Stories of Murder in Toronto's Gay Village
Apparently, fifty-five-year-old Dennis McDonald inspired such terror in his killer, he was stabbed 10 times. In the back. Then he bled to death. The killer, 19-year-old Guy Simon, was “absolutely thrilled” when he was acquitted of the murder. On December 18, 1989, moving company owner McDonald was attacked by Simon, who was 17 at the … Read more
At about 10 a.m. on Friday, October 27, 1989, Metro police were called to an 11th-floor apartment at 800 Richmond Street West to investigate a “person who was ill,” the Toronto Star reported. Ambulance attendant Annie Cavally later testified about what she and her partner found. “He was cold,” she said. “He was very pale. … Read more
Charles Albert Lizotte’s body was seen being tossed out a speeding U-Haul truck on October 4, 1988. The dumping of the 30-year-old man, who lived on Shuter Street, was seen by a 9-year-old boy playing in an Ontario Hydro right-of-way in Pickering. Lizotte had been shoved into a sleeping bag thrown to the side of … Read more
Twenty-two-year-old David Madden was an X-ray technician at a chiropractic clinic who had moved into a new Scarborough apartment just three weeks before his death. On March 19, 1988, Michael Edwin Linhart, 29, stabbed Madden 64 times including in the heart. His body was found by his roommate in their Prudential Drive apartment. Police said … Read more
A fight over which side of the floor cushions they would sleep on, cost Charles Robert Welbanks, 38, his life. Welbanks’ on-and-off lover of eight years, John Ralph Taylor, 46, stabbed him four times in the heart over the dispute on February 6, 1988. Welbanks, whom police thought was a woman because of the clothing … Read more
Early on Sunday, September 6, 1987, police went to a house on Miller Street in the Davenport and Weston Roads area of Toronto. A woman had telephoned to say they would find a body there, the Toronto Star reported. In a basement apartment they found Marlene Ann Collins, 34, with a plastic grocery bag tied … Read more
Allan Charles North, 54, was found murdered seven to ten day after his death on approximately May 3, 1987. North was a hairdresser, and his body was found in the back of his hairdressing salon, the House of North at 398 Dundas St. East. A postmortem examination showed he died of asphyxia. North lived with … Read more
Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, April 14, 1987, police found Paul Lopez Monte-de-Ramos, 38, dead in his Sherbourne Street apartment, the Globe and Mail reported. The Toronto Star’s year-end list of homicides said police forced their way in and found him strangled. According to the Star, investigators had received a telephone tip that he had … Read more
At about four in the afternoon on Monday, March 2, 1987, Metro Toronto police answered a call for help at a basement apartment on Northcote Avenue. Constable Leon Johnson found Lisa Black on a bed. Two years later he told a jury he could detect only a faint pulse. He said he came to recognize … Read more
David and Clara Kasdan found their son on the floor of his Blackthorn Avenue condominium on Wednesday, August 6, 1986. David Kasdan told Canadian Press that Edwin was just inside the front door, face down and fully clothed, and that they saw blood on his face when they turned him over. Edwin Kasdan, 55, had … Read more
Late on Monday, December 16, 1985, a resident on the 16th floor of a Carlton St. highrise grew worried about the newspapers piling up outside a neighbour’s door. The building superintendent, Harry Lucas, checked the apartment. In the bedroom he found the partially clad body of Peter Ager, the Toronto Star reported. Ager was 31. … Read more
Public school librarian Kenneth Zeller, 40, was mobbed in High Park by five teenage boys. He would be found later, slumped in his car. He had been chased by five young men, caught and beaten, dying of head injuries. They left him unconscious. It was the last day of school for the killers before summer … Read more
Eleven months after the stabbing, Assistant Crown Attorney Karen Dunlop told an Ontario Supreme Court jury that on the night of December 20, 1984, Joyce Lorraine Filshie banged on a neighbour’s door and cried, “Come quickly! I’ve stabbed Phil!” Dunlop said Joyce had blood on her hands and that a bloodstained knife lay on the … Read more
Police were called to a ninth-floor apartment on Gilder Drive in Scarborough at about 11 p.m. on Friday, January 6, 1984. The Toronto Star reported later that they found Christine Clifford, 29, with several stab wounds in her abdomen. Alanna (Maume) Smith, 25, who lived in the apartment, was unconscious on the couch. Clifford was … Read more
The day after Martha Babb died, David Thomas Muir stopped a friend on the street, the Toronto Sun reported. Sergeant Neale Tweedy of Metro police later testified to what Muir said: that “he had killed a girl and she was in his bathtub.” The friend phoned police. Officers went to the apartment and found the … Read more