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In the rural area known as Drummond Township, near Perth, Ontario, about a mile north of the village of Balderson’s Corners, in the early morning hours of December 10, 1928, what appeared to be an accidental fire resulted in the deaths of Thomas Easby’s wife and four eldest children. Only a month later, it was the word of Thomas’s only surviving son that painted a different, more sinister picture. Thomas was arrested, charged with the murders and tried. Easby’s trial was brief, he was convicted and sentenced to hang for what has been called Canada's first mass murder.

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 fall evening in 1991, police discovered the bodies of Alfred Critchley, 75, and Virginia Critchley, 73, in the Chatham, Ontario residence they shared with their son and his family. The couple had been brutally stabbed. Alfred was unconscious but alive and Virginia was barely alive. Virginia died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and Alfred died later in the hospital having never regained consciousness. After a brief search, the couple’s grandson, Jasen Pangburn, 19, was discovered partially buried in a nearby ravine. Jasen had been executed with a single gunshot to the chest from a .22 calibre firearm. Thanks to Virginia’s dying words, suspicion fell on two youths, who’d been acquaintances of Jasen Pangburn’s, Jason Shawn Cofell, 18, and a 15-year-old accomplice we’ll call C.B.

Episode 231: Gerald Vincent Bull was a smart cookie. He graduated from the University of Toronto at 20, got a master’s degree at age 21, and at 22 earned a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Toronto’s newly created Institute of Aerodynamics. Magazines touted him the ‘boy rocket scientist’. Nations sought him for his innovative ideas regarding long range artillery, ballistics and other military related endeavours. He was charged several times with breaching arms embargoes, even spending time in prison, a sore spot for the proud scientist. Eventually he became involved in Iraq’s ‘Project Babylon’ in which he was asked personally by then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to build a Supergun which would launch weapons into space, giving Hussein the capability of bombing targets 1000’s of kilometres away. This obviously worried Iraq’s neighbours in the Middle East. Before the project was completed Gerald Bull was assassinated, shot five times outside his apartment building in Brussels, Belgium. A lot of nations hated Gerald Bull and some, no doubt, wanted him dead, but it remains a mystery who was behind his killing. It isn’t clear who actually pulled the trigger in the murder of Gerald Bull, most likely it was someone either within, or acting on behalf of, one of those governments who’d felt threatened by Bull’s activities and alliances.

Episode 230: Over a period of 22 months, between January 1969 and January 1971, 3 women in Southwestern Ontario were brutally murdered in 3 different towns. These women’s names were Isobella “Belva” Russell, Edith Authier, and Jane Wooley. Police solved the case of the third victim, Belva Russell, a matter of weeks after the crime. The perpetrator, Gerald Thomas Archer was convicted and imprisoned. There were obvious similarities between all three crimes. For several reasons the initial investigators on the cases missed them. Gerald Thomas Archer got his freedom in 1985, when he was 65. He was a drifter and passed away in 1995. Five years after Archer’s death, his family made police aware of new information. Through DNA, were police able to connect him to the murders of  Edith Authier, and Jane Wooley.  Gerald Thomas Archer, had been a serial killer and had walked free for the last ten years of his life.

