Practically Perfect (33 page)

1901  

Westgate born in Kent, England.  

1916  

Westgate arrives in Winnipeg, and lies about age to enlist in army.  

1918  

Westgate receives honourable discharge from army.  

1921  

Marries.  

1924  

Westgate’s wife introduces him to her co-worker, Lottie Adams  

1927  

Westgate admits to friends his fascination for Lottie.  

1928  

Lottie refuses to see Westgate, and ends their relationship.  

February 16, 1928  

Lottie agrees to see Westgate one last time; he murders her.  

February 28, 1928  

Body of Lottie Adams found in snow bank; Westgate arrested.  

November 16, 1928  

Westgate convicted of murder; sentenced to be hanged.  

December 20, 1928  

Manitoba Court of Appeal orders that Westgate be re-tried.  

March 22, 1929  

Westgate again convicted of murder; sentenced to hang June 5, 1929.  

June 3, 1929  

Sentence commuted to life imprisonment.  

June 3, 1943  

Westgate paroled; returns to Winnipeg.  

August 1943  

Sixteen-year-old Edith Cook moves into rooming house where Westgate lives.  

December 4, 1943  

Westgate strangles Cook in a Winnipeg hotel room.  

December 5, 1943  

Police detain Westgate on Coroner’s warrant.  

May 8, 1944  

Westgate’s convicted of murder for a third time; sentenced to death.  

July 24, 1944  

Westgate executed at Manitoba’s Headingley jail.  

February 11, 1897  

Two bodies discovered in ruins on pig farm near Port Arthur, Ontario.  

February 11, 1897  

Coroner’s inquest called; hears witnesses then adjourns.  

February 13, 1897  

Coroner’s inquest reconvenes to hear more witnesses; adjourns.  

February 25, 1897  

Coroner’s inquest reconvenes to hear more witnesses; adjourns.  

February 26, 1897  

Coroner’s inquest ends; two fire victims murdered by an unknown person.  

March 5, 1897  

Coroner’s inquest reconvenes; concludes that fire victims were murdered.  

November 24, 1897  

Prévost sentenced to prison for theft of furs and pork at Renfrew, Ontario.  

November 26, 1897  

Prévost tells authorities his wife murdered two men in Port Arthur.  

November 1897  

Prévost held in the insane ward in Kingston Penitentiary.  

November 1897  

Rosanna Gauthier charged with the two Port Arthur murders.  

December 7, 1897  

Preliminary hearing; Gauthier committed to trial; transferred to Port Arthur.  

1898  

Charges against Gauthier withdrawn and Prévost charged with murder.  

December 6, 1898  

Murder trial of Prévost gets underway in Port Arthur.  

December 7, 1898  

Jury returns with a verdict of guilty; Prévost to hang March 17, 1899.  

March 1899  

Psychiatrists who examine Prévost advise the government that he is sane.  

March 15, 1899  

Federal cabinet refuses to commute sentence to life imprisonment.  

March 15, 1899  

Canada’s official executioner arrives in Port Arthur.  

March 17, 1899  

Oliver Prévost executed.  

1887  

Ivanchuk born in Austria.  

1914  

Ivanchuk immigrates to Canada; settles in northern Ontario.  

October 15, 1926  

Liquor inspector Thomas Harry Constable murdered.  

October 15, 1926  

Ivanchuk leaves murder weapon with fifteen-year-old Sophia Dincorn.  

October 19, 1926  

Ivanchuk spends two days with acquaintance; confesses to the murder.  

October 1926  

Ivanchuk discusses opening brothel; admits shooting Constable.  

October 23, 1926  

Coroner’s jury concludes Constable murdered by an unknown person.  

October 23, 1926  

Ivanchuk meets Dincorn in Empress Café; takes back gun he left with her.  

November 5, 1926  

Reward for apprehension of killer raised from $2,000 to $5,000.  

November 1928  

Police investigators speak to Sophia Dincorn in Kapuskasing.  

November 15, 1928  

Ivanchuk arrested in a Cochrane drinking club.  

November 17, 1928  

Police confirm Ivanchuk’s identity; charge him with murder.  

November 29, 1928  

Ivanchuk committed to stand trial for Constable’s murder.  

April 12, 1929  

Ivanchuk found guilty after three-day trial; sentenced to hang on June 21.  

May 1929  

Federal department of justice postpones execution for one month.  

July 17, 1929  

Ivanchuk executed at Haileybury Jail.  

August 26, 1926  

Stanley McLaren born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.  

August 1945  

McLaren moves to Calgary one month before Lum murder.  

September 24, 1945  

McLaren robs and beats Lum severely about the head.  

September 25, 1945  

Lum dies from his head wounds.  

August 1946  

McLaren marries Marie Kayter; couple ends up in northern Ontario.  

July 1949  

Stanley and Marie McLaren move to Toronto.  

August 28, 1949  

McLaren charged common assault; Marie tells police her husband is a murderer.  

August 29, 1949  

McLaren questioned by police; confesses to Calgary murder.  

September 1949  

Returned to Calgary.  

October 13, 1949  

Committed to trial following a two-day preliminary inquiry.  

November 1, 1949  

  
Criminal Code
amended to allow appeal on question law; comes into effect.

November 20, 1949  

Found guilty after six day trial; McLaren sentenced to hang on March 30, 1949.  

November 21, 1949  

Transferred to death cell at Lethbridge jail to await execution.  

March 10, 1949  

Alberta Court of Appeal denies McLaren’s request for a new trial.  

March 28, 1949  

Justice Kerwin denies request to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.  

March 29, 1949  

Federal cabinet rejects McLaren’s application for clemency.  

March 30, 1949  

McLaren executed in Lethbridge; body is interred in jail yard; Lum buried.  

June 1952  

Kendall moves his wife and five children into a one-room cabin.  

August 2, 1952  

Thirty-three-year-old Helen Kendall disappears.  

August 2, 1952  

Kendall begins living with a woman with her own five children.  

September 5, 1952  

Kendall children lie to police about what happened to their mother.  

September 1952  

Kendall children placed in foster homes, where they remain for two years.  

1954  

Beatrice Hogue divorced by her husband  

1959  

Helen Kendall declared dead; less than a year later Kendall marries Hogue.  

January 1961  

Kendall’s oldest daughter tells the police her father murdered her mother.  

January 27, 1961  

Kendall arrested and charged with murdering his wife.  

September 1, 1961  

  
Criminal Code
section imposed, dealing with capital murder.

October 27, 1961  

Kendall guilty of murder; sentenced to hang January 23, 1962.  

January 23, 1962  

Ontario Court of Appeal dismisses Kendall’s appeal.  

February 5, 1962  

Stay of execution to April 17, 1962, granted to allow appeal to SCC.  

March 14, 1962  

Supreme Court hears Kendall’s appeal; on March 26, it is dismissed.  

April 10, 1962  

Federal cabinet commutes Kendall’s sentence to life imprisonment.  

April 12, 1962  

Bayfield Cemetery trustees vote against allowing Kendall to be buried.  

February 13, 1971  

Kendall fails to return from a one-day pass from his jail.  

February 25, 1971  

Kendall recaptured.