Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Episode 411: In February 1890, the body of 24-year-old Englishman Frederick Cornwallis Benwell was found in a shallow grave near Lundy’s Lane, just outside Niagara Falls, Ontario. Benwell had travelled to Canada after corresponding with John Reginald Birchall, aka Lord Frederick A. Somerset, a fellow Englishman who advertised opportunities for young men seeking work and advancement overseas. Within days of Benwell’s disappearance, suspicion fell on Birchall, who was arrested in Buffalo, New York, and returned to Canada to stand trial. What followed was one of the most closely watched murder cases in late 19th-century Ontario.

Sources:

The Swamp of death, or, The Benwell murder by Oliver Wendell Holmes | Canadiana.caCatalog Record: The Swamp of death, or, The Benwell murder | HathiTrust Digital LibraryNewspapers.com | Search: John Reginald Birchallhttps://www.themeister.co.uk/birchall/birchall_reginald.pdfBIRCHALL, REGINALD (Lord Frederick A. Somerset) – Dictionary of Canadian BiographyFrederick Cornwallis Benwell (1865-1890) - Find a...John Reginald Birchall (1866-1890)Murder as a Fine Art by Alan BlythewayThe Trial of Reginald BirchallJohn Reginald Birchall | The Canadian Encyclopedia
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Episode 410: In the final years of the Cariboo Gold Rush, between roughly 1875 and 1885, travellers moving along the Cariboo Wagon Road through British Columbia’s interior passed through a remote roadhouse known as the 108 Mile Hotel, about 108 miles from Lillooet on the route toward Barkerville. According to a long-told regional legend, the hotel was run by Agnus McVee, alongside her husband Jim McVee and her son-in-law Al Riley, who were accused of drugging, robbing, and murdering miners carrying gold through the region. The story claims that dozens of travellers disappeared after stopping at the inn, with some accounts later alleging that bodies were recovered from nearby lakes and that young women were held captive at the hotel.

Sources:

CARIBOO CALLING: The Legend of Agnus MacVeeThe Cariboo Gold Rush TimelineHistory - Gold Rush Trail - British Columbia Shaped by NatureHistory and Timeline | Cariboo Gold ProjectAgnus McVee – Habitual Runaway ToursSarah Leavitt's comic imagines the life of Agnes McVee | CBC BooksAgnus McVee | WikipediaAgnes, Murderess | Goodreads108 Mile Heritage Site – Preserving the rich history of the Cariboo
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Episode 409: In June 2006, police carried out coordinated arrests across southern Ontario and charged 18 young men under Canada’s anti-terrorism laws. The case quickly became known as the Toronto 18. It was described as a homegrown plot, not directed from overseas but organized in suburban communities around Mississauga and Toronto.

Most of the accused were in their late teens or early twenties. Many were Canadian citizens or long-time residents. Their backgrounds varied, but research and court records show no pattern of hardened criminal histories or severe mental illness. What drew them together, investigators argued, was a shared sense of grievance over global conflicts and a growing embrace of militant ideology.

Sources:

Prime Minister comments on terror arrests | Canada.caSeventeen Arrested on Anti-Terrorism Charges | Canada.ca2006 Ontario terrorism plot | WikipediaPublic Safety Minister Stockwell Day Issues Statement on Canada's National Day to Remember Victims of Terror | Canada.caToronto 18: Key events in the case | CBC NewsManitoba Law Journal, vol 44 no 1, 2021 CanLIIDocs 787R. v. N.Y., 2008 CanLII 51935 (ON SC)R. v. Gaya, 2008 CanLII 24539 (ON SC)
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Episode 408: In August 2015, 22-year-old Dalhousie University physics student Taylor Samson walked into an apartment on Henry Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying 20 pounds of marijuana. He never walked out.

What followed became one of Nova Scotia’s most closely watched murder cases. William “Will” Sandeson — a former university track athlete and incoming medical student — was arrested days later. Surveillance footage showed Samson entering Sandeson’s apartment. Blood and DNA evidence tied the scene to a fatal gunshot. Samson’s body was never recovered.

This is the story of Taylor Samson’s disappearance, and the long road to justice for his killer.

Sources:

Statement from Dalhousie University regarding charges laid in Taylor Samson caseWilliam Sandeson | Global News, Videos & ArticlesHow a Drug-Dealing Med Student Was Convicted of Murder | VICEMurder trial told of evidence found in ice-cream truck at Sandeson farm | CBC NewsPolice search for Dalhousie student's body as track athlete faces murder charge CityNewsR. v. Sandeson, 2025 NSCA 86 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2024 NSCA 72 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2023 NSSC 130 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2023 NSSC 64 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2022 NSSC 387 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2022 NSSC 254 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2022 NSSC 151 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2022 NSSC 111 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2020 NSCA 47 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2017 NSSC 193 (CanLII)R. v. Sandeson, 2017 NSSC 146 (CanLII)
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Episode 407: On a quiet street in Kingston, Ontario, a 92-year-old woman named Henrietta Knight opened her front door on a summer afternoon in 1995. She was violently assaulted during a home invasion, left badly injured, and her house was ransacked. Though she survived the attack and spoke to police, paramedics, and doctors, her health steadily declined, and she died months later. What caused her death, and whether it was connected to the assault, would linger as an unanswered question for decades. This episode traces the case from its beginnings in eastern Ontario in the mid-1990s through years of silence and uncertainty, leading to a courtroom many years later, where the truth proved far harder to define than anyone expected.

Sources:

Jan 12, 1996, page 9 - The Kingston Whig-Standard at Newspapers.com™Sep 24, 1999, page 10 - The Kingston Whig-Standard at Newspapers.com™https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2023/2023onsc1379/2023onsc1379.htmlhttps://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2023/2023onsc1165/2023onsc1165.htmlhttps://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2022/2022onsc5319/2022onsc5319.htmlhttps://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2022/2022onsc4291/2022onsc4291.html
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