Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Episode 182: This is a story of two talented people whose final interaction would lead to the death of one of comedy’s rising stars and a notorious place in Hollywood history for the other. On March 5, 1982, after an all too brief but stellar career in film and television, actor and comedian John Belushi, 33, was found dead in his bungalow at the infamous Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Investigators soon discovered that a Canadian woman, Catherine Evelyn or Cathy Smith, was the last person with the star and had been the person who had supplied and shot him up with the fatal overdose that killed him. Sources: United States of America and Smith, Re, 1984 CanLII 3510 (ON SC),

Episode 181 - The region in the South Nahanni River played host to several unexplained and disturbing occurrences in the first half of the twentieth century. Between1905 and 1945, in the remote and rugged wilderness in the lower west corner of Mackenzie Mountains in the Northwest Territories and other unexplained events, there were at least 44 people who went missing under mysterious circumstances. Most unsettling of all were the four bodies that were found during that time in three separate incidents. All of the corpses had been decapitated, and their heads were never recovered, earning the area the ominous nickname, the Valley of the Headless Men. No one knows who was responsible for these horrific mutilations or what became of the other missing people. Sources: Secrets of the Nahanni: The Valley of Headless Men – The Outdoor Journal The Lore Behind the Mystery of Canada’s Nahanni National Park The Valley of Headless Men. The spectacular scenery of the Nahanni… | by L Hall | Chameleon | Medium Nahanni National Park Reserve - Wikipedia Valley of Mystery — Pierre Berton | Maclean’s | March 15, 1947 Parks Canada — Nahanni National Park Reserve Mysteries of the Nahinni Park Reserve in Canada — StrangeOutdoors.com Did giants roam Canada’s Northwest Territories — or do they still? | CBC News The Valley of the Headless Men: UnresolvedMysteries Legends of the Nahanni Valley Legends of the Nahanni Valley by Hammerson Peters Serial Killer Quarterly Vol.1 No.3 “Unsolved in North America” — Scribd Read The Dangerous River Online by R. M. Patterson | Books | Scribd Read Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Weird Canada Online by Bathroom Readers’ Institute | Books | Scribd Read Strange but True Online by John Robert Colombo | Books | Scribd The Strangest Northerns: The Valley of the Beasts - Dark Worlds Quarterly The Willows, The Wendigo, and Other Horrors: The Best Weird Fiction and Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood: Annotated and Illustrated Tales of Murder, Mystery, Horror, and Hauntings eBook: Blackwood, Algernon, Kellermeyer, M., Kellermeyer, M.: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store Canada is a huge country. Most of it is unfit for human habitation. - Vox This Is How Empty Canada Really Is (PHOTOS) | HuffPost Canada News Geography | The Canada Guide Largest Countries in the World by Area - Worldometer Table 24.1 Population, by province and territory, selected years, 1861 to 2009 Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 180 - On September 22, 2015, in Renfrew County, Ontario, 66-year-old Carol Culleton was murdered in her home by her one-time handyman. The man, who’d become obsessed with the recent widow before killing her, then stole Culleton’s car and drove to the home of an ex-girlfriend, Anastasia Kuzyk, 36, and shot Anastasia there with a shotgun as her sister fled the home. However, the killer was not done settling the scores he had cooked up in his head and then drove to the home of another ex-girlfriend, Nathalie Warmerdam, 48. As Nathalie’s son ran from their home, in fear of his life, he heard the gunshot that ended his mother’s life. The killer, Basil Borutski, 58, a former millwright, then fled, and