Hangings in Montreal - a full list and stories of criminals executed by the noose

Photo collage of Marguerite Pitre hanging at Bordeaux Prison

   A gallows at Bordeaux Prison, not far from the heart of downtown Montreal, was where many criminals breathed their last breaths between 1913 and 1956, with the affairs frequently overseen by hangman Arthur English.
   Coolopolis has undertaken to provide some basic details of as many of these hangings as it could unearth. Hopefully this list will make you appreciate your freedom and good fortune.

1734 Black slave Angelique was hanged after setting a fire that spread and destroyed part of the city including Hotel Dieu.

1736 Two were hanged for counterfeiting currency.

1752 Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle killed Jean Favre and his wife Marie Anne Bastien in a robbery inside at a small chapel at what's now Guy and Dorchester. He was executed by 'breaking alive" on a wheel at Customs House Square in Old Montreal. A cross commemorating the event has sat at Guy and Dorchester since 1767.

1829 Three men were hanged in Montreal for theft of an ox.

1839 Rebellions Political rebellions led to the hangings of Joseph-Narcisse  Cardinal, (21 Dec. 1838) Joseph Duquet (21 Dec. 1838)  François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier (December 27, 1803 – February 15, 1839) François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier, Pierre-Théophile Decoigne (18 January 1839) François-Xavier Hamelin, Joseph-Jacques Robert, Ambroise Sanguinet, Charles Sanguinet, Amable Daunais, Charles Hindenlang (15 February 1839), Ambroise Sanguinet, Pierre-Rémi Narbonne (15 February 1839) and François Nicolas.  Amable Daunais on 15 Feb 1839. Hindenlang screamed "Vive la liberte" before dying. Nicolas said he regretted his actions.
A colourful newspaper description was reprinted across North America in 1887 relating the purported hanging of a one-handed rebel named Jules Delacroix in the late 1930s but it appears to be apocryphal.

John W. Hawlett 17 Dec. 1858 Got drunk and killed his wife. Judges Lafontaine and Aylwin wept openly when issuing the sentence on 22 Oct 1858. Only one newspaper mention is found of the affair so it's unclear if the execution took place or was commuted.

John Mawn 31 October 1861 A private in 16th British Regiment was hanged for killing Sergeant Edward Quinn, of Ireland, of the same regiment. Mawn had been drinking when he shot the well-liked Quinn inside the barracks.

Joseph Mack 24 Nov 1866 killed a fellow soldier in June 1866. A large crowd watched on as he fell through the trap and died instantly and the crowd swiftly departed.

John Lee 18 Nov. 1871  Lee, a 27-year-old Norwegian sailor was hanged for killing Mrs. Foster on 3 May. The 1870 law ordered that executions take place just before noon but that was changed in 1942 when all provinces agreed that they be held just before midnight.

Hugh Haynen Dec. 9 1881 for murder of William Salter, fellow convict. He was contrite and
hanged without any cover over his face. Sir John A. Macdonald declined to issue clemency.

Timothy Milloy 16 April 1883 for killing William Nesbitt, farmer at Longue Pointe.

Joseph Ernest Laplane (aka Laplaine) 13 Dec. 1901 for killing his boarding house mistress Madame Lefebvre on Notre Dame in St. Cunegonde (now St. Henry). He was in love with her.  He shot her in the head with the intention of killing himself afterwards. Instead he went to the police station to confess. Many people attended the hanging.

Thosvald Hansen, (aka Thorold, aka Thorval, aka, Thorwald Hansen) June 13, 1902 The Dane was hanged for stabbing, breaking the neck and killing Eric Marotte, 9, of Westmount to get 17 cents the boy was jangling in his hand. Marotte's brother found his brother's body later.  Hansen went to a police station and confessed. Tickets were sold to watch the hanging. They cost between 50 cents and $10.

Timothy Candy hanged 18 November 1910 for killing Constsables Fortin and O'Connell. Sheriff Lemieux deemed that it would be a strictly private affair. Candy explained that he carried a gun as part of his duties as night watchman Montreal factory. He was arrested after a disagreement at a store on 6 May 1920 and the two police officers twisted his arm while arresting him. Candy, as a reflex, fired the gun. The judge wept openly as he heard Candy tell the story.

