Axe murderer Francis Clancy wins parole

Imprisoned axe murderer Francis Patrick Clancy, who bashed in the head of a young born-again Christian man who had befriended him in Ottawa, has been paroled, Cancrime learned.

The 62-year-old Clancy, who is serving a life sentence in a British Columbia prison, was granted release to a halfway house (day parole), despite his repeated infractions, escapes and what the parole board calls his "parasitical life of crime" dating to 1969.

On March 5, 1983, Clancy and an accomplice, James Nelson Wall, were robbing the home of Iain Irvine, a 29-year-old Ottawa man who did volunteer work with ex-inmates. Irvine had befriended Clancy. Irvine arrived at the house unexpectedly and surprised the burglars. Wall held Irvine down on the floor. Clancy fetched an axe and began bashing Irvine's head. At the trial of the murderous pair, witnesses said Irvine might have been conscious for 15 minutes and alive for up to two hours. The killers stuffed him into a trunk and began hauling it outside. When Irvine tried to escape the box, Wall strangled him with a cord, twice. The killers drove 60 kilometres out of Ottawa and dumped the body in a field. Wall eventually led police to the body. He got life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. Clancy got life, with no parole for 15 years.

But he's been out of prison many times on passes since his conviction 25 years ago and, at one time, he was classified as minimum security and moved to a low-security prison with no fences and no armed guards. He escaped twice.

Now he's getting another shot at partial freedom. He'll have to live at a halfway house. He's been ordered not to drink alcohol, to avoid consorting with criminals and he has to take any psychological counselling that's ordered.

Here's the National Parole Board record of the hearing held this month at which he was granted parole:



Clancy was the ringleader in the 1983 robbery that left Irvine dead. When Clancy's accomplice in Irvine's murder, James Nelson Wall, was fingered as a suspect in a 1997 Kingston murder, I wrote this story, revisiting the Irvine killing (Wall was convicted in 2002 of first-degree murder in the slaying of his girlfriend, Jutta Weber. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years):

Kingston Whig-Standard
Saturday, March 21, 1998

By Rob Tripp

"Don't do this, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you."
Those were the last words of 29-year-old Iain Irvine, as he lay face down on the floor of a bedroom in his parents' home, moments before his skull was crushed by half a dozen blows from the blunt end of an axe.
It was March 5, 1983.
Irvine had surprised two burglars who were robbing his parents' Nepean home. The thieves hid in the closet of a bedroom. When Irvine came into the room, they sprang out and pushed him to the floor before he could see his assailants.
James Nelson Wall, then 27, held Irvine's head down, and turned his own head away so Irvine couldn't see him.
Wall's lawyer would later tell a murder trial that Wall believed his accomplice, 35-year-old Francis Patrick Clancy, was going to get rope and a blindfold.
Clancy returned with an axe and began smashing Irvine's head.
The trial heard that Irvine could have been conscious for 15 minutes after the attack and alive for up to two hours.
Clancy and Wall put Irvine, who was still alive, into a steamer trunk and hauled it downstairs.
There, they bound and gagged Irvine. Then, Wall tried to strangle Irvine "to put him out of his misery," according to one of the police officers who investigated the murder and testified in court.
Wall and Clancy ransacked the house, then took Irvine's body out of the trunk, wrapped it in a quilt and put it into the trunk of Irvine's car. Clancy drove to an area about 60 kilometres east of Ottawa and dumped the body in a field.
After they pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, Wall and Clancy listened in court to Molly and Alex Irvine recount the trauma of having their only child murdered in the family home.
"We can still see where Iain's blood has soaked into the floor boards," Molly Irvine told the court. "We can never forget where he died."
Irvine said her son knew Clancy and Wall from a prison fellowship program where he had befriended them.
"Iain was very religious and believed strongly in helping others," Irvine said. Her son had even brought Clancy to the family home. On one of those trips, Clancy spotted a stack of savings bonds, and plotted the robbery.
Iain Irvine trusted Clancy because he claimed he was a born-again Christian who had given up his life of crime.
"As you know, Clancy's response was to betray Iain's trust and, with the help of his evil friend Wall, to murder him in a most foul way," Molly Irvine said.
Clancy was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years. Wall got life with no chance of parole for 10 years.
Wall was granted full parole in 1993, and has lived in Kingston since. He refuses to say he is a killer.
"In 1983 somebody died and I was there," Wall says in an interview. "I didn't kill anybody then and I didn't kill anybody now ... "
Wall says he was a troubled man in 1983 with a long record of property offences.
"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person or group of people," he says.

My colleague Arthur Milnes, wrote this story, after interviewing Irvine's mother and after Wall's conviction in 2002:

