Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Episode

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  I Don't Know Why: Phil Hartman’s Murder 03.08.2026 1j 11mnt

  Episode 430: On the morning of May 28, 1998, police were called to a home on Encino Avenue in Encino, California. Inside the master bedroom, they found Phil Hartman — one of the most versatile performers in the history of North American television — shot three times at close range while he slept. His wife, Brynn, had pulled the trigger sometime around 2:30 in the morning, then driven to a friend's house and confessed. By the time police arrived, she was back in the bedroom. She never came out. Phil Hartman was 49 years old and born in Brantford, Ontario. He had just wrapped his fourth season of NewsRadio. He had a film opening in July. Behind the public face of a thriving career was a marriage under years of sustained pressure — addiction, relapse, escalating volatility, and a final argument that ended in the worst possible way. The motive was listed as unknown. It remains unknown. Sources: Los Angeles County Coroner Case Report, Investigator's Report, Autopsy Report & Toxicology — Case No. 98-03785 Hartman's Death: The Police Version — Time, June 3, 1998 Reaction & Sanctions — NPR, May 28, 1998 Disturbing Details Found In Phil Hartman's Autopsy Report — Grunge, 2024 The Last Days of Phil Hartman — ABC News / 20/20, 2019 Phil Hartman — People Magazine, 1998 Jon Lovitz Blames Andy Dick for Hartman's Death — CBS News, 2007 Phil Hartman Wrongful Death Lawsuit / Zoloft — Salon, 1999 Birgen Hartman on her father's Simpsons legacy — The Hollywood Reporter, 2022 Brantford to honour Phil Hartman with mural — CBC News, 2024 Phil Hartman — Canada's Walk of Fame Phil Hartman — Brantford Walk of Fame You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman — Mike Thomas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Part 2 — Justice Prolonged: The Murder of Christine Jessop 27.07.2026 1j 4mnt

  Episode 429: In January 1995, DNA testing excluded Guy Paul Morin, the man convicted of the 1984 murder of Christine Jessop, from the crime. The Ontario Court of Appeal set aside his conviction, and Morin was released. The man whose semen was recovered from Christine Jessop's underwear in 1984 remained unidentified. A public inquiry led by Justice Fred Kaufman spent 10 months examining how an innocent man had been convicted twice. It produced 1,380 pages and 119 recommendations. The real killer remained unnamed for another twenty-five years — until a detective named Steve Smith, a Texas laboratory, and a forensic genealogist pulled a family tree apart and found a killer at the end of it. Sources Report of the Kaufman Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin — Full text (netk.net.au) The Canadian Encyclopedia — Guy Paul Morin Case Innocence Canada — Guy Paul Morin case file Toronto Life — "Inside the Hunt for Christine Jessop's Real Killer" (January 2022) CBC News — "Toronto police identify killer in cold case of 9-year-old Christine Jessop" (October 15, 2020) CBC News — "Calvin Hoover's family 'devastated' to learn police believe he killed Christine Jessop" (October 22, 2020) CBC News — "The answer to the mystery of Christine Jessop's murder leaves killer's ex-wife with painful questions" (February 2021) CBC News — "The science behind why police now believe they have the right suspect in Christine Jessop's murder" (October 2020) Global News — "Who was Calvin Hoover? The man Toronto police say killed 9-year-old Christine Jessop in 1984" (October 2020) Blue Line Magazine — "Out of the Cold: Toronto Police Solve 1984 Jessop Murder With New Science" (January 2021) RCMP — National DNA Data Bank of Canada: 20 Years and Growing Game of Crimes Podcast — "Detective Steve Smith Cracks a 36-Year Old Cold Case" (March 2022) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Part 1 — Justice Prolonged: The Murder of Christine Jessop 20.07.2026 1j 5mnt

  Episode 428: On October 3, 1984, nine-year-old Christine Jessop stepped off a school bus in Queensville, Ontario, and walked toward home. She was never seen alive again. Her body was found on New Year's Eve, fifty-six kilometres away. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. What followed was one of the most consequential criminal proceedings in Canadian history — and the quiet destruction of a man who lived next door. This is Part One of a two-part series. Sources: Kirk Makin, Redrum the Innocent (1992) — Viking Canada. Report of the Kaufman Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin — Full text (netk.net.au) The Canadian Encyclopedia — Guy Paul Morin Case Innocence Canada — Guy Paul Morin case file Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions — Guy Paul Morin Library of Parliament — Wrongful Convictions in Canada (2020) Bruce MacFarlane — "Wrongful Convictions: The Effect of Tunnel Vision and Predisposing Circumstances in the Criminal Justice System" (2006) Federal Prosecution Service — Chapter 5: Jailhouse Informers Federal Prosecution Service — Chapter 8: DNA Evidence The Canadian Encyclopedia — Morin Inquiry Report Kaufman Report — Wikipedia summary Globe and Mail — "Morin Informant Named Dangerous Offender" (2007) CBC Digital Archives — Guy Paul Morin acquitted Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation Williams Treaties — Government of Canada Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Three-Fingered Abe: The Kidnapping of John S. Labatt 13.07.2026 1j 5mnt

  Episode 427: In the summer of 1934, John Sackville Labatt was one of the most recognizable names in Canada. The fifty-three-year-old president of John Labatt Limited had spent nearly two decades running one of the country's largest and oldest breweries, a family business built across three generations and tested by Prohibition, the Depression, and the rum-running trade that kept it alive through both. On the morning of August 14, he left his Lake Huron summer home running late for a meeting and took a shortcut through the forest on a little-used dirt road outside Sarnia. What happened on that road set off the largest manhunt in Canadian history, triggered Canada's first kidnapping trial, and sent an innocent man to prison for a crime he had nothing to do with. Sources:John Sackville Labatt | The Canadian EncyclopediaJohn Labatt’s 1934 kidnap | The StarJohn Sackville Labatt | WikipediaLabatt Brewing Company | WikipediaProhibition in Canada | WikipediaLabatt Brewing | Company SiteLambton County's Infamous Abduction: The John S. Labatt Kidnapping - ArchivedLambton County's Infamous Abduction: The John S. Labatt Kidnapping - NewSnatched! by Susan Goldenberg - Ebook | ScribdThe Courier-News • Fri, Aug 17, 1934 • Page 10 • (Bridgewater, New Jersey)The Courier-News • Fri, Aug 17, 1934 • Page 1 • (Bridgewater, New Jersey)The Windsor Star • Fri, Aug 17, 1934 • Page 1 • (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)The Windsor Star • Sat, Sep 08, 1934 • Page 9 • (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)The Windsor Star • Sat, Feb 01, 1936 • Page 11 • (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)The Hamilton Spectator • Tue, Sep 11, 1906 • Page 9 • (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)The Molsons, The Labatts and The St.Johns | StJohnsWort.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Wildfire: The Day Lytton Burned 06.07.2026 1j 9mnt

  Episode 426: On June 29th, 2021, Lytton, British Columbia, recorded the highest air temperature in Canadian history: 49.6 degrees Celsius. The next day, the town burned to the ground in under two hours, killing two people and destroying more than 150 homes and businesses across the Village of Lytton and the neighbouring Lytton First Nation reserves. Nearly four years later, the cause of the fire remains officially undetermined, the recovery has become its own bureaucratic disaster, and a class-action lawsuit against Canada's two largest railways is still working its way through the BC Supreme Court. This episode tells the story of the heat, the fire, the two people who didn't make it out, and the years-long collapse of the rebuild that followed. Later in the episode, Mike sits down with Tim Conrad of Butterfly Effect Communications to talk crisis communications — what the first hours of a disaster like Lytton demand, and what it takes to keep a fractured, grieving community informed years into a recovery that never seems to end. Sources: An Examination of the Lytton, British Columbia Wildland-Urban Fire Destruction Provincial Support for the Village of Lytton's Wildfire Recovery Lytton Wildfire | Wikipedia B.C. Man Says He Watched in Horror as Lytton Wildfire Claimed the Lives of His Parents | CBC News BC Coroners Service Confirms 2 Deaths in Lytton Wildfire | CBC News Man Who Lost His Parents in Lytton, B.C., Fire Wants to Go Home | CTV News RCMP Investigation Unable to Determine Cause of 2021 Wildfire That Destroyed Most of Lytton, B.C. | CBC News Track Cleared for Class-Action Suit 4.5 Years After Wildfire Swallows Most of Lytton | Williams Lake Tribune Remembering Lytton, the Town Wiped Out by Wildfire | The Walrus ⠀Guest: Butterfly Effect Communications Company Website Wildfires, Floods, and Chaos Communications Tim’s Podcast Inside an Emergency Operations Centre | Butterfly Effect Communications Video Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Lives On Display: The Dionne Quintuplets 29.06.2026 1j