a brief search ensued that ended in Borutski being taken into police custody. Later on, in a 5-hour long taped police interview, the killer admitted to what he’d done, laying the blame for his spree squarely on his victims. Sources: Ontario Provincial Police - What we do Borutski’s history from 1977 to 2011 - Infogram Borutski’s history with Kuzyk and Warmerdam - Infogram Borutski’s history with Culleton - Infogram Murder Sites — Driving Route YouTube - Basil Borutski full police interview YouTube - Basil Borutski and the Wilno Murders: Circle of Fear - The Fifth Estate YouTube - Secrets of… Why Didn’t We Know? Basil Borutski & The Wilno Murders (podcast) - the fifth estate Marchers say Basil Borutski guilty verdict was too little, too late | CBC News What the courts knew about Basil Borutski before he murdered 3 women | CBC News Search: Basil Borutski — Newspapers.com Basil Borutski | News, Videos & Articles — GlobalNews TOPIC: BASIL BORUTSKI TRIAL — CBC.ca R. v. Borutski, 2011 ONSC 3536 (CanLII) Borutski v. Borutski, 2011 ONSC 7099 (CanLII) R. v. Borutski, 2017 ONSC 7748 (CanLII) R. v. Basil Borutski, 2017 ONSC 7762 (CanLII) The Meaning of Life: A Study of the Use of Parole Ineligibility for Murder Sentencing | CanLII BBC Partners — Outlook: Singing for my murdered sister helps me heal Ending Violence Association of Canada Psychology Today — Dark Triad Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 178: On the evening of January 29, 2017, a young man, armed with a pistol and a rifle concealed inside a guitar case, entered the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, a mosque in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood of the historic city. Just over 40 people were inside the mosque at the time. Just before 8:00 pm, the man entered the prayer hall and began firing and, within two minutes, had killed 6 and seriously injured 5 other worshippers. After the shootings, the killer walked out of the building, hopped into his car and drove off. Less than 20 minutes later, the perpetrator, a 27-year-old, Canadian-born student of anthropology and political science at Laval University, surrendered to police, admitting he was the shooter. The motive? Islamophobia. Sources: [CCIQ – Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec] R. c. Bissonnette, 2019 QCCS 354 (CanLII), < [https://canlii.ca/t/j1672] > Bissonnette c. R., 2020 QCCA 1585 (CanLII), < [https://canlii.ca/t/jbth0] > [YouTube - Alexandre Bissonnette’s interrogation (en Français)] [YouTube - Alexandre Bissonnette’s FULL interrogation (en Français) 3 hour 8 minute] [YouTube - La déclaration des parents d’Alexandre Bissonnette] [Les parents d’Alexandre Bissonnette jugent sa peine très sévère | Radio-Canada.ca] [Alexandre Bissonnette’s parents speak out about their son | Global News] [Open Letter From Raymond Bissonnette | Murder | Criminal Justice] [‘I had to do something’: Mosque shooter said he acted to prevent terrorism | Montreal Gazette] [Remembering the Québec City mosque attack: Islamophobia and Canada’s national amnesia] [Court reduces sentence for Quebec City mosque attacker | Courts News | Al Jazeera] [Alexandre Bissonnette: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com] https://twitter.com/justintrudeau/status/825438460265762816?lang=en [Alexandre Bissonnette’s parents ask Prime Minister to stop calling their son a terrorist | CTV News] [Islamophobia.org] [Islamophobia: Understanding Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the West] [Islamophobia in Canada - Wikipedia] [Read Fear of a Muslim Planet Online by Arsalan Iftikhar | Books] [Cyber Racism and Community Resilience: Strategies For Combating Online Race Hate | Scribd] [Naming The Gunman Glorifies His Crimes, Not Naming Him Could Undermine The Truth : NPR Public Editor : NPR] [NO NOTORIETY]() [What is the government doing about Islamophobia in Canada? Here’s what we know - National | Globalnews.ca] [Pourquoi les peines consécutives font-elles débat? | Radio-Canada.ca] [Quebec City mosque shooting - Wikipedia] [London, Ontario truck attack - Wikipedia] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 177: On July 3, 1979, a pair of typical Montreal teenagers, Chantal Dupont, 15 and her friend, Maurice Marcil, 14, went missing as they walked home from a concert. Their loved ones had no idea what had happened to them. A week later they heard the news they dreaded. The bodies of Chantal and Maurice were discovered in different spots along the banks of the St. Lawrence River. The details of how the pair ended up in the water and the events leading up to their murders are horrifying. Sources: R. v. Guerin, 1984 CanLII 3533 (QC CA),

Episode 176: On the night of November 13, 1974, In the sleepy community of Amityville on the coast of Long Island, New York, a 23-year-old man named Ronald (Butch) DeFeo Jr. came running into a local bar. He was distraught and claiming his whole family, his mother and father and 4 siblings, had been murdered in their home, a large Dutch Colonial house located at 112 Ocean Avenue. However, it was later determined it was Butch himself who’d annihilated his family. A year later, Butch was convicted on six counts of second-degree murder and received an equal number of sentences of 25 years to life in prison for slaughtering his family as they slept. A month after Butch DeFeo’s conviction, the Lutz family, Kathy, George and their three kids moved into the property having purchased it for a steal, $80,000. But, after only 28 days in the house, the Lutz family fled. They claimed they’d been chased out by relentless psychic torture inflicted on them by some unseen presence; they thought demonic, who’d made life in the house impossible. A 1977 book on the case by author Jay Anson titled The Amityville Horror, and subsequent film in 1979 introduced the story to an international audience and has become one of the most well-known, most covered and at the same time, controversial tales of hauntings and demonic possession in history. Sources: [The Amityville Horror Website: Hosted By George Lutz - ARCHIVED] [The Amityville Murders—The Story Behind the Haunted House and Murders - ARHIVED] [The Real Amityville Horror: The Tragic Murder of the Ronald De Feo Family - ARCHIVED] [The Amityville Files - America’s Most Famous Haunted House Controversy] [Ronald DeFeo: The Original 911 Call Transcripts of the Murders] [The Real ‘Amityville Horror’: Chilling Facts About the Crime and Haunted House - Biography] [Slain Family Drugged, Police on L:I..Report - The New York Times] [Ronald DeFeo - Murders, Movie & Family - Biography] [Reel or Real? The Truth Behind Two Hollywood Ghost Stories | Skeptical Inquirer] [Inside the ‘Amityville Horror’ house today, Long Island’s most notorious mansion - New York Post] [Morgan Knudsen - Entityseeker Paranormal Research & Teachings] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 175: Like any other region, Canada has its share of stories of fantastical creatures that may or may not exist. Dark Poutine has covered a few of them. In episode 25 we learned of Swift Runner, believed to be possessed by the cannibalistic spirit known as Wendigo, we talked about, Ogopogo, the giant serpent in Okanagan Lake in episode 113 and of course, in episode 131 we gave you a primer on Sasquatch aka Bigfoot in Western Canada and the USA. In this episode, you will learn about some of Canada’s lesser-known cryptids, The Loup-Garou, The Thunderbird, The Toronto Tunnel Monster and The Giant Spider Bat.  Source: [Loup-Garou | The Canadian Encyclopedia] [The Werewolf of Quebec City — CANADIANA] [Le loup-garou du Kamouraska (1766-1767) – Patrimoine, Histoire et Multimédia] [Les Loups-Garous du Québec – Werewolves of Quebec  | Julian Peters comics] [Thunderbird | New Cryptozoology Wiki | Fandom] [Thunderbird: a symbol of power, strength and nobility - Ecstatic Trance Postures] [Thunderbird- A Canadian Legend] [Toronto Tunnel Monster | Cryptid Wiki | Fandom] [The Toronto Tunnel Monster | Cryptozoology News Articles & Investigations] [Toronto Urban Legends: The Real Toronto Underground] [Strange Encounters with Bizarre Tunnel-Dwelling Monsters | Mysterious Universe] [A guide to the secret tunnels hidden beneath Toronto] [Little people (mythology) - Wikipedia] [What Lies Beneath: Toronto and The Tunnel Monster of Cabbagetown] [ParaResearchers Of Ontario - Toronto Tunnel Monster] [The Creepy Cabbagetown Monster Lurking in Toronto’s Underground] [Cryptids of Canada and Other Toronto Urban Legends We Bet You Didn’t Know About - Mary-am Suites] [C.H.U.D. (1984) - IMDb] [Myths & Monsters - DIBAAJIMOWIN] [memegwesi (na) | The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary] [Mysteries of Canada – Canada History and Mysteries] [Stranger Things: Four-in-Five Canadians believe] [Giant Canadian Spiderbat | Cryptid Wiki | Fandom] [North American House Hippo - YouTube] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 174 - Between 1974 and 1980, a group of three mask-wearing Canadian outlaws named Stephen Reid, Patrick (Paddy) Mitchell, and Lionel Wright, in well-planned, precisely timed and carefully executed heists, robbed at least 140 banks and armoured cars in Canada and the United States making off with a total of more than $15 million in cash, gold and other valuables. Sources: [The Life and Times of the Stopwatch Gang | The Atavist Magazine] [Stephen Reid fonds - Search Research Collections] [Inside Time by Jason Young - NFB] [Paddy Mitchell’s Blog - A blog behind bars] [Read This Bank Robber’s Life Online by Patrick Mitchell | Books - Scribd.com] [The Stopwatch Gang: notorious bank robber, celebrated author dies – RCI | English] [Lionel Wright | Today in Ottawa’s History] [Stephen Reid - ABC BookWorld] [Obituary: Stephen Reid - Ottawa Citizen] [Stephen Reid’s 10 toughest prisons in North America] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 173 - On July 6, 2013, in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, an unattended 73-car freight train carrying crude oil rolled down a grade and derailed downtown, multiple tank cars exploded, resulting in a massive fire. More than 30 buildings in the town's core were destroyed, and, sadly, forty-seven people lost their lives. Sources: [Ville Lac-Mégantic - Une ville à coeur ouvert] [Déraillement mortel d’un train à Lac-Mégantic - Ville Lac-Mégantic] [Balado Découverte - Le Marcheur d’étoiles | Circuit touristique de Lac-Mégantic] [Cinq clés pour comprendre la tragédie de Lac-Mégantic | Radio-Canada.ca] [10 of Canada’s worst train accidents - Macleans.ca] [Firefighter watched ghost train barrel past him moments before Lac-Mégantic derailment | CBC News] [Rail at center of Quebec town tragedy and heart of its recovery | Reuters] [Lac-Megantic’s resilience tested after ‘le train d’enfer’ - CentralMaine.com] [Summary of Railway Investigation Report R13D0054 - TSB Canada] [Railway Investigation Full Report R13D0054 - TSB Canada] [Lac-Mégantic MMA Train Accident - 6 July 2013 - YouTube] [Audio: Train engineer and railway company talk as Lac-Mégantic burns - The Globe and Mail] [Lac-Mégantic engineer Thomas Harding’s firing ruled illegal - Montreal | Globalnews.ca] [YouTube - Angry Lac Megantic residents seek answers - Global News] [YouTube - Lac-Mégantic News Conference - Investigation Report Release] [YouTube - Lac-Mégantic engineer calls released] [YouTube - Tragédie Lac Mégantic - Pierre Duquet] [YouTube - Incendie à Lac-Mégantic - username Nitrof Taz] [Wayback Machine - Montreal Gazette - Lives lost: Remembering Lac-Mégantic’s victims] [Global News Search - Lac-Mégantic] [Lac-Mégantic rail disaster - Wikipedia] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 172 - To curtail social ills like alcoholism, family violence, and other unsavoury behaviours, religious and puritanical proponents of the Temperance Movement demonized alcohol throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. After numerous U.S. states had become ‘dry’ outlawing the production and sale of alcohol in the years prior, in 1919, the United States ratified the 18th amendment to their constitution, which banned the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within the country’s borders. As hoarded supplies quickly began to run dry over the next ten years, Americans looked outside their borders to keep the liquor flowing into the country.  Scores of Canadians stepped up, flouting the laws to move alcohol across the 49th parallel. Many were entrepreneurs with a daredevil spirit, a means of transportation and a desire to make a quick buck, but others were psychopathic, dangerous, mob-connected killers. We’ll talk about a couple of them here. Mike Browne's new book, MURDER, MADNESS, AND MAYHEM: Twenty-Five Tales of True Crime and Dark History, is available this November from Harper Collins Canada! You can pre-order your copy now: https://bit.ly/3oSnKXS Sources: [Prohibition: An Interactive History – Mob Museum] [Women Led the Temperance Charge – Prohibition: An Interactive History] [Captain Jack Randell] [Captain Jack Randell - Classic Sailboats] [The Sinking of The I’m Alone] [Heaving To Is a Valuable Skill for All Sailors] [Story of the I’m Alone | Decora-chan | Prince Edward Island] [Ernest Hemingway - Biographical - NobelPrize.org] [The Whisky King - Trevor Cole - eBook] [Molls of a mobster | Maclean’s | OCTOBER 5, 1987] [Biography – STARKMAN, BESHA (Tobin)] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 171 - Rosemary Podgis, 56, and her husband Alfred, 58, were found in a Pennsylvania Ravine. They had been fatally shot in their Loch Arbour, New Jersey home over the Fourth of July weekend in 1982. The apparent perpetrators arrested by police 5 days later were two 18-year-olds: Scott Robert Franz, Rosemary’s son from a previous marriage, and Scott’s Canadian friend Bruce Anthony Curtis, who had been Scott’s classmate at King’s Edgehill private school in Nova Scotia where the pair had just graduated. The events leading up to the deaths of Rosemary and Alfred Podgis would be extremely important in establishing what led two teens, both with promising futures ahead of them, to kill Scott Franz’s mother and stepfather. Was it cold-blooded murder or, as Bruce would later claim, a tragic accident caused by a faulty firearm? Sources: [Blood Knot: The Trial and Conviction of Bruce Curtis by David Hayes] [State v. Curtis :: 1984 :: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division :: Justia] [Two 18-year-olds, one from Nova Scotia, were held today… - UPI Archives] [A disputed killing in New Jersey | Maclean’s | APRIL 16, 1984] [Curtis’s long trip home | Maclean’s | MARCH 7, 1988] [National Film Board of Canada - Journey Into Darkness: The Bruce Curtis Story] [Dalhousie - The Gazette - Volume 117, Number 22 - February 21, 1985] [Canadians Mount Campaign To Obtain Man in New Jersey Prison] [YouTube - Deadly Betrayal: The Bruce Curtis Story - 1992 NBC Sunday Night Movie] [Crime-Sep-24-1989-947717 | NewspaperArchive] [Scott Franz’s Home - GoogleMaps] [Bruce Curtis and Scott Franz case - MemoryNS] [Shootings of Alfred and Rosemary Podgis - Wikipedia] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 170 - In November of 1902, a rancher named Issac Belt from Haynes Creek near Red Deer, Alberta, had gone missing. Investigating officers had gone to Belt’s ranch to question a young man calling himself Bert Ellsworth, who was suspected of horse theft, who had been lending a hand there. That young man and Belt were both missing.  Police discovered the man claiming to be Ellsworth at a camp on the outskirts of Calgary. Some of Belt’s personal belongings were in Cashel's possession, and Cashel was wearing Issac's clothes. In reality, his name was Ernest Cashel, a 21-year-old American. He was on the run from U.S. and Canadian authorities for forgery and other crimes, including escaping from custody several times.  Cashel was arrested and charged with theft and later charged with Isaac Belt’s murder, convicted and sentenced to hang. Cashel escaped one last time, only days before he was to be executed, and was on the run for more than a month before being recaptured and sent to see his maker via the hangman. Sources: [The Case of Ernest Cashel | Maclean’s | December 1st 1930] [Ernest Cashel - Wikipedia] [2 Feb 1904, Page 1 - Vancouver Daily World at Newspapers.com] [Ernest Cashel Hanged at Calgary - Newspapers.com] [Scoundrels and Scallywags: Characters from Alberta’s Past by Brian Brennan] [The Pursuit of Ernest Cashel by MJ Malcolm] [14 Dec 1929, 39 - The Province at Newspapers.com] [Ernest Cashel Hanged - page 3 - Newspapers.com] [Hanged - Edmonton Journal (archived)] [Ernest Cashel on way to trial, Calgary, Alberta - Photo] [Ernest Cashel Story - Glenbow.org - January 30 - February 5] [Biography – NOLAN, PATRICK JAMES – Volume XIV (1911-1920)] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 169: On the evening of Christmas Day in 2017, upon gaining access to an Oak Bay, British Columbia apartment, police discovered a bloody crime scene. In the suite were the bodies of six-year-old Chloe Berry and her four-year-old sister, Aubrey Berry. They had been murdered in their beds. First responders also discovered Andrew Berry, Chloe and Aubrey’s father, naked, seriously injured and bleeding in the apartment's bathtub. He had penetrating injuries to his left chest and throat. First responders took Andrew by ambulance to Victoria General Hospital for treatment. He’d eventually have a rather tall tale to tell about what had taken place that day. Sources: R. v Berry, 2019 BCSC 2362 (CanLII), < [https://canlii.ca/t/j5tr8]> [Global News - SEARCH - Andrew Berry] [Oak Bay News - SEARCH - Andrew Berry] [Search Results | Times Colonist - Andrew Berry] [Oak Bay Police Note - Twitter] [Photo exhibits from Andrew Berry murder trial - BC | Globalnews.ca] [Mom of slain Oak Bay sisters supports recent changes to Canada’s Divorce Act  | Globalnews.ca] [Chloe & Aubrey Berry Bursary Fund - Victoria Foundation] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 168 - On the evening of July 28, 2010, Nadine Anne Taylor, a 29-year-old woman in Halifax, Nova Scotia, left the Convoy Avenue apartment in Fairview she shared with her boyfriend, Gene. Nadine, who did not have a telephone, told Gene she needed to make a call, left her home and walked a nearby payphone to make a call. She was never seen alive again.  Sources and Further Reading: [CANADA - Canada - Nadine Taylor, 29, Halifax NS, 28 July 2010] [Police locate human remains | Halifax] R. v. Laffin, 2013 NSSC 135 (CanLII), < [http://canlii.ca/t/fx9dc] > R. v. Laffin, 2013 NSSC 136 (CanLII), < [http://canlii.ca/t/fxb17] > [Global News SEARCH: Steven Elliot Laffin] [Steven Laffin | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers] [Obituary of Nadine Anne Taylor | J Albert Funeral Home] [Fears grow for missing Halifax woman | CBC News] [Fact Sheet - Prostitution Criminal Law Reform: Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act] [Stepping Stone Nova Scotia | Sex Worker Support] [51 Weyburn Road - Dartmouth, NS - Google Maps] [Luminol - Wikipedia] [R.I.P Nadine Taylor - Facebook Group] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 167: On July 13, 1994, just after 2:00 am, police responded to a 911 call from Sebastian Burns, 18. Sebastian and his friend, Atif Rafay, also 18, claimed they had discovered ‘some kind of break in’ and multiple deaths at  Atif’s family home in Bellevue, Washington. A bloody crime scene awaited the first responders. All three of the victims, Tariq and Sultana, Atif’s parents and his sister, Basma, had been bludgeoned to death. Right away, something felt off to the Bellevue Police, who focused their attention on the pair of young men who’d reported the crime. But did they get it right? Sources: United States of America v. Burns, 1997 CanLII 3271 (BC CA),