Canadian True Crime

 I am supposed to be on the road a bunch. 2020 hasn't let me do that much. (Yes I started this blog a while ago) So my podcast listening went way down. I take the dog out ever day and get a few minutes in there but overall, listening way down.... I was digging the Danger Cats and Spittin Chiclets a lot before this lock down BS. Also a local movie one I Have Some Notes was (Still is) high up on the list. They are teaching me I really don't dig to deep into movies lol. I like big explosions or epic sprawling storylines. It seems there is more to movies than that! Get off my Lawn is another one I enjoy. It only has a couple episodes out but I dug the horror movie one. The other is an intro and if you are into pop culture this might be a good one to pick up. I have to flat out say while I listen to Speaking Municipally because they are very well versed in Edmonton, not a fan. I cannot handle when people just whine. If everything is so bad, move.... I am not 100% sure when I first heard Canadian True Crime, I think it was earlier this summer. June-ish? I dunno but this one is a constant on my list. First it is Canadian and I have heard of a great deal of these crimes. Second it is very professional. I have listened to a few others that sound like half drunk goths trying more to give gory details than the actual story, so I gotta admit I dig the professionalism. Check it out. It is the inspiration for this blog. I am going to rant on a few of the cases that came up.....

Every one knows Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. The Ken and Barbie killers. Maybe just not how twisted they really are. This case is actually a break down of a lot of shit. Like they should have caught him as a rapist way before the murders! Maybe I am missing it but did the lawyer HAVE the snuff tapes for awhile & not let anyone know then Karla got a deal with the devil because of him?? If that is so there should be some sort of action against him as well. Maybe I missed that or heard that wrong. Either way that deal with the devil remains one of the worst mistakes in Canadian Crime history. There is no reason she should be free and out. Honestly, flat out she is sick. She pretended to be her underage sister AND murdered her own sister. WHO COULD DO THAT?? This is not to trivialize the deaths they did cause but I am glad they were kept down to 3. They don't seem like the people who would stop BUT it is sad the police bungled so long and didn't catch him as the rapist and could have prevented all of this. I guess for the most part I was shitting on her and the deal with the devil because it still blows my mind but lets talk about Paul. He was a rapist and a pedophile. He got away with his crimes for a while cause he was a decent looking, middle class guy. He filmed his crimes, way before people had to film every moment of their lives. I was reading an interview where the interviewer said Pauls life in prison was hell. GOOD! The interview almost made me angry, who cares if his life is rough? It should be worse. This case is a great example of why we should have the death penalty, he deserves it. There would be no mistake, like oops he didn't do it, the jury saw the proof... he fucking deserves it.

Ever heard of the Mad Trapper of Rat River? I vaguely remember the name, not sure likely someone in my family had a book on it or something because it sure isn't something lots of people talk about but it is a very interesting case. Guy apparently flush with cash shows up in one of the harshest environments on the planet. Seems to be living off the land but then starts destroying the natives trap lines. RCMP  go to talk to him and he starts blasting. Wounding one and sending them in full retreat. Turns out he had turned his cabin into a bunker. They came back AGAIN this time blowing a hole in his cabin, with dynamite but he gets away (Here I thought that was just used in video games). They chase him all over the north and he does kill a policeman in a shoot out. They think they trap him by blocking off the two routes into the Yukon instead he scales a 7000ft rock to evade them. Finally with air searches they find and kill him. Here is gets even more interesting. He used the name Albert Johnson BUT that turns out to be fake. He is never ID'd Over the years many theories come out but none are ever correct. The working idea is that he was of Scandinavian descent. Whether from there or born and raised in north America is debated. Also with the in sane survival skills he showed it is thought he may have fought in WWI or actually have been a criminal before moving to the far north. Either way hearing all this was pretty sweet!

