True crime, legends, folklore, dark history and other creepy topics from the perspective of real Canadians.
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Episode 437: Tyrone William âTyâ Conn became the first man in over forty years to climb over the wall at Kingston Penitentiary, Canada's oldest and most secure federal prison. Born to a teenage mother in 1967 and adopted at age three by a prominent Belleville psychiatrist, his childhood unravelled into a cycle of theft, institutionalization, and escape that would follow him for the rest of his life. By the time he was thirty-two, a string of armed bank robberies and repeated prison breaks had compounded into a forty-seven-year sentence, a number that raised eyebrows given that not one of his crimes had ever physically harmed another person. On May 6, 1999, using a homemade ladder and a length of sewn canvas, he scaled Kingston's wall and disappeared into the Ontario countryside, setting off a thirteen-day manhunt that captivated the country. What happened when police finally caught up with him in a Toronto basement apartment two weeks later remains, to this day, a matter of dispute, one his own mother was never able to get answered.
Sources:Tyrone William Conn | Brief BiographyTy Conn: A Life Imprisoned (2000) | The Fifth EstateTy Conn : My Brother The Outlaw | YouTubeTy Conn : My Brother The Outlaw | FacebookWho Killed Ty Conn by Linden Macintyre, (Paperback) | IndigoTy Conn Project Materials - York UniversityTy Conn | WikipediaTyrone Conn's escape ends in death | CBC News7 Things You Need to Know About Kingston PenitentiaryNiagara Falls Review âą Wed, Mar 14, 1984 âą Page 8The Kingston Whig-Standard âą Thu, Mar 15, 1984 âą Page 1The Ottawa Citizen âą Sat, Mar 07, 1987 âą Page 8The Kingston Whig-Standard âą Fri, Jun 30, 1989 âą Page 2The Kingston Whig-Standard âą Mon, Dec 18, 1989 âą Page 9The Kingston Whig-Standard âą Thu, Jun 28, 2001 âą Page 1The Kingston Whig-Standard âą Thu, Jun 28, 2001 âą Page 10
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Wrong Turn: The Disappearance of Brady and Halkett
Episode 435: In November 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army began launching paper balloons from the coast of Honshu â each one carrying incendiary and anti-personnel bombs, designed to ride the jet stream across the Pacific and set fire to the forests of North America. They called the program Fu-Go. Canada called them White Paper. Over the following five months, more than sixty balloons came down on Canadian soil, from the British Columbia coast to Manitoba, and a small team of Canadian Army bomb disposal officers spent eight months recovering live ordnance from some of the most remote terrain in the country under a blanket of total secrecy that reached all the way to the Prime Minister's office.Â
Sources:
Fu-Go Balloon Bomb â WikipediaJapan's WWII Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America â Smithsonian MagazineBalloon Bombs: Japan's Answer to Doolittle â National Museum of the United States Air ForceOn Paper Wings â IMDBOn Paper Wings Retrospective â Oregon HumanitiesOn Paper Wings â Oregon ArtsWatchOn Paper Wings Screening â Japanese American National MuseumOn 75th Anniversary, Bly Remains Connected to Tragic WWII Event â Herald and NewsJapanese Balloon Bomb Explosion Location â PBS History DetectivesWWII-Era Balloon Bomb in B.C. Blown to Smithereens â Global NewsBC Studies No. 203 â Balloon Bombs, the Alaska Highway, and Influenza: Tsek'ehne Perspectives â BC StudiesEast, Captain Charles A. Japanese Balloons of World War Two. Prince George: College of New Caledonia Press, 1993.Coen, Ross. Fu-Go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.Mikesh, Robert C. Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973.
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Episode 434: On the morning of February 25th, 2005, Crystal Taman, a forty-year-old dental assistant, wife, and mother of three, left her home in East St. Paul, Manitoba on her way to work. She never arrived. Stopped at a red light on Highway 59 at the Perimeter Highway, her car was struck at highway speed by a blue Dodge Dakota truck driven by an off-duty Winnipeg Police Service constable named Derek Harvey-Zenk, who had spent the night drinking with fellow officers at a north-end bar and a colleague's home. Crystal died on impact. Harvey-Zenk refused to provide a breath sample and was charged with impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death, criminal negligence causing death, and refusal to provide a breath sample. More than two years later, all charges except dangerous driving causing death were stayed in a plea deal, and Harvey-Zenk was sentenced to two years less a day â served at home, with no conditions. The outcome sparked a public inquiry.
Sources:TAMAN CRYSTAL - Obituaries - Winnipeg Free Press PassagesTaman Inquiry | WikipediaCrystal Ann Sveinson Taman (1964-2005) - Find a...http://www.tamaninquiry.ca/May 2012: No memory of fatal crash: Harvey-Zenk | Winnipeg Free PressReview clears police force after controversial case | Global NewsHarvey-Zenk appeared tired, not drunk, at party before crash, inquiry hears | CBC NewsProvince of Manitoba | Archived News Releases | Taman Report PublishedFormer cop finally takes the stand | Global NewsMajor changes to how police officers will be investigated | CTV NewsPolice told cousin Harvey Zenk was drunk | Global NewsJun 2012: Ex-officer from Taman inquiry sues RCMP, police | Winnipeg Free PressBringing the Thin Blue Line into Line: Bill 16, the Police Services Act, 2011 CanLIIDocs 256Disgraced copâs lawyer slams Taman inquiry | Global News
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If Anything Should Happen: The Ottey Sisters Murders
Episode 433: On August 16, 1995, Avis Ottey came home to her townhouse in Scarborough, Ontario, expecting to find her daughters packing for the future. Instead, she found nineteen-year-old Marsha Ottey and sixteen-year-old Tamara "Tami" Ottey murdered in the basement.
