Stories of Murder in Toronto's Gay Village
On Monday July 14, 2008, sixty-four-year-old William Ross Magill was pronounced dead at his home on 40 Delisle Avenue. He had been stabbed. Magill, how usually went by Ross Magill, had been a gifted interior designer prior to his three-year descent into sex and drugs and alcohol. Friends said he had begun to bring home … Read more
On Friday, June 2, 2006, Toronto police responded to an emergency call at a 10th-floor apartment on Strathmore Boulevard, near Coxwell and Danforth avenues. CityNews reported that police were called after reports that a man was unconscious. Inside they found Lawrence Callahan, 64. He had serious head wounds, CityNews reported. The Star reported “obvious signs … Read more
Cassandra Do had arranged to meet her brother and sister on the evening of Monday, August 25, 2003. When she did not answer her door or her cellphone, they asked the building superintendent to let them in. The Toronto Star reported in 2006 that she was found face down in a bathtub full of water, … Read more
At about 6:58 a.m. on Friday, January 19, 2001, Toronto police were called to 1 Spadina Crescent, a University of Toronto building north of College Street. A caretaker had found a man on the second floor. Emergency crews tried to save him. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Det. Ken Taylor, the lead homicide … Read more
On Monday, December 16, 1996, employees at an industrial complex on McLevin Avenue in Scarborough noticed that someone had apparently set a fire in one of the dumpsters, the Globe and Mail reported. The Toronto Star described a smouldering dumpster in the Sheppard Avenue East and Markham Road area. The body inside was burned beyond … Read more
At about 8:30 on the morning of Tuesday, September 12, 1995, the superintendent of an apartment building on Cosburn Avenue, near Pape Avenue in East York, let a Metro police officer into a third-floor apartment. A friend had asked police to check on the tenant after no one heard from him over the weekend, the … Read more
At 4:44 a.m. on Sunday, December 4, 1983, Charles Furlong heard Thomas Cahill call out his name. Furlong, 47, was a tenant and friend at the Berkeley Street house. He went downstairs and found Cahill lying in a pool of blood in the hall, the Toronto Star reported. He called police. The National Post later … Read more
On Saturday night, March 19, 1983, Graham Hugh Pearce went out with a friend. They had a drink at Boots, a gay bar, and went on to Stages, a disco on Yonge Street. The Body Politic reported that they danced until 3:15 a.m., walked up Yonge to Wellesley Street and parted there at 3:30. Pearce … Read more
At about ten o’clock on the morning of Saturday, August 7, 1982, Robert Thomson used a passkey to open an apartment door on Avenue Road, near Eglinton Avenue West. Thomson was acting as superintendent of the building for the weekend, the Toronto Star reported. A neighbour had complained all night about loud music from an … Read more
On Tuesday, November 28, 1978, Duncan Robinson failed to turn up for work for the second day in a row. His sister, Catherine, asked police to check on him. Officers forced their way into his apartment on Vaughan Rd. and found his body in the bedroom. Toronto police records give the time of the call … Read more
On the evening of Wednesday, September 20, 1978, three men kicked in the door of an apartment on St. Joseph Street in downtown Toronto. Their friend had not answered their knocks or their phone calls. They found him in the bedroom, the Toronto Star reported. The Toronto Sun said he was lying in a pool … Read more
Just after midnight on Thursday, May 5, 1977, three youths attacked a man in Allan Gardens. They beat him and kicked him in the head. When people came toward them to help, the three ran. The man’s wallet was left on the ground beside him. At about 12:15 a.m., police were called to the area … Read more
On the morning of Monday, September 20, 1976, John Fretz, the superintendent at 262 Jarvis Street, went into a sixth-floor apartment. Another tenant had complained that its door had been open since Sunday. It was unlocked. Inside was the nude body of the man who lived there, James Stewart Kennedy. “When I found him he … Read more
On the morning of Wednesday, February 11, 1976, a young man went to a rented bungalow on Elmhurst Avenue in Willowdale. He had lived in the house himself until about seven months earlier. He found James Douglas Taylor dead in the bedroom. The Toronto Police Service file records a call at about 10:20 a.m., and … Read more
At about 8:50 on the evening of Saturday, December 20, 1975, police responded to a 911 call at the St. Charles Tavern, 484 Yonge Street. The Toronto Police Service recorded that the victim was inside the tavern, suffering from blunt trauma. Homicide detectives later told the Toronto Star that he had been found in the … Read more