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 Government
Prime Minister delivers a statement of exoneration for six Tsilhqot’in Chiefs
Chilcotin Hangings of 1864: Canada’s Colonial Injustice
B.C. redresses wrongful hangings of Tsilhqot'in war chiefs
Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume VI: British Columbia and the Yukon - Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
BEGBIE, Sir MATTHEW BAILLIE – Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Parks Canada - Begbie, Sir Matthew Baillie National Historic Person
Judge Begbie Hangs Chiefs - British Columbia - An Untold History
Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie | Grave
Memoirs and Documents Relating to Judge Begbie
https://www.lillooet.ca/sir-matthew-baillie-begbie
Justin Trudeau exonerates Tsilhqot’in chiefs hanged in 1864 ‘Chilcotin War’

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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 Symbol
Thunderbird (mythology) | Wikipedia
Jun 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 Congress
Legend or Lie? The Tombstone Thunderbird | kgun9.com
r/Cryptozoology | What about Thunderbird?
r/Cryptozoology | Thunderbird sighting?
Thunderbird — A Canadian Legend | Mysteries of Canada
Thunderbird Stories from the Canadian Shield | Mysteries of Canada
Large-bodied birds are over-represented in unstructured citizen science data - Scientific Reports
Thunderbird | CryptidWiki
Why Giant Bird Sightings Still Appear Today
PROOF of the Tombstone Thunderbird - Forgotten History

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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 Miramichi
Law Library | Our Unique Digital Collections | Allan Legere | UNB
Death of an inmate from Edmonton Institution | Corrections Canada
LEGERE, Allan Joseph | Serial Dispatches
18: Allan Legere – Monster of Miramichi – Part 1 (NB) – Dark Poutine
19: Allan Legere – Monster of Miramichi – Part 2 (NB) – Dark Poutine
Allan Legere Voir Dire July 1991
R. 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)

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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, BC
Mohd Abdullah | News, Videos & Articles
Mohd Abdullah at Thompson Rivers University
Nearly 60 pieces of evidence entered at trial of B.C. lawyer accused of murdering his client | RCI
Kamloops lawyer accused of murder granted bail
Murdered TRU faculty member remembered as quiet, kind man
Meticulous timeline built from receipts, GPS data and security footage sealed fate of killer Kamloops lawyer
Video surveillance clips show Kamloops lawyer's movements before, after alleged murder
Former B.C. lawyer found guilty of 1st-degree murder after killing his client in 2022 | CBC News

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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 Monthly
Cult commits murder at Rancho Santa Elena | March 14, 1989 | HISTORY
"Spring Break Murders" Mark Kilroy (TV Episode 2025) | IMDb
Mark Kilroy Murder - Arrests (1989) - KPRC-TV Collection
The Believers: Cult Murders in Mexico
Murder, Madness & Mayhem by Mike Browne
Kidnap, murder, ritual sacrifice | University Press
Murder of Mark Kilroy | Wikipedia
Mark Kilroy Foundation, Santa Fe, Texas
Mark James Kilroy (1968 - 1989) - Find A Grave Memorial
Memory Mark Kilroy | YouTube

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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.ca
Catalog Record: The Swamp of death, or, The Benwell murder | HathiTrust Digital Library
Newspapers.com | Search: John Reginald Birchall
https://www.themeister.co.uk/birchall/birchall_reginald.pdf
BIRCHALL, REGINALD (Lord Frederick A. Somerset) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Frederick Cornwallis Benwell (1865-1890) - Find a...
John Reginald Birchall (1866-1890)
Murder as a Fine Art by Alan Blytheway
The Trial of Reginald Birchall
John Reginald Birchall | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Episode 410: In the final years of the Cariboo Gold Rush, between roughly 1875 and 1885, travellers moving along the Cariboo Wagon Road through British Columbia’s interior passed through a remote roadhouse known as the 108 Mile Hotel, about 108 miles from Lillooet on the route toward Barkerville. According to a long-told regional legend, the hotel was run by Agnus McVee, alongside her husband Jim McVee and her son-in-law Al Riley, who were accused of drugging, robbing, and murdering miners carrying gold through the region. The story claims that dozens of travellers disappeared after stopping at the inn, with some accounts later alleging that bodies were recovered from nearby lakes and that young women were held captive at the hotel.

Sources:

CARIBOO CALLING: The Legend of Agnus MacVee
The Cariboo Gold Rush Timeline
History - Gold Rush Trail - British Columbia Shaped by Nature
History and Timeline | Cariboo Gold Project
Agnus McVee – Habitual Runaway Tours
Sarah Leavitt's comic imagines the life of Agnes McVee | CBC Books
Agnus McVee | Wikipedia
Agnes, Murderess | Goodreads
108 Mile Heritage Site – Preserving the rich history of the Cariboo

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Episode 409: In June 2006, police carried out coordinated arrests across southern Ontario and charged 18 young men under Canada’s anti-terrorism laws. The case quickly became known as the Toronto 18. It was described as a homegrown plot, not directed from overseas but organized in suburban communities around Mississauga and Toronto.

Most of the accused were in their late teens or early twenties. Many were Canadian citizens or long-time residents. Their backgrounds varied, but research and court records show no pattern of hardened criminal histories or severe mental illness. What drew them together, investigators argued, was a shared sense of grievance over global conflicts and a growing embrace of militant ideology.

Sources:

Prime Minister comments on terror arrests | Canada.ca
Seventeen Arrested on Anti-Terrorism Charges | Canada.ca
2006 Ontario terrorism plot | Wikipedia
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day Issues Statement on Canada's National Day to Remember Victims of Terror | Canada.ca
Toronto 18: Key events in the case | CBC News
Manitoba Law Journal, vol 44 no 1, 2021 CanLIIDocs 787
R. v. N.Y., 2008 CanLII 51935 (ON SC)
R. v. Gaya, 2008 CanLII 24539 (ON SC)

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Episode 408: In August 2015, 22-year-old Dalhousie University physics student Taylor Samson walked into an apartment on Henry Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying 20 pounds of marijuana. He never walked out.

What followed became one of Nova Scotia’s most closely watched murder cases. William “Will” Sandeson — a former university track athlete and incoming medical student — was arrested days later. Surveillance footage showed Samson entering Sandeson’s apartment. Blood and DNA evidence tied the scene to a fatal gunshot. Samson’s body was never recovered.

This is the story of Taylor Samson’s disappearance, and the long road to justice for his killer.

Sources:

Statement from Dalhousie University regarding charges laid in Taylor Samson case
William Sandeson | Global News, Videos & Articles
How a Drug-Dealing Med Student Was Convicted of Murder | VICE
Murder trial told of evidence found in ice-cream truck at Sandeson farm | CBC News
Police search for Dalhousie student's body as track athlete faces murder charge CityNews
R. v. Sandeson, 2025 NSCA 86 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2024 NSCA 72 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2023 NSSC 130 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2023 NSSC 64 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2022 NSSC 387 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2022 NSSC 254 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2022 NSSC 151 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2022 NSSC 111 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2020 NSCA 47 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2017 NSSC 193 (CanLII)
R. v. Sandeson, 2017 NSSC 146 (CanLII)

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Episode 407: On a quiet street in Kingston, Ontario, a 92-year-old woman named Henrietta Knight opened her front door on a summer afternoon in 1995. She was violently assaulted during a home invasion, left badly injured, and her house was ransacked. Though she survived the attack and spoke to police, paramedics, and doctors, her health steadily declined, and she died months later. What caused her death, and whether it was connected to the assault, would linger as an unanswered question for decades. This episode traces the case from its beginnings in eastern Ontario in the mid-1990s through years of silence and uncertainty, leading to a courtroom many years later, where the truth proved far harder to define than anyone expected.

Sources:

Jan 12, 1996, page 9 - The Kingston Whig-Standard at Newspapers.com™
Sep 24, 1999, page 10 - The Kingston Whig-Standard at Newspapers.com™
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2023/2023onsc1379/2023onsc1379.html
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2023/2023onsc1165/2023onsc1165.html
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2022/2022onsc5319/2022onsc5319.html
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2022/2022onsc4291/2022onsc4291.html

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