Marsha was just two days away from leaving for Arkansas State University on an athletic scholarship she had worked years to earn. She had also confided something chilling to her mother while packing her bags: "If anything should happen to me, it's Rohan."
What followed was a seven-month investigation that stretched beyond the murders of the Ottey sisters. Two unsolved sexual assaults, a seemingly unrelated killing at a Toronto subway station, that of TTC employee Dimitrija Trajceski, DNA evidence, and the largest manhunt in Toronto Police history ultimately exposed the truth behind a crime driven by obsession, control, and extraordinary violence.
Sources:https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/1999/1999canlii14909/1999canlii14909.htmlhttps://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2003/2003canlii15438/2003canlii15438.htmlhttps://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2003/2003canlii32900/2003canlii32900.htmlhttps://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2003/2003canlii52177/2003canlii52177.htmlhttps://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2011/2011onca311/2011onca311.htmlhttps://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc-l/doc/2012/2012canlii5501/2012canlii5501.htmlGuilty verdict in 1995 slaying of Toronto sisters | CBC NewsWalk in memory of Agincourt Collegiateâs Ottey sistersIf anything happens to me: The murder of the Ottey sisters | Global NewsCrime Beat: If Anything Happens To Me - The Ottey Sisters | S1 E8Murder suspect appears in Canada court - UPI ArchivesMANDEL: Killer of Ottey sisters granted 60-day unescorted passRosie DiManno: Killer of the Ottey sisters, now out on parole, still has a life ahead of him, unlike his victimsMANDEL: Killer of Ottey sisters granted full parole despite riskISN CEO Revisits One of His âMost Challenging Casesâ In Global TV's âCrime Beatâ Episode88 Valley Stream Drive, Toronto, ON, CA
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Episode 431: In the fall of 2011, the first of three indigenous women disappeared from a stretch of Winnipeg's West End that those who worked there called the Street of Tears. Their families searched, put up posters, and made phone calls that went nowhere. The man believed responsible had been known to police for decades. His criminal record ran to 109 convictions. He was already on their radar when the final woman disappeared. This is the story of Tanya Nepinak, Carolyn Sinclair, and Lorna Blacksmith.
Sources:
Shawn Lamb coverage index â CBC News
Tanya Jane Nepinak â CBC News
Shawn Lamb sentenced to 20 years for two slayings â CBC News
Police paid killer Shawn Lamb $1,500 for information â CBC News
Winnipegger speaks about life on streets, alleged assault by convicted killer Shawn Lamb â CBC News
Shawn Lamb gets statutory release â CBC News
Convicted killer Shawn Lamb must stay at halfway house â CBC News
Shawn Lamb pleads guilty to killing 2 women â Global News
Landfill search progressing for Ashlee Shingoose; Tanya Nepinak family hopeful â Global News
Parole Board grants Indigenous Winnipeg killer Shawn Lamb statutory release â APTN News
Statement on Brady Road Landfill Search for Ashlee Shingoose and Planning for Tanya Nepinak â Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs
NFSC Calls for Justice and Accountability Following Statutory Release of Shawn Lamb â National Family and Survivors Circle
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Episode 430: On the morning of May 28, 1998, police were called to a home on Encino Avenue in Encino, California. Inside the master bedroom, they found Phil Hartman â one of the most versatile performers in the history of North American television â shot three times at close range while he slept. His wife, Brynn, had pulled the trigger sometime around 2:30 in the morning, then driven to a friend's house and confessed. By the time police arrived, she was back in the bedroom. She never came out.
Phil Hartman was 49 years old and born in Brantford, Ontario. He had just wrapped his fourth season of NewsRadio. He had a film opening in July. Behind the public face of a thriving career was a marriage under years of sustained pressure â addiction, relapse, escalating volatility, and a final argument that ended in the worst possible way. The motive was listed as unknown. It remains unknown.
Sources:
Los Angeles County Coroner Case Report, Investigator's Report, Autopsy Report & Toxicology â Case No. 98-03785
Hartman's Death: The Police Version â Time, June 3, 1998
Reaction & Sanctions â NPR, May 28, 1998
Disturbing Details Found In Phil Hartman's Autopsy Report â Grunge, 2024
The Last Days of Phil Hartman â ABC News / 20/20, 2019
Phil Hartman â People Magazine, 1998
Jon Lovitz Blames Andy Dick for Hartman's Death â CBS News, 2007
Phil Hartman Wrongful Death Lawsuit / Zoloft â Salon, 1999
Birgen Hartman on her father's Simpsons legacy â The Hollywood Reporter, 2022
Brantford to honour Phil Hartman with mural â CBC News, 2024
Phil Hartman â Canada's Walk of Fame
Phil Hartman â Brantford Walk of Fame
You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman â Mike Thomas
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