On October 9, 1976, friends went to the Prince Arthur Avenue apartment of Hugh Thomas Armstrong after he failed to show up for work. The Toronto Sun reported that they found his body on the bedroom floor, in a bathrobe. The Globe and Mail reported that he lay face down and that the apartment had been ransacked. A necktie was knotted tightly around his throat.
Armstrong was 42. He was organist and choirmaster at St. Clement’s Anglican Church on Jones Avenue, and he owned International Music Sales Ltd., a classical sheet music shop on Yonge Street near Bloor. On October 16, a notice in the Toronto Star thanked relatives, friends and neighbours for their kindness after the loss of “a dear son & brother.”
On October 22, Metro police announced a Canada-wide warrant for first-degree murder. They wanted a 16-year-old Brazilian-born boy, J.G.S., whose last known address was on Dovercourt Road. Police described him as a male model. They said that before Armstrong was killed, he had been visited by a young man from a male-modelling agency.
Staff Sgt. Gerald Stevenson and Sgt. Robert McLean of the Metro homicide squad traced J.G.S. to Winnipeg. The Toronto Star reported on October 28 that he had been arrested there the night before. At trial, the Globe and Mail reported that he surrendered when the detectives found him there on October 28. They brought him back to Toronto that night. The Toronto Sun photographed the detectives leading him into police headquarters and described him in the caption as a photographer’s model. He was charged with first-degree murder.
The Sun later reported what J.G.S. told homicide officers in a statement after his arrest. He said he met Armstrong on Yonge Street and was paid $50 for sex in Armstrong’s apartment. He said they had sex at other times. On the night before the killing, he said, Armstrong told him he loved him and “would never go to bed with another guy.” He said Armstrong wanted him to move into the apartment.
The next night, he told police, he arrived and saw another man leaving. He argued with Armstrong about the man. “My head turned off,” he said, and he put his hands on Armstrong’s neck and pressed. He then put a tie around the neck. When he checked, he said, Armstrong was dead. He told police he sold Armstrong’s watch to a man for $50 and took a bus to Winnipeg. He said he kept $100 in cash from the apartment, left some belongings in his rented room on Dovercourt Road and threw some of the loot into a garbage can.
The trial opened before Mr. Justice Dennis O’Leary of the Ontario Supreme Court on Monday, February 28, 1977. Crown counsel Robert McGee told the jury that J.G.S. had immigrated from Rio de Janeiro with his family the previous May. If convicted of first-degree murder, the Globe and Mail reported, he would face 25 years in prison and could apply for parole after 15.
McGee described Armstrong as “a practicing homosexual” who met J.G.S., a homosexual prostitute, in August. After the killing, he said, police recovered a pen bearing Armstrong’s name from J.G.S.’s room on Dovercourt Road. He said he would call two men with whom J.G.S. lived before and after the killing. One, he said, planned to use J.G.S. as a male prostitute. McGee said both would testify that on the night of October 7, J.G.S. left their apartment carrying a pair of handcuffs. He returned with a black briefcase holding jewelry, coins, pens, a camera and clothing. He handed one man the handcuffs and told him to wash off the blood. McGee said J.G.S. then told these men and another man that he had strangled Armstrong with the handcuffs and a tie and kicked him in the head. The prosecutor said J.G.S. spent the next week with the two men before going to Peterborough and Winnipeg.
McGee prepared the jurors for what they would hear. “Some of the evidence you will hear will shock you,” he said. He told them that some of the witnesses were self-confessed homosexuals, and that they should keep an open mind. The Globe and Mail’s headline read: “Will tie teen-ager to slaying, Crown says.”
On Tuesday, March 1, the jury heard a full day of evidence on a not-guilty plea, the Sun reported. Then, according to the Globe and Mail, the jury was told that the Crown might have trouble proving premeditation beyond a reasonable doubt. The jurors were asked whether they would accept a plea to second-degree murder, the unplanned kind. After an hour, the eight women and four men accepted it.
Second-degree murder carried a mandatory life sentence. Under amendments to the Criminal Code made the previous summer, J.G.S. would be eligible for parole after 10 years, and the jury could recommend a longer period. The judge told the jury that J.G.S. would probably be deported on release and that keeping a man in prison cost taxpayers about $14,000 a year. The Globe and Mail quoted him adding that he was “not suggesting that Canada should abandon its responsibility to the whole world.”
After two more hours, the jury declined to recommend more than the minimum 10 years. The jurors asked whether they could recommend quick deportation. Justice O’Leary said that decision belonged to immigration authorities.
The next morning’s papers led with the victim’s sexuality. The Hamilton Spectator’s headline read “Homosexual killer jailed for life.” The Sun’s read “Life for gay slaying,” under the banner “LOVER GUILTY.” The Globe and Mail’s read “Killed lover, Brazilian gets life sentence.”
The record disagrees with itself in places. Armstrong is 42 in most reports and 43 in the Globe and Mail of October 30. His street is Prince Arthur Avenue in most reports and Prince Arthur Drive in the Sun’s account of the sentencing. The Globe and Mail said he failed to show up at work the day before he was found, and the Sun said two days.
Vital statistics
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Hugh Thomas Armstrong |
| Age | 42 (43 in the Globe and Mail, October 30, 1976) |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Church organist and choirmaster, St. Clement’s Anglican Church; owner, International Music Sales Ltd. |
| Date of death | October 7, 1976 (body found October 9) |
| Manner of death | Strangulation |
| Location | Prince Arthur Avenue apartment, Yorkville, Toronto |
| Accused | J.G.S., 16, of Rio de Janeiro |
| Charge | First-degree murder |
| Crown counsel | Robert McGee |
| Judge | Mr. Justice Dennis O’Leary |
| Verdict | Guilty plea to second-degree murder accepted by the jury |
| Sentence | Life imprisonment, parole eligibility after 10 years, March 1, 1977 |
Sources
- The Toronto Star, October 16, 1976, p. 51
- The Toronto Star, October 22, 1976, p. 14
- The Toronto Star, October 28, 1976, p. 21
- The Toronto Sun, October 29, 1976, p. 14
- The Globe and Mail, October 30, 1976, p. 5
- The Globe and Mail, March 1, 1977, p. 4
- The Globe and Mail, March 2, 1977, p. 2
- The Toronto Sun, March 2, 1977, p. 14
- The Hamilton Spectator, March 2, 1977, p. 3
- The Standard (St. Catharines), March 2, 1977, p. 43