David Murphy, 61, was found dead in his bedroom at Brimley Acres, a senior citizens’ apartment building at 2950 Lawrence Avenue East in Scarborough, on Monday, June 29, 1981. The Toronto Star reported that the superintendent found him after Murphy did not answer his phone. The Body Politic reported that police found the body just after 11 a.m.
The Star reported at the trial that Murphy had been struck more than 20 times about the face and head, fracturing his skull from ear to ear. An electrical cord was knotted around his neck, and pathologists believed it caused his death. A bloodied hammer lay on the body. In 1981 the Star reported that his apartment had been robbed and that neighbours had heard nothing.
Murphy was a freelance artist and a veteran of the Second World War, the Body Politic reported. He was unmarried. The Globe and Mail’s short item the next morning was headed “Bachelor, 61, strangled.” It counted him as Metro Toronto’s 23rd homicide victim of the year and said no arrest had been made. The Body Politic reported that neighbours described him as reclusive.
He was last seen alive on Saturday, June 27, at Les Cavaliers, a piano bar on Church Street, at about closing time, according to the Body Politic. The Star wrote that detectives knew he had been at the Cavalier tavern on Church Street, a bar popular with gay men, “looking for a pickup.” Trial reports later gave June 28 as the date of his death. It was a Sunday, and Toronto’s Lesbian and Gay Pride Day. Torontoist reported that about 1,000 people gathered in Grange Park.
Police issued a news release on June 30 describing Murphy as “a known homosexual” who frequented bars in the downtown core. Sgt. David Dicks, who was investigating with Staff Sgt. Tom Milne, told the Body Politic that the phrase meant Murphy’s family and friends knew he was gay, and that his family had agreed to the release. In April Dicks had declined to confirm that another victim, Marlon McRae, was gay. McRae had been found stabbed in the parking garage of his apartment building on March 1, and his family did not know.
The Body Politic counted Murphy as the eighth victim in five years in a series of unsolved killings of gay men. All eight died in what it called “overkill” attacks, and all but Murphy had been stabbed. It reported that the first press accounts of his death left out the series.
On July 4 the Star ran its story on Murphy under a headline about a model. Sheryl Gardner, 20, had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death in her Isabella Street apartment on July 2. The Star grouped her death with two others in busy apartment buildings in ten days: Murphy’s, and that of Donna Anne Proian, 30, who was found strangled and stabbed in her downtown apartment on June 23. It called Murphy a “homosexual freelance artist” and counted his death as the eighth mysterious killing of a gay man in five years. It reported that many gay men distrusted police after the recent steambath raids, and that detectives were finding many of them reluctant to talk. On February 5 police had raided four bathhouses and charged 286 men with being found in a common bawdy house and 20 with operating one, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
On July 14 the Globe and Mail reported seven murders in three weeks and 28 for the year in Metro. Staff Sgt. Ronald Sangster of the homicide squad said most of them were not related. Staff Insp. James Crawford, who headed the squad, said police had made no arrest in only three of the 28: McRae, Proian and Murphy.
In its September issue the Body Politic reported speculation in the Toronto press and in the gay community that hustlers had killed McRae and Murphy, possibly because both men had been robbed. Dicks told the paper he had “gut feelings” about the cases but no hard evidence that a hustler was responsible.
On September 18 police charged Andrew Guy Ritchie, 22, of Scarborough with McRae’s murder. On October 2 they arrested Dale Clarence Thompson, 31, at Joyceville Penitentiary and charged him with first-degree murder in Murphy’s death. The Globe and Mail, reporting it the next day, called him David Clarence Marshall Thompson, of no fixed address, and said he was in prison on an unrelated offence. The Body Politic reported that Thompson had escaped from a Kingston-area prison before Murphy died, had been recaptured by Ottawa police and returned to prison, and had been linked to the killing only after that. It reported that police had worked on the theory that McRae and Murphy met their killers in downtown bars, and had taken the victims’ photographs to the bars looking for witnesses.
On November 19 Lloyd Edward Wilson, 32, of Kingston, gave himself up and was charged with first-degree murder in Murphy’s death, the Body Politic reported. On January 21, 1982, police charged Edward Michael Holness, 23, with the murder of John Henry Martin, found stabbed in his Jarvis Street apartment on November 16. The Body Politic noted that charges had now been laid in four killings of gay men in 1981, a sharp break from a past in which few such cases ended in arrests.
Thompson, 32, and Wilson, 33, stood trial in July 1982 in Ontario Supreme Court before Madam Justice Janet Boland and a jury. Both pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Dan Kirby was Crown counsel.
Felix Dick, a forensic analyst with the Ontario Provincial Police, testified that a fingerprint on the hammer head was identical to the print from Thompson’s right ring finger. Sgt. James Tough of the Metro police testified that a bloody print inside Murphy’s bedroom closet came from “one source and one source only,” Thompson’s right index finger.
Wilson had given police a five-page statement on November 19. The Star reported that it said he struck Murphy’s head with the hammer and tied the cord around his neck while Thompson slept in the apartment. Wilson testified that he made the statement to shield Thompson. Dr. Allan Long, a psychologist who assessed Wilson, testified that Wilson was non-violent and had a pathological dependency on Thompson. Long said a person who commits such a crime generally does not remember it in detail, and that he saw nothing in Wilson’s circumstances to explain the killing unless Wilson had been insane. He found no indication that Wilson was psychotic or insane.
The Star’s sentencing report said Murphy invited the two men to his apartment in the early hours of June 28 after encountering them in Allan Gardens. The Body Politic, summarizing the trial, said he persuaded them to come home with him with promises of money, and that in the morning, when he refused to pay, they beat him with a hammer and strangled him with an electric cord.
A jury of six men and six women convicted both men of second-degree murder. Madam Justice Boland sentenced each to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for at least 15 years. She said, “This was not a killing but an execution,” and noted that neither man had shown the slightest remorse.
Kirby said Thompson had served penitentiary time for two robberies and committed the murder within a week of escaping from prison. Wilson had also served penitentiary time for robberies and committed it within three weeks of his release. Boland found Wilson in contempt of court when he refused to say everything that had happened in Murphy’s apartment. He was found in contempt 34 times during the three-week trial, and will serve two years and 10 months for it before his life sentence begins.
The Body Politic’s September 1982 issue reported that in June a jury had convicted Lawrence Perrault of the October 1981 murder of George Roach in Allan Gardens. Perrault, who admitted he was a hustler, testified that he was defending himself against violent sexual advances by Roach. The jury was not convinced. On August 12 the Metro Toronto Police Commission announced a shake-up in the senior ranks of the homicide squad, apparently in response to public concern over unsolved killings. Those included interior decorator Kevin McBride, 47, found stabbed in his Sheppard Avenue East apartment on May 17, and Rawle Ramnanan, 35, found tied up and stabbed in his Avenue Road apartment on August 7.
The record disagrees with itself in places. The Globe and Mail named the first accused David Clarence Marshall Thompson; the Star and the Body Politic called him Dale Clarence Thompson. Wilson’s age appears as 32, 33 and 38. The Body Politic placed the meeting in Allan Gardens in the early hours of June 27, the Star on June 28. The Star placed Brimley Acres on Lawrence Avenue East in 1981 and on Eglinton Avenue East in its trial reports.
Vital statistics
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | David Murphy |
| Age | 61 |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Freelance artist |
| Date of death | June 28, 1981 (body found June 29) |
| Manner of death | Strangulation and blunt force trauma |
| Location | Brimley Acres, 2950 Lawrence Avenue East, Scarborough |
| Accused | Dale Clarence Thompson, 31 or 32 (named David Clarence Marshall Thompson in the Globe and Mail, October 3, 1981); Lloyd Edward Wilson, 32 or 33 (38 in one Star report) |
| Charge | First-degree murder when laid; tried on second-degree murder |
| Crown counsel | Dan Kirby |
| Judge | Madam Justice Janet Boland, Ontario Supreme Court |
| Verdict | Guilty of second-degree murder, both accused (jury of six men and six women) |
| Sentence | Life imprisonment for each, with no parole eligibility for at least 15 years; July 1982 |
Sources
- The Globe and Mail, June 30, 1981, p. 5
- Toronto Star, July 4, 1981, p. A3
- The Globe and Mail, July 14, 1981, p. 5
- The Body Politic, September 1981, p. 14
- The Globe and Mail, October 3, 1981, p. 5
- The Body Politic, November 1981, p. 15
- The Body Politic, March 1982, p. 13
- Toronto Star, July 8, 1982, p. A8
- Toronto Star, July 21, 1982, p. A10
- Toronto Star, July 1982, sentencing report (day and page to be added from the clipping)
- The Body Politic, September 1982, p. 14
- Jamie Bradburn, “Toronto Bathhouse Raids (1981),” The Canadian Encyclopedia, February 3, 2013 (last edited April 17, 2018)
- Jamie Bradburn, “The March to Pride,” Torontoist, June 20, 2014
- City of Toronto web page for Brimley Acres, 2950 Lawrence Avenue East (copyright 1998 to 2017)
Murder Village Map