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On May 8, 1984, a man with a beard, dressed in Canadian Forces camouflage attire and wearing a beret, entered the studios of CJRP, a radio station in Quebec City. Employees at the station noticed the man had a knife secured to his leg. The man approached the assistant to radio host André Arthur’s assistant, presented her with an envelope while introducing himself as “Mr. D.” and promptly left. The man was later identified as Denis Lortie, a 25-year-old disgruntled Canadian Forces corporal who then entered the Citadelle de Quebec to commit a mass shooting of members of the National Assembly of Quebec. He opened fire, killing three unelected legislature employees, Georges Boyer, 61, Camille Lepage, 54, and Roger Lefrançois, 57. He injured thirteen others before being apprehended, thanks to the heroism of René Marc Jalbert, a retired Canadian Forces officer and the sergeant-at-arms of the National Assembly of Quebec. Lortie’s actions shocked the nation and prompted discussions on security measures and political extremism. Jalbert’s earned him the Cross of Valour, Canada’s highest civilian bravery award.

In New York City on the 8th of December, 1980, the world was rocked by the murder of influential rock and roll icon, artist, sometimes controversial activist and dad John Lennon. After an evening recording session at the Record Plant, John Lennon and his wife, artist Yoko Ono returned to their Central Park West apartment building, The Dakota. As John and Yoko approached the entrance to the building, they passed a man for whom, only hours earlier, Lennon had signed an autograph. The man, Mark David Chapman, 25, watched the couple walk by and then pulled a .38 special from his coat and unloaded on John Lennon, shooting him in the back four times. The deadly hollow point bullets tore through the former Beatle, mortally wounding him. He was pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital later. When police arrived, they found Chapman patiently reading his book, Catcher in the Rye.

Episode 222: On Sunday, November 12,1988 beloved 36-year-old high school teacher named Byron Carr was found by his family dead in the bedroom of his home in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. He’d been strangled to death and stabbed. Byron’s wallet had been stolen, and ominously on his wall, written in pen, were the words “I will kill again.” Investigators revealed that Byron was a closeted gay man, and had been involved in a consensual sexual encounter with an as yet unidentified man prior to his death. It is presumed that it was this man who killed Byron. No one has ever been brought to justice in Byron’s death.Anyone with any information regarding this crime, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is asked to call the  Bell Aliant sponsored Byron Carr Hot Line 1-877-566-3952 or PEI Crime Stoppers 1-800-222-TIPS.Promo:Crimes from the EastSources:Homicides | Charlottetown Police ServicesPEI Crime Stoppers - HomicidesCharlottetown police reopen 1980s murder case | CBC NewsSkimpy underwear connected to 1988 murder | CBC NewsCharlottetown police release sketch of possible Byron Carr killer | SaltWireByron Carr murder accomplice identified by police | CBC News2013, John Carr interview | CBC.ca‘Give this family closure’: Police still working to solve 30-year-old Byron Carr murder | CBC NewsUnsolved Case Files Canada: Murder of Byron Carr After Sexual Encounter With Another MaleCold case, warm memories: Byron Carr’s friends, family want his 1988 P.E.I. murder solved | SaltWireOn the hunt | SaltWireBrad MacConnell Named New Chief of Police | Charlottetown Police Servicesr/PEI: Byron Carr r/UnresolvedMysteries: Byron CarrCANADA — Canada — Byron Carr, 36, Schoolteacher — Nov’ 88 | WebsleuthsReader’s Digest: Canada’s Most Notorious Cold CasesPublic Attitudes toward Homosexuality — Tom W. SmithTIMELINE | Same-sex rights in Canada | CBC NewsLesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights in Canada | The Canadian EncyclopediaLGBT+ Pride 2021 Global Survey points to increasingly positive attitudes in Canada toward LGBT+ individuals | IpsosR. v. MacDonald, 2004 CanLII 9284 (ON CA), Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 195: Hannah Buxbaum was found dead July 5, 1984 on a highway near London, Ontario after having been shot  by roadside bandits three times in the head as her husband Helmuth Buxbaum and their young nephew, Roy, in town from Vancouver for a visit watched helplessly. The bandits sped off with Hanna’s purse and police were called. No one could figure out why anyone would want to murder Hanna Buxbaum, who was as close to being a living saint that anyone could find. The press initially labelled the case ‘The Good Samaritan Murder’ until the true story unfolded. This story has so many twists and turns and crazy elements. The Buxbaums being millionaire owners of several nursing homes there were huge sums of money, cocaine, sex addiction, sex workers, double crossing, nuclear bunkers filled with tobacco and alcohol, people being dangled by their feet off 14th floor balconies, worries of rocket launcher attacks and courtroom spectacles. No less than a motley crew of 7 people were charged in the killing of the earnest, salt of the earth woman, until, finally, the truth came out.Sources:A cruel case of murder | Maclean’s | DECEMBER 2, 1985After 30 years, a son comes to terms with his father?s murder of his mother | Chatham Daily NewsThe killer I knew | National PostHelmuth Buxbaum, convicted in 1980s murder, dies in jail | CBC NewsEdward Greenspan - WikipediaSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 185: RCMP officers arrived at the Blackman family residence on Spuraway Avenue in Coquitlam, B.C.’s Ranch Park subdivision in the early morning hours of January 18th, 1983. A neighbour had called 911after hearing screams and then witnessing what appeared to be a domestic argument next door that escalated into a shooting. Inside the eerily silent home as the cold winter rain fell, the responding officers found a horrific and bloody scene; six members of the Blackman family were dead.The deceased were Richard Blackman, 50, his wife, Irene Blackman, 49, their daughter, Roberta Lynn Davies, 28, Roberta’s husband, John Iowerth Davies, 39, Karen Dale Rhodes, 25, another of the Blackman’s daughters, and the youngest of the Blackman children, 16-year-old son, Rick Blackman. Just outside the home, police had detained a young man, 22-year-old, Bruce Alfred Blackman, another of Irene and Richard’s sons. Bruce, who’d been picked up as police arrived, was acting bizarrely, telling the RCMP officers that he was the Antichrist and that the world was going to end on January 31.Sources:Blackman v. British Columbia (Review Board), 1995 CanLII 3437 (BC CA), Blackman v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 1993 CanLII 2620 (BC CA), British Columbia Review Board - Decision on Bruce Alfred Blackmanhttps://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/oic/arc_oic/0332_1983https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/oic/arc_oic/1122_1991Violence and Schizophrenia by Heidi J. Wehring and William T. CarpenterCorrelates of Future Violence in People Being Treated for Schizophrenia | American Journal of PsychiatrySchizophrenia: Warning Signs of Violence | HealthLink BCA Voice out of Nowhere eBook : Booth, Janice Holly: Amazon.ca: Kindle StoreBruce Alfred Blackman | Amok Wiki | FandomPolice layed six charges of first-degree murder Tuesday against… - UPI ArchivesAuthor Janice Holly Booth — Book: A Voice out of NowhereLittle Known Details Behind Mass Murder Case Revealed in New Book, A Voice out of NowhereSomeone I love has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. How can I help? | Here to HelpSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 182: This is a story of two talented people whose final interaction would lead to the death of one of comedy’s rising stars and a notorious place in Hollywood history for the other. On March 5, 1982, after an all too brief but stellar career in film and television, actor and comedian John Belushi, 33, was found dead in his bungalow at the infamous Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Investigators soon discovered that a Canadian woman, Catherine Evelyn or Cathy Smith, was the last person with the star and had been the person who had supplied and shot him up with the fatal overdose that killed him. Sources: United States of America and Smith, Re, 1984 CanLII 3510 (ON SC), Re United States of America and Smith, 1983 CanLII 1817 (ON SC), 1984 CanLII 1913 (ON CA) | Re United States of America and Smith | CanLII ‘I Killed John Belushi’ — Secrets Of Tragic Comic’s Star-Studded Death! Chasing Dragon by Smith Cathy, Signed - AbeBooks Wired: The Short Life & Fast Times of John Belushi Online by Bob Woodward | Books Read California Babylon Online by Kristan Lawson and Anneli Rufus | Books The Death of John Belushi at the Chateau Marmont Gone 25 years, Belushi’s impact still felt Cathy Smith - Wikipedia Cathy Smith, who admitted to killing John Belushi, was a woman of mystery - The Globe and Mail Gordon Lightfoot here. Singer/songwriter for over 50 years whose work has been performed by everyone from Elvis to Barbra. AMA! : IAmA The Tragic Real-Life Story Of John Belushi The Weight - Remastered - song by The Band | Spotify Sundown - song by Gordon Lightfoot | Spotify High and Dry - song by Gordon Lightfoot | Spotify Flash Of Fire - song by Hoyt Axton | Spotify Addictions Treatment Helplines in Canada | Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 171 - Rosemary Podgis, 56, and her husband Alfred, 58, were found in a Pennsylvania Ravine. They had been fatally shot in their Loch Arbour, New Jersey home over the Fourth of July weekend in 1982. The apparent perpetrators arrested by police 5 days later were two 18-year-olds: Scott Robert Franz, Rosemary’s son from a previous marriage, and Scott’s Canadian friend Bruce Anthony Curtis, who had been Scott’s classmate at King’s Edgehill private school in Nova Scotia where the pair had just graduated. The events leading up to the deaths of Rosemary and Alfred Podgis would be extremely important in establishing what led two teens, both with promising futures ahead of them, to kill Scott Franz’s mother and stepfather. Was it cold-blooded murder or, as Bruce would later claim, a tragic accident caused by a faulty firearm? Sources: [Blood Knot: The Trial and Conviction of Bruce Curtis by David Hayes] [State v. Curtis :: 1984 :: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division :: Justia] [Two 18-year-olds, one from Nova Scotia, were held today… - UPI Archives] [A disputed killing in New Jersey | Maclean’s | APRIL 16, 1984] [Curtis’s long trip home | Maclean’s | MARCH 7, 1988] [National Film Board of Canada - Journey Into Darkness: The Bruce Curtis Story] [Dalhousie - The Gazette - Volume 117, Number 22 - February 21, 1985] [Canadians Mount Campaign To Obtain Man in New Jersey Prison] [YouTube - Deadly Betrayal: The Bruce Curtis Story - 1992 NBC Sunday Night Movie] [Crime-Sep-24-1989-947717 | NewspaperArchive] [Scott Franz’s Home - GoogleMaps] [Bruce Curtis and Scott Franz case - MemoryNS] [Shootings of Alfred and Rosemary Podgis - Wikipedia] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 161 - On a warm July day in 1986, 11-year-old Alison Parrott was lured from her Toronto home by a man on the phone claiming to be a sports photographer who wanted to take photos of the young athlete. Two boys discovered Alison’s body in a heavily wooded section of Kings Mill Park two days later. She had been bound, raped and strangled to death. It would take a decade before science caught up to the point where her killer could be brought to justice. Co-Host: Carol Browne Sources: R. v. Roy, 2003 CanLII 4272 (ON CA), [Exhibit A - Killer in a Box] [Alison Parrott: Leader of the pack  | Globalnews.ca] [YouTube - Crime Beat TV Show - Alison Parrott] [Murder of Alison Parrott - Wikipedia] [The horror of child murders | Maclean’s | AUGUST 11, 1986] [Parrott’s Killer Convicted | The Canadian Encyclopedia] [FindAGrave.com - Alison May Campbell Parrott] [GIRL FOLLOWED RULES, BUT KILLER WON GAME - Chicago Tribune] [Jury convicts Roy in Alison Parrot murder | CBC News] [News Article - Toronto Star Ottawa Bureau] [Staring down evil - The Globe and Mail] [Why millions in Crime Stoppers rewards go unclaimed | The Star] [Girls who went missing in Ontario: Solved and unsolved cases | The Star] [Colin Pitchfork - Wikipedia] [Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System | Royal Canadian Mounted Police] [What is ViCLAS – What is ViCLAS] [Stay Alert Stay Safe PSA#3 - YouTube] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 159: In the early 1980s near the small town of Rulo, Nebraska a white-supremacist cult leader named Michael Wayne Ryan and his band of followers took over a local farm essentially stealing it from the property owner. They burglarized nearby businesses and residences to fund their survival after the upcoming battle of Armageddon prophesied in the Books of Revelations. Ryan, a proponent the Christian Identity movement’s doctrines with links to an anti-government group called Posse Comitatus spewed antisemitic views, the supremacy of the white race and planned to take down the government. In 1982 Ryan was arrested for the torture and murder of, Luke Stice, the 5-year-old son of the property’s former owner and the torture killing of one of his followers, 27-year-old, James Thimm. Co-host: Carol Browne Sources: [Michael Wayne Ryan | Murderpedia] [Michael W. Ryan - Wikipedia] [Christian Identity and Religions of America (Joseph Baker)] [Evil Harvest: The True Story of Cult Murder in the American Heartland] [Nebraska Inmate Details] [Cult Education Institute :: Group Information Archives] [Christian Identity | Extremism in America | ADL] [ROSS] Facts [NIGHTMARE IN RULO - Chicago Tribune] [State v. Ryan :: 1989 :: Nebraska Supreme Court Decisions :: Justia] [Dennis Ryan | Omaha Magazine] [SPLCenter.org: Identity Crisis] [Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville Timeline] [PolitiFact | Donald Trump’s ‘very fine people on both sides’ remarks (transcript)] [Rick Ross, Executive Director] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 105 - Holiday Special - On Christmas Eve in 1988, after killing two security guards, gunmen burst into the Los Angeles offices of the Nakatomi Corporation in Century City at the newly opened Nakatomi Plaza building. The 30 plus hostages were all attendees of the Nakatomi Christmas party happening on the 30th floor. What at first appeared to be a terrorist incident was found out to be FAKE NEWS. Iit was actually an elaborate heist, led by German born criminal mastermind Hans Grüber. What Grüber and his group did not count on was the heroism of one partygoer, John McLane, who almost singlehandedly foiled the plan. The whole thing comes off like the plot of an action movie   Sources and Further Reading: [Breaking News - Shots Fired at Nakatomi Plaza] [Hans Gruber - Wikipedia] [John McClane - Wikipedia] [Fox Plaza (Los Angeles) - Wikipedia] [Nakatomi Plaza] [Timeline of Events] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine