Episode 288: In this, the second episode of our five-part Spooktober series, we dive into three ghostly tales from coast to coast or, to coin a phrase, ghost to ghost. First, we’re off to northern New Brunswick to learn about the ghostly Fire Ship of Chaleur Bay, said to sail the waters of the bay intermittently terrifying mariners. Next, we head to Wallaceburg, Ontario, where, in the 1830s, violent poltergeist activity known as the Baldoon Mystery occurred. Last, we come back west to B.C., where in a small museum in Quesnel resides Mandy the haunted doll.

Sources:

City of Bathurst | Bathurst.ca | Heritage & Culture | The Legend of the Phantom Ship

Le Vaisseau de Feu de la Baie des Chaleurs

Lost at Sea: Ghost Ships and Other Mysteries | Goss, Michael | Internet Archive

The Burning Ship of Northumberland Strait: Some Notes on That Apparition on JSTOR

The Baldoon Mystery

Baldoon Mystery | Psi Encyclopedia

The Baldoon Mystery | Skeptoid

Baldoon mystery | Wierd and Startling | McDonald, Neil T | Internet Archive

“A History of Wallaceburg and Vicinity 1804 to the Present.” pp. 20–22

Biography – TROYER, JOHN – Volume VII (1836-1850) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Mandy | Quesnel & District Museum and Archives

Calgary Herald 04 Apr 1999, page 31

Quesnel Cariboo Observer 28 Apr 1999, page 12

The Paranormal Road Trippers (@theparanormalroadtrippers) | Instagram

Canada's Most Haunted Doll!! | The Paranormal Road Trippers | YouTube

Meet Mandy the Doll, Canada's Most Evil Antique

Forget Annabelle. Meet Mandy the Haunted Doll

Mandy the Haunted Doll | The Paranormal Guide

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 287: Canada, the second-largest country in the world, is a vast land of dense forests, expansive tundras, and rugged coastlines. Our diverse landscapes are home to folklore, legends, and tales of mysterious creatures. These elusive beings have captured the imaginations of locals, researchers, and enthusiasts for generations. In this, the first of five spookier-themed episodes for October, let’s explore a few of Canada's most intriguing legendary creatures. We’ll learn about a weird giant frog in Coleman, New Brunswick, a mythical people-eating creature in B.C., grumpy fairies in Quebec, and a few mythical and often terrifying creatures from the indigenous lore of Canada’s north.

Sources:

The Coleman Frog

Jump Into History With the Coleman Frog

It’s Something | Coleman Frog

Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl)

Book of Creatures | Baxbakwalanuxsiwae

Le bonhomme sept-heures

The Social Organization & Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl by Franz Boas | Internet Archive

Intellectual culture of the Hudson Bay Eskimos : Rasmussen, Knud | Internet Archive

A Book of Creatures | Canada

.: INUIT MYTHOLOGY:. | Mahaha

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 286: On July 9, 1928, the Alberta Provincial Police were alerted to a mass murder at the Booher farm in Mannville, Alberta. Upon arrival, they discovered the bodies of Rose Booher, her oldest son Fred, and two hired hands, Gabriel Grombey and Bill Rozak, all shot dead. 

The younger son, Vernon Booher, was unharmed. He’d been out in the fields working that evening and, after hearing shots, ran back to the house to his mother and brother dead. It was he who’d sounded the alarm.

Two Booher daughters were in town during the incident. The father of the family, Henry, also away during the killings, was devastated. 

Vernon displayed little emotion and soon became the number one suspect in the slayings. He denied involvement, and the murder weapon, a rifle, was missing. Dr. Adolph Maximilian Langsner, an Austrian criminologist and psychiatrist who claimed he could read brainwaves, was brought in to assist. He claimed he read Vernon’s mind, and confirmed he was the killer. Langsner also directed police to the missing firearm, claiming he’d drawn a map taken from Vernon’s thoughts. Presented with the formerly missing rifle, Vernon confessed, stating he killed his mother over her disapproval of his girlfriend and then eliminated witnesses. But his confession was disallowed. Why? His defence attorneys claimed Dr. Langsner had coerced him into it through hypnotism.

Sources:

1928 CanLII 342 (AB KB) | Rex v. Booher | CanLII

2007 SCC 6 (CanLII) | R. v. Trochym | CanLII

2009 CanLII 40558 (ON SC) | R. v. Trochym | CanLII

Hypnotism and its Legal Import

Times Colonist 19 Jul 1928, page 10

Edmonton Journal 24 Jul 1928, page 1

Langsner on the Stand: The Vancouver Sun 26 Sep 1928, page 1

Edmonton Journal 29 Apr 1996, page 1

Edmonton Journal 29 Apr 1996, page 7

Hypnotically Enhanced Testimony in Criminal Proceedings

Book: Strange Days: Amazing Stories From Canada's Wildest Decade by Ted Ferguson

Book: The Big Book of Canadian Hauntings by John Robert Colombo

Book: Murder: Twelve True Stories of Homicide in Canada by Edward Butts

Detective Maximilian Langsner and the Murderer's Mind Part 1

Detective Maximilian Langsner and the Murderer's Mind Part 2

After 17 years, Stephen Trochym admits slaying

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode: 285: The 1612 Lancashire trials of the accused Pendle witches, one of the most notorious witchcraft trials in English history, took place during the reign of King James I. Twelve individuals from the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire were accused of practicing witchcraft and brought to trial at Lancaster Assizes. Of these, ten were found guilty and hanged, one was found not guilty, and another died in prison. The trial is particularly remembered for the testimonies of the accused, especially that of the young girl, Jennet Device, whose evidence played a significant role in the convictions.

While the immediate aftermath of the Pendle trials saw heightened witch paranoia, the extremity of the trials and the nature of the evidence also sowed seeds of skepticism. Over time, as more and more trials took place, some segments of society began to question the validity of witchcraft accusations and the reliability of the testimony of children and confessions obtained under pressure.

It's believed that from the early 15th to the early 18th centuries, the total number of executions from English witch trials was just under 500.

Sources:

The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest by William Harrison Ainsworth

Discovery of Witches by active 1612-1618 Thomas Potts

Daemonologie. by King of England James I

The Pendle Witches, a famous witch trial in Lancashire

The History Press: The Pendle Witches

The Demonology of King James I by Donald Tyson - Ebook

Malleus Maleficarum Index

The mark of the Devil: Medical proof in Witchcraft Trials by Sarah Dunn

The Pendle Witches | Lancashire Witch Trials | English Witchcraft

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 284: On the evening of June 24, 1992, after she failed to pick her daughter up from school, 41-year-old Gladys Wakabayshi’s estranged husband, Shinji and her daughter, Elisa, discovered her body in the hallway of their home in Shaughnessy, a posh Vancouver neighbourhood. Gladys had been brutally slashed and bled out on the floor. 

Early on, after uncovering an affair between Derek James, a long-time family friend, and Gladys Wakabayashi, Jean Ann James, 52, Derek’s wife, became the number one suspect in the murder. Jean Ann refused to talk, leaving the police without enough physical evidence to lay charges.

The crime would go unsolved for more than 15 years before Jean Ann James was arrested after she confessed to the murder of her friend during an intricate Mr. Big sting.

Sources:

2013 BCCA 11 (CanLII) | R. v. James | CanLII

2012 BCCA 162 (CanLII) | R. v. James | CanLII

Search — Newspapers.com: Gladys Wakabayashi

Woman confessed to killing husband's mistress with box cutters, court told

Jean Ann James | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Not So Sleepy Jean

Accused Killer Seen in Victim's Bedroom 2 Days Before Murder

'Volatile' elderly killer loses bid for private visits with cheating husband | CBC News

The “Mr. Big” Police Tactic in Canada Leads to False Confessions…

华人女富豪被割喉家中 血贱温西豪宅 - 温哥华专栏 - Vansky.com

The case of Nelson Hart: 2 girls, 3 years and a mystery 'Mr. Big'

No New Friends: A Look at the Law Relating to Mr. Big in R. v. Hart : Royle Law | Criminal and DUI Lawyers Toronto

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 283: In this episode, we venture into a controversial and tragic chapter of Canada's legal history. It intertwines public health, personal relationships, and the weight of the law. We're talking about the history of HIV non-disclosure cases in Canada.

Part of our journey takes us to the early 2000s, zeroing in on Johnson Aziga, a Ugandan-born Canadian resident. His name would soon become synonymous with a landmark legal battle challenging the boundaries of consent, deception, and responsibility. Aziga was diagnosed with HIV in 1996, but his numerous subsequent relationships would cast him into the national spotlight. Two women, specifically, would become central to his story: both entered into relationships with Aziga, and HIV-related complications tragically took both. The women’s names are protected under publication bans, so we cannot speak to their biographies. Regardless, their untimely deaths would raise a storm of questions about trust, disclosure, and the duty one owes to their intimate partners. Aziga was convicted of murder and deemed a dangerous offender, but argued that his race and status as an immigrant weighed against him. In 2023, the murder convictions were overturned and replaced with manslaughter charges substituted in their place.

NOTE: In this podcast, the names of survivors will be kept confidential, and initials or aliases will be used instead.

Sources:

A history of HIV/AIDS

HIV 101: The History of HIV & AIDS in Canada - Freddie Magazine

The legacy of the HIV/AIDS fight in Canada

R v Cuerrier

After Cuerrier | Publications - Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

African immigrant damnation syndrome: The case of Charles Ssenyonga

2006 CanLII 42798 (ON SC) | R. v. Aziga | CanLII

2007 CanLII 38 (ON SC) | R. v. Aziga | CanLII

2011 ONSC 4592 (CanLII) | R. v. Aziga | CanLII

Canada: HIV “murderer” Aziga now also a “dangerous offender,” locked up for life

HIV-positive man convicted of murder apologizes to victims

2014 HRTO 144 (CanLII) | Aziga v. Ontario (Community Safety and Correctional Services) | CanLII

2014 HRTO 1465 (CanLII) | Aziga v. Ontario (Community Safety and Correctional Services) | CanLII

Court overturns murder convictions against Ontario man who gave two women HIV, killing them

2023 ONCA 12 (CanLII) | R. v. Aziga | CanLII

Update — Canada: Murder convictions for HIV transmission reduced to manslaughter

HIV Criminalization

Criminal HIV Transmission

Canada: Ontario leads the world in the over-criminalization of HIV non-disclosure

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 282: Aurore Gagnon is probably one of the most tragic figures in twentieth-century Canadian history. She was only ten years old when she died of exhaustion and blood poisoning in her hometown of Sainte-Philomène-de-Fortierville, Quebec, on February 12, 1920. An autopsy revealed at least 54 wounds on her body, presumably inflicted over time by her stepmother Marie-Anne Houde and her father, Télesphore Gagnon. Both were later convicted for their roles in the little girl’s death. Aurore Gagnon’s story has left a lasting impact on Quebec's cultural memory, inspiring plays, films, and discussions about child abuse and children's rights in the province.

Sources:

Aurore! The Mystery of the Martyred Child

HISTORY OF SAINTE-PHILOMÈNE

Fortierville, Quebec, Canada: Church of Saint Philomena of Fortierville

Fortierville

GAGNON, AURORE – Volume XIV (1911-1920) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Généalogie Aurore Gagnon

Centre d'interprétation de Fortierville | Église Ste-Philomène de Fortierville

Monument funéraire d'Aurore Gagnon - Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec

Marie-Aurore-Lucienne “Aurore” Gagnon (1909-1920)...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 281: On the night of Saturday, October 25th, 1857, in Beaver Lake, a part of Simond’s Parish in St John County, a heinous crime was committed unlike anything ever seen in New Brunswick up to that point. Sure, there had been murders and arsons, but those were often the result of heated arguments or drunken brawls. But this crime was different. It’s hard to believe that anyone in New Brunswick would coldly and calculatedly murder a man named Robert McKenzie, his wife, and his four helpless children, all for the sake of money, and then burn down their property to destroy the evidence. The perpetrators, three Irish Catholics, Hugh Breen and Patrick Slavin Sr. and Slavin’s teenage son, Patrick Jr., targeted the protestant Mackenzie family, robbing and murdering them. This crime, committed on that fateful Saturday night, was, to that point, unprecedented in New Brunswick. Some still feel the crime rivals the worst in the province’s history.

Sources:

The Beaver Lake tragedy | Internet Archive

The Victorian Era Crime That Shocked New Brunswick: The Beaver Lake Tragedy

McKenzie Murders | Cases | Crime and Punishment | Projects | Faculty of Arts | UNB

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 280: In the early morning hours of July 8, 2019, Vancouver Island RCMP launched a manhunt for two inmates who had escaped from William Head, a minimum security federal institution in Metchosin, south of Victoria. The two men, James Lee Busch and Zachary Armitage had walked away from William Head the day before. The fugitives were arrested on July 9 after an off-duty RCMP officer spotted them in Esquimalt. On July 12, RCMP found the body of 60-year-old Martin Keith Payne, who had not shown up for work, at his home on Brookview Drive, in the community of Metchosin.

Payne's suspicious death initiated an 11-month investigation led by the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit, involving several police agencies. On June 12, 2020, an RCMP news release reported that the escapees, Busch and Armitage, had been charged with first-degree murder concerning Martin Payne’s death.

This event sparked serious debate about the decision-making process that led to these two individuals, both with histories of violent crime, being housed in a minimum-security facility. How had they simply walked away from their incarceration to murder Martin Payne?

Sources:

RCMP in British Columbia - Two men arrested and charged in the 2019 Martin Payne homicide investigation

Metchosin

The behind-the-scenes story of how ignored warnings at William Head allowed a killer to escape

William Head Rd · Metchosin, BC

Correctional Service on Twitter

The Province 09 Jul 2019, page A13

Archive.org | CAPTURED - Prisoners who escaped from William Head Institution now in police custody

Archive.org | Suspicious Death Investigation Continues in Metchosin

Archive.org | Persons of interest identified in the murder of Martin Payne

Victim died of multiple stab wounds and blunt force injuries, murder trial hears

Woman sentenced for role in murder | CBC News

Metchosin seeks permission to use emergency alerts for prison breaks

Globe and Mail | Inmate tells B.C. court he ‘felt like dying’ while in solitary confinement

Loved ones remember joyous Metchosin man as his killer is sentenced

Family of murdered Metchosin man speaks as killer sentenced to life in prison

Paul Bernardo transfer to a medium-security prison was ‘sound’: review - National

CSC staff ‘worried the circus would begin’ before Bernardo transfer: emails - National

‘My father could have been anyone’: Daughters of murder victim speak out

July marks 4 years since inmates escaped William Head prison, murdered Metchosin man

2019 BCPC 311 (CanLII) | R. v. Armitage | CanLII

2022 BCSC 1407 (CanLII) | R. v Armitage & Busch | CanLII

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 279: In Quebec City, on October 21, 2004, Dario Gallese got an alarming phone call from his younger brother, Eustachio Gallese. In the call, Eustachio admitted to killing his girlfriend, Chantale Deschesnes, 32, and, following his brother's advice, contacted the police to report the crime. Eustachio was arrested, charged, and convicted of the second-degree murder of Chantale. In late 2006, Eustachio was sentenced to life in prison without parole eligibility for 15 years. 

In 2019, Eustachio was placed into a halfway house on day parole. In September, in what would be a controversial decision, his case management team allowed Eustachio Gallese to visit sex workers to have his sexual needs met, as long as he was ‘transparent’ with his case management team about these visits. 

On the night of January 22, 2020, Eustachio Gallese walked into a Quebec City police station and admitted to having murdered another woman, a 22-year-old masseuse named Marylène Levesque, whom he’d become obsessed with. Marylène’s body was found in the Sainte-Foy (Sant-Fwa) hotel room where Gallese said she would be. She’d been stabbed 30 times.

A month later, Eustachio Gallese, then 51, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. After a public outcry inciting parliamentary debate, the Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board of Canada announced a joint investigation into Gallese’s release.

Sources:

2004 CanLII 56627 (QC CS) | R. c. Gallese | CanLII

2009 QCCA 1071 (CanLII) | Gallese c. R. | CanLII

Meurtre de Marylène Lévesque: une vigile contre les féminicides

Meurtre à Sainte-Foy: «C’était prévisible», dénonce la fille de la victime

Debates (Hansard) No. 14 - February 4, 2020 (43-1) - House of Commons of Canada

Stigma and Criminalization of Sex Work Facilitated the Murder of Marylène Levesque

Correctional services missed signs leading up to Marylène Levesque murder, says report | CBC News

Warning signs were missed prior to murder of Marylène Lévesque: report | Watch News Videos Online

Internal investigation into the murder of Marylène Lévesque: Pierre Paul-Hus calls for the immediate reopening of the internal investigation | Pierre Paul-Hus

Joint National Board of Investigation: Correctional Service of Canada - Parole Board of Canada

Enforcing prostitution laws could have saved Marylène Lévesque | The Star

Marylène Lévesque - Investigation Report | PDF

Capitalism Is Killing My Fellow Sex Workers

How Canada’s sex work laws put lives at risk | CityNews

Quebec City man sentenced to life with no parole for 25 years for 1st-degree murder of sex worker | CBC News

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-wants-answers-on-how-moderate-risk-murder-suspect-made-parole

Correctional Service Canada takes concrete actions in response to Board of Investigation results

Why Sex Work Should Be Decriminalized

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices