Identified 42 Years Later

The body of a young man was found by a passing motorist – who had spotted a partridge and got out of his car to hunt it – on December 17, 1967, in a wooded area near Balsam Lake Provincial Park, near Coboconk. The victim was wearing one white tennis show. He remained unidentified for … Read more

Mysterious Life, Mysterious Death

Bruno Max Seidel led a quiet, mysterious life and died a mysterious, unsolved death. Police were called to a rooming house at 103 Hamilton St., where they found Seidel with three stab wounds in his chest. They originally through the wounds were self-inflicted, until they found two more stab wounds in his back. Seidel, 57, … Read more

Wayward in the Walsingham

High-school teacher Francis Desjarlais, known to police for his “homosexual tendencies,” was found beaten to death on July 17, 1966 in a $4 room at Toronto’s Walsingham Hotel at 321 Jarvis St. The Walsingham was part of a notorious section of Jarvis St. that included murder, prostitution and theft in various low-rent hotels. Less than … Read more

Cab Ride To Death

On January 9, 1965, thirty-five-year-old Aiden Francis MacDonald met up with William Alexander Mackie, 19, and Robert Michael Black, 18, and took a cab ride to his death. MacDonald was known to frequent the BaBloor Hotel at 1163-1167 Bay Street, between Charles and Bloor Streets at the end of the day after his work as … Read more

Murder Then The Beach

On July 16, 1963, Ronald John Grigor, a 30-year-old bank account, met and was murdered by Glen John Seip, just 15 at the time. Grigor was found dead in his Shelborne Ave. apartment two days later by police. Grigor had taken Seip home and was murdered for his “homosexual advances,” according to Seip’s defense, which made … Read more

From Ford to Farnham

Alexander Bakalis was 40 years old when he met Joseph Normandin, 20, at the Ford Hotel’s cocktail lounge on May 3, 1960. They each drank seven or eight bottles of beer, according to waiter John Markovitch. Bakalis, a clothing salesman, was found May 4 stabbed to death in his basement apartment on Farnham Avenue. He … Read more

Chef Killed With Whiskey Bottle

In 1957, when 43-year-old Cecil Burns lived at the Edwin Hotel at 650 Queen Street East, it was a little seedy and rundown, with a nightclub on the first floor and a rough clientele. Burns, a professional chef, had the misfortune of meeting Wayne Ronald Mullen, 20, and inviting him back to his hotel room … Read more

Kew Beach Cruelty

Leslie William Gordon (Jack) Hern was a 36-year-old waiter who worked as a steward on CN trains in the “flashy railway dining car”. On the night of July 27, 1949, Hern met Harvey Southerby, who called himself Louis Martinello when they met. He also called himself Martinello when he was arrested and charged with Hern’s … Read more