At 1:40 p.m. on Sunday, July 17, 1966, a room clerk at the Walsingham Hotel, 321 Jarvis Street, found a body in Room 114.
The room was at the end of a corridor at the back of the hotel, near the rear exit. The Globe and Mail reported that the dead man was nude and covered in blood. So were the furniture, the walls, the ceiling and the floor. A chair had been broken to pieces. The pieces of two broken whisky bottles lay among the debris.
The desk clerk told the Globe there was a large cut across the neck and that one arm was almost severed. The autopsy found multiple cuts to the head and a fractured skull. Police said he had been struck over the head with a chair. At first they were not sure what had made the cuts. Homicide detectives said robbery appeared to be the motive.
The dead man was Francis Desjarlais, 42, a school teacher. Some reports called him Frank.
Desjarlais had taught English and history for many years at high schools in the Georgian Bay area. In January 1966 he turned up in Toronto, broke and out of work. He applied for city relief and received it. He was on relief until April, when he went north to teach part-time at Hay River, in the Northwest Territories. His parents lived in Windsor.
When the school term ended, he started home. He reached Toronto on Thursday evening, July 14. On Friday, July 15, he took a $4-a-night room at the Walsingham. That evening, between 9:30 and 10, he was in the beverage room of the Bay House on Bay Street. It is the last place police could place him alive.
On Saturday night a man was seen leaving his room.
On July 20 the Globe and Mail published the witness’s description and a police artist’s drawing. The man was between 27 and 32, about five feet ten, and 150 to 160 pounds. He had regular features and well-groomed wavy hair. He wore a royal blue sweater with long sleeves and black vertical stripes, and dark trousers. Another paper gave his age as 30 to 32 and his height as five feet nine.
Police thought the killer had come through the beating unmarked, though he may have been spattered with blood. The rear exit was close to the room. Police believed he had walked out instead through the Saturday night crowd at the front of the hotel.
Sgt. Robert Bamlett of the Homicide Squad said it was one of the most ferocious attacks he had seen. Police said the killer had robbed the teacher. His clothing, papers and photographs were scattered around the room, his teaching credentials among them. Everything he owned had been packed in a single suitcase. His open wallet lay in the middle of the floor. Police thought he may have been carrying several hundred dollars.
The Globe’s headline that day called him a “jobless teacher.” He had just finished a school term.
On July 27 the Globe reported that police were offering a $2,000 reward. Thirty detectives were on the case, which the paper called one of the most savage in Toronto’s history.
On Sunday, August 7, police told reporters they were stymied by a 40-hour blank. They could not account for his movements between the Bay House on Friday night and the discovery of his body on Sunday afternoon. They released his photograph in the hope that someone who had seen him would come forward.
The Globe’s report that Monday added what police now said about the dead man. Desjarlais, “who police say had homosexual tendencies,” was known to frequent “tenderloin beverage rooms.” He was, the paper went on, equally at home in more sophisticated surroundings. Police thought he may have visited better parts of the city before his death.
Police also had more on the wanted man. He had used the name Paul. He may have had an associate named Joe or John. He had apparently stopped to comb his hair carefully after the killing.
The investigation followed the police’s account of Desjarlais. Detectives worked through a little black book found among the belongings scattered in his room. The Star counted almost 100 names in it, the Globe more than 100. Two constables, Phil Rome and Winston Weatherby, were assigned to the Homicide Squad. The Globe called them experts on night-time activity in mid-Metro. They and other officers frequented what the paper called “known haunts of homosexuals.” The Star reported that the squad went out dressed in old clothes.
At 11 p.m. on Tuesday, August 23, Rome and Weatherby arrested Karl Heinz Frankl, 23, in the beverage room of the Bay House at 572 Bay Street. It was the room where Desjarlais had last been seen. The Globe described Frankl as blond-haired and of no fixed address. The Star gave his address as Elm Street.
Det.-Sgt. James Noble and James Read of the Homicide Squad then drove through the night to Sault Ste. Marie. On Wednesday morning, Inspector Robert McKeown of the Sault police pointed out a man walking down Queen Street. They arrested John Collins, 33. The Globe described him as black-haired and of medium build. He had lived on Beverley Street in Toronto and had been in the Sault for several weeks.
Both men were charged with capital murder. Frankl was remanded for a week. Inspector George Seller told reporters the police drawing had not led to the arrests.
The next day, August 25, two women appeared in magistrate’s court as material witnesses. Therese Antoine, 31, and Dorothy Wemigwans, 20, both lived on Ontario Street. Police said they had “something to say” about the killing. Each was remanded on $1,000 bail.
On Monday, October 31, the case of Regina v Frankl and Collins was listed for trial in Courtroom 11 at Osgoode Hall. It did not go to a jury. Both men pleaded guilty to non-capital murder before Mr. Justice W. D. Parker of the Ontario Supreme Court. He gave each the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. The Globe reported they would be eligible for parole in seven years.
No defence was argued in open court, and the papers reported no evidence from the plea hearing. The record does not say why the charge was reduced from capital to non-capital murder.
The next summer, the Toronto Daily Star ran a profile of a young homicide detective. In passing, it praised the team that had spent two days in a Jarvis Street hotel room “looking over every speck of dust.” The man they had worked for was not named. The Star called him “a Windsor homosexual.”
What happened in Room 114 on Saturday night is not in the surviving reports. We do not know who used the name Paul, or which of the two men wore the striped sweater. We do not know what the two women told police, or how detectives came to Frankl in the Bay House. We do not know what, if anything, was taken from the room.
We have found no obituary for Francis Desjarlais. We have found no record of his birth.
The record also disagrees with itself. He appears as Francis and as Frank. He was killed on July 16 in some reports and July 17 in others. The bottle was a whisky bottle, a liquor bottle and a beer bottle. Collins appears as John, John Richard and Richard John, and Frankl once as Earl. In 1967 the Star said the arrests came months later. They came in five weeks.
Vital statistics
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Francis (Frank) Desjarlais |
| Age | 42 |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | School teacher; formerly English and history in Georgian Bay area high schools, then part-time at Hay River, N.W.T. |
| Date of death | July 16, 1966 (body found July 17) |
| Manner of death | Blunt force; throat cut with a broken bottle |
| Location | Room 114, Walsingham Hotel, 321 Jarvis St. |
| Accused | Karl Heinz Frankl, 23; John (John Richard or Richard John) Collins, 33 |
| Charge | Capital murder |
| Judge | Mr. Justice W. D. Parker |
| Verdict | Guilty pleas to non-capital murder |
| Sentence | Life imprisonment, October 31, 1966; eligible for parole in seven years |
Sources
- The Globe and Mail, July 18, 1966, p. 5
- The Globe and Mail, July 20, 1966, p. 5
- The Globe and Mail, July 27, 1966, p. 5
- The Globe and Mail, August 8, 1966, p. 5
- Brandon Sun, Brandon, Manitoba Mon, Aug 8, 1966
- Toronto Daily Star, August 24, 1966, p. 1
- The Globe and Mail, August 25, 1966, p. 5
- Toronto Daily Star, August 26, 1966, p. 2
- The Globe and Mail, October 31, 1966, p. 31
- Toronto Daily Star, October 31, 1966, p. 2
- Brandon Sun, Brandon, Manitoba Tue, Nov 1, 1966 p. 1
- The Globe and Mail, November 1, 1966, p. 5
- Toronto Daily Star, July 1, 1967, p. 67
- Toronto Police Service, Cold Case Files, Homicide #19/1968 (hotel address)
- Photographs: The Globe and Mail, August 8, 1966; police composite drawing
Murder Village Map