The Alberta serial killer was from a different podcast but it did open my eyes, some. IF you paid any attention to the media in the early 2000s there was a spike in missing and murdered sex workers in Edmonton and they seemed to be showing up in fields just outside the city. That I was aware of, it slowed down since then and Thomas Svekla was convicted of a couple of those murders. BUT this has been going on since at least the early 1980s. Not just in Edmonton, turns out Calgary has the same creepy things happening. I guess the RCMP and both cities police departments have worked together on these cases. On top of that Winnipeg also seems to have the same issues. For awhile Vancouver had a crazy number of women go missing from the hooker stroll of the Downtown Eastside but that was solved. I did even hear Edmonton tied to the Highway of Tears. As highway 16, the actual highway of tears does run through Edmonton. As a side note even the small town of Hinton has been "tied" to the highway of tears. This is more conspiracy tying the "Highway of Tears" all the way to us BUT is it that far fetched? There is a great deal of traffic from Edmonton all the way to Prince George...... I won't say the name BUT it did bring up a man who runs a ranch just outside of Edmonton. It seems like he has been looked at a few times for these murders. A quick internet search and you will find him. Even going so far as to posting online ads asking people to come live with him. I thought that was an interesting tidbit that might not be common knowledge.

Next we have the highest number of kills by any serial killer in Canada. Robert "Willie" Pickton. This story is brutal, I mean I have already did a whole blog on this guy but here is a quick wrap up. He screams serial killer. Have you looked at pictures of him? I know your not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but man oh man. Also this is another epic fail, how many people did he confess to? Any single one of them could have ended it but chose not to. On top of that it speaks to defund the police on both sides. They did a poor job on this case BUT you cut their funding and they will do worse. And social workers are not about to track him down, be real. HOWEVER putting more money into social programs is the whole movement I guess. So maybe had they put more dollars into that we wouldn't have the lower east side of Van city being so bad and having such easy targets for him. I guess he does show the good and bad of that movement. He got away with this for years, picking off the most beaten down of society. I won't go into too  much detail but this guy holds the record for most kills in Canadian history. Part of me thinks he is actually brilliant based on the length of time he did this and got away. The fact he made people vanish but part of me knows he is stupid as a post and got away with a lot because of the apathy of society. IF you like true crime I would really recommend this one.

Douglas Garland is a freak. I said I wouldn't rag on people's kinks, what you do behind closed doors is up to you and I stick to that. However his shit crosses into a triple homicide so fuck you freako. Videos on diaperring? Oh and manuals on how to kill and dismember? This guy was fucked. I dunno maybe it is because I spent so much time at my grandparents growing up, this one seems to hit close to home. Burning the bodies, like this dude is fucked. How do defense lawyers sleep at night? Appealing his sentence as cruel? We can pretty much assume a violent torture murder and his sentence was cruel?? I have to say one thing, every time I hear about him getting fucked up in prison I smile. I don't actually care in this case if I am wrong for doing that.... 

The Dexter Killer, Mark Twitchell a bit of home town fame for us from Edmonton?? First off I don't like him being called the Dexter killer. I loved Dexter, he was an antihero, this clown is only compared to him because he wanted to glorify himself in a journal, kind of how the Dexter novels and TV series are narrated. Dexter takes out other killers though, not luring men to be killed and dismembered with internet love interests. The guy was a loser. I love pop culture and I will applaude anyone brave enough to follow their dreams and try to contribute to it like he Mark did with his films BUT he was a loser. If you don't know the whole story he lured a guy on Plenty of Fish to a garage he was renting. Tried to attack him in a Jason mask but the man got away. Why this guy didn't go to police I dunno. Also why you would agree to meet someone in a garage for a date? Whatever. Second attack was the same idea but he was successful. Then tried to use the victim Mr. John Altingers email and social media to say he went on a trip.... Not sure why he would think that would have worked. Concerned friends had the police look into Johnnys disappearance and Mark came up as a suspect right away. His lies feel apart and he confessed. Supposedly his tough guy act vanished and he became jelly. The fact he was trying to journal all this and the police found it in minutes make me think maybe he was dropped on his head as a child. To me this is a thrill killer, not a serial killer. It wasn't some need he was fulfilling he was simply thinking he was smart enough to get away with it. Seriously he wasn't. I guess thats a good thing though because he didn't rack up a body count like he seemed to think he would. Anyone else excited the real Dexter is returning to TV? Maybe they will write out that awful last episode.....

