters of Charity of Quebec, 1922 CanLII 656 (QC CQ) 1868-1996 - The Delorme Affair - Interactive Investigator L’affaire Delorme — On ne juge pas un prêtre Acquittement de l’abbé Joseph-Adélard Delorme d’une accusation de meurtre Georges Farah-Lajoie — Wikipédia Newspapers.com — Search: Adelard Delorme L’affaire Delorme 1922: un procès qui souleva les passions - Instantanés Georges Farah-Lajoie | Mémoires des Montréalais History of Forensic Science in Canada | Famous Canadian Crimes: The Delorme Affair Rigorous Science - Canada’s History Cassock and the Crown: Canada’s Most Controversial Murder Trial - Jean Monet - Google Books Scribd | For I Have Sinned Online by John Glatt | Books La soutane et la couronne : le procès du siècle : l’affaire Delorme : Monet, Jean, 1932 Biographie – DEROME, WILFRID (baptisé Joseph-Wilfrid) – Volume XVI (1931-1940) – Dictionnaire biographique du Canada Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 163: In New Brunswick, in the fall of 1922 a convicted double murderer named Bennie Swim was hanged for the murder of the woman he loved, his first cousin Olive and her husband, Harvey Trenholm. Bennie didn’t die the first time, so the authorities hanged him again. Co-host: Carol Browne Promo:Murderish Sources: The Ballad of Benny Swim (original) - Mike Q - YouTube Hanged Twice_Benny Swim Bennie Swim | Cases | Crime and Punishment | Projects | Faculty of Arts | UNB ExecutedToday.com » 1922: Benny Swim, “dead as a door-nail” (or not) The Carleton County Man Who Was Hung Twice ”Benny Swim” Benny “Bennie” Swim (1899-1922) - Find A Grave Memorial The Life of a Screw - Douglas E. Arch Drop Dead: A Horrible History of Hanging in Canada: Poplak, Lorna HistoricPlaces.ca - HistoricPlaces.ca Harvey Dixon Trenholm (1883-1922) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree Olive M (Swim) Trenholm (1905-1922) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree Benny Swim (1899-1922) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree William Guy Carr - Wikipedia This Week in New Brunswick History http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/canada.html Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine