The Gaspé Murders

Three hunters head deep into the rugged wilderness of Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula for a 10-day trip, but fail to return home. A search turns up their abandoned truck, followed by something far more disturbing. As investigators try to piece together what happened, attention turns to a local man named Wilbert Coffin, one of the last people known to have crossed paths with the missing men. This case would go on to trigger years of controversy with questions about police tunnel vision, political interference and the nature of justice itself. More information: Listen to The Coffin Affair: A Miscarriage of Justice Revisited https://www.wilbertcoffinaffair.com/ by Kathryn M. Campbell. The intention of this episode is to revisit a criminal case that became a major chapter in Canadian legal history, examine how the investigation and prosecution unfolded, and explore why the questions surrounding it have endured for generations. --------------------- Separation Anxiety: The Alberta Referendum https://www.canadiantruecrime.ca/news/separation-anxiety-the-alberta-referendum A five part investigative series wherever you get your podcasts https://pod.link/6811266682. Episode 2 available now. --------------------- Canadian true crime donates monthly to those facing injustice. This month we have donated to the Association for Families of Persons Assassinated or Disappeared https://afpad.ca/ (AFPAD). Look for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fbe63977-5737-4910-a067-1745b99fae36/canadian-true-crime (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/3LZBCxa and Patreon https://www.patreon.com/canadiantruecrime. Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits: See the page for this episode athttps://canadiantruecrime.ca/episodeswww.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes/222 http://www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes/222 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hey, it's Paige from Giggly Squad. I'm a big believer that sometimes a new workout outfit is all the motivation you need. And luckily, Abercrombie just teamed up with Barry's to bring a YPB collection made for the red room. I'm talking about YPB's Sculpt Lux leggings, shorts, double-layered bras, and the new 6 a.m. jacket. Basically, everything you need to go from looking like you're just trying to survive a workout class to looking like you're achieving your personal best. Shop YPB by Abercrombie in the app, online, and in stores, and bring your personal best to the red room.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  Losing weight can feel like a roller coaster, full of ups, downs, and being thrown for loops. Like when someone brings donuts into the office, or your kid's dino nuggets start giving you that look again. That's why there's Noom. They combine GLP-1s to quiet the food noise with healthy habits that help you keep it quiet, even if you get off the meds. Their program is designed to make weight loss a smooth ride, helping you understand what drives you, so you can build better habits to not just lose weight, but keep it off. Noom. Lose for keeps. Get started at noom.com. Not all customers will clinically qualify for medications. Individual results may vary.

• 1:13Speaker 02

  Welcome to Canadian True Crime, a completely independent project funded mainly through advertising. To listen ad-free and early, subscribe to our premium feed on Amazon Music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, and Patreon. This podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening.

• 1:34Speaker 03

  Hi there. I hope you're well. Just quickly before we get into the episode, I wanted to remind you about Separation Anxiety: The Alberta Referendum, the independent investigative podcast Canadian True Crime is proudly supporting. It's really good, curious, quirky, and surprisingly endearing. In episode two, released this week, award-winning Alberta journalist Danielle Parity and Tim Queringesser take you inside an Edmonton town hall where a separatist organizer faces a hostile crowd. They dig into the numbers behind some of the separatist movement's biggest promises. Does the math check out? Would Albertans actually be better

• 2:17Speaker 03

  off if the province separated from Canada? And why does one university professor describe Premier Danielle Smith as Schrödinger's premier? Canadian True Crime is proud to support this independent, local journalism exploring an issue with implications for the entire country. With three episodes still to come, now is a great time to subscribe to Separation Anxiety: The Alberta Referendum wherever you get your podcasts. There's more info and links to subscribe in the show notes. And with that, it's on with this episode.

• 3:04Speaker 03

  It's early July, and two families in the US state of Pennsylvania are waiting for news of their loved ones from the remote wilderness in Quebec. Nearly a month has passed since 45-year-old pipe fitter Eugene Lindsay left on a hunting trip with his 17-year-old son Richard, who'd just graduated from high school. The trip was something of a graduation present, and the father and son had been joined by their 19-year-old family friend, Fred Cla. The Lindsay and Cla families both live near Holidaysburg, a small community of a few thousand people about two hours' drive east of Pittsburgh. They knew that

• 3:48Speaker 03

  their three hunters had driven about 1,600 kilometers northeast across the US-Canada border and up to the Gas Bay Peninsula in Quebec, a long finger of land that juts out where the St. Lawrence River opens out toward the Atlantic Ocean, just north of New Brunswick. The Gas Bay Peninsula is a stunning coastal region known for its dramatic mountains that meet the sea, an isolated region of thick forests, mountains, and rough logging roads, the very definition of the wilderness, the perfect place for hunting.

• 4:29Speaker 03

  The journey would have taken roughly two full days in Eugene's green pickup truck, and they did not plan to stop. The truck had a rudimentary bed in the back of it so that one person could sleep while the others took turns driving. Their families in Pennsylvania knew at least that they'd successfully made it to the village of Gas Bay. They'd received a postcard from 17-year-old Richard mailed from the village. He said they planned to head into the forest following the St. John River. They would have a 10-day adventure hunting black bear, and then they would drive the two days back to Pennsylvania. That was early June of 1953.

• 5:20Speaker 03

  When the trio didn't return home on time, their families weren't especially concerned at first. Eugene is an experienced hunter, and he's been known to extend his trips before. Communication from the wilderness is limited, and it wasn't the first time they'd been to the area. Eugene knew there was good, basic shelter there, a series of four old camps with wooden cabins once used by lumberjacks. There were any number of reasons why the hunters might be delayed. Their families wait and hope they'll hear from them soon. But the days and weeks pass with no word.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  By July 5, it's been a month since they left on a 10-day hunting trip, and their families can no longer ignore the possibility that something has gone wrong. They contact police in the village of Gas Bay and report them missing. Police send out search parties to see if they can find the American hunters. The Gas Bay Peninsula is a large area of land roughly the size of Vancouver Island, but it has a relatively small population, only about 115,000 residents, and they mostly live near the coast because the rugged interior has limited farmland.

• 6:44Speaker 03

  The searchers have a pretty good idea where the missing hunters might be, because they'd told their families that they planned to travel the St. John River, a waterway that flows east into Gas Bay Bay. As a search team travels a logging road in the general area, they spot a green pickup truck parked ahead. There are no signs of any occupants or anyone around. It looks like it's been abandoned. The location is not far from one of the old camps with wooden cabins once used by lumberjacks. Maybe they're there. They're not. Another search team near a different campsite, Camp 21, comes across something

• 7:29Speaker 03

  extremely grim: a body, or the decomposing remains of one in very bad shape. The head is completely missing. There's bear tracks all over the area. Animal scavengers have gnawed on the remaining bones. A rifle is discovered near the body. It's got matted bits of human hair on it, shreds of skin and blood. Not far from that, there's other objects strewn about the site: a sleeping bag, food, jackets, and a camp stove. The police have no way to tell who the body belongs to, but they operate on the assumption

• 8:11Speaker 03

  that it must belong to one of the missing hunters from Pennsylvania, likely the older man, not one of the teenagers. As the search continues, the local coroner, Dr. Ryu, is tasked with identifying the body and figuring out what happened. Local residents are told to come forward if they encountered the American hunters, or knew anyone else that did.