Kingston Whig-Standard
Monday, February 11, 2002

By Arthur Milnes

There are no pictures of grandchildren on 76-year-old Molly Irvine's walls. In the twilight of her life, she's completely alone in her suburban Ottawa home.
Alex Irvine, her husband and best friend, died at the age of 80 a year ago. Her only sibling is an ocean away in Great Britain.
There is a terrible pain associated with the family home she has refused to leave.
"People have said to me, 'How can you live in the house?' but it doesn't go away just because you move away," she said.
"I have good friends ... you have to learn to live with it. Otherwise, life is impossible."
Jim Wall is responsible for her pain.
"I would think him capable of anything," says Irvine.
Nearly two decades ago, in her house, Wall and another man, Francis Patrick Clancy, killed Irvine's only child, her 29-year-old son Iain.
Irvine talks of leaving her beautiful home, perhaps finding something smaller. She'd have to first pack her late husband's beloved books and other family treasures.
That's in the future.
Today, she has agreed to talk about the past - a past that still sears her soul with sadness.
Irvine looks carefully at the identification and business card she's been offered before letting a visitor inside. She is friendly and welcoming but her sadness is palpable.
Her son was murdered almost 20 years ago, on March 5, 1983. Clancy battered Iain Irvine's skull with an axe, then Wall strangled him with an electrical cord.
When Iain arrived at his parents' home early that morning, he unwittingly interrupted Wall and Clancy, who were robbing the house.
When Irvine walked into his upstairs room, the burglars sprang from the closet and pushed him to the floor before he could see either of them.
Wall's lawyer - his client remained silent - would later tell a judge that Wall believed his accomplice was going to get a rope and blindfold.
Wall was left alone with Iain, who did not struggle but begged for his life.
"Don't do this, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you," Iain Irvine said as he lay pinned to the floor, with Wall's knees pressed down on his arms.
Clancy returned with an axe and began smashing Irvine's head with the blunt end.
Wall and Clancy did not realize the beating had not killed him. Iain Irvine could have been conscious for 15 minutes after the attack and alive for up to two hours, experts concluded.
The intruders put Irvine in a steamer trunk and hauled it downstairs. Irvine lifted the lid and tried to escape.
Wall ripped an electrical cord from a nearby timer and strangled the victim and then closed the lid. Again Irvine, clinging to life, opened the trunk lid.
Wall strangled him again with the cord, an act he would later claim was a mercy killing, designed to put Irvine "out of his misery."
After rushing home from Florida, Molly Irvine and her husband last saw their son in the morgue at Ottawa General Hospital.
Without speaking, Molly Irvine places her hand across her throat to describe how the ligature marks from where Wall strangled her son could be seen clearly on his body at the morgue.
She can still see them today.
In one of the first victim impact statements ever heard in a Canadian court, Irvine tried to put the family's pain into words before Wall and Clancy were sentenced.
"We can still see where Iain's blood has soaked into the floor boards," she said, on Oct. 21, 1983, in an Ottawa courtroom.
"We can never forget where he died."
She said her son was a religious man who believed strongly in helping others. Iain, a library technician in an Ottawa hospital, put his beliefs into practice and worked with prisoners in a fellowship program.
He later allowed Clancy to move into his apartment.
Today, Molly Irvine says she was suspicious of Clancy when her son brought him to her house.
A mother's instincts proved to be correct. While visiting the Irvine family home, Clancy spotted some savings bonds and began to formulate his robbery plot.
"I didn't know he'd been a prisoner," she told The Whig-Standard. "He said he was a born-again Christian. Hah."
She leaves the living room for a moment and returns with two pictures of Clancy she's kept all these years. He is at the church, washing dishes. The pictures have been pinned up and in one, Clancy's eyes are poked out.
"As you know, Clancy's response was to betray Iain's trust and, with the help of his evil friend Wall, to murder him in a most foul way," her victim impact statement continued.
After pleading guilty to second-degree murder in Iain's death, Wall received a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 10 years. Clancy, the ringleader, also received a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 15 years. He remains in prison in B.C.
Mrs. Irvine is still serving a sentence of her own. She will never be free of the pain her son's murder brought.
She said she and Alex did the best they could after her son's death. The couple rarely spoke of Iain's murder but it haunted them, especially on anniversaries and other special days.
"For the first year, we were like zombies," she said.
Irvine shakes her head when told that the woman Wall killed in 1997, Jutta Weber, was dismembered and taken in her own car to a swamp north of Kingston, where her body parts were scattered like household trash.
Wall and Clancy bundled her son's bloody body, wrapped in a quilt, into the back of Iain's car, and drove to an isolated area 60 kilometres from Ottawa. They had removed the body from the steamer trunk after discovering it would not fit in Irvine's car.
They discarded the body in a remote woodlot off a rural road.
In 2000, Donald Gazley, a friend of Wall who was the Crown's star witness in the Kingston case, led police to Weber's remains, along a remote stretch of Jones Falls Road.
Gazley took investigators to the spot after cutting a deal for lenient treatment as an accessory in Weber's murder.
In 1983, Wall was subject to a long police interrogation. He agreed finally to take police to Iain's remains.
"It all sounds familiar, doesn't it," Molly Irvine said.
Without Wall's help, Ottawa police couldn't prove a murder had taken place - despite the blood they found in the Irvine home and in Iain's car - until they had a body.
In 1993, Wall was granted full parole and decided to live in Kingston.
After Weber's disappearance, Wall agreed to an interview with The Whig-Standard - the only time he has ever spoken publicly about the case.
"In 1983 somebody died and I was there," Wall said. "I didn't kill anybody then and I didn't kill anybody now ... I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person or group of people."
Molly Irvine glares when she hears Wall's comments.
"You'd have to judge that for yourself," she said. "I should say the parole board has something to answer for."

In granting Clancy release, the parole board concluded that the risk in releasing him is "manageable" and "not undue."

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Cop killer Laurie Bell gets another shot at freedom

Imprisoned cop killer Laurie Ann Bell (inset), who was caught consorting with a male prison guard the last time she was free on early release from prison, is getting another shot at freedom. This time, not surprisingly, she's being ordered to report all "intimate relationships and friendships" to her parole supervisor, with whom she has to make contact at least four times a month. An internal parole document (available after the jump) sets out all the conditions, including the requirement that she stay at a halfway house.

Winnipeg Free Press reporter Mike McIntyre broke the story last year of Bell's liaison with a Corrections Canada employee and he's still on top of developments in the case. Bell is getting out on statutory release. It's automatic early freedom given to most convicts so they can serve the final third of their sentences in the community under supervision. In this case, parole authorities imposed a host of special conditions after conducting a paper review of Bell's case. Here's the internal document produced last month outlining the conditions and the overview of Bell's case:



» Read more about Bell's case, including more parole documents

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Mark Bedford: A sex predator you won't see coming

Mark Bedford might be the most non-threatening sex predator I've met in more than 20 years of writing about bad guys. That' s the scary part. At 24, he doesn't look like he shaves. He has a smooth, baby-face. He's slight and hunches his shoulders like a self-conscious teenager. He speaks softly, often averting his eyes from a listener, and often mumbles. He's reasonably attractive. There's nothing exceptional or remarkable about his physical appearance. He just looks average. He certainly doesn't look like the kind of guy who would blackmail a 12-year-old girl into simulating sex with her family dog, in front of a webcam, while he recorded the act and masturbated to it while planted in front of his computer. But that's the kind of thing that put Bedford in prison. Seasoned police investigators in Ontario believe he is one of the most prolific online sex predators they've come across so far.

Bedford had a parole hearing December 4, 2008, at medium-security Warkworth Institution, near Campbellford, Ontario. I was there. It was Bedford's first appearance before the board since his conviction in 2008 for 10 crimes, including commit/incite bestiality, luring a child under age 14 by computer, several child pornography offences, two charges of extortion and criminal harassment – though authorities believe he committed many more crimes and may have preyed on hundreds of victims. He was ordered held behind bars until his sentence expires, because he's considered a high risk to commit another sex crime involving a child if he's granted conditional, early release. This is a fairly rare move by Corrections and parole authorities, called detention. Just 248 federal convicts were detained last year, while nearly 8,000 walked out of prison gates before their sentences expired. There's good reason to be worried about Bedford, a shy, milquetoast character who does not seem to have come to terms with his deviance. He underwent sex offender testing in prison, and tried to trick the testers. He admitted this during his parole hearing. He never said "sorry" to his victims during the two-hour grilling by parole board members and he seemed painfully reserved when it came to answering direct questions about sex. He made it clear that he doesn't like the labels he's earned, like pedophile and predator. All of which leads to the inescapable conclusion that even if Bedford is offered the treatment he needs to help curb his deviant desires, it might do no good.

Here's the full written record of the parole hearing:



Below is the story that appeared in The Kingston Whig-Standard the day after the hearing:

The Kingston Whig-Standard
Saturday, December 4, 2009

By Rob Tripp
A baby-faced Internet sex predator who may have victimized hundreds of young girls from a computer in his parents' Kingston home is too dangerous to set free early from prison, the National Parole Board says.
After a revealing two-hour hearing yesterday at Warkworth Institution, a panel of three board members ordered Mark Gary Bedford, 24, be kept behind bars until his sentence expires in March 2011.
The board did not explain its decision, though members discussed the findings of experts who have assessed and treated Bedford and concluded he is a pedophile who is a high risk to reoffend, even after treatment. Experts aren't certain if he prefers girls who are pre-or post-pubescent.
His victims were aged nine to 15.
"I have a big problem that needs addressing," acknowledged Bedford, who spoke in short sentences, often providing 'yes' or 'no' answers unless pressed.
When he was caught, Bedford told a probation officer that his victims were liars and that the police were incompetents looking for a scapegoat. He showed no remorse. At yesterday's hearing he claimed that he now knows his actions caused serious harm to the victims and that he has "deviant" sexual interests, though he never used the word 'sorry.'
He admitted calling his victims liars.
"At the time, yes," he said. "I didn't like the image that they were portraying of me."
Parole board member Michael Crowley asked if he knew then that they were not lying.
"Yes, part of me still believed they were lying," Bedford said. "Part of me was still in denial."
Bedford's mother and father, who watched the hearing intently from the back of the cinder block room at the medium-security prison, left swiftly after the decision. His mother hugged him and patted his back. They refused to comment.
As he had done for most of the hearing, Bedford displayed little emotion, save for a moment when he described being dumped by a high school girlfriend. He grew red-faced and appeared choked up.
The parole board noted that experts who have dealt with Bedford describe him as appearing flat emotionally.
The proceeding marked the first time his comments about his crimes and his explanations could be captured publicly, because he pleaded guilty and avoided a trial.
Crowley zeroed in on the findings of experts who reported that Bedford showed little understanding of his crimes and that he minimized harm to his victims, even in the case of a 12-year-old girl he blackmailed into simulating sex with a family dog in front of a camera.
Bedford pleaded guilty to inciting a child to commit bestiality.
"You minimized it," Crowley offered.
"That was at the beginning of the (treatment) program because I didn't like that charge," Bedford explained. "It was gross."
"You didn't like the charge?" Crowley retorted, incredulously. "It's what you did."
Crowley noted that after Bedford's arrest, he expressed anger that Canadian authorities considered his predation of girls in England.
"I was still upset at my charges," Bedford said.
"You were upset at your charges?" Crowley asked. "You were angry that you were caught."
No, Bedford insisted, "that I put my family through this."
Crowley noted that the high profile case propelled his family into an unwelcome media spotlight.
Bedford explained that his online deviance began at age 16, when he started looking at photographs. He sometimes received pictures from older, experienced online pornographers.
At age 19, he sought to force young girls to perform sex acts in front of webcams, typically by hacking into their online accounts and masquerading as friends. He would convince them to undress, then use the photos he captured to blackmail the girls into performing more explicit acts.
Bedford said he did it, "for control" and "for my own excitement." He could not clearly explain why he moved on from pictures to victims.
"That was more real at the time, live," he said. "You could talk to them."
He grudgingly acknowledged, as Crowley grilled him, that he masturbated each time a girl performed for him, though he mumbled through parts of his answers, in apparent embarrassment. He claimed he never masturbates in prison, then admitted he does it once a month.
He was asked why just once a month.
"I feel guilty to do it," he answered. "It brings up memories of being arrested sometimes."
So you feel guilty you got caught, not because you hurt people? Crowley asked.
"It's the victims," Bedford answered.
"You sure?" "Yes."
"Or are you saying that because you think it's the right answer?" Crowley wondered.
"No, because it's true."
Bedford was asked if there were more than 63 victims who are named in files.
"Ahhh, possibly," he answered. "I'm not sure though, I can't recall every one of them."
Bedford tried to trick sex offender experts who assessed him several times, including testers who used a device attached to his penis to measure his response to deviant scenarios.
"I tried to manipulate all of them," Bedford admitted.
Crowley noted that Bedford scored high on tests that suggest he always seeks to cast himself in the best light possible. Bedford didn't aggressively seek treatment when he was imprisoned and was twice warned he might be kicked out of a treatment program.
"I didn't think I needed it," Bedford said. "I didn't think I was that damaged."
He confessed he saw himself as "sick."
Bedford has explained to counsellors that he spent seven to nine hours a day on the computer, the bulk of that time playing online war games.
At the hearing, he did not agree with the characterization that he was a loner, or nerd with few friends. The former St. Lawrence College student claimed he has friends on his protective custody prison cellblock, "good guys" who look out for him, because he is a slight, young man.
His placement in the prison, and changes to Corrections Canada's programming policies, have created a conundrum. Experts at the regional treatment centre inside Kingston Penitentiary, where Bedford underwent high-intensity sex-offender treatment, recommend he take a medium-intensity sex-offender treatment program at Warkworth.
Corrections says Bedford can't take the program.
"The board and CSC have a conflict about this," Crowley said.
Bedford's prison parole officer, Michelle Aylward, said she doesn't know how Bedford can access the treatment.
At the beginning of the hearing, Aylward said it's her opinion that Bedford will behave if he gets early release.
"I think he'll abide by conditions ... what he'll do beyond his warrant expiry can be concerning," she said.
Bedford was charged with a sexual assault but the charge was withdrawn.
He told the parole board it was consensual sex at his parents' home with a 16-year-old girl, when he was 19. The girl was likely "confused" about his age, he said.
"She started it," he said. "She exposed her breast."
They began to fool around.
"We kissed, I, ah, masturbated her, got her off," he said. "Afterward nothing else happened."
The girl went to police and Bedford was charged. He claimed that she reported the incident because he had hijacked her online account after she would not leave him alone.
Kingston lawyer Michael Mandelcorn, who acted as an assistant for Bedford, told board members that Bedford has family support and he appears to have shown more maturity since he was imprisoned.
Mandelcorn said it wasn't in Bedford's best interest to admit trying to manipulate sex offender tests.
"It's not good but the good part about that is that he admits it," he said.
Crowley expressed concern about how Bedford can be supervised in the community, given the ubiquity of the Internet, to ensure he isn't online, hunting victims again.
Bedford was asked if he had any final words at the conclusion of the hearing, before the board considered its decision.
"No," he said. "I'm good."

Bedford's sentence expires in March 2011. That's when Corrections Canada will have to set him free.

Past stories:

» Bedford sentenced to three years in prison
» Bedford's crimes a "form of torture," expert says

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And then there were three - escaped cons

The tally of violent cons to escape a minimum-security federal prison in Kingston has risen to three this year with the disappearance yesterday of Kevin Douglas Rice (above left). Rice was last seen at Frontenac Institution, a pen with no fences and no armed guards, at 8:15 a.m., November 26. Staff realized he was gone during a head count at 11:30 a.m. Other escapees this year are Kenneth McBain (centre), who bolted July 6 and is still on the loose and Andrew Wood (right), who was caught days after his escape in June.

In one of the bank robberies he pulled in Ottawa, Rice pointed a loaded gun at an unarmed bank security officer. In a hearing in April 2008, Rice told the National Parole Board that he "didn't think" he would have used the gun.

Rice's parole records (in full after the jump) also reveal that he has a longstanding cocaine addiction, an "abysmal" record of failure while free in the community on conditions, and, his most recent crime was a jewelry store robbery in which he and a gun-toting accomplice terrorized the shopkeeper-owner couple. You won't find any of that detail in the bland news release issued by Corrections Canada, which also appears after the jump, about Rice's escape.

This e-file includes two documents, the record of Rice's parole hearing in April 2008, when he was denied day parole and an appeal decision upholding the decision in November:



Corrections Canada news releases are typically devoid of detail when it comes to convicts. Officials usually rationalize this with the tried-and-true explanation that privacy laws prevent disclosure. You wouldn't really understand the kind of threat Rice poses if you only read this, the release issued yesterday by Corrections Canada about Rice's escape:



The Brockville Recorder and Times carried this detailed account of the aftermath of Rice's robbery of a Brockville jewelry shop:

May 7, 2005
By Jack Walker

It was a daring and violent daylight robbery that destroyed the life savings and ambitions of a Brockville business couple.
Last September 4, Darlene Dorion was standing behind the counter of Positive Jewellers at 62 King Street West while her husband Lionel worked in a back office.
Shortly after 3 p.m., two men, one brandishing a gun, the other a mini sledge-hammer, barged into the store.
Darlene was thrown to the floor and ordered not to get up.
"Don't make me use this on you," the gunman warned. "I don't want to have to kill you."
Her husband could see what was happening from his office. Fearing something might happen to his wife and not wanting to alarm the robbers, he yelled out "everything is fine."
The two thugs ordered him to the floor and threatened to kill him.
After ransacking the office, the pair began smashing display cases in the store, one with the hammer; the other with the butt of his gun. Darlene suffered a minor laceration from the flying glass as the thieves shattered virtually all the cases in the store and stuffed the jewelry into duffel bags.
The robbers then exited the store, jumped into a van that had earlier been stolen from the 1000 Islands Mall and drove off.
The stolen cache was valued at $125,498 and included wedding rings, bracelets and studded earrings. None of the jewelry was insured and, to date, none has been recovered.
But one of the thieves inadvertently left something behind - bloodstains on the doorknob and inside one of the display cases.
Subsequent analysis matched the samples to the DNA profile of Kevin Rice, an Ottawa drug addict with a lengthy criminal record. Testing showed there was only a one-in-1.5-trillion chance another person would have the same profile.
Friday, Rice pleaded guilty to robbery, unlawful confinement, uttering death threats and carrying a weapon - a hammer. He also pleaded guilty to stealing medicine and damaging a medicine cart in the emergency department of the Kemptville District Hospital three months earlier.
Ontario Court Justice John Waugh sentenced Rice to 62 months in the penitentiary, citing the horrific impact the crimes had on the Dorions.
"Unless you went through this yourself, you'll never relate to how I feel," Darlene wrote in a victim impact statement. "I thought I was going to die and words cannot describe how I feel."
She still suffers from depression and hasn't been able to return to the store for fear her assailants might return.
In addition to the $125,000, $1,600 damage was done to the display cases and the store was closed for three days after the robbery.
"Any chance of total retirement that we were working for is now gone," she said.
Lionel Dorion said he still has nightmares of getting shot or killed and fears for his wife's life.
The 62-month sentence will run consecutive to a 53-month term Rice is now serving for bank robbery and other offences.
Lawyer Jerry White argued for a further four-year consecutive term to allow his client to get treatment for his cocaine addition while not destroying his future hopes.
Rice had been in a treatment program but had a relapse and was on a drug-fuelled crime spree when he pulled off the Brockville robbery, White added.
Rice, 34, told the court he was sorry for what happened and looked forward to getting help for his drug problem.
Crown attorney Curt Flanagan urged a six-year consecutive term, saying the jewelry store heist was premeditated and systematic.
"He didn't fall off the wagon, he jumped off," he said.
Flanagan said the accused had shown no regard for his victims and robbed them of their retirement fund.
"Why?" he asked "They lost it because this gentleman with 20 previous convictions wants to put it up his noise or other places."
Rice's gun-toting accomplice is unknown to authorities and remains at large.

Ontario's elite fugitive hunters, the Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement Unit (think U.S. marshals - but Canadians) are hunting Rice. He is five foot nine inches tall, weighs 217 pounds and has short grey hair and hazel eyes. He has a flame tattoo on his right forearm and a wolf tattoo on his left arm.

(UPDATE, NOVEMBER 30, 2009: Rice was recaptured on the weekend in Ottawa.)

Related
» Killer escapes, with help from Frontenac psychologist, his girlfriend
» Serial stick-up bandit didn't like being a victim

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Brenda Martin's parole tightened after booze trouble

A Trenton, Ontario woman jailed for fraud in Mexico, and who became a celebrity convict, whisked back to Canada on a private jet at a cost to taxpayers of $83,000, is in trouble with parole authorities, a National Parole Board document obtained by Cancrime reveals. The board has slapped a slew of stricter conditions on Brenda Martin (above) after "recurring incidents of excessive alcohol consumption." Read the complete decision after the jump.



Martin was heralded by some supporters as an innocent swept up in a corrupt Mexican justice system. She gave teary interviews, threatening suicide if she wasn't released from a Mexican jail. She was convicted of fraud and served two years behind bars before the Canadian government stepped in, in the face of a vocal public campaign by Martin supporters. In early May 2008, Martin was flown back to Canada and sent to a federal women's prison in Kitchener, Ontario. She was paroled within a week (read 2008 decision), with just two special conditions attached to her release: that she must disclose all financial dealings to her parole supervisor and she was ordered not to associate with criminals. Two days ago, the parole board put a tighter leash on Martin, imposing four new conditions. A parole document dated November 24 explains:

The Board is in receipt of a submission from the Correctional Service of Canada recommending the imposition of the above noted special conditions in light of difficulties recently encountered during your release. There have been recurring incidents of excessive alcohol consumption commencing in July 2009 and you were heavily under the influence when you engaged in [deleted in doc] behaviour by [deleted in doc] on September 16, 2009.

When Martin was paroled last year, the board had noted a previous drunk driving conviction. It has now ordered her to abstain from buying or drinking booze. She's barred from going to places where the primary business is alcohol sales and she has to follow a treatment plan and counselling arranged by supervisors, "to address difficulties in the areas of substance abuse issues." She's also required to follow psychological counselling arranged by her parole supervisor to "address personal and emotional issues," according to the November 24 document.

Parole board members refused to impose that latter condition when she was paroled in May 2008, although it had been recommended at the time by Corrections Canada staff.

The new parole document also reveals that Martin appears to be now staying at a halfway house, an arrangement that wasn't required when she was first freed on full parole. Freed inmates are usually placed at a halfway house when they're released on day parole, but Martin got full parole. This is an indicator her parole is not going well. The document notes:

You are not emotionally stable but you are amenable to treatment to help you deal with stress and depression. While you appear to have responded favourably to the enhanced supervision and the additional structure provided by the halfway house, your insight into your offence cycle is oscillating and you remain fragile.

Martin was convicted in Mexico of participating in a $60-million Internet scam run by Canadian Alyn Waage. He was convicted of fraud in 2006. Mexican investigators said Martin, who worked as Waage's chef in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months, accepted a severance package knowing that the cash came from the scam.

Martin maintained her innocence, saying she didn't know about Waage's fraud. Waage corroborated her story.

This parole decision will no doubt draw close scrutiny in Ottawa, since Martin's case became highly politicized. She's one step away from having her parole revoked, which would be humiliating for politicians who rallied to her aid.

Previous post: Documents reveal parole dispute

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A bank robbing candidate for geographic profiling

View Halfway house holdups in a larger map

James Freeman is a serial screwup. He's also a drug-addicted bank robber. And he appears territorial, perhaps to the point that geographic profiling could be used in future to catch him. The map above shows that Freeman may not have strayed far when he escaped from a federal halfway house in Kingston, Ontario Oct. 1 and allegedly began robbing banks.

Parole records reveal what authorities describe as Freeman's "dismal" and "terrible" conditional release history. He keeps getting out, despite the fact that assessments peg him as a high risk to commit new, violent crimes. Note that these records show that Freeman had fouled up on early prison release roughly three months before his latest escape and new charges. In the first week of October, when Freeman was supposed to be under supervision at the Corrections Canada halfway house attached to minimum-security Frontenac Institution in Kingston, he took off and two nearby banks were robbed. He's charged with both holdups. The first robbery was Oct. 3 at a CIBC branch in a big-box shopping mall. It's just over 2.5 kilometres from the halfway house to the CIBC, straight down a major road where the halfway house is located. Two days later, a Bank of Montreal branch across the street from the mall was robbed. No one was hurt in the holdups, but Freeman's records show that he isn't averse to terrorizing clerks and customers when he stages holdups, using knives and other weapons. Geographic profiling, a technique pioneered by a Canadian, Kim Rossmo, uses the locations of a connected series of crimes to help investigators find the perpetrator. It has been used successfully to catch bank robbers. The technique shows that many crooks don't stray far from a familiar hunting ground, whether they're serial killers, rapists or bank robbers.

Here are five National Parole Board decisions that expose Freeman as a complete failure when it comes to rehabilitation. Every time he's been released early from prison under supervision, he has fouled up. He has resisted treatment, has drug addictions and has ongoing mental health problems. (Every time you see "Page 2" in the top right corner, you're at the beginning of a new parole decision).



Here's my story that was published in the Kingston Whig-Standard after Freeman's arrest:

A federal convict on early release from prison with ties to motorcycle gangs and who had disappeared from a halfway house has been charged with two bank holdups in Kingston committed over three days.
James Christopher Freeman, who has a lengthy history of violence and repeated failures on early release, was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of robbery and obstructing police.
The CIBC branch at the Kingston Centre was robbed Oct. 3 and the nearby Bank of Montreal branch on Bath Road was robbed Oct. 5 by a man wearing a yellow construction helmet.
Freeman, 33, was at the halfway house inside Frontenac Institution on Bath Road after he was freed from prison on statutory release. It is automatic freedom granted to most inmates so that they can serve the final third of their sentences in the community under supervision.
The National Parole Board imposed a special condition, ordering Freeman to live at the halfway house, because of concern about the risk he posed.
“You have a violent criminal history that includes convictions for aggravated assault and robberies and the most recent clinical report from March 2008 concludes that you pose a high risk for violent re-offending,” states a National Parole Board document dated Sept. 22.
The board revoked Freeman’s statutory release in the decision, marking the third time he had fouled up while free from prison, by taking drugs, violating conditions and committing new crimes.
The board wrote that Freeman has a “terrible conditional release history.”
Freeman was released from prison June 11 this year, under supervision. He disappeared from a community facility on June 19 and turned himself in to police on June 26. A search turned up tobacco and ecstasy hidden inside his body.
Investigators discovered that Freeman had staged his suspension and return to prison so that he could smuggle the contraband into the penitentiary.
He was convicted of possession for the purpose of trafficking and had 45 days added to his sentence.
Parole records note that Freeman has a number of mental health problems, may have old drug debts with a motorcycle gang and has a history of using knives and other weapons in robberies.
An assessment in March this year noted he has not taken any prison programs to address his problems and has “high scores on the Psychopathy Checklist.”
He was back in the halfway house this fall and disappeared on Oct. 1, two days before the first bank holdup.
Corrections did not issue a release when Freeman disappeared Oct. 1.
“We don’t when it comes to community offenders who go unlawfully at large,” said Holly Knowles, a spokeswoman for Corrections Canada. “We notify the appropriate police agency and it’s up to them whether a public notification is appropriate.”
Kingston Police did not issue a release about Freeman.
His latest prison sentence is a seven-year, one-month term for 13 crimes, including two robberies and a variety of property crimes including break and enter and theft.
His sentence was scheduled to expire Oct. 29.

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Lahey's laptop had pix of 8 year old boys: Document

CBC did great work, breaking this story, by ferreting out the background document filed by investigators in order to get a search warrant for Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey's (above) computer and other digital devices. Lahey is facing child pornography charges. While the story is a demonstration of solid, basic investigative reporting, CBC failed to make it easy for online readers. They posted the document, with portions excised, only as a PDF. I've converted it to e-document format and posted it here, for easier reading.

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Escapee Evjen too dangerous to release

The National Parole Board has ordered serial bank robber Shawn Evjen (inset) detained in prison until the very last day of his prison sentence, June, 15, 2010, because he's a dangerous crook who is a "very high" risk to commit new, violent crimes (full document after the jump). It's anyone guess if he'll be in prison on that day. Evjen escaped from medium-security Bowden Institution in Alberta on Sept. 14. He was caught in Edmonton on Sept. 30 during a routine traffic stop near that city's big shopping mall. Two days later, the parole board reviewed his case and issued the detention order.
The timing is odd, but it may be that the board had this review scheduled months before Evjen scaled two fences at Bowden and scampered off. Evjen had already told the board he wasn't going to bother appearing for a hearing, so they completed a paper review of his case, a now-burgeoning file of foulups on release, escapes, and violence behind bars. Detention hearings are fairly rare (just 266 held in 2007-08). The hearings are reserved for the most dangerous convicts. The National Parole Board holds a detention hearing if Corrections Canada, which manages the cases of imprisoned criminals, recommends detention. This latest decision in Evjen's case has some interesting revelations, including the disclosure that Evjen is trying to cut a deal with prosecutors for outstanding charges from July 2009, when he was on early release from prison and robbed another bank:

You were disguised and in possession of a loaded sawed off shotgun. The offence occurred in the mid afternoon and some 15 people were in the bank. Two of those persons, one [an] on duty plain clothes officer and the other a retired police officer, worked to disarm and apprehend you, at gunpoint. You are facing further charges. Documents indicate you are not denying you committed the robbery, have already appeared in court on two occasions and are 'negotiating' with the Crown regarding what you are prepared to plead to.

The board makes only brief mention of Evjen's September escape:

Your most recent offences, committed while under supervision, and now the recent escape from a medium security institution, indicate you are not interested in making any changes to your criminal mindset and remain prepared to take significant risks.

The document doesn't address the fact that Evjen will earn more time for his escape.

Here's the complete decision by the National Parole Board to detain Evjen until the end of his sentence:



» Previous post on Evjen's escape

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Escapee Evjen becoming 'progressively more violent'

Convict Shawn Evjen (inset) was likely itching to get back to robbing banks and stores, terrorizing clerks and tellers by waving a gun or knife in their faces, so that he could earn some quick cash, enough to feed his addiction to heroin, alcohol and other drugs. It might be the simple explanation for his decision to scale two fences at Bowden Institution, a medium-security prison in Alberta, to escape Sept. 14 – just two months after his early release was yanked and he was thrown back in prison for committing new crimes. His parole records (reproduced after the jump) reveal the depths of Evjen's narcissistic addiction to crime and violence and his refusal to change. He is as frightening as any sexual predator. He seems to enjoy terrorizing his victims and he's indifferent to their suffering.

Evjen refuses to follow any rules when he gets out of prison, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he escaped. He wants to be on the street, stealing and shooting up, and scaring people in the process. He has screwed up while on early release from prison at least four times, according to the parole records acquired by Cancrime, most recently in July 2009, after he was charged with a slew of crimes committed while he was on statutory release (that's automatic freedom, not parole). He was charged with armed robbery, disguise with intent, having a weapon for a dangerous purpose, pointing a firearm, unauthorized possession of a firearm and resisting arrest. The parole board said:

You have once again returned to well established patterns of relapse back into your crime cycle. Your previous pattern of criminal behaviour involves extensive substance abuse, violating the conditions of your release and escaping custody. Your behaviour on this release mirrors your past behaviour indicating that you have not internalized the discipline necessary to manage your addictions and, therefore your risk. In short, you have made no progress at all while in the community.

Keep in mind we're talking about a guy who is now serving a 24 and a half year sentence for armed robbery and other crimes. The sentence began 24 years ago, in 1985. At that time, he was sentenced to seven and a half years behind bars, but his repeated reoffending while he's been free from prison has more than tripled the original term. Evjen is, as some would say, doing life on the instalment plan. His criminal record is now three decades deep, beginning with break ins and drug crimes in 1979. He has becoming progressively more violent. In prison, he has assaulted other convicts and staff.

Below are the written records of National Parole Board decisions in 2007 and 2009 to revoke Evjen's freedom:




When Evjen's early release was yanked two years ago, it was clear that he doesn't care who he hurts when he's on a robbery rampage:

Your criminal offending has been well established over the years and you have not been hesitant to use violence, weapons, and the threat of violence in order to achieve your criminal intent. In addition to your convictions for violent offences, you have been charged with many others that did not result in conviction. It is your most recent offending behaviour that has been the most violent and you have shown little regard for the welfare of others whom you offend against either directly or who may have been present at the scene of the crime and were impacted by your actions.

This was a significant, embarrassing escape for Corrections Canada from a medium-security prison with tall fences, armed guards and video surveillance. As this story notes, it highlights again that Canada's prison service is so strapped for cash that prison managers continue to leave watchtowers that look over the perimeters of prisons empty most of the time to save money (they're still doing it at many medium- and maximum-security federal pens). Corrections doesn't learn from its mistakes, it seems. That practice was a key factor in the escape 10 years ago of bank robber Tyrone Conn from maximum-security Kingston Penitentiary.

» National escape statistics
» Latest escapee from a federal prison in Ontario

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The 'somewhat bizarre' case of Mike Danton

Today the National Parole Board released its full, written record of the parole hearing held Sept. 11, 2009, for imprisoned former pro hockey player Mike Danton, who was jailed for trying to hire a hitman to kill his former agent and mentor. For the full story of the hearing, see this previous post. The board's written record features a deft stroke of understatement in describing the case:

The factual situation is relatively straightforward, although somewhat bizarre.

Here's the five-page record of the hearing and decision to grant Danton full parole:

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Bank robber McBain didn't like being a victim

Poor Kenneth McBain. The serial stick-up bandit and escaped federal convict (inset) who terrorizes bank clerks by waving a loaded .357 handgun in their faces – or firing it into the ceiling – got all choked up describing the time he was a victim of violence, parole records reveal.

McBain's moment of emotion came during a hearing before parole board members in September 2007, after he reported he had been randomly attacked and stabbed. The parole board noted he "became very emotional at today's hearing in describing this assault." He survived the knifing but surprisingly could not identify any of his assailants. Authorities expressed a modicum of mistrust of McBain's account of events:

Although your Case Management Team, as well as the Board, can speculate that you were not simply a victim of a random assault, there is no reliable or persuasive evidence to the contrary. Some of the speculation about the assault arises from the fact that you were stabbed just as you were about to visit a former inmate whom you had met ... He is the person who discovered you in the parking lot of his apartment building and took you to hospital, in your view saving your life. It remains unclear to the Board whether it was entirely fortuitous that this person happened to discover you shortly after the assault.

(page 11 in the documents)

McBain said he'd never been a victim of violence, though the board noted that his criminal record shows that he has been "the perpetrator of violence against others."

McBain is serving a sentence of nearly 16 years for 14 robberies, including 13 with a weapon, and convictions of assault with a weapon, assaulting a peace officer, escape lawful custody and pointing a firearm. In one of McBain's bank holdups, an off-duty police officer in a vehicle tried to stop him. McBain fired on the car, nearly hitting the officer.

Sixteen months ago, McBain's parole was revoked. A kitchen knife disappeared from the community residential facility where he was staying and several days later a nearby gas station was robbed by a man armed with a knife. A knife was later found in McBain's closet at the facility. McBain was not charged with the robbery.

He ended up at minimum-security Frontenac Institution in Kingston, Ontario, a prison with no armed guards or fences. It operates essentially on an honour system. McBain escaped July 6 and remains on the loose (here's my latest newspaper story about McBain).

Below are the official National Parole Board records of five parole decisions in McBain's file, between 2005 and 2008 (page 2 in the upper right corner indicates the start of a new decision):




Related:

» McBain is second Frontenac escapee in a month
» Prison psychologist helps her convict lover escape
» The number of escaped convicts on the books
» Ty Conn's great escape from Kingston Penitentiary

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Wife killer Peter Demeter gives up on freedom

Once-moneyed murderer Peter Demeter (above), a killer who "oozes evil," has given up on freedom. For the fifth consecutive time in the past 10 years, the imprisoned psychopathic senior citizen has told the National Parole Board not to bother holding a hearing at which he could beg for release. A hearing had been scheduled for this month, but Demeter waived his right to plead for freedom. It appears that the former real-estate developer, now 76, has accepted that he'll die behind bars, in part, because he refuses to admit that he hired an assassin who split open his wife's skull on July 18, 1973, in the garage of the couple's upscale Mississauga, Ontario, home.



Thirty-three-year-old Christine Demeter (left), a lithe, athletic Austrian-born model, was alone at home on Wednesday evening, July 18, 1973, for less than two hours. When her husband of slightly less than six years, Peter, returned home from a shopping trip at 9:45 p.m., Christine, wearing an ankle-length, sleeveless plush brown gown, was sprawled on the concrete floor of the garage (photo above), face down, her hands folded beneath her body. Her left foot was bare, a silver slipper a few inches away. A stream of blood, double the width of her tanned body, had flowed from a gaping wound in her head, across the floor. She had been struck at least half a dozen times, perhaps with a tire iron or crowbar, that cleaved her skull, allowing some of her brain to spill out. Blood was spattered on the grey Cadillac parked inside the garage, beside her body.

Seventeen months later, after a sensational trial in London, Ontario, Peter Demeter was convicted of non-capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Demeter did not testify and still maintains his innocence. He had hoped to collect a $1 million life insurance payout on his dead wife. The hired killer who prosecutors contended bashed the 33-year-old mother's skull open was never found, though suspicion fell on several shady characters, including Imre Olejnyik (right), a small time Hungarian crook also known as the Duck. Though police named him, at one time, as the probable killer, he was never brought to trial. He died in Hungary in March 1975.

Demeter was on parole in Peterborough, Ontario, by 1983. Two years later, he was convicted of counselling to commit murder in a plot to have his nephew killed and two life sentences were added to his sentence. In 1988, he amassed two more life sentences (for a total of five), for conspiracy to kidnap and murder the daughter of his lawyer. Demeter was angry that lawyer Toby Belman had frozen some of his stocks because he had not paid her legal bill.

Judge John O'Driscoll sentenced Demeter in the Belman kidnap plot in 1988, leaving no doubt how he felt:

Your evil knows no bounds. It never rests. It never ends ... In my opinion, this man should never, ever, ever be released on parole. Whether or not you are inherently evil, I do not know, but you ooze evil out of every pore and contaminate everyone around you.

Demeter was scheduled to go before the parole board this month, but he waived the hearing, as he did four times previously since 1999, the date of his last hearing. At that hearing, he was denied a chance to leave prison for four hours, in shackles, with two escorts. He was deemed too dangerous. Demeter maintained that he did not arrange his wife's murder in 1974:

As you reiterated, you are hardly likely, after twenty-five years, to admit any involvement in your wife's death as you have consistently maintained your innocence.

[full 1999 parole record]

In 1995, a psychiatrist who assessed Demeter in prison described him as "insightless, manipulative, self-exculpatory and psychopathic." The doctor said Demeter "continues to represent a significant risk to cause trouble to others should be be unsupervised in the community." Two psychiatrists concluded he wouldn't benefit from any programs or treatment. One psychiatrist said Demeter exhibited "narcissistic personality traits, rationalizations and intellectualizations." His credibility was described as "so little."

At a 1996 parole hearing, Demeter flirted with responsibility for his wife's death:

Up until today, you have always claimed innocence with respect to the murder of your wife, and minimized the severity of your other offences. At the beginning of the hearing, when pressed, you accepted 'unqualified full responsibility' for all of your offences. As the hearing progressed however, you kept on alluding to the conspiracy theory and yourself as victim. By the end of the hearing, when asked directly if you arranged the murder of your wife, your answer was 'no.'

[full 1996 parole record]

Today, Demeter (at left) is a crippled old man living in a special housing unit, a small cottage-like building for aged and disabled convicts at medium-security Bath Institution, located just west of Kingston, Ontario. He has survived several bouts of cancer, a stroke and several heart attacks (documented in this confidential transfer request I obtained in 1999). One of his bunkmates, sex offender Ken Shipman, baked him cinnamon buns for his 76th birthday on April 19, prison sources tell me.

More

• The definitive book, By Persons Unknown, by George Jonas and Barbara Amiel
• News video clip about the case
• Demeter whined in 2006, about an order requiring him to submit a DNA sample

The full record of Demeter's 1996 parole hearing:



The full record of Demeter's 1999 parole hearing:



Confidential prison transfer request filed by Demeter in 1999:

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Hidden answers in a mass murder probe?

Sometimes, there are clues to a complicated police investigation between the lines of what police have said. It's worth reading closely the three-page news release (above) investigators in Kingston, Ontario issued on July 23, the day they announced that they had charged a father, mother and son with killing four other family members who were found dead in a submerged car in a canal on June 30, 2009.

Police have said very little about what led them to conclude they were dealing with murder and not a terrible driving accident. But on Page 2 of the release, they offer a clue about what the investigation may have discovered. Investigators note that the Shafia family claimed that 19-year-old Zainab, one of the victims, had a habit of taking the car without permission so she could learn to drive, although she did not have a licence. The family said, very publicly, and repeatedly, that she had likely taken the car in the early morning of June 30, and somehow driven it into the canal, taking her and her three family members to their deaths. Kingston Police say:

Our investigation to date reveals that this particular allegation is false and that, on the night in question, the Nissan was operated by a combination of the three accused persons.

Perhaps what police are really telling us is that the four victims were dead long before the car hit the water. Zainab didn't drive the car that night. Police say that, at varying times, it was being driven by one of the accused. That could be because the victims weren't capable of driving the car because they weren't alive, or at least conscious. Police have not released any information on the autopsies on the victims, including the cause of death in each case.

» Read all of Cancrime's coverage of this story

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A savage killer's parole performance

Ian MacAlpine photo


Every murder is shocking, but some killings sear your soul when you wade through the depravity. The 1986 slaying of Billy MacLeod in Kingston, Ontario, is one of those. In the dark, early morning of May 25, MacLeod, his arms handcuffed behind his back, ran for his life across a newly planted cornfield, desperately hoping to escape the sexual predator who had abducted him. John Lee Jr. (above in 1986) had posed as a police officer and drove MacLeod to a secluded spot north of Kingston. MacLeod did not know Lee, who stabbed him 22 times and left his body in the barren field, snuffing out a young life full of promise. Twenty-three years later, Lee desperately wants out of prison.

MacLeod was a gifted 16-year-old high school athlete, a wrestler and football player who was respected at his school. Lee was a troubled 23-year-old drug addict who delighted in hunting young straight men he could force into gay sex. He had never killed until the night he abducted Billy MacLeod. He did not testify at his trial and has never spoken publicly about the murder. He has refused to acknowledge the killing was sexually motivated, yet the parole records show that authorities fear Lee is a predator who refuses to admit his deviance

The belief that the [murder] was sexually motivated is still held by your Case Management Team (CMT) due to your penchant for having sex with young male inmates and your assertion of having had approximately 700 sexual partners, the majority of whom have been males.

It's still not clear why Lee flew into a murderous frenzy, given the contradictory, self-serving tales he has spun before the National Parole Board, as he pleaded for freedom. In January, he was denied release. Here's the complete record of that decision:



Lee didn't like the board's decision. He appealed to the National Parole Board's appeal division in Ottawa, complaining that keeping him in prison constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, contrary to the Charter of Rights. In the decision below, rendered in June, the appeal division rejected Lee's arguments.



One of the lead police investigators who put Lee away 23 years ago, Larry Willott, told me he hopes Lee never gets out. Here's my account of the case from the Kingston Whig-Standard:

The imprisoned killer who kidnapped and stabbed to death a 16-year-old Kingston boy 23 years ago has failed to win freedom in his first plea for parole.
The appeal division of the National Parole Board has upheld a decision to deny release to John Lee Jr., who is now behind bars in a medium-security prison in British Columbia.
In 1986, Lee savagely murdered Grade 11 student William Patrick MacLeod, who was a star athlete at Regiopolis Notre Dame Catholic high school. Lee was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
He has been behind bars since his arrest in the spring of 1986.
“I hope he never gets out,” said Larry Willott, the retired OPP officer who was a key member of the investigative team that put Lee behind bars.
Lee, who was 23 at the time of the murder, is 46.
Willott and another officer interrogated Lee for eight hours. He did not confess.
“He wanted to tell us, but he just couldn’t get there,” Willott recalls.
Lee told them: “I know what you guys want to hear but I’m not there yet.”
Lee did not testify at his three-and-a-half day trial and prosecutors never clearly established a motive for the murder. The parole records obtained by the Whig-Standard offer the first public glimpse of Lee’s claims about what drove him to kill.
Some of his assertions are at odds with the conclusions drawn by police and prosecutors and are at odds with the evidence.
The investigation revealed that around 1 a.m. on May 25, 1986, Lee, who cruised Kingston streets hunting boys for sex, pulled alongside MacLeod, a six-foot tall, 180-pound wrestling champ at Regi, who was walking home along Division Street.
MacLeod had been at a party where he may have had one beer.
Lee, who often wore suits, flashed a phoney police badge and told MacLeod he was under arrest. He handcuffed the boy’s hands behind his back, rendering the athletic young man defenceless.
Lee drove MacLeod to a secluded spot north of Kingston and tried to sexually assault him, police believe.
MacLeod must have seen a chance to escape. He bolted and began sprinting across a newly planted cornfield. Lee gave chase.
MacLeod could not outdistance his abductor. With his hands manacled behind his back, he was awkwardly off balance, running in the dark over unfamiliar, uneven terrain.
The teen stumbled in a boggy spot and his left running shoe was wrenched off.
He tumbled onto the dirt.
Lee was on him.
The frenzied predator stabbed MacLeod 22 times – eight times in the back, twice in the chest and 12 times in the face and eyes. One of the thrusts pierced his heart.
MacLeod’s body was found five days later.
Eleven months later, Lee was found guilty.
The knife he used was never found.
Lee was eligible in June last year to seek day parole and unescorted passes from prison.
In prison, he has been troublesome.
“You have a history of manipulative behaviour including: making false and derogatory allegations toward staff members, engaging in hunger strikes, threatening staff and other inmates while incarcerated,” the records note.
Four years ago, he told a staff member: “Why would you put me in the kitchen? Do you want me to stab somebody?”
He appeared before a panel of parole board members in January this year and told them he had learned to deal with his anger, and that he planned to open a food and drink business when he was freed.
He asked for release to a halfway house.
The board noted he is still considered a risk to commit new, violent crimes.
He was denied release.
Lee didn’t like the decision and asked the appeal division of the parole board to reconsider. He claimed his continued imprisonment continues cruel and unusual punishment, contrary to the Charter of Rights.
In a decision last month, the appeal division ruled that Lee was dealt with fairly and the decision to deny parole was reasonable.
At the January parole hearing, Lee offered a series of rationalizations and explanations for the murder, including claims that even the investigating police officers had not heard.
“In your version of this crime, you reported that on the evening of the [murder], you were feeling very angry at your father and the police and decided that you were going to kill someone,” the parole record of his Jan. 26 hearing reveals.
Lee claimed he was physically and emotionally abused by his father. He told parole board members that his father would hog-tie him and whip him with a stick. He said his father sabotaged his development and made it clear he was not “his number one son.”
“I was never taught to deal with anger,” Lee said, according to the records. He also told the board “my parents encouraged me to use violence.” He said he was violent towards his sisters.
Willott said the claims of an abusive father are surprising. He knew Lee’s father as a hard-working and decent businessman who ran a well-known downtown restaurant, the Canton.
Larry Carroll, a retired Kingston Police investigator who also worked on the case, wondered if an abusive father would take desperate measures to keep his son alive behind bars when he was first sent to Millhaven penitentiary.
As a killer of a local boy, Lee would have been reviled by other prisoners.
“Old John was paying protection money to keep him alive inside [prison] and he went out of business shortly afterwards so he must have spent a lot of money,” Carroll said.
Willott said he has talked to parole officials in recent years and offered to travel to British Columbia or to provide information to ensure that Lee stays behind bars.
He didn’t know the parole hearing was being held. No one appeared at the hearing on behalf of MacLeod’s family.
Until Willott read the parole documents, he had never heard the claim that Lee’s father was abusive and that the younger Lee was driven by anger over that abuse.
Lee also told the board that he was feeling suicidal the night of the killing, that he swallowed pills and passed out for a time.
“After waking up, you said that you decided to go for a drive, and it was only then that you noticed a bag in the rear seating area of your vehicle that contained a shiny belt buckle that resembled a police badge, and a pair of handcuffs, which you said you used to arrest non-paying customers at your father’s restaurant,” the document states.
Willott says investigators determined that this wasn’t the first time Lee had impersonated a police officer when hunting sexual partners.
At his trial, jurors heard that Lee sought straight young men for gay sex because he thought he could “turn” them.
Police found two realistic-looking badges and the handcuffs hidden under clothing in a dresser drawer of Lee’s sister. She shared a Thomas Street house with her brother.
The night of the killing, Lee had attended a wedding reception. Willott said videotape obtained by police suggested Lee was extremely high on drugs and was acting strangely.
Lee has admitted to prison authorities that he used LSD, amphetamines, hashish, tranquilizers and marijuana.
“When asked specifically why you selected this victim, you said that you thought that by killing somebody, you would alleviate your homicidal feelings,” the parole records state. “You added, however, that after the murder, you discovered that not only did you still have these ‘homicidal energies,’ but that you also wanted to end your own life.”
Lee denied that the killing was sexually motivated. The parole board noted his “penchant for having sex with young male inmates.”
He claimed to have had 700 sexual partners, mostly male.
The prison staff who manage Lee’s case also believe the murder was sexually motivated.
Lee was asked why his case workers and police hold this view. He said it is because he is homosexual.
“I believe it was sexually motivated right from the get go, especially after the court established his previous numerous attempts to do the same thing,” Willott said.
Carroll scoffed at Lee’s claims that the crime wasn’t sexually motivated.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with the father or anybody else,” Carroll said. “Why else would you handcuff somebody and take them out into a field?”
Lee offered a chilling account of the murder that seemed designed to distance him from suggestions he is a sexual deviant.
He told the board that as soon as he put MacLeod in his jeep, he told the teen he planned to kill him.
“When the victim asked why you selected him, you claimed that you told him he just happened to be the first person you saw,” the records state. “The victim then asked if he could pray.
“You told [him] that he could pray until the end of two songs on the radio. Then you stabbed him numerous times, describing yourself as having been in a frenzied state.”
Willott said investigators believe MacLeod was not stabbed until he ran from the jeep into the cornfield and was caught by Lee.
Lee told the board that he didn’t want to look at his victim because he didn’t want to form a “personal attachment” to him.
Lee’s account of the killing was “devoid of emotion and at times, sounded matter-of-fact,” the parole board noted.
It concluded that his account was not “entirely credible.”
Lee told the parole board that he had a troubled upbringing.
He claimed to have had problems with anger and aggression from the time he was halfway through elementary school. He said he failed every year after Grade 6, but teachers continued to move him on to the next grade.
He was expelled and suspended several times, he said.
“Moreover, you believe that the cause of your violent behaviour was due to your classmates making racial remarks about you,” the record states. “As a child, you claim that you had no close male friends and that you felt closer to females, as you believed that you were female inside.”
Lee had a limited criminal history before the murder, with convictions for possession of a weapon, fraud and uttering a forged document.
He told the board he committed vandalism and shoplifted as a youth.
Willott doesn’t believe Lee is redeemable.
“I don’t think so, I never got that sense,” he said.
An annual football game, the MacLeod Cup, is held between teams from Regiopolis and Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School in Kingston in Billy MacLeod’s memory.
If he were alive, MacLeod would have celebrated his 40th birthday yesterday.

» Whig-Standard court reporter Sue Yanagisawa's wrenching 1987 story of the MacLeod family's agony, on the eve of Lee's murder trial

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