Practically Perfect (33 page)

Authors: Dale Brawn

BOOK: Practically Perfect

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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1898	Charges against Gauthier withdrawn and Prévost charged with murder.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	Criminal Code amended to allow appeal on question law; comes into effect.
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	Criminal Code section imposed, dealing with capital murder.
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.

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