• 8:41Speaker 03

  An old Gas Bay logging road gatekeeper comes forward to say he saw them as they were entering the woods. He didn't interact with them, but he did see a local prospector and woodsman, Wilbert Coffin, in the area at around the same time.

• 9:01Speaker 03

  38-year-old Wilbert Coffin lives in Montreal with his spouse and son now, but he was born and raised on Gas Bay Peninsula, in York Centre, a small, mostly English-speaking neighbourhood in the village of Gas Bay. Wilbert is the third of 11 children, and most of his family and friends still live there, so he returns often. He's reportedly well-liked in the area, known for his generosity and always having a smile on his face. Slim, dark-haired, and of medium height, Wilbert never graduated from high school, but became

• 9:40Speaker 03

  a skilled outdoorsman, a jack-of-all-trades. He started prospecting in the Gas Bay woods 20 years earlier when he was 18 years old, searching for valuable mineral deposits to earn money, and something he always returned to. When the Second World War broke out, Wilbert enlisted in the Canadian Army and served overseas, sometimes as a cook. After the war, he found jobs cooking in various hotels, which led him to Montreal, where he met a young woman named Marion Petrie. They began a relationship, and Marion gave birth to a son, James, although the couple didn't

• 10:23Speaker 03

  get married, which was unusual in Quebec at that time. Marion worked in a factory, but Wilbert chipped in for household expenses whenever she asked. He earned most of his income from prospecting, or from being hired to stake mining claims on other people's behalf. And he was away a lot, mostly in the Gas Bay Peninsula, leaving Marion in Montreal with little James until he returned.

• 10:57Speaker 03

  By the time the Quebec Provincial Police learned that Wilbert Coffin has been spotted in the same area as the three missing hunters, he's already driven the more than 900 kilometres back to Montreal, a journey that would take nine or 10 hours today. So he turns back to Gas Bay so police can speak to him about the three missing hunters. Wilbert Coffin sits down with Sergeant Henri Doyle, who is leading the investigation. By this point, it's July 20, about six weeks since the three hunters left Pennsylvania. Wilbert confirms he did come into contact with them about five days after that, on

• 11:41Speaker 03

  June the 10th, and in fact, he's got quite the story about it. He tells the investigator that he was driving along a rough logging road when he came across a green pickup truck stuck in the mud, blocking his own way. He got out to see what was happening and ended up chatting with the three men in the truck, who introduced themselves as Eugene Lindsay, his 17-year-old son Richard, and a slightly older teenager named Fred, all on a hunting trip from Pennsylvania. Unlike the hunters, Wilbert Coffin says he was unarmed, but he wasn't afraid, they

• 12:20Speaker 03

  just needed some help, so he offered to use his own truck to pull theirs out of the mud. The operation was a success, and the green pickup truck was free. But that didn't solve the problem. Wilbert tells the police that the truck wasn't in working order. The American hunters told him they believed the truck's fuel pump was defective and needed to be replaced. Wilbert offered to give them a ride back to the village of Gas Bay to get the replacement part. Young Richard Lindsay would go along with Wilbert, while his father Eugene waited at the pickup truck with Fred.

• 13:03Speaker 03

  Getting to the village wasn't going to be easy or fast, the old logging roads were so rough. It was a bumpy ride of a couple of hours, but once they arrived in the village, they visited various retailers and soon purchased a replacement fuel pump. Thirty-eight-year-old Wilbert told the investigator he bonded with 17-year-old Richard during the journey back, to the point where the youth noticed him admiring his hunting knife, and he handed it to him, saying he wanted him to keep it. Wilbert was grateful for the gift. When they arrived back at the green pickup truck, there was another vehicle next to

• 13:47Speaker 03

  it, a yellow-coloured Jeep with American licence plates and some kind of plywood finish. And there were two new men in their 30s. Wilbert Coffin told the police that Eugene introduced these men to him as “some friends from the States”, but he couldn't remember their names. All seemed good and well, and he said the six men sat down by the campfire and had a meal together. Wilbert tells the police that afterwards, Eugene Lindsay took him aside and opened up his wallet, showing a huge wad of cash that Wilbert estimated to be at least 650

• 14:28Speaker 03

  American dollars, worth more than $7,000 today. No wallet had been found with Eugene's remains, and certainly no cash. Wilbert says Eugene took 40 American dollars out as a thank you for all his help. He was grateful, and said he had a copper claim to stake deep in the bush, but promised to come back in two days to see how the hunters were doing. True to his word, Wilbert says he did come back two days later, pulling up behind the green pickup truck once again. Now, it seemed abandoned, there was no sign of anyone, anywhere.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  The two new visitors and their yellow-coloured Jeep were gone as well. Wilbert tells the police he waited around for hours, but no one returned to the pickup truck, so he visited his parents, repaid a debt to his friend, caught up with some other friends, and then drove back to his family in Montreal. Once Wilbert Coffin's police interview is over, he joins one of the search parties looking for the two remaining missing teenagers. But before long, he decides to head back into the wilderness for more prospecting, stopping in at his parents' place to retrieve a rifle he'd left there.

• 15:53Speaker 03

  Wilbert has to be a little sneaky about this rifle, because he's not legally permitted to carry a weapon. He'd recently lost his gun licence for poaching deer, the result of his first and only run-in with the law at that point. Before his recent prospecting trip to Gas Bay, he borrowed the Marlin 3240 rifle from a friend named Jack Eagle, just for extra safety for prospecting in the wilderness. But he accidentally left that rifle at his parents' place when he stopped in, so that's where it was when he met the three American hunters. He decided not to mention it to the police, he didn't want to get in trouble.

• 16:38Speaker 03

  But now, he wants that rifle back to continue prospecting, so after he leaves the search, he retrieves it from his parents' place. Then he heads back into another forest camp about 20 kilometres from the village. He'll need to keep this Marlin rifle hidden at his campsite. In the meantime, the coroner's inquest confirms that the remains discovered near Camp 21 do belong to 45-year-old pipe-fitter Eugene Lindsay. The father of missing hunter Fred Cla had already travelled from Pennsylvania to Quebec to help with the search.

• 17:19Speaker 03

  It was he who positively identified the remains as belonging to his old family friend. But the coroner is reluctant to provide an exact cause of death, he would only say that it wasn't natural. The evidence showed the body of Eugene Lindsay was scavenged by bears and other animals afterwards. The Gas Bay woods are known for a population of black bears, which rarely attack humans and typically avoid them. And in the unlikely event an aggressive bear did attack them, they were three hunters with rifles, they would have been able to defend themselves.

• 18:02Speaker 03

  Eugene Lindsay's son Richard and their family friend Fred Cla are still missing. Their families are distraught, desperate for answers. The searches are pushing on, but it's rough terrain, it's going to take some time. On July 23, about seven weeks since the hunters first left Pennsylvania, and about eight days since Eugene's body was found, searches at logging camp number 26 make another grim discovery near the hot buggy forest. Decomposing human remains scattered around and enmeshed with a sweatshirt that reads

• 18:45Speaker 03

  “Holidaysburg Tigers”. It's a reference to a high school sports team. These remains belong to 17-year-old Richard Lindsay. Camp 26 is about four kilometres away from Camp 21, where his father Eugene's remains were found. And the sweatshirt he was once wearing contained a bullet hole. The garment is now so deteriorated that it's difficult to make out, but it's clear that Richard Lindsay has been shot. His own rifle is found nearby, buried muzzle-first in the ground, which seems to suggest either

• 19:26Speaker 03

  the killer deliberately placed it there, or it could have fallen from Richard's hands and dug into the soil. There's more. About 60 metres away from Richard's remains is another set, belonging to 19-year-old family friend Fred Cla, who was described as a “gentle giant type”. His rifle is also nearby, along with clothing and a camera. Like Eugene Lindsay, both sets of remains have been chewed on by animals and are surrounded by bear tracks.

• 20:07Speaker 03

  While all three hunters are now accounted for, investigators are baffled by the lack of spent bullets or cartridge casings near the bodies or the general area. This suggests to police that the killer or killers either tidied up after themselves, or maybe they used a firearm like a revolver that needs to be manually opened to remove the cartridge casings. And curiously, it's determined that none of the rifles belonging to the three deceased hunters have actually been fired. Whatever happened there was looking more and more like a targeted ambush, that they were taken by surprise and attacked before they could even react.

• 20:52Speaker 03

  Quebec authorities are now treating the case as a serial murder investigation, prompting front-page headlines across Canada and the United States. “Three Gas Bay Hunters Slain by Rifle Fire” reads a July 24, 1953, front-page headline in the Montreal Star. Another newspaper out of Pennsylvania describes Gas Bay as a “desolate, bear-infested peninsula filled with mysterious ancient forests that do not give up their secrets easily”.

• 21:33Speaker 03

  With all of this new information, a new coroner's inquest is launched to determine the likely cause of the deaths of all three of the hunters. Wilbert Coffin is one of the people who testifies, recounting how he met the three hunters from Pennsylvania, helped them get a new fuel pump, met their two mystery friends with the yellow Jeep, and then left. Then he returned two days later, as promised, to find an abandoned green pickup truck and no sign of anyone. The inquest concludes that the teenagers, Richard Lindsay and Fred Clark, were murdered by gunshot wounds by person or persons unknown.

• 22:16Speaker 03

  Richard Lindsay was shot in the chest, and the remains of Fred Clark suggest he'd been shot in the hip. Eugene Lindsay's cause of death remains a mystery. That's the end of the inquest. Police have not identified any suspects or people of interest. But another major discovery is just around the corner.

• 22:53Speaker 01

  The youth mental health crisis is growing, and social media is a major driver. Kids are spending up to nine hours a day on screens, often unsupervised, and studies show a direct link to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. That's where Gab comes in. Gab offers safer phones and watches for kids with no social media, tailored to every age, offering the right tech at the right time, or Tech in Steps. From GPS-tracking-enabled watches for younger kids, to phones with parent-enabled apps for teens, each device allows kids to more safely grow their independence. Visit gab.com/getgab and use code GETGAB for an exclusive offer.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  That's G A B B dot com forward slash get gab. Gab: Tech in Steps. Independence for them, peace of mind for parents.

• 23:44Speaker 04

  Do you snore? Did somebody hand you a CPAP and did you quietly stop using it? The mask that never quite seals, the hose tugging at you every time you roll over, a machine sitting abandoned in a closet? Excite O S A works a different way. It treats a root cause instead of managing the noise, and you use it while you're awake. Twenty minutes a day, while the coffee brews, while you set your fantasy lineup. An FDA-cleared prescription device for primary snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. Then you go to bed like a person, nothing strapped on, nothing plugged in. In clinical studies, 90% of patients saw a reduction in snoring.

• 24:28Speaker 04

  No sleep study required. Prescribed online, shipped to your door. Excite O S A at springsleep.com/sleep20. Code SLEEP20 for 20% off. Excite O S A is an FDA-cleared, prescription-only device for primary snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. Not for everyone. Individual results vary. Risks and benefits at springsleep.com.

• 25:06Speaker 03

  In the weeks after the remains of the three American hunters were found, Eugene Lindsay's wallet is discovered near the bed of the stream not far from where his headless remains were located at Camp 21. The wallet that Wilbert Coffin had described as "bulging with banknotes" is now empty. This suggests robbery as a motive. But why did Eugene have so much money in that wallet? The police would learn that while his official job as a pipe fitter brought in a decent living, Eugene's real income came from multiple side gigs.

• 25:46Speaker 03

  Described by his friends as "an energetic hustler," Eugene once launched his own private bus line to transport blue-collar laborers to their workplaces, and then offered a service where they could sign their paychecks over to him in exchange for instant cash. It saved them from having to wait for a bank, and Eugene got to charge a small fee for this service. In the book Roads to the North, author Michael Rooney suggests that Eugene was also involved in less savory activities like loan sharking. All this to say, Eugene Lindsay was known to carry a stuffed wallet, and he also liked to play the big shot.

• 26:31Speaker 03

  His friends had warned him not to flash his cash while he was traveling, but he reportedly laughed and said, "If anyone ever gets my wallet away from me, it will be over my dead body." Turns out, that's exactly what happened. The police believe robbery might have been the motive here. They have no idea who killed the three hunters, and the pressure to find out is building quickly. Because they are American, their murders are attracting attention across the border. The Montreal Star reports that American sportsmen's groups have begun putting pressure

• 27:11Speaker 03

  on the US government to demand arrests, and American consulate officials based in Quebec have been constantly checking in about the investigation's progress. There's internal pressure as well. The Quebec premier at the time, Maurice Duplassie, wants results ASAP. The province relies heavily on American hunters and tourists, and three visitors murdered in the Gas Bay wilderness with no one held responsible is hardly good publicity for the province or its premier. Duplassie is a polarizing figure known for his dominant, iron-fisted leadership. The pressure is on.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  Police quickly turn their attention to one of the last people known to have spent time with the hunters: Wilbert Coffin. Maybe it was time to take another look at him, or more specifically, check in with his common-law wife in Montreal. Marion Petrie is open and honest with the investigators. She tells them she was happy to see Wilbert arrive home from his latest adventure to the Gas Bay Peninsula, and he brought back some items that he said were gifts from hunters he had just met: a hunting knife and a pair of binoculars.

• 28:40Speaker 03

  Marion also noticed that he had a new suitcase filled with towels and clothes, and a fuel pump still in a box. Investigators note that Wilbert told them about the hunting knife, but never uttered a word about being given binoculars as a gift. And while he told them all about helping Richard Lindsay purchase a replacement fuel pump, hearing that he had it with him in Montreal was a surprising development. There was something else. Marion mentions that Wilbert had no money when he arrived in Montreal. He had also brought a pistol back with him, which he sold to her brother for a quick

• 29:23Speaker 03

  $15. The existence of this pistol was news to investigators as well. Why didn't he tell them about that? Wilbert's common-law wife Marion is only trying to be transparent and helpful, but with investigators under pressure to solve the case and no other persons of interest, her account gives police a reason to focus more heavily on Wilbert Coffin. There's a couple of other odd things as well. Investigators had spoken to a series of witnesses who recounted coming across Wilbert Coffin just as he was about to drive back to Montreal, and he seemed flush with cash.

• 30:08Speaker 03

  They saw him purchasing drinks and fuel, ordering rounds for the table, tipping generously, and on several occasions, he was specifically seen spending American $20 bills.

• 30:25Speaker 03

  So Sergeant Doyle picks Wilbert up again to get his explanation for all of this. The 38-year-old readily admits that he did omit some piece of information, but he had a very good explanation. He says that after he returned to the abandoned green pickup truck, he waited for hours drinking beer. Like many prospectors, Wilbert is known to be a heavy drinker, sometimes consuming as many as eight bottles of beer in one day. When no one showed up, Wilbert thought the hunters must have abandoned their camp or taken off with their two new friends in the yellowish jeep.

• 31:08Speaker 03

  At the time, it was a common practice for prospectors in Gas Bay and other remote areas to salvage items they believed had been abandoned. Everyone did it, and that's what Wilbert did. He started poking around their belongings and decided to take a few items with him, items that he didn't consider particularly valuable or useful. Still, Wilbert says he was foolish and drunk at the time, but perhaps his most foolish move was omitting this information when he first recounted his version of events to police. It would come back to haunt him and his entire family.

• 31:51Speaker 03

  As for the hunting knife and the cash, he maintains they were actual gifts. Investigators ask him about those witnesses who saw him spending up large just before he returned to Montreal, including some American dollar bills. Wilbert tells the police that yes, Eugene gave him 40 American dollars. The rest of the money came from payments from people who would hire them to stake mining claims on their behalf, as well as small loans from family members. He sheepishly admits that he blew all that money in just a few days getting drunk and partying before he returned to Montreal flat broke.

• 32:35Speaker 03

  So what about the P38 pistol Wilbert had with him when he arrived? He had told the police he was unarmed when he met the hunters, so where did this gun come from? Wilbert had already explained to Sergeant Doyle that before leaving for the drive back to Montreal, he visited his parents and stopped to repay a $10 debt to a friend. That debt was where the pistol came in. He says that he'd left the P38 pistol as collateral three months earlier when he borrowed the money. That night, when he repaid the debt, the pistol was returned to him.

• 33:17Speaker 03

  Wilbert admits again that he omitted the truth about that, but it didn't change his story about being unarmed when he met the hunters. Once again, he denies he did anything wrong, and he categorically denies murdering the three hunters. There's no evidence tying him to the murders, but to some members of the police service, the circumstantial evidence is starting to add up. They detain Wilbert Coffin as a material witness in a Quebec jail while the investigation continues. At this point, Wilbert decides to tell Sergeant Doyle about the other rifle, the Marlin 3240

• 34:01Speaker 03

  he'd previously borrowed from his friend Jack Eagle and left at his parents' place. He sheepishly explains that he didn't want to get in trouble with the police for not having a gun license, but things have gotten serious. He tells the sergeant that he retrieved the rifle from his parents' place, and he gives instructions about where it can be found at his most recent campsite. Within the police ranks, suspicion has risen that the lead investigator, Sergeant Doyle, has been overly sympathetic towards Wilbert Coffin, and this case needs to be solved yesterday.

• 34:41Speaker 03

  So Captain Alphonse Matt, a high-ranking Quebec provincial police officer, replaces him as lead investigator. And that's where things really narrow in on Wilbert Coffin. It's quickly decided, with no evidence, that the P38 pistol is the likely murder weapon. This information is released to the Montreal Star to publish. As soon as he can, Sergeant Doyle tells Captain Matt that Wilbert had disclosed the existence of a second firearm, the Marlin rifle, and he suggests they should bring Wilbert to the camp to show them where he hid it. But the captain refuses to authorize a search.

• 35:25Speaker 03

  He's worried that Wilbert will run off. Besides, it seems they have their murder weapon, the pistol. They don't need the Marlin rifle. As for the hunting knife, Captain Matt is starting to believe that Wilbert stole it from Richard Lindsay, or maybe threatened the teenager to give it up. And that missing cash and Wilbert's spending spree before he returned to Montreal, that was starting to look like a motive for murder.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  With Wilbert now in custody, his family hires a local lawyer to represent him, a big financial drain for a family that doesn't have much money. So they're devastated when police won't allow that lawyer to meet with his client. The police's logic is that Wilbert hasn't been arrested as a suspect. He's technically only being held as a material witness, so they felt no obligation to give him access to legal counsel. It would be more than 25 years before the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force. Wilbert's frustrated lawyer tries to send a telegram to his client at the jail, urging

• 36:43Speaker 03

  him not to speak to the police, but the message is intercepted by Quebec officials. Wilbert never sees it. It's official, police have now set their sights on Wilbert Coffin as their leading and only suspect. But they have a problem of their own. All they have to go on is loose circumstantial evidence. There are no witnesses to the shootings. There's no physical evidence tying Wilbert to the murders. And it's 1953, so forensic evidence isn't really a thing yet, but they did test a number of items for fingerprints, including Eugene's rifle that had his hair and blood on it,

• 37:27Speaker 03

  but they couldn't find a single one. The only thing they can prove Wilbert did wrong was stealing those items and lying to the police about it. So they set out to get a confession from Wilbert. He is interrogated more intensively, relentlessly, by his account, up to 18 hours at one point. He's denied water. He's forced to sit under a 500-watt light that leaves him dazed and temporarily blinded. Wilbert Coffin is subjected to 16 days of intensive interrogation, repeated attempts to get a confession, but he doesn't change his story.

• 38:13Speaker 03

  He did not kill anyone, and he has no idea who did.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  The police are getting desperate, so they invite Wilbert's father Albert to come and visit him, listening in. Wilbert tells him, "Dad, they are not man enough to break me."

• 38:33Speaker 03

  Instead of being interpreted as the words of a man refusing to make a false confession, this comment would later be presented as evidence of a guilty man's defiance. Wilbert is taken back to his jail cell as yet another coroner's inquest into the Gas Bay murders begins. This time, Wilbert has a new lawyer. The original defense lawyer didn't make much headway, and his family couldn't afford to hire someone else. But fortunately, someone else stepped in to represent him, Raymond Mahar. He's only been practicing law for a few years, but he has a reputation as a man with

• 39:16Speaker 03

  a big heart who took on cases of those less fortunate who couldn't afford to pay. To the Coffin family, he seems quite capable. It's well-known that Raymond Mahar and his father are both vocal supporters of Quebec Premier Duplassy, who has made it clear he wants the case resolved quickly. Whether those political ties will have any bearing on Wilbert's defense remains to be seen.

• 39:46Speaker 03

  The inquest hears testimony from Wilbert's common-law wife Marion and her brother. He testifies about buying Wilbert's P38 pistol when he returned to Montreal and says that Wilbert pointed to the fuel pump and told him to just take it if he wanted to.

• 40:06Speaker 03

  The coroner, Dr Ryu, would detail several issues about how this inquest went in a later interview with the Montreal Gazette. Dr Ryu knew Wilbert Coffin personally, since they were from the same area, and described him as someone who was always smiling, who would order a round of drinks for everyone with just 50 cents in his pocket. He described him as a good-time Charlie. He had made some petty mistakes but wasn't known to be violent, and Dr Ryu did not believe he was capable of murder. As the coroner, he was doing his utmost to be fair, but deep down, he believed Wilbert's version of events.

• 40:52Speaker 03

  After the last inquest, Dr Ryu had Wilbert's testimony typed up and sent it over to the Attorney General's office to put on file. But by the time the next inquest begins, it has disappeared. So Dr Ryu decides he needs to question Wilbert Coffin again, but the Crown Prosecutor, Noël Dorian, immediately takes charge, refusing to let it happen. This is highly unusual.

• 41:23Speaker 03

  So Wilbert's version of events is not heard at this inquest. Still, the coroner's jury signals that there isn't enough evidence to implicate him in the murders. The jury has concluded that Eugene Lindsay died of natural causes, and the teenagers Richard Lindsay and Fred Clark were murdered by a person or persons unknown. But the Crown Prosecutor, Noël Dorian, tells them to reconsider their conclusion, using strong, threatening language, according to Dr Ryu. It's a small-town jury and they're easily intimidated.

• 42:05Speaker 03

  So on August 27th of 1953, the jury finds Wilbert Coffin responsible for killing Richard Lindsay and Fred Clark. With that, Sergeant Doyon decides to sneak off to the camp Wilbert mentioned to look for the Marlin rifle he hid there himself. He combs through the items he sees at that camp, but he can't find the rifle.

• 42:40Speaker 03

  Wilbert Coffin is officially arrested and charged with the murder of 17-year-old Richard Lindsay, but not Fred Clark. This is a strategy to narrow the focus, which will hopefully make it easier for the prosecution to secure a conviction. Wilbert's arrest is a shattering blow to his family. His sister, Marie Coffin-Stewart, would later recall she was living in Toronto at the time and heard the news for the first time in her car on the radio, and she was in terrible shock. Quote, "My brother was never capable of anything like that. He was railroaded."

• 43:25Speaker 03

  Because of multiple delays, Wilbert waited in custody for almost a year for his trial to start, a very long time back in the 1950s. When it finally began in July of 1954, he was again represented by Raymond Mahar, and the Crown Prosecutor was Noël Dorian. The proceedings put Canada's linguistic divisions in the spotlight because Wilbert did not speak French. Remember, his family was from a small, mostly English-speaking neighbourhood in the village of Gas Bay. His lawyer requested an English-speaking jury, but the judge did not agree.

• 44:08Speaker 03

  The jury was mixed and translations were made when necessary.

• 44:15Speaker 03

  While Wilbert was only charged with murdering 17-year-old Richard Lindsay, he remained the prime and only suspect in all three deaths. But the prosecution's evidence was entirely circumstantial. There were no eyewitnesses to the killings and no evidence linking Wilbert Coffin to the murders. The prosecution's case was that robbery was the motive, that Wilbert saw the 650 American dollars cash in Eugene Lindsay's wallet and got greedy. He then killed them all and hoped bears would finish off the job, then stole their remaining items.

• 44:57Speaker 03

  Some of the evidence the prosecution relied on heavily related to Wilbert's spending spree after leaving the woods and the evidence that he arrived back in Montreal with the hunters' belongings and lied to the police about it. The defence tried to have the testimony of Wilbert's spouse Marion Petrie Bard on the grounds of spousal immunity because a married couple cannot be compelled to testify against each other in court. But the judge dismissed it because they never actually married. So Marion Petrie testified about the suitcase, towels, clothes, fuel pump, and binoculars now determined to have belonged to 19-year-old Fred Clark,

• 45:41Speaker 03

  a gift from his father. But the P38 pistol that Wilbert also brought home, the pistol that generated so much suspicion during the investigation, barely featured in the prosecution's case at trial. They were now focused on the other firearm, the Marlin rifle Wilbert said he'd borrowed from his friend and accidentally left at his parents' place. The rifle he said he retrieved in the weeks after the hunters disappeared and stashed away at his new campsite because he'd lost his hunting licence. The rifle that Sergeant Doyon could not find. It was technically still missing.

• 46:27Speaker 03

  But the prosecution was relying on a new witness who'd come forward in the lead-up to the trial, identifying himself as a former employee of Wilbert's defence lawyer, Raymond Mahar. This witness claimed that he had accompanied Mahar to Wilbert's campsite to recover the missing rifle, and his timeline suggested that this happened before Sergeant Doyon arrived to search for it. The witness testified that the defence lawyer then dismantled his client's rifle and threw the pieces from a bridge into the St Lawrence River. It was a very serious accusation

• 47:08Speaker 03

  because if true, it meant both men had helped conceal evidence. When police asked this witness at the time why he would incriminate himself, he said Mahar had fired him and he wanted revenge. He was prepared to testify. Mahar would flatly deny the entire story.

• 47:31Speaker 03

  But that rifle was no smoking gun. Wilbert consistently maintained that he had been unarmed when he met the American hunters. The prosecution believed that this situation surrounding his rifle would look highly suspicious to a jury and potentially inferred that Wilbert had instructed his lawyer to destroy the evidence. But at trial, this new witness abruptly withdrew his story. The prosecution was shocked. Just to be sure, police arranged to search the river around the bridge he had specified. No components for a rifle were recovered.

• 48:14Speaker 03

  Adding another layer of uncertainty, a second witness testified that he had seen Wilbert's truck coming out of the woods and he believed he saw the barrel of a rifle inside it. But this witness couldn't say for certain exactly when he saw it. This isn't the end of the story about this particular witness, but it should be stated that by modern trial standards, a witness who could not reliably place the sighting on the crucial date might still be allowed to testify, but the evidence would be far easier for the defence to challenge.

• 48:55Speaker 03

  The jury also heard from all the witnesses who encountered Wilbert partying and spending money, including some American bills, after he met the hunters and just before he returned to Montreal. Put together, the Crown estimated from these witness reports that Wilbert spent about seventy to a hundred dollars total, far more than your average prospector would be spending. On the other hand, it was far less than the six hundred and fifty dollars Wilbert himself estimated he saw in Eugene Lindsay's wallet.

• 49:33Speaker 03

  So if he did steal it, where did it all go? The defence argued that the American bills were just the forty dollars Eugene Lindsay gave him as a thank you gift, and the rest of the money came from legitimate sources. Also, if robbery was the motive, it seemed odd that the hunters' expensive rifles were left behind at the crime scenes.

• 49:59Speaker 03

  And what about that yellow-coloured Jeep with American licence plates and plywood finish? Part of Sergeant Doyon's testimony included Wilbert's statement, that when he returned to the green pickup truck with the replacement fuel pump, there were two new men in their thirties talking to Eugene Lindsay, who introduced them as some friends from the States. The prosecutor inferred that Wilbert had made that story up, and announced that there was no other evidence of a yellow-coloured Jeep matching that description in the area at the time. The Crown told the jury that the case rests on one thing: "The man who robbed them is

• 50:42Speaker 03

  the man who killed them: Wilbert Coffin."

• 50:47Speaker 03

  Now it was the defence's turn, Wilbert's chance to fight back. His lawyer, Raymond Maha, had told people he had dozens of defence witnesses lined up, and after weeks of sensational testimony from the prosecution, everyone was waiting to hear them. But what happened next would become one of the most controversial parts of the entire trial.

• 51:29Speaker 01

  The youth mental health crisis is growing, and social media is a major driver. Kids are spending up to nine hours a day on screens, often unsupervised, and studies show a direct link to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. That's where Gab comes in. Gab offers safer phones and watches for kids with no social media, tailored to every age, offering the right tech at the right time, or Tech in Steps. From GPS-tracking-enabled watches for younger kids, to phones with parent-enabled apps for teens, each device allows kids to more safely grow their independence. Visit gab.com/getgab and use code GETGAB for an exclusive offer.

• 52:10Speaker 01

  That's G A B B dot com forward slash get gab. Gab: Tech in Steps. Independence for them, peace of mind for parents. Losing weight can feel like a rollercoaster, full of ups, downs, and being thrown for loops, like when someone brings donuts into the office, or your kid's dino nuggets start giving you that look again. That's why there's Noom. They combine GLP-1s to quiet the food noise with healthy habits that help you keep it quiet, even if you get off the meds. Their programme is designed to make weight loss a smooth ride, helping you understand what drives you, so you can build better habits to not just lose weight but keep it off. Noom: Lose for Keeps. Get started at noom.com.

• 52:54Speaker 01

  Not all customers will clinically qualify for medications. Individual results may vary.

• 53:10Speaker 03

  The Crown had finished presenting their case, and now it was time for the defence. It had been a very high-profile, sensational trial, and people were scouring the daily papers for a rundown. But the person they most wanted to hear from was Wilbert Coffin himself. Defence lawyer Maha stood up to begin calling his witnesses, but he then said something that surprised everyone: "My lord, the defence rests." He didn't call a single witness to testify, including his own client. Of course, the Crown carries the burden of proof, the defence doesn't have to call any witnesses.

• 53:54Speaker 03

  But this was a strange decision, given Maha had told people about all the witnesses he had. And as it turned out, Wilbert Coffin was desperate to testify and tell the jury his side of the story. Maha wouldn't allow it. He said the accused has the right to silence, so they were going to avail themselves of that right. Raymond Maha's actions in court, or lack thereof, would fuel more questions about how the case was handled, and the potential political influence, given he and his father were known supporters of the Quebec Premier.

• 54:35Speaker 03

  Questions would also be raised about the defence lawyer's drinking during the trial, with multiple records stating he appeared drunk. Years later, prominent criminal lawyer Edward Greenspan would describe Maha's performance as a defence lawyer as "incompetence" with a capital I. And for this, there would be profound consequences.

• 55:03Speaker 03

  On August 5th of 1954, Wilbert Coffin was found guilty of the murder of Richard Lindsay. He was sentenced to hang three months later, on November 26. He launched an appeal, and a stay of execution was granted. The defence argued that his conviction should be overturned because the Crown's evidence was entirely circumstantial, but the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the guilty verdict.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  After this, defence lawyer Raymond Maha left the case, and he was replaced by a defence lawyer from Toronto named Arthur Maloney, helped by associate Francois Gravell. They applied to the Supreme Court of Canada, who refused to hear the case. This was another huge blow for the defence. Once more, Wilbert faced the prospect of being hanged.

• 56:06Speaker 03

  Four days later, Wilbert Coffin carved a block of soap into a look-alike pistol and used it to break out of prison. He threatened the prison guards with it and locked them up, and then he walked out of Quebec City Jail and hailed a cab. But he didn't know what to do next, so the taxi just drove around for a little while. Wilbert eventually told the taxi driver to take him to the home of his former lawyer. Raymond Maha urged Wilbert to turn himself in, otherwise a manhunt would be launched, and as a convicted killer, police wouldn't hesitate to shoot him.

• 56:47Speaker 03

  Sure, the prospect of hanging wasn't much better, but at least Wilbert could still fight his case behind bars, even though his options now were limited.

• 56:59Speaker 03

  Wilbert didn't know it at the time, but members of his own family were hoping he wouldn't turn himself in. His sister Marie Coffin-Stewart would later recall that she stood at the window of her house all night, praying he would escape into the bush where he would never be found, and therefore, his life would be saved.

• 57:23Speaker 03

  But Wilbert decided to turn himself in. He was transferred to Bordeaux Prison in Montreal for execution. His family and supporters saw his decision to surrender as further proof of his innocence. Their thinking was simple: if Wilbert was guilty and destined for the gallows, why would he voluntarily give up his freedom? Instead, he appeared to believe that returning to custody was the only way to keep fighting his case.

• 58:00Speaker 03

  While Wilbert was back behind bars and his lawyers continued fighting his conviction, there was a new development. After the trial, several witnesses came forward with accounts that appeared to support Wilbert’s description of two Americans travelling in the area in a yellowish Jeep. The prosecution had accused him of making this detail up so he could claim he wasn’t the last person to see the murdered hunters alive. But since the trial, new people were coming forward to report things they saw but didn’t realise the significance of at the time.

• 58:40Speaker 03

  A Toronto doctor and his wife reported seeing a similar vehicle with similar occupants, although their sighting was about five days before Wilbert said he encountered the men. A Gas Bay garage owner signed an affidavit that two Americans in a Jeep with plywood sides had come into his garage a few days after that. He said they’d asked him how to get to the St John River and mentioned wanting to find the Lindsey hunting party. And then, two brothers from Moncton, New Brunswick came forward, one of them a police

• 59:19Speaker 03

  officer, describing an encounter in Gas Bay with two men in their 30s dressed in US Army clothing in a similar Jeep. The two men said they were hunters from Pennsylvania. When that Jeep detail was first made public, the brothers did report their encounter to police, but they never heard anything further. It was only after the trial, when they read about the Jeep sighting by the Toronto doctor and his wife, that they contacted Wilbert Coffin’s defence team. None of these accounts established that the witnesses had seen the same men, or that

• 1:00:01Speaker 03

  those men were involved in the murders. But these accounts certainly raised questions about the prosecution’s claim that Wilbert Coffin had invented the story. There were also reports of unidentified tyre tracks at both crime scenes, which suggested another vehicle, perhaps a Jeep, had driven between them both. And remember that trial witness who testified about seeing what he believed was the barrel of a rifle sticking out of Wilbert’s truck? Now, he admitted he was less certain of that, and he believed it might have actually been a piece of iron that he saw.

• 1:00:46Speaker 03

  The problem was that Wilbert Coffin had already been convicted, and by this point, his ordinary avenues of appeal had effectively run out. His lawyers could gather all the new statements they wanted, but there was no straightforward way to put that fresh evidence before a court and ask for a new trial. His new defence team tried one more approach with the Supreme Court of Canada. The original decision not to hear Wilbert’s appeal had been made by a single judge, so defence lawyer Arthur Maloney asked the other Supreme Court justices to reconsider it.

• 1:01:25Speaker 03

  But they ruled they had no legal authority to overturn that earlier refusal. They could not consider the merits of Maloney’s arguments, let alone the new evidence his team had gathered. It was another dead end. So the defence decided to go public, releasing the new witness evidence at a press conference, along with a statement from Wilbert acknowledging for the first time publicly that he did take some of the hunters’ belongings. But he categorically denied killing them, or having any knowledge of who did. This new material was also presented to the federal government.

• 1:02:09Speaker 03

  Three days later, the government intervened in an unusual way, asking the Supreme Court to answer a hypothetical question: if Wilbert had been granted an appeal, how would the court have ruled? But there was one major limitation: the Supreme Court was reviewing the original trial record. It couldn’t consider the new witness evidence that had helped prompt the government to intervene in the first place. And this was just a question. The court’s answer could not overturn Wilbert’s conviction, but a finding in his favour could influence the federal cabinet to commute his death sentence, or take further action.

• 1:02:54Speaker 03

  By then, this was literally a matter of life or death. In December of 1955, both sides returned to the Supreme Court to argue their case. Defence lawyer Maloney attacked aspects of the original prosecution, including comments Crown prosecutor Noel Dorian had made, suggesting if the jury were to find Wilbert Coffin not guilty of murder, it would be a disaster for Quebec tourism, which relied heavily on American tourists and hunters. But the Crown defended its conviction and offered its theory about what happened.

• 1:03:35Speaker 03

  “Wilbert had offered to help out the two younger teenagers at the old logging camp 26,” the Crown suggested, “by driving a black bear towards them. The teens would be waiting in position with their rifles.” But the Crown suggested Wilbert then flipped the script, and circled behind the teenagers with a firearm of his own. After shooting them dead, Wilbert returned to Camp 21 to kill Eugene Lindsey, according to the Crown, and steal all that money in his wallet and their belongings. Then, over the next few weeks, bears and other animals came across the bodies.

• 1:04:19Speaker 03

  There was zero evidence for this theory, it was entirely speculation. And it begged the question: if robbery was Wilbert’s motive, why did he need to murder the two teenagers four kilometres away?

• 1:04:42Speaker 03

  The following month, January of 1956, the Supreme Court delivered its answer to the government’s question. Five judges said they also would have dismissed Wilbert’s appeal. But the remaining two judges identified several serious errors in the original trial, and they concluded that they would have allowed the appeal, quashed the conviction, and ordered a new trial. But the majority five judges prevailed. Wilbert Coffin’s conviction stood. And his execution date was fast approaching: next month.

• 1:05:27Speaker 03

  In desperation, Wilbert and Marion decided to finally get married so that their son James would be legitimate. But Quebec Premier Duplassy stepped in again. He also served as Attorney General, and he refused to allow a prison wedding. He said it wouldn’t be decent. The news was devastating to the couple. There was absolutely nothing they could do. Wilbert Coffin spent his final hours alone, with no visitors and no last requests. The only words he uttered were a final declaration of his innocence.

• 1:06:09Speaker 03

  In the early hours of February 10, 1956, Wilbert Coffin was hanged at Bordeaux Prison in Montreal. He left behind a grieving widow, even if not in law, a young son, devastated parents, and siblings. His mother accompanied his body from Montreal back to York Centre in the Gas Bay region, where he was born and raised. More than 500 people attended his funeral, with a long procession of more than 100 cars following him to his grave. The case had greatly affected locals in the Gas Bay region and beyond, and many turned up to pay their respects.

• 1:06:53Speaker 03

  They believed a serious miscarriage of justice had happened, and now, a man was dead. Years later, eight-year-old James Coffin would recall that his mother told him his father had died, but she didn’t offer any specifics. He would only learn the truth when he was about 12 years old. Wilbert, in his last will and testament, wrote: “I am innocent of the deaths of the three American hunters and know nothing of them. I would like to say to the families of the deceased that I had nothing to do with this affair, and I do sympathise with them.”

• 1:07:34Speaker 03

  Wilbert’s execution only intensified the public doubts surrounding his guilt and conviction. His defence team joined with legal experts and other advocates to form a committee that believed Wilbert had been wrongfully convicted. Journalist Jacques Herbert published a series of books arguing that Wilbert had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice, and accusing Quebec officials of putting the province’s tourism industry ahead of the truth. The growing controversy led Quebec to establish a Commission of Inquiry in 1964, headed by Judge Roger Bressard.

• 1:08:16Speaker 03

  The high-ranking police officer he named to lead the new investigation just happened to be one of the police on the original investigation. So this officer was effectively investigating his own conduct, as well as that of his boss, Captain Matt, now Inspector General Matt. Wilbert Coffin’s defence lawyer strenuously objected to this on the basis of a clear conflict of interest, but Judge Bressard dismissed it. The Commission heard from more than 200 witnesses over four months. Bressard slammed Jacques Herbert’s book as an unfounded attack on the reputations

• 1:08:58Speaker 03

  of Quebec officials, and concluded there was no evidence that former Quebec Premier Duplassy launched a personal vendetta against Wilbert Coffin under pressure from American sources. The judge also addressed a significant development a few years after Wilbert’s execution. Bridge workers on the St. Lawrence River had discovered parts of a rifle and called the police. A local gunsmith identified those parts as consistent with the Marlin 3240 rifle Wilbert had borrowed from his friend Jack Eagle and hidden at his camp.