  Episode 425: In May 1934, five identical girls were born in a farmhouse outside Corbeil, Ontario. They were the first quintuplets known to survive infancy anywhere in the world. Within weeks, the Province of Ontario had taken them from their parents. What followed was nine years inside a government-run compound called Quintland, where millions of tourists paid to watch the Dionne sisters play through one-way glass, twice a day, while their faces sold soap, cereal, and corn syrup across North America. The girls went home in 1943. The horror of what happened next took decades to come to light. Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia — Dionne Quintuplets | (Canadian Encyclopedia) Dionne Quintuplets: The Miracle Babies | (Canadian Encyclopedia) Dionne quintuplets | (Wikipedia) Dionne quintuplets | Deaths, Parents, Names, & Facts | (Britannica) The Birth of the Dionne Quintuplets | (Government of Canada) The Dionne Quintuplets National Historic Event | (Parks Canada) Dionne Quintuplets (1934—) | (Encyclopedia.com) Dionne Quintuplets (b. 1934) | (Encyclopedia.com) The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets by Sarah Miller (Scholastic Focus, 2017) | (Book) We Were Five: The Dionne Quintuplets' Story from Birth through Girlhood to Womanhood by James Brough with Annette, Cécile, Marie, and Yvonne Dionne (1965) | (Book) Family Secrets: The Dionne Quintuplets' Own Story by Jean-Yves Soucy with Annette, Cécile, and Yvonne Dionne (1997) | (Book) The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama by Pierre Berton (1977) | (Book) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Unnatural Selection — The Alberta Eugenics Act 22.06.2026 1j 2mnt

  Episode 424: Between 1928 and 1972, the Alberta government authorized the forced sterilization of nearly 3,000 Albertans deemed "unfit" to reproduce. They were told they were having their appendix removed. Many were children. Most had no idea what was being done to them. The targets were the poor, the mentally ill, Indigenous people, immigrants — anyone who didn't fit the province's vision of a productive society. This wasn't a fringe movement. It was backed by doctors, politicians, newspapers, and some of the most celebrated figures in Canadian history. Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia — Eugenics History of Rights Canada — Eugenics Prairie History Journal, University of Alberta Gladue / University of Saskatchewan — Eugenics Resource Eugenics Archive Canada — Timeline Eugenics Archive Canada — Our Stories City Museum Edmonton — Leilani Muir and Eugenics in Alberta National Post — When Canada Lost Its Mind Over Eugenics CBC News — Leilani Muir, Advocate for Alberta's Sterilization Victims, Dies CBC News — Cash Settlement for Sterilized Women (BC) Alberta Law Review — Mikkel Dack Toronto Sun — The Controversial Beliefs of Canada's Famous Five Wired — CRISPR Babies and Human Genome Editing Scientific American — The Dark Side of CRISPR NFB — The Sterilization of Leilani Muir The Guardian — What Is Pronatalism? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  The Murder of Francis Rattenbury: The Man Who Built B.C. 15.06.2026 1j 3mnt

  Episode 423: Francis Mawson Rattenbury designed the BC Parliament Buildings, the Empress Hotel, and the building that now houses the Vancouver Art Gallery, as well as many others. He was the most celebrated architect in the province for thirty years. In 1935, he was beaten to death in his armchair in a rented house in Bournemouth, England, by his wife Alma’s teenage lover, a chauffeur named George Percy Stoner. Both Alma Rattenbury and Stoner confessed. The trial at the Old Bailey gripped the English-speaking world. What happened after the trial was even more shocking than the murder. Sources:Sean O'Connor, The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury (Simon & Schuster, 2019)Anthony A. Barrett & Rhodri Windsor Liscombe, Francis Rattenbury and British Columbia: Architecture and Challenge in the Imperial Age (UBC Press, 1983)Terry Reksten, Rattenbury (Sono Nis Press, 1978; revised 1998)Francis Mawson Rattenbury — Dictionary of Canadian BiographyFrancis Rattenbury — Biographical Dictionary of Architects in CanadaFrancis Rattenbury — WikipediaAlma Rattenbury — WikipediaNewspapers.com | Search: Francis Rattenbury Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  The Hogg’s Hollow Tunnel Disaster 08.06.2026 1j 9mnt

  Episode 422: On St. Patrick's Day, 1960, five Italian immigrant construction workers — Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Carriglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and brothers Alessandro and Guido Mantella — died beneath the Don River in Toronto's Hogg's Hollow neighbourhood. They were trapped in a tunnel less than two metres wide with no fire extinguishers, no hard hats, and no way out. The fire was preventable. The violations were known. A foreman had been fired for raising them. No one was ever charged. This is the story of five men whose names were nearly forgotten — and the laws that exist today because they died. Sources:The history of the Hoggs Hollow neighbourhood in TorontoThe Hoggs Hollow Disaster | definingmomentscanada.caThe Hogg’s Hollow Disaster | Canadian Labour CongressHogg's Hollow Disaster National Historic EventHoggs Hollow | cobtrades.comRemembering the Hoggs Hollow disaster | spacing.caDisaster at Hogg’s Hollow | jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.comThe Hogg’s Hollow Disaster | unionsong.comBreaking Ground The Hogg's Hollow Memorial 40 th Anniversary Project | costi.orgHogg's Hollow Tragedy (1960) | Toronto Workers' History ProjectBASTA! NO MORE FEAR! Remembering the Hoggs Hollow Disaster of 1960The Hogg’s Hollow Disaster of 1960 | dresden1957.comHoggs Hollow Disaster | wikipediahttps://www.newspapers.com/image/1001301968/?match=1&terms=%22Hogg%27s%20Hollow%22%20tunnelhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/950111466/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/1324439704/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/1227727450/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/1226718453/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/941541607/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/941541580/?match=1&terms=%22Hogg%27s%20Hollow%22%20tunnel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Ripoffs and a Rolex: The Murder of Ronald Joseph Platt 01.06.2026 59mnt

  Episode 421: On July 28, 1996, a fisherman hauling nets off the coast of Devon, England pulled up a body. The dead man had no wallet, no identification — nothing but a Rolex watch still ticking on his wrist. When British police traced the watch, it gave them a name: Ronald Joseph Platt, 51, of Essex. When they went looking for him, they found him — apparently alive. The trail led back across the Atlantic to Ayr, a small town in southwestern Ontario, where roughly seventy people had spent years trusting the wrong man with everything they had. By the time anyone understood what he'd done, he was already gone, and Ronald Platt was dead in the English Channel. Sources:Walker, Re, 1998 CanLII 14906 (ON SC)A Hand in the Water: The Many Lies of Albert Walker — Bill Schiller (HarperCollins, 1998)Nothing Sacred: The Many Lives and Betrayals of Albert Walker — Alan Cairns (McClelland-Bantam, 1998)Walker's Trail of Pain — Maclean's (July 6, 1998)Walker Money Hunt — Maclean's (July 20, 1998)Walker Faces Daughter at First Day of Trial — CBC News (June 1998)Mysterious Mr. Walker Sentenced for Fraud — The Globe and Mail (July 2007)Fugitive Financier Sentenced to Four Years for Fraud — CBC News (July 2007)Rolex Killer Denied Day Parole from B.C. Prison — Vancouver Sun (February 2024)Albert Johnson Walker — WikipediaThe Rolex Murder — therolexmurder.com (Elaine Boyes's site)The Rolex Killer - True CrimeExplore topics about albert-johnson-walker | Crime and Investigation UK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Every Dog Has Its Day : The Case of Valentine Shortis 25.05.2026 1j 8mnt

  Episode 420: On the night of March 1st, 1895, in the paymaster's office of the Montreal Cotton Company in Valleyfield, Quebec, a twenty-year-old Irish immigrant named Francis Valentine Cuthbert Shortis shot three men — killing two of them and leaving the third for dead in the darkness of the mill floor. What followed was the longest murder trial in Canadian history, a psychiatric battle that divided the country's leading medical minds, and a political crisis that reached the cabinet of Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell and the desk of the Governor General himself. The victims were John Loy, twenty-four years old, and night watchman Maxime Leboeuf, who left behind a widow and five children. The survivor was Hugh Wilson, who carried the consequences for the rest of his life. Sources:Valentine Shortis Case | thecanadianencyclopedia.caThe Queen vs. F.V.C. Shortis (microform)| Internet ArchiveThe Case of Valentine Shortis — University of Toronto Press / Amazon.caValentine Shortis Case — The Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian Trial of the Century: The Story of 'Cracked Shortis' — History IrelandThe Case of Valentine Shortis — Yesterday and Today — PubMedForensic Psychiatry in Canada — Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the LawMontreal Gazette Trial Coverage, October 25, 1895 — Newspapers.comProfile: Author-Professor Martin Friedland — Bill Gladstone GenealogyMontreal Cotton Company — History of the Mill at Valleyfield — MUSO Virtual MuseumManitoba Schools Question — Dictionary of Canadian BiographyMontreal Cotton Company Mills — Library and Archives CanadaSir Donald Macmaster, Crown Prosecutor — WikipediaJ.N. Greenshields, Lead Defence Counsel — Americana AristocracyHenri St. Pierre, Defence Counsel — 76th New York State Volunteers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  The 2017 Las Vegas Shooting: Canadian Connections 18.05.2026 52mnt

  Episode 419: On the night of October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on more than 22,000 concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. In eleven minutes, 58 people were killed and hundreds more wounded — the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in American history. Among the dead were four Canadians: Jordan McIldoon, 23, of Maple Ridge, British Columbia; Jessica Klymchuk, 34, a mother of four and beloved school librarian and bus driver from Valleyview, Alberta; Calla Medig, 28, of Jasper, Alberta, days away from a promotion she had earned; and Tara Roe Smith, 34, of Okotoks, Alberta, who became separated from her husband in the chaos — her family spending the next day searching. At least six more Canadians were wounded. Hundreds of others came home carrying something that doesn't show up in any injury count. Sources:LVMPD Criminal Investigative Report — October 1, 2017LVMPD Final Force Investigation Team Report (Internet Archive)FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit — Key Findings, Las Vegas Review Panel (2019)CSIS Public Report 2025 — Nihilistic Violent ExtremismWhat is Nihilistic Violent Extremism? — Global NewsJordan McIldoon — CBC NewsJessica Klymchuk — CBC NewsCalla Medig — CBC NewsTara Roe Smith — CBC News Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Air Canada Flight 797: The Death of Stan Rogers 11.05.2026 53mnt

  On June 2nd, 1983, Air Canada Flight 797 departed Dallas, Texas, bound for Montreal, Quebec, with a stop in Toronto. Forty-one passengers and five crew were on board. Shortly before 7 pm Eastern time, a fire broke out inside the rear lavatory wall and burned, hidden and undetected, for nearly fifteen minutes before anyone smelled smoke. The crew declared an emergency and landed safely at Greater Cincinnati International Airport in Covington, Kentucky. The airplane touched down intact. Sixty to ninety seconds after the cabin doors opened, a flashfire rolled through the interior. Twenty-three passengers did not get out.Among the dead was Stan Rogers, folk musician, husband, father, born in Hamilton, Ontario. He was thirty-three years old, returning home after performing at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. The investigation that followed reshaped aviation safety standards worldwide. Sources:Air Canada Flight 797Aviation Safety Network | Transcript of Air Canada Flight 797 - 02 JUN 1983Stan Rogers | SpotifyFogarty's Cove MusicStan Rogers Folk FestivalStan Rogers intros & sings "Barrett's Privateers" in One Warm Line documentary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Murder Behind Vinyl: The Tragic Death of Lukas Strasser-Hird 04.05.2026 52mnt

  Episode 417: In the early hours of November 23, 2013, 18-year-old Lukas Strasser-Hird was violently beaten behind the Vinyl nightclub in Calgary, in an alley off 10th Avenue Southwest. He was rushed to the hospital, but the injuries were too severe, and he died later that morning from multiple stab wounds and massive blood loss. Walk with us through the events that led from a night out at the club to one of Calgary’s most closely watched murder cases, and examine how the chaos in that alley would ripple through the city, the courtroom, and the lives left behind. Sources: Lukas Strasser-Hird | Global News, Videos & ArticlesR.I.P Austin Lukas Strasser-Hird | FacebookR v Cabrera, 2019 ABCA 184 (CanLII)R v Cabrera, 2021 ABCA 291 (CanLII)R v Gervais, 2019 ABQB 344 (CanLII)R. v. Shlah, 2019 SCC 56 (CanLII), [2019] 4 SCR 136FM010_Appellant_Franz-Emir-Cabrera SCC File No.: 38677Lukas Strasser-Hird - Obituary | Calgary HeraldThe final homecoming of Lukas Strasser-Hird - National | Global News1st-degree murder conviction upheld for Calgary man in swarming death - CalgaryNathan Gervais sentenced to life with no parole for 25 years in Lukas Strasser-Hird swarming death - Calgary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Matthew Baillie Begbie — The Hanging Judge 27.04.2026 1j 8mnt

  Episode 416: Matthew Baillie Begbie (1819–1894) served as the first judge of mainland British Columbia during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, arriving in 1858 as the colony struggled to impose order across a fast-growing and often violent region. Known to many as the “Hanging Judge,” Begbie presided over cases from Yale to Barkerville, travelling long distances to hold court in mining towns and settlements. His legacy remains contested: some describe him as a firm and capable judge working within the limits of colonial law, while others point to cases like the 1864 trials and executions of six Tsilhqot’in men following the Chilcotin War as evidence of a system that failed Indigenous people. Here, we examine Begbie’s life, his rulings, and the lasting impact of his role in shaping justice in British Columbia. Sources: Heritage - Tŝilhqot’in National GovernmentPrime Minister delivers a statement of exoneration for six Tsilhqot’in ChiefsChilcotin Hangings of 1864: Canada’s Colonial InjusticeB.C. redresses wrongful hangings of Tsilhqot'in war chiefsEssays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume VI: British Columbia and the Yukon - Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal HistoryBEGBIE, Sir MATTHEW BAILLIE – Dictionary of Canadian BiographyParks Canada - Begbie, Sir Matthew Baillie National Historic PersonJudge Begbie Hangs Chiefs - British Columbia - An Untold HistorySir Matthew Baillie Begbie | GraveMemoirs and Documents Relating to Judge Begbiehttps://www.lillooet.ca/sir-matthew-baillie-begbieJustin Trudeau exonerates Tsilhqot’in chiefs hanged in 1864 ‘Chilcotin War’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  The Legend of the Thunderbird 20.04.2026 1j

  Episode 415: For generations, people across North America have reported seeing enormous birds, describing wingspans that seem impossible and encounters they struggle to explain. Long before those reports were written, the Thunderbird was already known in many Indigenous cultures, where it is understood as a powerful and sacred being associated with thunder, lightning, and the forces that shape the natural world. For some, it is symbolic. For others, it is real. These are living traditions that deserve care and respect. Sources: The Thunderbird Indigenous SymbolThunderbird (mythology) | WikipediaJun 13, 1927, page 24 - The Boston Globe at Newspapers.com™Aug 06, 1933, page 45 - The Sunday Oregonian at Newspapers.com™Aug 20, 1933, page 3 - The Ogden Standard-Examiner at Newspapers.com™Tombstone epitaph (Tombstone, Ariz.), April 26, 1890 | Library of CongressLegend or Lie? The Tombstone Thunderbird | kgun9.comr/Cryptozoology | What about Thunderbird?r/Cryptozoology | Thunderbird sighting?Thunderbird — A Canadian Legend | Mysteries of CanadaThunderbird Stories from the Canadian Shield | Mysteries of CanadaLarge-bodied birds are over-represented in unstructured citizen science data - Scientific ReportsThunderbird | CryptidWikiWhy Giant Bird Sightings Still Appear TodayPROOF of the Tombstone Thunderbird - Forgotten History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Redo and Update: The Monster of Miramichi 13.04.2026 1j

  Episode 414: In the fall of 1989, the Miramichi region of New Brunswick became a place of unimaginable terror as escaped killer Allan Legere, the Monster of the Miramichi, unleashed a seven-month rampage of sexual assault, arson, and murder. He beat to death beloved store owner Annie Flam, strangled and burned sisters Donna and Linda Daughney in their home, and tortured and killed Father James Smith in his rectory, crimes on top of his earlier conviction for murdering shopkeeper John Glendenning during a savage home invasion. We covered Legere in episodes 18 and 19 in the pre-Mathew days. But now, with his death in a maximum-security prison at age 78 on March 9, 2026, it’s time to remember the horrific crimes, the victims and the community that endured him. Sources: Serial Killer, Allan Joseph LEGERE - AKA The Monster of the MiramichiLaw Library | Our Unique Digital Collections | Allan Legere | UNBDeath of an inmate from Edmonton Institution | Corrections CanadaLEGERE, Allan Joseph | Serial Dispatches18: Allan Legere – Monster of Miramichi – Part 1 (NB) – Dark Poutine19: Allan Legere – Monster of Miramichi – Part 2 (NB) – Dark PoutineAllan Legere Voir Dire July 1991R. v. Legere (A.J.) (1994), 156 N.B.R.(2d) 321 (CA);Rick MacLean & André Veniot — Terror: Murder and Panic in New Brunswick (McClelland & Stewart, 1990) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Indefensible: The Murder of Dr. Mohd Abdullah 06.04.2026 55mnt

  Episode 413: On the afternoon of March 11, 2022, Dr. Mohd Abdullah left work at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, that afternoon for a meeting with his lawyer. It was supposed to be a discussion about money, hundreds of thousands of dollars that Abdullah believed his lawyer had mishandled... He never returned. Sources: R. v Bagabuyo, 2026 BCSC 327 (CanLII)Mohd Abdullah Obituary - Kamloops, BCMohd Abdullah | News, Videos & ArticlesMohd Abdullah at Thompson Rivers UniversityNearly 60 pieces of evidence entered at trial of B.C. lawyer accused of murdering his client | RCIKamloops lawyer accused of murder granted bailMurdered TRU faculty member remembered as quiet, kind manMeticulous timeline built from receipts, GPS data and security footage sealed fate of killer Kamloops lawyerVideo surveillance clips show Kamloops lawyer's movements before, after alleged murderFormer B.C. lawyer found guilty of 1st-degree murder after killing his client in 2022 | CBC News Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Road Trip: Los Satanicos — The Murder of Mark Kilroy 30.03.2026 58mnt

  Episode 412: In March 1989, 21-year-old University of Texas pre-med student Mark Kilroy travelled to South Padre Island with friends for spring break. One night, they crossed the international bridge from Brownsville, Texas, into Matamoros, Mexico, for drinks and a night out. In the early hours of March 13, as the group headed back toward the United States, Mark was briefly left standing alone near the roadside. When his friends turned back moments later, he had vanished. At first, they assumed they had simply become separated in the crowds, but Mark never returned. His disappearance triggered an urgent search on both sides of the border that would soon uncover something far more disturbing than anyone imagined, a discovery that exposed a hidden world of violence and horror behind one young man’s spring break trip. The Work of the Devil | Texas MonthlyCult commits murder at Rancho Santa Elena | March 14, 1989 | HISTORY"Spring Break Murders" Mark Kilroy (TV Episode 2025) | IMDbMark Kilroy Murder - Arrests (1989) - KPRC-TV CollectionThe Believers: Cult Murders in MexicoMurder, Madness & Mayhem by Mike BrowneKidnap, murder, ritual sacrifice | University PressMurder of Mark Kilroy | WikipediaMark Kilroy Foundation, Santa Fe, TexasMark James Kilroy (1968 - 1989) - Find A Grave MemorialMemory Mark Kilroy | YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  The Niagara Murder: The Tragic Death of Frederick C. Benwell 23.03.2026 55mnt

  Episode 411: In February 1890, the body of 24-year-old Englishman Frederick Cornwallis Benwell was found in a shallow grave near Lundy’s Lane, just outside Niagara Falls, Ontario. Benwell had travelled to Canada after corresponding with John Reginald Birchall, aka Lord Frederick A. Somerset, a fellow Englishman who advertised opportunities for young men seeking work and advancement overseas. Within days of Benwell’s disappearance, suspicion fell on Birchall, who was arrested in Buffalo, New York, and returned to Canada to stand trial. What followed was one of the most closely watched murder cases in late 19th-century Ontario. Sources: The Swamp of death, or, The Benwell murder by Oliver Wendell Holmes | Canadiana.caCatalog Record: The Swamp of death, or, The Benwell murder | HathiTrust Digital LibraryNewspapers.com | Search: John Reginald Birchallhttps://www.themeister.co.uk/birchall/birchall_reginald.pdfBIRCHALL, REGINALD (Lord Frederick A. Somerset) – Dictionary of Canadian BiographyFrederick Cornwallis Benwell (1865-1890) - Find a...John Reginald Birchall (1866-1890)Murder as a Fine Art by Alan BlythewayThe Trial of Reginald BirchallJohn Reginald Birchall | The Canadian Encyclopedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices