Latest Episodes

Episode 364: On June 17, 1958, a warm summer afternoon in Vancouver, British Columbia, the bustling construction site of the Second Narrows Bridge was alive with activity. Seventy-nine workers, including…

Episode 361: On October 4, 1957, as the world’s eyes turned skyward to witness the launch of Sputnik 1, another technological marvel was about to be unveiled in a hangar…

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, 21 June 1950, the tranquil tobacco farming community of Langton, of Langton, Ontario, was shattered by a violent crime that would leave an indelible mark on Canadian history. Joseph Herbert McAuliffe, a World War II veteran turned counterfeiter, walked into the Imperial Bank of Canada with robbery on his mind. In less than half an hour, two innocent men lay dead at the robber’s hands, Arthur Lierman and William Goddyn, their bodies riddled with bullets, and a community was gripped by fear. For three harrowing days, Norfolk County held its breath as McAuliffe, armed and desperate, evaded capture in the surrounding woods. The manhunt that ensued would reveal a tale of tragic childhood, wartime heroism, and a descent into criminality that culminated in a botched robbery and senseless killings. As the story unfolded, it exposed the raw nerves of a nation grappling with questions of justice, redemption, and the ultimate price of crime.

On the night of September 6, 1958, Aaron “Bud’ Jenkins was stabbed to death as he slept in his barracks at the Naval base in Esquimalt on Vancouver Island here in British Columbia. A man named Leo Mantha confessed to the crime, was tried, found guilty of 1st-degree murder, and executed in 1959. He was the last person ever to be executed in British Columbia and the 3rd last to be executed in Canada. At the time, executions were rare, and most Canadian death penalty verdicts were commuted to life in prison. After revisiting the crime, the consensus among experts today is that anyone else would have been charged with manslaughter or 2nd-degree murder, and not 1st-degree murder. So why do Leo Mantha hang? The fact that Leo Mantha was gay was the only factor that made him stand out at the time of the crime. Was his a hanging by homophobia?

Episode 190: Old Mike Todor’s body was found in his east end Regina home in the spring of 1955. He’d lain there for more than 14 months and had been beaten to death. Someone had killed him, but who? Elizabeth “Tootsie” LaFleche, Mike’s 30-something-year-old wife, who’d been living with a friend for months, was telling a lot of stories about what had become of Mike. None of the tales made a lot of sense. After police found Mike’s body, a number of arrests were made, charges were laid and several trials held, but thanks to Tootsie’s lies, the real facts of the case may never be known.Sources:R. v. Dyck, 1956 CanLII 197 (SK CA), BOOK — Trail of blood: A Canadian Murder Odyssey by Frank JonesHistory of the Death Penalty in CanadaSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

This episode dives deep into the criminal mind behind Whoville's stolen Christmas.

In the episode we travel to Plainfield, Wisconsin, home of one of the most depraved monsters of all time, Ed Gein.

Episode 013: In this episode we tackle a popular unsolved case here in the Lower Mainland of BC. In 1953 two skeletons were found in ...

In Episode 008, we meet Peter Woodcock, Canada's youngest serial killer, who at the age of 17, killed three children from 1956 to 1957 in ...