Have you ever heard of Roy DeMeo? The murder machine? If you are into true crime or the mafia that might be something to look up it is pretty crazy. A SAFE but likely low number is 150 people murdered over roughly a decade. That's at least a person a month. They got away with it for SO long because the fact was most the bodies vanished. Another fact was they were a crew of car thieves. Sound like any Canadian on the podcast? Dellen Mallard, sounds like the "lite" version of Roy. He tried to make $ stealing cars and though he could vanish people... Except he utterly failed. Who the fuck, takes a private sale truck for a drive and kills the owner? MAYBE if Tim Bosma didn't have family and neighbors that saw him leave with Dellen and Mark but to do it after people literally saw them??? Worst murder crew ever. I will give them making a giant human burn barrel MAY have worked if it hadn't been so obvious! You really want to commit crimes like that DONT involve others, don't let people see what your building. Also Mark Smich wow what the fuck is that? Marshal Bruce Mathers III rapped violent and fairly disturbing images of his wife murdered on his first 2 albums. He went on to become one of the highest selling musicians of all time. Smich tried to rap about a murder that he actually committed, it sucked. But it made me chuckle when it was played on the podcast. But that is getting off track. Dellen wanted to be Roy in my eyes. He tried to put a crew together of car thieves and drug dealers. He figured he could run it? I dunno why. He came from a wealthy family and was given every chance to run that but figured he would be a better gangster. Getting caught for Bosmas murder opened a whole can of worms.... See Dellens father had committed suicide the prior year by shooting himself in the eye. Reopening that case after Dellen was charge with Bosmas murder made the police look harder an it turned out Dellen had shot his father in the eye. Also they looked into the disappearance of an ex of Dellens Laura Babcock. Between Smich rapping about it and other facts they were convicted of that murder as well. It is literally a long episode on Canadas dumbest criminals. The crazy thing though is how people get away for awhile. Once it all unraveled it seems so basic but for awhile, not getting caught I am sure these guys thought they were criminal masterminds. Also I don't fully understand how Millards girlfriend and mother were never charged with anything when they clearly tried to help them clean up the crimes..... 

The episode on Kirk Morin I also found interesting from a couple of sides. First off the mental health side. Lisa Miel clearly has very deep mental health issues. Do we hold these people to the same standard as someone like Mom Boucher? Or Paul Bernardo? They commit  the same crimes but do they have the same coldness and murder in their mind? Second is the victim. They are always just amazing people. (I am not trying to offend here) If it is a gangbanger, drug dealer whatever they were always on the cusp of turning their lives around and were just a great person. In this case he was drunk driving and soliciting sex? Or that is what is alleged. To me that is maybe not the outstanding pillar of society as described. I don't know a lot of grandfathers out doing that. DOES that mean he got what he had coming? NO I am not saying that and DONT get it twisted, what happened was awful but that is where my brain goes. I am not going to do the whole Brentwood 5, but it is well worth a listen as well. It is another one though that goes deep into mental health and how to deal with people afflicted by issues that commit truly awful crimes. That's another thing, what do we do for people trying to use this defense? I am going to say it is legit in some cases but what about others, how do we figure who is actually sick and who are trying to hide behind it?

Another case that held me was the disappearance of Lyle and Marie McCann, two reasons on this one. First it is so local. I live in St. Albert and I listen to the episode walking my dog around St. Albert. Not only that, most of the places that come up are in my sales "territory". The shady characters in this story surprised me some. We don't typically think of these tiny friendly towns as being full of sinister characters, but they are. Drugs and crime don't just live in the major centers they are all over. I have a real hard time with this case, I think Vader did it. You watch the news and it really seems like he did and the arrogance you saw from him is mind blowing BUT when you hear all the facts, it casts SOME doubt. Not a lot but a bit. If Vader didn't out and out do it he knows who did. 

Actually I got into the true crime podcast because it had an episode on something that has fascinated me for years. The slaughter of the Donnelly family in Ontario a hundred years ago. I was camping with my grandparents for summer holidays and bought a book on this case. This one is crazy, a family comes from Ireland and brings bad blood here. Squat on land, end up murdering the legit owner. The father dressing like a woman to hide for a while. Being caught, tried, jailed, serving time and then coming home again. That's just the father. 8 children they had 7 boys and a girl. All 7 boys were allegedly well known to the police. The facts are simple but distorted. While the "Black" Donnelly's did butt heads with seemingly everyone, they were also constantly blamed for anything that went wrong. A vigilance committee was made and they attacked the parents farmhouse, they however were not brave enough to do this until they were drunk. They massacred 4 Donnellys, the parents, one son and a cousin. They didn't realize a family friend was also in the house and saw the whole thing. Then they proceeded to another sons house, murdered his horse hoping the animals cries would wake him. It didn't. However another brother did open the door and was ripped apart by bullets'. Realizing the people inside were awake the mob left. 2 trials for the murders. First ending in a hung jury and the next not guilty even though the testimony was allegedly amazing from eye witnesses. It was reported that the Donnelly men were very intelligent and well spoken. The mob described as backwoodsy and rather dim. Some going as far as to claim it was jealousy that inspired the mob...... It is a very dark mark in Canadian history, for people who think we have boring history there is lots out we just do talk about.

A mind blowing episode is Russell Williams. Without a doubt it shows you never, EVER really know your neighbors. Here is a well educated man who became Wing Commander at a major Canadian base and had even ben the pilot for dignitaries from the Queen to the Prime Minister. In his spare time he is breaking and entering home for perverted fantasies. If you watch any crime TV they are always worried about the offender getting worse, Russ sure does. Growing into sexual assaults' and murder. Overall this story isn't that shocking. Just another sicko out doing sick things what truly is shocking about it is who he was. He was able to hide this so well. Master criminal no, when he evolved into a killer he was sloppy and dumb. (Which is good, easier to catch) Just crazy how long and undetected until he confessed that he got away with his shit.

Starlight tours was another insane one. It's a bit different as there isn't a single bad guy to point fingers at but likely a few, along with some false accusations. As far back as 1976 officers of Saskatoon Police had been taking Native males outside the city on freezing nights and dropping them off to walk home in conditions that could easily lead to death. At least 3 men did die. It may not have even been discovered had Darrel Night not managed to survive. Or at least not gotten attention as rumors had supposedly been swirling about it for years. The flipside is at least 2 others have come forward making the same claims and have been proven as liars. This whole case is an absolute mess. As of now charges related to this case have been brought forward but no one has actually been charged in the freezing deaths. The thing I like is this episode brings forward issues with policing. I have dealt with a couple real dick city cops. Usually arrogant young men with a uniform, a badge and a gun. HOWEVER never had to deal with brutality like that. Flip side is I have met some really great city cops as well and I will stand behind them even with some bad apples. I will say I have always had fair dealings with the RCMP and I wonder if their extra time and training is the difference?

I very vaguely recall the Abottsford rapist. I was still in highschool back then so true crime wasn't something I was big on. (Well I had a mob obsession) This guy though, glad he is a dangerous offender status freak. Murder, sexual assaults thats gruesome enough. But then to claim you came across and injured teen girl. Raped her and drowned her or disposed of her body because you thought she was dead but didn't kill her??? That statement alone is super fucked. Then he goes on to taunt police. The crimes are evil and should put him away forever but playing games should be the nail in the coffin of EVER seeing the light of day again. You know he cannot be reformed. He as with a few of these guys I would be fine with the death penalty. That however is another blog for another time.

Another case I never heard about but really caught my attention was Daniel Levesque. This case is really sad, maybe another one that hits home because if I am honest with myself I was like this kid. He seemed very nice and sadly very naive when he moved to the big city. In my case the niceness is debatable but I know I was naive. Josh Bredo was a con man who used this and murdered this kid. It isn't a big sensational case but you can see Bredo was a sociopath who had manipulated people all his life. There is no words other than scumbag for this guy.....

I could go on FOREVER with the cases here. There are so many good ones, some I have heard many that are brand new. This is a great podcast Canadian True Crime. Check it out if your Canadian or if you just like true crime Pods. NOW I have to be honest I have 1 more half done blog that I MAY post or work on. But for really reals I may have to not write here for a couple months. Well maybe I will have a few but not a ton. Need to focus on school and other things. 

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