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 210: In the summer of 2003, Ardeth Wood, a 27-year-old PhD candidate studying philosophy at the University of Waterloo, was enjoying a well needed break at her parent’s home in the Orleans neighbourhood of Ottawa. In the early afternoon of August 6, 2003, wanting to take advantage of a beautiful, warm summer day Ardeth borrowed her brother’s bike to go for a ride. Ardeth never came home.Ardeth’s disappearance triggered one of the largest searches in Ottawa’s history up to that point covering the almost 200 kilometres of bike paths around the capital city and its suburbs. Five days later, Ardeth’s body was discovered. She’d been drowned on purpose and then hidden by her killer in a densely wooded area along the banks of Green’s Creek. Police had no suspects. Fearing for their own safety, many of the residents of Ottawa were terrified to use the parks and bike paths for some time even with increased police patrols. It would be more than two years before charges were laid against the man accused of Ardeth’s murder.Sources and Further Reading:The Disappearance of Ardeth Wood An Anthology of True Crime by Pete Dove - Ebook | ScribdArdeth Wood - WikipediaMurder She Solved - The Pathway Predator - Dailymotion VideoArdeth WOOD | Obituary | Ottawa CitizenArdeth Mary Margaret Wood (1975-2003) - Find a Grave MemorialThe value of virginity? « knitnut.netUniversity of Waterloo — September 10, 2003: Scholarship remembers murdered gradA Mother’s Grief – The Healing Power of Forgiveness | Nourished Motherhood BlogArchived Ardeth RememberedArchived A death that touched an entire cityArdeth Wood murder resonates 10 years later | CBC NewsInterview with Colum Wood — YouTubeGlobal study on homicideKristen Gilchrist (2010) “Newsworthy” Victims?, Feminist Media Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2010.514110Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 208: On Feb 4, 1880, just past midnight 5 members of the Donnelly family (A mother and father, two sons, and a niece) we brutally murdered by a mob in their homes just outside of Lucan, Ontario, in Biddolph township. A crime that happened 142 years ago this month, but it is one that had its roots in the distant past, and that has echoed into the future in Canada right up to today.  The family and their story became legendary, and often shocks people into the realization of how dark, and unforgiving life in early Canada could be. Numerous books, songs, tv shows, plays, and films have been made about the murders. There is even a Craft Beer brand in Ontario called The Black Donnelly’s Brewing Company, will illustrations of the family on their bottles. If you grew up in Ontario the massacre was actually part of the school curriculum. This is a case of victim blaming on a huge scale. Myths and legends sprung up about the family — perhaps somewhat to appease the guilty conscience of society. Even up to the early 1980’s if you went to Lucan people would say ‘we don’t talk about the Donnellys’Sources:[The Vigilante Massacre | Maclean’s | June 1, 1950][Heaven and Hell on Earth: The Massacre of the”Black Donnellys”][Black Donnellys - Wikipedia][History | Lucan Museum]Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 207: After World War II, Canada’s economy rose. Work was much easier to come by than during the depression. Even though he’d been able to secure decent employment, family man and world war veteran with movie star good looks, Edwin Alonzo Boyd, was bored. He’d had his share of trouble already and was feeling the itch again. In the fall of 1949, he robbed his first bank. This crime kicked off events that would lead to one of the most infamous Canadian criminal gangs of the era. Over just a few years, The Boyd Gang, named for their charismatic de facto leader, Edwin, robbed numerous banks broke out of one of Canada’s toughest prisons, not once but twice. To some, they were folk heroes. However, public sentiment turned firmly against them after members of the gang, Steve Suchan and Lennie Jackson, murdered Toronto Police Department Sergeant of Detectives Edmund “Eddie” Tong and severely wounded his partner Roy Perry.Sources:Regina v. Boyd, 1953 CanLII 88 (ON CA), Edwin Alonzo Boyd: Life and Crimes of Canada’s Master Bank Robber by Nate HendleyFatal Intentions by Barbara Smith - Ebook | ScribdLine of Fire by Edward Butts - Ebook | ScribdJohn J. Robinette by George D. Finlayson - Ebook | ScribdThe Desperate Ones by Edward Butts - Ebook | ScribdNow You Know Canada’s Heroes by Doug Lennox - Ebook | ScribdLost Rivers — Don JailHistoricist: Titillating and Terrorizing Toronto - Torontoist — ArchivedGeocities — BOYD GANGToronto’s Infamous ‘Boyd Gang’ - CBC ArchivesCBC Archives — Suchan and Jackson hanged back to backEdwin Alonzo Boyd | The Canadian EncyclopediaToronto Feature: The Boyd Gang | The Canadian EncyclopediaWHAT THE BOYD GANG FIASCO CAN TEACH US — Macleans Magazine — 1952ExecutedToday.com » 1952: Lennie Jackson and Steve Suchan, of the Boyd GangSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 202: Mathew Charles Lamb was a troubled and disturbed youngster. He was born in Windsor, Ontario, unwanted, to a teenage mother and bounced from one relative’s home to another, never having close relationships with any of them. To him they were merely his keepers. The rules they laid out for him to follow were bothersome to him. Young Matt was incorrigible. He became violent early on, many of the other kids in his family and in the neighbourhood were terrified of him. After a number of run ins with local police and several violent incidents involving firearms, one including a shootout with police, Mathew Lamb was jailed  in the Kingston Pen for the first time — he was just 16. At 18 years old, only days after an early release, Mathew Charles Lamb, went on a shooting spree in Windsor, killing two strangers and wounding two more.Sources:City Of WindsorCanada’s Most Dangerous Places 2020 - Macleans.caThe Windsor Star - Google News Archive SearchMathew Charles Lamb | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderersRead Watching the Devil Dance Online by William Toffan | BooksMathew Charles Lamb - WikipediaHouse of Commons Debates, 30th Parliament, 2nd … - Canadian Parliamentary Historical ResourcesNew Book Documents Canada’s First Spree Killer and Windsor Native Matthew Lamb | 519 MagazineBook - The Psychopath TestAbout: Mathew Charles Lamb Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine