Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Episode 432: In February 1884, a Scottish storekeeper named James Bell was shot dead in his cabin along Telegraph Road in Washington Territory, just south of the Canadian border. Within days, a fifteen-year-old Semá:th boy named Louie Sam was arrested on suspicion of murder and placed in lawful Canadian custody on Sumas Prairie. He never made it to trial. On the night of February 27, a mob of seventy armed and disguised men crossed the international boundary from Washington Territory into British Columbia, took Sam from his cell, and hanged him from a roadside tree 169 paces north of the border. No one else was ever charged for Louie Sam’s lynching, and the investigation into Bell’s death seems to have stopped with Sam’s death.

Sources:

Deadly Neighbours — Chad Reimer (Caitlin Press, 2022)

The Lynching of Louie Sam — Keith Thor Carlson, BC Studies No. 109, Spring 1996

The Lynching of Louie Sam — John Vaillant, The Walrus, December 2008

Lynching Information — Tuskegee University Archives

An American Mob Crosses the Canadian Border and Lynches Louie Sam — HistoryLink.org

Our Territory — Sumas First Nation

Sq'éwlets: A Stó:lō–Coast Salish Community in the Fraser River Valley

Daily Colonist (Victoria, BC), February–March 1884 — britishcolonist.ca

BC Historical Newspapers — British Columbian (New Westminster) 1884, UBC Open Collections

Whatcom Reveille, February–March 1884 — Jeffcott Collection, Western Washington University Archives

Mesachie and Louie Sam — Chilliwack Progress, October 8, 1958 — Newspapers.com

Washington State Expresses Regret Over 1884 Lynching of Canadian Teen — CBC News, 2006

Plain Injustice — Literary Review of Canada, 2022

Louie Sam — Wikipedia

PDF of The Lynching of Louie Sam by Keith Thor Carlson

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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 — CBC News

Tanya Jane Nepinak — CBC News

Shawn Lamb sentenced to 20 years for two slayings — CBC News

Police paid killer Shawn Lamb $1,500 for information — CBC News

Winnipegger speaks about life on streets, alleged assault by convicted killer Shawn Lamb — CBC News

Shawn Lamb gets statutory release — CBC News

Convicted killer Shawn Lamb must stay at halfway house — CBC News

Shawn Lamb pleads guilty to killing 2 women — Global News

Landfill search progressing for Ashlee Shingoose; Tanya Nepinak family hopeful — Global News

Parole Board grants Indigenous Winnipeg killer Shawn Lamb statutory release — APTN News

Statement on Brady Road Landfill Search for Ashlee Shingoose and Planning for Tanya Nepinak — Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

NFSC Calls for Justice and Accountability Following Statutory Release of Shawn Lamb — 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 — one of the most versatile performers in the history of North American television — 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 — 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 — Case No. 98-03785

Hartman's Death: The Police Version — Time, June 3, 1998

Reaction & Sanctions — NPR, May 28, 1998

Disturbing Details Found In Phil Hartman's Autopsy Report — Grunge, 2024

The Last Days of Phil Hartman — ABC News / 20/20, 2019

Phil Hartman — People Magazine, 1998

Jon Lovitz Blames Andy Dick for Hartman's Death — CBS News, 2007

Phil Hartman Wrongful Death Lawsuit / Zoloft — Salon, 1999

Birgen Hartman on her father's Simpsons legacy — The Hollywood Reporter, 2022

Brantford to honour Phil Hartman with mural — CBC News, 2024

Phil Hartman — Canada's Walk of Fame

Phil Hartman — Brantford Walk of Fame

You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman — Mike Thomas

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Episode 429: In January 1995, DNA testing excluded Guy Paul Morin, the man convicted of the 1984 murder of Christine Jessop, from the crime. The Ontario Court of Appeal set aside his conviction, and Morin was released. The man whose semen was recovered from Christine Jessop's underwear in 1984 remained unidentified.

A public inquiry led by Justice Fred Kaufman spent 10 months examining how an innocent man had been convicted twice. It produced 1,380 pages and 119 recommendations. The real killer remained unnamed for another twenty-five years — until a detective named Steve Smith, a Texas laboratory, and a forensic genealogist pulled a family tree apart and found a killer at the end of it.

Sources

Report of the Kaufman Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin — Full text (netk.net.au)

The Canadian Encyclopedia — Guy Paul Morin Case

Innocence Canada — Guy Paul Morin case file

Toronto Life — "Inside the Hunt for Christine Jessop's Real Killer" (January 2022)

CBC News — "Toronto police identify killer in cold case of 9-year-old Christine Jessop" (October 15, 2020)

CBC News — "Calvin Hoover's family 'devastated' to learn police believe he killed Christine Jessop" (October 22, 2020)

CBC News — "The answer to the mystery of Christine Jessop's murder leaves killer's ex-wife with painful questions" (February 2021)

CBC News — "The science behind why police now believe they have the right suspect in Christine Jessop's murder" (October 2020)

Global News — "Who was Calvin Hoover? The man Toronto police say killed 9-year-old Christine Jessop in 1984" (October 2020)

Blue Line Magazine — "Out of the Cold: Toronto Police Solve 1984 Jessop Murder With New Science" (January 2021)

RCMP — National DNA Data Bank of Canada: 20 Years and Growing

Game of Crimes Podcast — "Detective Steve Smith Cracks a 36-Year Old Cold Case" (March 2022)

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Episode 428: On October 3, 1984, nine-year-old Christine Jessop stepped off a school bus in Queensville, Ontario, and walked toward home. She was never seen alive again. Her body was found on New Year's Eve, fifty-six kilometres away. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed.

What followed was one of the most consequential criminal proceedings in Canadian history — and the quiet destruction of a man who lived next door.

This is Part One of a two-part series.

Sources:

Kirk Makin, Redrum the Innocent (1992) — Viking Canada.

Report of the Kaufman Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin — Full text (netk.net.au)

The Canadian Encyclopedia — Guy Paul Morin Case

Innocence Canada — Guy Paul Morin case file

Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions — Guy Paul Morin

Library of Parliament — Wrongful Convictions in Canada (2020)

Bruce MacFarlane — "Wrongful Convictions: The Effect of Tunnel Vision and Predisposing Circumstances in the Criminal Justice System" (2006)

Federal Prosecution Service — Chapter 5: Jailhouse Informers

Federal Prosecution Service — Chapter 8: DNA Evidence

The Canadian Encyclopedia — Morin Inquiry Report

Kaufman Report — Wikipedia summary

Globe and Mail — "Morin Informant Named Dangerous Offender" (2007)

CBC Digital Archives — Guy Paul Morin acquitted

Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation

Williams Treaties — Government of Canada

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