Read Practically Perfect Online
Authors: Dale Brawn
Albert Victor Westgate:
Fascination Leads to Murder
1901 | Westgate born in Kent, England. |
1916 | Westgate arrives in Winnipeg, and lies about age to enlist in army. |
1918 | Westgate receives honourable discharge from army. |
1921 | Marries. |
1924 | Westgate’s wife introduces him to her co-worker, Lottie Adams |
1927 | Westgate admits to friends his fascination for Lottie. |
1928 | Lottie refuses to see Westgate, and ends their relationship. |
February 16, 1928 | Lottie agrees to see Westgate one last time; he murders her. |
February 28, 1928 | Body of Lottie Adams found in snow bank; Westgate arrested. |
November 16, 1928 | Westgate convicted of murder; sentenced to be hanged. |
December 20, 1928 | Manitoba Court of Appeal orders that Westgate be re-tried. |
March 22, 1929 | Westgate again convicted of murder; sentenced to hang June 5, 1929. |
June 3, 1929 | Sentence commuted to life imprisonment. |
June 3, 1943 | Westgate paroled; returns to Winnipeg. |
August 1943 | Sixteen-year-old Edith Cook moves into rooming house where Westgate lives. |
December 4, 1943 | Westgate strangles Cook in a Winnipeg hotel room. |
December 5, 1943 | Police detain Westgate on Coroner’s warrant. |
May 8, 1944 | Westgate’s convicted of murder for a third time; sentenced to death. |
July 24, 1944 | Westgate executed at Manitoba’s Headingley jail. |
4: Loved Ones Tell All
Oliver Prévost:
The Piggery Murders
February 11, 1897 | Two bodies discovered in ruins on pig farm near Port Arthur, Ontario. |
February 11, 1897 | Coroner’s inquest called; hears witnesses then adjourns. |
February 13, 1897 | Coroner’s inquest reconvenes to hear more witnesses; adjourns. |
February 25, 1897 | Coroner’s inquest reconvenes to hear more witnesses; adjourns. |
February 26, 1897 | Coroner’s inquest ends; two fire victims murdered by an unknown person. |
March 5, 1897 | Coroner’s inquest reconvenes; concludes that fire victims were murdered. |
November 24, 1897 | Prévost sentenced to prison for theft of furs and pork at Renfrew, Ontario. |
November 26, 1897 | Prévost tells authorities his wife murdered two men in Port Arthur. |
November 1897 | Prévost held in the insane ward in Kingston Penitentiary. |
November 1897 | Rosanna Gauthier charged with the two Port Arthur murders. |
December 7, 1897 | Preliminary hearing; Gauthier committed to trial; transferred to Port Arthur. |
1898 | Charges against Gauthier withdrawn and Prévost charged with murder. |
December 6, 1898 | Murder trial of Prévost gets underway in Port Arthur. |
December 7, 1898 | Jury returns with a verdict of guilty; Prévost to hang March 17, 1899. |
March 1899 | Psychiatrists who examine Prévost advise the government that he is sane. |
March 15, 1899 | Federal cabinet refuses to commute sentence to life imprisonment. |
March 15, 1899 | Canada’s official executioner arrives in Port Arthur. |
March 17, 1899 | Oliver Prévost executed. |
John “Cobalt” Ivanchuk:
Too Much to Say
1887 | Ivanchuk born in Austria. |
1914 | Ivanchuk immigrates to Canada; settles in northern Ontario. |
October 15, 1926 | Liquor inspector Thomas Harry Constable murdered. |
October 15, 1926 | Ivanchuk leaves murder weapon with fifteen-year-old Sophia Dincorn. |
October 19, 1926 | Ivanchuk spends two days with acquaintance; confesses to the murder. |
October 1926 | Ivanchuk discusses opening brothel; admits shooting Constable. |
October 23, 1926 | Coroner’s jury concludes Constable murdered by an unknown person. |
October 23, 1926 | Ivanchuk meets Dincorn in Empress Café; takes back gun he left with her. |
November 5, 1926 | Reward for apprehension of killer raised from $2,000 to $5,000. |
November 1928 | Police investigators speak to Sophia Dincorn in Kapuskasing. |
November 15, 1928 | Ivanchuk arrested in a Cochrane drinking club. |
November 17, 1928 | Police confirm Ivanchuk’s identity; charge him with murder. |
November 29, 1928 | Ivanchuk committed to stand trial for Constable’s murder. |
April 12, 1929 | Ivanchuk found guilty after three-day trial; sentenced to hang on June 21. |
May 1929 | Federal department of justice postpones execution for one month. |
July 17, 1929 | Ivanchuk executed at Haileybury Jail. |
Stanley Donald McLaren:
A Fatal Mistake
August 26, 1926 | Stanley McLaren born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. |
August 1945 | McLaren moves to Calgary one month before Lum murder. |
September 24, 1945 | McLaren robs and beats Lum severely about the head. |
September 25, 1945 | Lum dies from his head wounds. |
August 1946 | McLaren marries Marie Kayter; couple ends up in northern Ontario. |
July 1949 | Stanley and Marie McLaren move to Toronto. |
August 28, 1949 | McLaren charged common assault; Marie tells police her husband is a murderer. |
August 29, 1949 | McLaren questioned by police; confesses to Calgary murder. |
September 1949 | Returned to Calgary. |
October 13, 1949 | Committed to trial following a two-day preliminary inquiry. |
November 1, 1949 |
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November 20, 1949 | Found guilty after six day trial; McLaren sentenced to hang on March 30, 1949. |
November 21, 1949 | Transferred to death cell at Lethbridge jail to await execution. |
March 10, 1949 | Alberta Court of Appeal denies McLaren’s request for a new trial. |
March 28, 1949 | Justice Kerwin denies request to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. |
March 29, 1949 | Federal cabinet rejects McLaren’s application for clemency. |
March 30, 1949 | McLaren executed in Lethbridge; body is interred in jail yard; Lum buried. |
Arthur Kendall:
Killing in Front of Family
June 1952 | Kendall moves his wife and five children into a one-room cabin. |
August 2, 1952 | Thirty-three-year-old Helen Kendall disappears. |
August 2, 1952 | Kendall begins living with a woman with her own five children. |
September 5, 1952 | Kendall children lie to police about what happened to their mother. |
September 1952 | Kendall children placed in foster homes, where they remain for two years. |
1954 | Beatrice Hogue divorced by her husband |
1959 | Helen Kendall declared dead; less than a year later Kendall marries Hogue. |
January 1961 | Kendall’s oldest daughter tells the police her father murdered her mother. |
January 27, 1961 | Kendall arrested and charged with murdering his wife. |
September 1, 1961 |
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October 27, 1961 | Kendall guilty of murder; sentenced to hang January 23, 1962. |
January 23, 1962 | Ontario Court of Appeal dismisses Kendall’s appeal. |
February 5, 1962 | Stay of execution to April 17, 1962, granted to allow appeal to SCC. |
March 14, 1962 | Supreme Court hears Kendall’s appeal; on March 26, it is dismissed. |
April 10, 1962 | Federal cabinet commutes Kendall’s sentence to life imprisonment. |
April 12, 1962 | Bayfield Cemetery trustees vote against allowing Kendall to be buried. |
February 13, 1971 | Kendall fails to return from a one-day pass from his jail. |
February 25, 1971 | Kendall recaptured. |