Stories of Murder in Toronto's Gay Village
On the night of Tuesday, December 15, 2015, Donna Maloney was wrapping Christmas presents at her home on McGill Street in downtown Toronto. She heard screams, the Crown told a jury in May 2018. She went to her door. She saw a man standing over another man and stabbing him. “What are you doing?” Maloney … Read more
At 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 23, 2000, a Toronto police cruiser spotted a black 1998 Volvo near police headquarters at Bay and College streets. The Toronto Star reported that the driver ran when he saw the cruiser. Officers stopped him a few blocks away, at Toronto General Hospital, at University Avenue and Gerrard Street … Read more
Just before midnight on July 30, 1993, a trail of blood led tenants of an 80 Charles St. East apartment building to the viciously beaten body of Norman Bernard Rasky, 62, a retired dentist. Residents followed the blood trail from the lobby of one building to the underground locker room of another, adjoining building. He … 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
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
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
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
Former Alderman and accountant Donald William Weir died on April 5, 1983. He was found naked in his bathtub with more than 40 injuries. A banana had been shoved in his mouth. Weir, 50, was found by firefighters who had rushed to his apartment in response to a security staff person’s call: a fire alarm … Read more
Early on Monday, November 16, 1981, a man came home to the sixth-floor apartment he shared at 550 Jarvis Street. His roommate, John Henry Martin, was on a blood-soaked couch with stab wounds to the chest and face, the Toronto Star reported. The roommate, Ross Ball, 33, had been away for the weekend. A knife … Read more
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 … Read more
The Toronto Star reported that a resident of an apartment building at 35 Wynford Heights Crescent, in North York, found a man lying in a pool of blood just inside the doors of the underground garage. It was about 4:45 on the morning of Sunday, March 1, 1981. The man had been stabbed several times … Read more
On the evening of Saturday, October 20, 1979, Micheline Ferland, 25, spoke to the Toronto Star on the steps of a house on Badgerow Avenue in east-end Toronto. Her left arm had been broken by a baseball bat that morning. “He was after Diane in particular,” she said. Diane Edwards was 36. At about 4:30 … 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
On Thursday, December 15, 1977, Neil Wilkinson’s employer called Metro Toronto police. He worked the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift at the Royal Bank, and he had not been to work for four days. Calls to his home had gone unanswered. Police went to his second-floor apartment on Charles St. E., near Church St. They found him … Read more