Stories of Murder in Toronto's Gay Village
Akim Fleming and his partner Rajiv Ralph were murdered on February 27, 2024 near their 111 Hickory Tree Road home. Both men were shot in the early morning hours. A black SUV, or possibly 2 vehicles, were seen fleeing the scene. The two men were shot at around 4:40 a.m. just 500 metres from their … Read more
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
Although it took the jury less than four hours to acquit Ivan Mendez-Romero of killing his lover Janko Naglic, and no other person has ever been charged, Toronto police consider Naglic’s murder to be “case closed.” Naglic, 58, was murdered on October 27, 2004 and found in his home on Balliol Street. Naglic was renowned … Read more
David Buller was murdered at his desk at the University of Toronto’s Visual Studies department at 1 Spadina Crescent. On January 18, 2001, he was stabbed repeatedly and died in his office, to be found by a caretaker the next day. Det. Sgt. Ken Taylor said that despite Buller, 50, having been stabbed repeatedly in … Read more
Instead of celebrating a shared birthday with her twin brother, Mary Perra spent her 38th birthday burying him. Paul Armstrong’s charred body was found December 16, 1996, in the garbage behind an industrial complex. He was last seen by his roommate in their Leverhume Crescent home on Saturday morning, who said Armstrong left their house … Read more
On the night of January 6, 1984, a lover’s triangle went very wrong for twenty-nine-year-old Christine Lavery Clifford. She was stabbed to death. Hers was the first murder of the year. Clifford was attacked in a ninth floor apartment of 31 Gilder Drive. She had been stabbed six times in the chest and back. She … 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
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 3:43 a.m. on Tuesday, February 18, 1975, Toronto police headquarters took an emergency call. The caller, a man, would not give his name. He said there was “trouble” at 286 Borden St., near Bloor Street West. Police later traced the call to a phone booth about a mile away. A squad car went to … Read more
At about 10 a.m. on Friday, January 20, 1967, Toronto police answered an emergency call to a rooming house at 103 Hamilton Street, near Broadview Avenue and Dundas Street. A fellow roomer had found Bruno Max Seidel dead in his room. Police at first thought the three knife wounds in his chest were self-inflicted, the … Read more