Francisco Creola 26 May 1911 Hanged for killing Giuseppe China in a rooming house on Richmond Ave. in 1910. About 100 police officers oversaw an estimated crowd of 2,000-3,000 onlookers who could see the hanging from neighbouring roofs and windows, with some homeowners charging entry for the event.

Antonio Farduto 13 Dec. 1912 killed stone-cutter Louis Hotte, whose body was found in a lane near Clark street 30 July 1912. Farduto slashed the man's throat with a razor and stole his tools.

Carlo di Battista 20 Dec. 1912 di Battista, 48, killed Salvadore Macaruso on 22 July 1912 in a lovers triangle affair. Hanged in "the local jail yard." He threatened to resist but ultimately complied. He attempted to give a speech but hangman Ellis simply covered his head with a black cap.

William Campbell  24 January 1914, for slicing the throat in Montreal West of his girlfriend Lillie Jackson's ex-boyfriend George Muir in August 1913. Campbell had just gotten out of prison and was jealous that Hibbart was with Muir. Campbell was African-Canadian. This was said to be the first hanging at Bordeaux Prison. According to one report, the general public would no longer be permitted to watch executions after this, although police officer Arthur Lefebvre later said that he would rent a spot in his apartment nearby to allow people to watch the hangings.

Giuseppe Nuccera 27 September, 1918 Killed fellow Italian Belliol with an ax during a fight. Left his body in a deserted hut on Raymond Lane.

Exalaphat Pitou Benoit

Antoine Spracuse 12 September, 1919.
aka Antonio Sprecago and even Guiseppe Speccaci The Italian reportedly survived several minutes after his hanging after the drop failed to snap his neck. His heart beat for several minutes before a doctor pronounced him dead. He was sentenced for murdering James Robert, a Grand Trunk Railroad foreman in March 1918.

Patrick Delorme, Romeo Lacoste and Allen Murdock 23 January 1920. All three were hanged together for the murder of Alcide Payette, farmer at St Supice Quebec, on 17 August 1917.
After the hanging the Lacoste family obtained a court order to have the three wax likeness of the men being hanged removed from the Eden Museum on St. Lawrence in the Monument Nationale.

Wilfrid Saint-Onge 15 June 1923. The 21-year-old was found guilty of killing Nestor Gabrielovitch 1 April 1922.  He was declared dead 12 minutes after being dropped with the noose around his neck. Around this time federal MPs argued whether or not the Lord's Prayer should continue to be recited prior to hangings. It was decided that it should not be.

Louis Morel, Tony Frank, Frank Gambino and Giuseppe Serafini 24 October, 1924 The four were hanged together for their part in the shootout with police in the tunnel at Moreau and Ontario following a bank robbery. Serafini the youngest, was found to have a small metal saw blade hidden in his shoe when hanged.

Joseph Mauro 19 December 1926 for murdering Donald Carragher, 28, on 22 July 1926 at the Dreamland Club on the Main near Ontario. He ordered customers to line up to be robbed at gunpoint. Carragher was shot as Mauro aimed at Arthur Duffy of Malone, New York who was picking up a chair to attack Mauro. Duffy was hit in the neck but survived.

Georges Merle 5 August, 1927 for killing Andre Marelle in an apartment on City Hall Ave. 21 Dec 1926. Also accused was Ellie Baranes. Housekeeper Cordelia Ranger testified that Merle hit a woman that Marelle was with, named Armandine Reeves, in the parlour, leading to a quarrel that led to Merle shooting his former friend dead. Reeves herself testified that Merle had "sold her" previously for $20 to another man.

Joseph Chabot 8 February 1929 Chabot, a lumberjack, 38, was hanged at Bordeaux. A report stated that it was the "first time in the province that the death sentenced has been carried out without representatives of the press and public being present." Chabot had stabbed a woman in a rooming house dead 15 147 Vitre E. on 2 June. A large knife was found stuck in her throat. He immediately confessed to the murder, saying that she had provoked him by hitting him with a beer bottle. Chabot was descried as being "mentally below normal."

Normand Menard and Laurence Menard 20 December 1929 for killing John Earl Dunham of Charcoal Supply on 26 Feb. 1929. The hanged men were described as "Detroit-Windsor gunmen" and ballistics from Ontario provincial police led to the conviction.

Salvatore Laradello 11 July 1930, for murdering Vincenzo Dantoni, who was shot four times on the street outside of his home at 1075 St. Lawrence on 28 July 1929. The had been were old friends from Palermo. Also arrested was Giovanni Monarchia, who was released but rearrested for perjury.

Paul Belisle 19 December 1930. He  murdered Montreal police officer Constable Dollard Pelletier on 4 Aug 1930.  Bellisle, 31, was a father of a six-month old daughter and had been out of work for some time after driving a taxicab and working at the Montreal Tramways Company. He shot the cop in the abdomen after being caught trying to steal food for his wife and child from a shed behind a grocery store.

Thomas McHugh 28 January 1931 for killing Arthur G. Reid, DeLuxe Taxicab cashier on Jan. 28, 1931 at 4 a.m on Ontario Street near Jeanne Mance. Others charged were Thomas McHugh, who fired the shot, Maurice Clement Poismans, Amy Irish and Carmen Lefebvre. They were arrested seven hours later. Police believed McHugh was an alias for Thoams McCafferty who was wanted for killing a man in Philadelphia.

William Wilkinson 19 February 1932. Killed Marcel Dupre, 21, dead in a restaurant robbery on Amherst. Accomplice Jack Edgett was charged with manslaughter, which irritated Dupre as he figured he too should have been hanged.

Charlie Schwartz 5 May 1933 Schwartz, also called John Herman, was hanged for killing night watchman and war veteran John Jarvis  19 Sept 1931 at 1410 Stanley. "He was the first Hebrew to be hanged in the province of Quebec." His supposed accomplice Joe Bedetti was never caught.  Schwartz's black hair turned grey during his time on death row.


Phillias Pelletier 12 January 1934 for killing his cousin Marie-Ange Guerin on 20 July 1933. His case made news across North America after he was convicted on the basis of a button found at the crime scene.

Tomasina Sarao, 46, (nee Teolis), Angelo Donofrio, 19, and
Leone Gagliandi, 30, 29 March 1935 Trio hanged for killing Nicolas Sarao at Blue Bonnets for his wife seeking $4,500 insurance cash. Tomasina was decapitated after the hangman blundered in weight calculations. Hangman Ellis was forced into retirement after that blunder and lived a squalid existence until his death three years later in a rooming house on Ontario Street.

Joseph Alisero 3 May, 1935. Killed girlfriend Graziella Viens, 28, around 14 May 1934. She had been his mistress and her dead body was found jammed in the rumble seat of his car, abandoned on St. Dominique near Liege. She had been shot four times in the head. Alierso vigorously claimed his innocence.

Armand Marchand 5 June 1936. Marchand, 30, an unemployed shoemaker, killed his girlfriend Jeanne Lemaire, 35, with a  hammer in 27 August 1935.  Joe Branchaud, aka, Camille Branchaud likely a pseudonym, performed the execution, as well as others across Canada before he died around November 1972.

Gaetan Choquette 20 August, 1937 A 20-year-old farmhand was charged with strangling Mrs. Henri Brousseau, 31 of Chambly Road Longeuil. His motive was not clear. He had worked at the farm for 18 months. The victim's husband had died two months prior.  She had not been robbed.

Exelaphat Benoit 22 April, 1938. He hanged for killing Hyacinthe Cote on July 21, 1937. Cote was a landlord found strangled to death in the city of St. Laurent. Cote was a powerful man whose body was found in a ditch with a handkerchief knotted around his throat and hands tied behind his back. Also charged was Lionel Gauthier, who turned witness.

Louis Viau

Georges Dagenais, 6 May, 1938 The 22-year-old shot and killed J. Sylvia Benoit, a wholesale tobacco merchant from the Bonsecours Market on 22 Dec. 1937. Testifying as a witness against Dagenais was his 18-year-old accomplice Maurice Guibord. They had driven from a rooming house at 1212 Berri to the store in a car they had stolen the night prior.

Louis Viau, 20 January 1939  The 42-year-old was found guilty of slaying his wife Marie Louise Fournier with a hammer 29 October 1937, leaving her body on the rain swept street on Charlemagne Ave. just north of Sherbrooke. Homicide inspector Fitzgerald knew that she didn't die from a hit-and-run accident because the soles of her shoes were dry. The couple quarreled often at their place at 1435 Iberville where police arrested Viau in his bathtub within an hour. It was the first execution in Montreal since Arthur Ellis died.

Zenon Limoges

Achille Grondin, 44, 23 February 1940 and his new wife Marie-Louise, 40. They killed her first husband Vilmont Brochu in 1937 in St. Methode Beauce, with arsenic.  She said she resented the work her made her do, which ranged from clearing stones from the field to selling his meat and driving his taxi. She pleaded innocence but after found guilty she wrote the justice minister to ask him not to commute her sentence. The two ask the mayor to hold the execution elsewhere, so both were hanged at Bordeaux.


Marie-Louise Cloutier, 40, 23 February 1940, hanged for killing her ex-husband Villemond Brochu with arsenic in Aug, 1937 in St. Joseph de Beauce.

Zenon Paul Limoges, 33, 7 Dec. 1940, Montreal, for stabbing his wife Alphonsine Lecompte, 40, in the heart on the Lower Main when he caught her with new beau Marcel Berthiaume, 23. He claimed he only wanted to hurt her so she'd be taken to hospital where she'd have time to think.

Smythe

Gordon Smythe 19 September, 1941 for killing his landlord Jean Baptiste Beaudry, 70, on the porch of the home he was kicking him out of at 324 Egan on May 31, 1940.

Arthur Simoneau 23 January 1942 He killed wife Lucienne Boule at their small home at 330 Lagauchetiere E early on 3 June 1941. He was condemned to death on 23 October and was so indifferent to his own fate that he declined to sign paper requesting that his hanging be commuted. Simoneau had been discharged from the Canadian army as medically unfit and by the time of his execution weighed only 104 pounds.

Raymond Gagne 27 March 1942 for killing George E. Roberts, a school caretaker at the English School on St. Antoine Street in Joliette. Roberts' head was found cracked with a crowbar in the basement of the school on 13 Feb. 1939.

Laurent Lamirande 4 June 1943 The 21-year-old was hanged for clubbing to death Paulette Richard and killing her mother by fire at Amos Quebec in October 1942. He stole $200 and set fire to the home. A jury in Val D'Or needed less than an hour to declare him guilty on 8 October 1942. He was hanged in Montreal at Bordeaux.

Roger Beaudoin 20 August 1943 Beaudoin, a 23-year-old soldier on leave, went with his pal Lucien Valiquette, 25, to rob the Guaranteed Pure Milk company on night at 3140 Rouen in the east end. Valiquette got greedy and sought to rob elderly night watchman Francois Mignan, 62, of his $20 weekly pay. They slugged him in the face with a crowbar.

Albini Plouffe

Lucien Valiquette 20 August 1943 Duo killed night watchman Francois Mingan, 62, November prior. They killed the WWI veteran with a crowbar. See above and this writeup as well.

Albini Plouffe  2 March 1945 Part-time lumberjack Plouffe, 22, shot and killed girlfriend Jeanne d'Arc Marion, 21, outside of the home where she worked in Joliette on 9 November 1941. He led police on a 66-hour manhunt in the woods before being captured. He underwent two trials before Dr. Romeo Plouffe, Bordeaux prison medical officer, pronounced Plouffe dead 19 minutes after the trap was sprung at the gallows at Bordeaux.

Rolland Chasse

Roland Chasse, 15 February 1946 for killing little John Benson on snow Mount Royal Park 24 Feb 1945. More here.

Ovilda Samson, 12 July 1946 Samson, 53-year-old carpenter, bludgeoned to death Marie Anne Tougas, 40, and Leone Tougas, 45, (described as "spinsters") at their home in St. Jean on 1 September 1945. "I don't need a lawyer because I am guilty," he initially said. His attempt to retract his confession failed.

Edsel Harris

Edsel Harris, 23 August 1946. The 18-year-old, who lived at 6640 Des Ecores, was executed for bludgeoning Alderic Brodeur, 83, to death with a baseball bat in a robbery at 6649 D'Iberville on 15 November 1945. His girlfriend Liane Labelle, the 16-year-old granddaughter of the victim, testified against him. Liane had asked her grandpa to fix a light bulb. He was believed to have fallen off a ladder and died but police thought the head wound too severe to be from a fall. Harris had been making money as a pool shark after being laid off from Continental Can a few weeks prior. Liane  had told Harris that grandpa sometimes pinned $200 to his underwear. Liane was sentenced to three years in prison for her part of the affair and her mother five years for perjury. A jury returned in a mere 10 minutes to find Harris guilty and Judge Wilfrid Lazure ordered him hanged. "It's ok, I'd rather die than than spend the rest of my days in a jail cell."

Paul-Henri Dery 18 October 1946 For killing his aunt Mrs. Alfred Groulx with a hammer in February 1945 in Quebec City. He was 26 when he hanged at Bordeaux.

Leo Couture 18 July 1947 Justice Wilfrid Lazure, sentenced Couture, 45, to death after a jury found him guilty of murdering his father-in-law Anselme Lafomboise, 91 on 15 May 1946 in Ste. Genevieve de Pierrefonds.

Sylvio Albert

Sylvio Albert 21 May 1948. Taxi driver, originally from Ottawa, drunk, jealous, killed Tillie Deprato, 34, who he met through a lonely hearts newspaper exchange column. She was a single mom of a 16-year-old boy. The jealous Albert strangled Deprato by stuffing handkerchiefs down her throat at his rooming house at 5330 Chambord on Monday evening 25 Nov 1947. He left a note at the scene expressing his jealousy. (The strangulation-followed-by-sad-note murder method was practiced in two other Montreal cases from 1947. In both of those, the accused Paul Laplante, 43, and Roland Fiset, both saw their charges reduced to manslaughter. Fiset killed Annette Diotte, 39, at 1287 Labelle on Aug 1, 1947 and Laplante strangled his mistress, stenographer Madeleine Desrochers, 35, at the Ford Hotel. Laplante, 43, was a father of eight from Shawinigan and claimed in his note that he had done her a favour by killing her as she was distraught about not be able to marry him.)

Adrien Beaulne, 24 September 1948 For killing Edmond Gagnier at Lake Mimi near Val Morin. Judge Gerald Fauteux sentenced Beaulne to death in a court at Terrebonne on 12 June 1948. Beaulne, 56, killed Gagnier, 58, (his age varies wildly in different reports) around 9 August 1947 out of jealousy for a women he fancied, the Danish domestic Nana Willumson, also in her 50s. The latter two were employed helping around the summer cottage of Major General Frederick Ross Phelan, who led Canada's reserve army until his retirement in 1945, whereupon he made an unsuccessful run as as a federal seat as a Conservative. Gagnier's body was found near the lake's edge but his cause of death was never determined as his body was too badly decomposed.  Beaulne wrote in a confession."Gagnier opened his knife and told me he was going to fix me. I punched him. He fell. I saw after that he was dead. I lost my nerve and tossed him into a lake." Willumsun testified against Beaulne, saying she was "very fond" of Gagne and knew "Baulne was always against Gagne." Beaulne's sister threatened Willumson openly in court.

Noel Cloutier, 11 March 1949  for his involvement in the killings of police officers Paul-Emile Duranceau and Nelson Paquin on 23 September 1948 in a bank robbery at St. Juste and Notre Dame in the east end. Cloutier, 24, drove the getaway car.

Asselin

Roland Asselin 10 June 1949 for killing auto garage owner Ulric Gauthier of St. Telesphore. Asselin, of Coteau-Landing, was 37 and drove a taxi. He was found guilty of murder 15 July 1948, two years after Gauthier's body was found along the highway near Riviere Beaudette 10 November 1946. Gauthier's death was originally classified a suicide. Gauthier's wife later hanged herself in her basement. Asselin claimed that he had dropped Gauthier off safe and sound on the evening of his death. He later confessed that he shot Gauthier dead during a fight.  Both had been drinking heavily. A jury found Asselin guilty.

Douglas Perreault 17 June 1949 for killing officer Paul-Emile Duranceau on 23 September 1948. (See Noel Cloutier, above, and Donald Perrault, below, as well as this write-up)

Maurice Lebel 22 July 1949 The 28-year-old trucker hanged for bludgeoning to death taxi driver Wilfrid Dumais and bank manager Louis Philippe Breton, with a beer bottle, in Three Rivers on 1 July 1948. Lebel was arrested after a mechanic, Paul Perrault, 24, drove by and noticed "feet sticking out of the ditch." Efforts to have his sentence commuted due to his mental state all failed. His motive was theft.

John Boyko 26 August 1949 Boyko, a 60-year-old Ukrainian killed his spouse Tessy Olianski, 44,  with 26 hammer blows at 159 Rachel Street East. They had a disagreement over the division of profits from their chip wagon. "I'm glad I did it. I want no lawyer. I'm going to die anyhow." Boyko, two years later, (now reported as aged 62) killed a fellow inmate Nick Tedsco, 30, in St. Vincent de Paul prison. He blamed fellow inmates Tedesco and MP Fed Rose of trying to convert him to communism and was irritated when they called him a "fascist" and allegedly stole his tobacco ration. He was hanged by the neck until dead at 12:31 a.m. in the presence of the Sheriff L.P. Caisse, and Bordeaux prison warden Dr. Zenon Le Sage.

Donald Perreault, 25 November 1949 See Cloutier and Perrault, above. The two Perraults (sometimes spelled as Perrault) were not related. See above for more info.

Marcel Marcotte, 23 January 1950 Thirty-four-year-old hat salesman Marcotte killed his friend Marcel Boileau, 44, on 13 April 1947. He was twice tried and twice convicted of the crime of putting a bullet in Boileau's head and leaving him in the mud in Montreal's north end. The body was found by two young Jesuit priests walking through their religious order's property west of Papineau. Marcotte had stuffed Boileau's body in his car trunk and went to sleep at the dead man's home, telling his wife that he had gone to Toronto. He drove his daughter to church the next day with the body in the trunk. Marcotte insisted that Boilead had committed suicide.

Roger Trudel

Roger Trudel 5 May 1950 33-year-old Papnieau Theatre usher decided to rob movie buff Angelina Bessette, 48, after she started coming frequently to the theatre in 1948. Trudel noticed that she carried large sums of cash in her purse. He got on a bus with Bessette on 4 Dec. 1948 and got the driver to stop on the bridge. He explained he was going to visit his uncle on Ste. Helen's Island. Trudel beat her to death and disposed of his clothing in the east end. His lover's testimony doomed him. More here.






Thomas Rossler aka Joseph Olander 15 December 1950 Justice Wilfrid Lazure ordered the death penalty on Rossler, aka Joseph Olander, after a jury found Rossler guilty of killing RCMP police officer Alex Gamman dead in a botched holdup on 25 May on Beaver Hall Hill. "I always pass a death sentence with some regret. I'm obliged by law to so do. You have had a fair trial and your lawyer, a young named by my own office, defended you brilliantly. This murder is the logical end to your life of crime. May god have mercy on your soul," said Lazure. Olander's defence lawyer John Bumbray spoke to the jury about Olander's difficult childhood that led him to quit school at the age of seven because he was mocked terribly for stuttering. The appeal failed. "I gambled and I lost and now I'm here," said Olander. Before he hit the Bordeaux scaffold he quipped to jailers, "You run a fine hotel here. I'll leave you a letter of recommendation." Olander was of Polish decent and was twice deported from the United States, where he earned the nickname "The Montana Badman."

Albert Guay

J-Albert Guay 12 January 1951 (for the same plane bombing as Ruest and Pitre later) Guay planted a time bomb in his wife Rita Morel's suitcase to avoid divorce, so he could be with his mistress. The bomb killed 23 people aboard Flight 108. Guay committed the crime because he was enamored with Marie-Ange Robitaille, his 19-year-old mistress.







Marcel Gervais, 26, and his brother Gaston Gervais, 32, 14 March 1952 Brothers were executed for the crime of killing Maxime Gelinas, 70, a taxi driver in St. Etienne des Gres on 10 October 1951. The victim's body was found in the woods 20 miles from Louiseville.  Justice Lajoie wept as he read the sentence. The brothers were  hanged back to back, and apparently showed no emotion but the chaplain, who attended 14 such executions, said in a later interview that the brothers were the only ones who were not stoic while facing the noose.

Tommy Mullins  and Tommy Luckie 2 May 1952 Mullins, 23, and Luckie, 23, (nee Thomas Lucinkewich) shot William Sloan, 65, dead at his convenience store at 1986 St. Antoine West. on 22 January 1951. They claimed that Sloan first reached for a gun to shoot then, resulting in the fatal shot. The murder weapon was found under the pillow of Mullins' sister two days after the duo were arrested. A jury found the duo guilty and Justice Wilfrid Lazure meted out the death penalty, which was carried out in spite of much protestation.



Genereux Ruest, 25 July 1952  Clockmaker Ruest, who built the bomb that took down the aircraft, was the second to be hanged in connection with Canadian Pacific Airlines Plane bombing on 9 September 1949 that killed 23 over Cap Tourmente, Quebec.  Ruest claimed that he thought the bomb was to be used to clear tree stumps from a field. However ringleader Guay said that Ruest and Pitre were both in on the plan. Ruest was arrested 6 June 1950 and convicted in November. He suffered osseous tuberculosis and was brought to the scaffold in his wheelchair while very ill. His forehead hit the frame on the way down. He was 54.

Pitre

Marguerite Pitre 9 January 1953 Executed as part of the same air bombing as Guay and Ruest, above. Prison Chaplain Roger Jeannote said in a 1975 that she was the most hardened the 14 that he escorted to the noose. "She arrived at 5 p.m. from the women's prison. She insulted the nuns that were with her. She had been drinking. She sang a little ditty "prendre un coup c'est agreable." I talked a little with her in her cell She talked about her two children. We said the rosary dozens of times. She finally joined in, enthusiastically. 'I never thought you'd get me.'"







Peter Mentenko 6 March 1953 Mentenko, 28, was hanged as punishment for the murder of his half-brother George Henechuk, 24, whose skull was crushed in over a dispute over $10. The victim's body was found in an abandoned well an east end field on April 28, 1950.  Mentenko was found guilty after a third trial. At one trial, Mentenko's confession to Herald reporter John Walsh was deemed inadmissible. Mentenko told the reporter that he smashed Henechuk over the head with a metal bar because he felt sorry for Henechuk and couldn't bear to see him bullied.

Ciesla

Maximilian Ciesla 27 March 1953 Ciesla, 21, a Polish refugee immigrant, was hanged for killing garage owner Aureielien Houle, 32, on Sept. 10. He shot Houle in a hold-up at the restaurant garage in Yamaska East. Police caught him three weeks later sleeping in a tent on an island near Maskinonge.

Bertrand

Leo-Rheal Bertrand 12 June 1953 Bertrand, 22, had been married for 10 months to Rosanna Asselin, 20 when she died in a car accident on the pier of Lac St. Francois when the car she was in slid into the cold waters on 20 December 1934. Police were suspicious because the driver, Bertrand, was an experienced cabbie and the passenger door was missing its handle. Plus, they learned, he had taken out a large insurance policy on his wife in case she died in an accident. No charges were laid and by 1951 he was running a laundromat in Ottawa and had a part-time practice as a psychologist after getting a mail order degree from Chicago. He remarried to Rosa Trepanier 17. She died by fire at the campsite of a hunting lodge he had rented. Bertrand was charged with murder and wore a tuxedo to the proceedings.

Fortunat Dubuc

Fortunat Dubuc 30 October 1953 Dubuc, 53, poisoned his wife Adrienne so he could marry Micheline Perrault, 16. She was five months pregnant with his child at the time. Dubuc was a well-to-do-farmer from Saint Isidore de Laprairie. He confessed to putting strychnine in her juice. "I'd do it again. I was sick of seeing her face for 25 years." His love child was born 31 May 1953.

Picard

Lucien Picard

Lucien Picard, 44, 11 Feb. 1955 Picard, 43, a 4'11" unemployed machinist from Quebec City with a Charlie Chaplin moustache brought Raymond Trudeau, 6, into his rooming house room on 27 July 1954, where he strangled him and chopped him up.

Wilbur Coffin

Wilbur Coffin 10 Feb. 1956 In a still-famous case, the 41-year-old was found guilty of killing three Pennsylvania men deep in a forest in Gaspe in June 1953. Many books, articles, documentaries still claim his innocence.










John Cummings 1912 for murdering his wife. (commuted)

Julius Zazefsky sentenced to be hanged 11 July 1919. He was found guilty by jury of killing Polish compatriot Peter Dishkent Sept. 16, 1918. Dishkent's body was found in a pool of water in Verdun. "God knows I did not kill him," said Zazefsky.

Doris MacDonald, 22, commuted March 1928 The young American wife had been sentenced to death at Valleyfield for her role in the murder of a Lachine taxi driver. Her husband George MacDonald said she had no part in the murder, even though she confessed to it in the summer of 1927 while visiting Colorado.

Mary Viau, 42, 20 June 1929 a mother of eight, was set to be the second woman hanged in Quebec. Like her predecessor Cordelia Viau, she poisoned her husband. Also sentenced to death was Philibert Lefebvre, 32, a farmhand. She occupied the same cell at Fullum that Doris MacDonald had previously occupied.

Dominico Bifanio Killed Louis Guay, restaurateur on Lagauchetiere E. after he didn't receive change from a fifty cent piece. Guay blocked him from leaving, which ultimately led to the lesser punishment.

Fernand Clermont

Fernand Clermont, 1944 Just 15-years-old when he was sentenced to hang for killing Det.Sgt Henry Farmer, following 40 minutes of jury deliberation to find him guilty. The eldest of four siblings sobbed in front of a large courthouse crowd that included many fellow teen onlookers. Farmer had attempted to arrest Clermont and his 17-year-old burglary accomplice Leo Paul Boisvert when Clermont shot the unarmed officer dead at a home at 8420 Berri St on 12 March 1944. Clermont was sentenced to hang in August but the sentence was commuted.



Georges Marcotte, convicted Santa Claus killer who shot down two policemen in December 1962, was sentenced to hang on 28 May 1964 but his sentence was commuted by the attorney general of Quebec.

Francois Schirm and Edmond Guenette, FLQ terrorists who killed a man on Bleury in 1965 were sentenced to hang. About 200 sympathizers protested in front of the downtown courthouse to protest the punishment, which was commuted.

Mario Gauthier was sentenced to hang in a decision rendered on May 14, 1976, for the murder of a prison guard. It was the last such sentence in Canada as capital punishment was officially abolished two months later.


Elsewhere in Quebec 

Cleophas Lachance 28 Jan 1881 for murdering Odelide Desilets. Hanging took place in Arthabaska. He had stabbed her to death after she rebuffed his romantic advance on 29 March 1880. He then tossed her body into a nearby empty well. About 1,000 assembled to the prison to watch the proceedings but it's not clear whether they could see the execution from where they stood.
George C. McDonald  22 March 1928 for murdering Adelard Bouchard. Hanged in Valleyfield on the same scaffold used for hangings following the 1837 Rebellions. Arthur Ellis oversaw the affair.

Parslow

Cordelia Viau and Sam Parslow 9 March 1899 Viau and her paramour Sam Parslow were in Ste. Scholastique for the murder of her husband
Isidore Poirier. She was the first woman to be hanged in Canada (although another article references the hanging of a woman in Valleyfield in 1897, while another notes the hanging of a 16-year-old girl in 1649, killed for theft). A big crowd came into the town of 600, spending big money at local bars and hotels, to witness the event. Many tried pushing their way through the gates but were pushed back. Viau killed her husband by poisoning and Parslow admitted stabbing him as he slept.


Moraki and Dabeka in Quebec City.13 July 1920. Allan, described as "a negro from the Bordeaux jail," oversaw the proceedings. Neither of the two Romanian immigrants  appeared at all nervous before being hanged.
George MacDonald 23 March 1928 A confidence man was to be hanged for the murder of taxi driver Adelard Bouchard . His wife's sentence was commuted. No article can be found to confirm that he was hanged nor commuted.

Ford

Kenneth Ford 30 Oct 1953. Ford was 35 when he told police that his wife must have died banging her head slipping on soap the bathtub. Ford's first girlfriend had also drowned while pregnant at 18. His next victim was found dead in the basement and then he moved to Quebec where his third kill died in a car crash. They were all pregnant. It is said that Ford, 30, dangled on the rope for about 12 minutes before he died on Oct. 30, 1953 in Cowansville. It's not clear why he was hanged in Cowansville, as all hangings in Quebec took place at Bordeaux Prison in Montreal during that era.


Other notables 
Paul Kowalski, who lived in Montreal for 18 months after coming from Russia as a "dangerous alien" during WWI, went on to Hamilton where he robbed and killed Nick Trembluk. While in prison awaiting execution in Hamilton, Kowakski killed two prison guards and seriously injured two others in a failed escape bid in Dec. 1919. He was hanged in Hamilton.