• 1:09:39Speaker 03

  The same rifle that defence lawyer Raymond Mahar denied tampering with. The judge was scathing in his assessment of Mahar. But the fact that the rifle story now checked out did not prove that it was used to kill the hunters. Lawyer Catherine M. Campbell, also University of Ottawa professor and advocate for the wrongly convicted, analysed this case in recent years and travelled to Gaspay to conduct a series of interviews. In her 2023 podcast series, The Coffin Affair: A Miscarriage of Justice Revisited, Campbell

• 1:10:20Speaker 03

  suggests there are multiple reasons to explain why the rifle was thrown in the river. While Wilbert always insisted he was unarmed when he met the hunters, he might have worried that its mere existence would seem damning to a jury, especially given the details he’d neglected to tell police at first. Why defence lawyer Mahar would risk it is anyone’s guess. But perhaps this is all a moot point. Catherine M. Campbell also suggests that the murder weapon might not have been a rifle at all, but in fact a revolver, a .38 Special, based on the size of the hole and the lack of an exit wound.

• 1:11:06Speaker 03

  The 1964 Bressard Inquiry ultimately concluded that Wilbert Coffin had received a fair trial and that no misconduct had occurred. A final devastation for his family.

• 1:11:26Speaker 03

  After that, the Quebec government went after Jacques Herbert and convicted him of contempt of court. This did not reflect so well on the government, and further increased doubts about Wilbert Coffin’s guilt. Herbert’s conviction was overturned on appeal in 1966 with the help of lawyer and future Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

• 1:11:56Speaker 03

  So if Wilbert Coffin didn’t kill Eugene Lindsay, Richard Lindsay and Fred Clark, then who did? The two unidentified Americans in the yellow jeep remain one of the biggest unanswered questions in the case. Lawyer Catherine Campbell believes they are the most likely culprits. Author of Roads to the North, Michael Rooney, went even further, suggesting Eugene Lindsay may have been deliberately targeted because of his criminal activity and the way he flashed around large amounts of cash, telling everyone he was taking it on his hunting trips.

• 1:12:37Speaker 03

  Eugene had an abrasive personality and might have rubbed some underworld characters the wrong way.

• 1:12:45Speaker 03

  And if they were looking for the ideal place to kill him and take the large amount of cash he was known to carry, the isolated woods of the Gaspay Peninsula fit the bill. Author Rooney suggests the killers might have stolen the cash in Eugene’s wallet, then escaped via one of the little-travelled roads leading north from the Gaspay wilderness.

• 1:13:10Speaker 03

  But there is little indication that Quebec police made any serious effort to find and identify the two men in the jeep, let alone determine whether they were connected to the hunters.

• 1:13:25Speaker 03

  Wilbert Coffin’s execution became part of Canada’s growing debate over capital punishment. His case was cited as an example of the irreversible risk of executing someone who might later be found innocent. In 1976, 20 years after Wilbert was hanged, Canada abolished the death penalty for ordinary criminal offences.

• 1:13:53Speaker 03

  But for Wilbert’s family, that did nothing to change the conviction that remained attached to his name. In the early 2000s, his sister Marie Coffin-Stewart began campaigning publicly to clear his name, raising more than $10,000 to support a reexamination by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, now known as Innocence Canada. Wilbert’s son James eventually joined her advocacy efforts.

• 1:14:27Speaker 03

  By 2006, the Federal Criminal Convictions Review Group had agreed to examine the case, and in February 2007, the House of Commons adopted a motion urging the government to act quickly on the Coffin file. Despite all these efforts, Wilbert’s family has never succeeded in getting his conviction overturned and his reputation restored. And as the years passed, the practical difficulties only grew. Most of the original witnesses and investigators are now dead, the surviving testimony is now more than 70 years old, and a lot of government records have been sealed.

• 1:15:15Speaker 03

  In her podcast, The Coffin Affair, Catherine M. Campbell points out that unlike many modern wrongful conviction cases, there is no DNA evidence waiting to be tested and no obvious new forensic breakthrough that could settle the question. Overall, Campbell concluded the prosecution relied entirely on circumstantial evidence. The defence’s decision not to call any witnesses or allow Wilbert Coffin to testify in his own defence was damning. The investigation and trial had significant shortcomings, including the police’s failure to investigate evidence that potentially supported Wilbert’s version of events,

• 1:16:00Speaker 03

  like those two Americans in the yellowish jeep and the unidentified tyre tracks at both crime scenes.

• 1:16:09Speaker 03

  Then, in December of 2024, David and Joyce Millgard’s Law received royal assent, creating a new independent commission for miscarriage of justice to examine possible wrongful convictions. When the commission is finally established, it might offer Wilbert’s family at least the possibility of another avenue for review. Whether that will ever lead to Wilbert’s conviction being overturned remains uncertain, but Marie and James have continued to try. Today, Marie Coffin-Stewart is 95 years old, the last remaining sibling of Wilbert Coffin.

• 1:16:54Speaker 03

  Last year, she and James were both honoured for their advocacy at a gala event hosted by Innocence Canada. In a recent interview with Toronto true crime author Nate Henley, Marie said she was realistic about the slim chance of getting her brother’s conviction overturned, but she’s pleased that his story hasn’t been forgotten. “When this case keeps coming up year after year, it tells you that there was a terrible injustice done and it’s time we corrected.”

• 1:17:39Speaker 03

  Thanks for listening. This episode was adapted for audio from a script researched and written by Nate Henley, pieced together primarily from court documents, interviews with Marie, James and lawyer Catherine M. Campbell, as well as the news archives. For the full list of resources and anything else you want to know about the podcast, visit canadiantruecrime.ca and follow us on the Canadian True Crime Facebook and Instagram pages. The podcast donates monthly to those facing injustice. This month, we have donated to the Association for Families of Persons Assassinated or Disappeared,

• 1:18:18Speaker 03

  or AFPAD, a Quebec-based organisation that offers resources and tools to victims and families to help them rebuild their lives. Eric Crosby voiced the disclaimer. Our senior producer is Lindsay Eldridge. Additional research, script editing, narration and sound design was by me, and the theme songs were composed by We Talk of Dreams. I’ll be back soon with another Canadian True Crime episode. See you then.

• 1:19:04Speaker 01

  The youth mental health crisis is growing, and social media is a major driver. Kids are spending up to nine hours a day on screens, often unsupervised, and studies show a direct link to anxiety, depression and even suicidal thoughts. That’s where Gab comes in. Gab offers safer phones and watches for kids with no social media, tailored to every age, offering the right tech at the right time, or Tech in Steps. From GPS-tracking-enabled watches for younger kids to phones with parent-enabled apps for teens, each device allows kids to more safely grow their independence. Visit gab.com/getgab and use code GETGAB for an exclusive offer. That’s G A B B dot com forward slash get gab.

• 1:19:49Speaker 01

  Gab: Tech in Steps. Independence for them, peace of mind for parents.

• 1:19:55Speaker 05

  This message is brought to you by Cologuard. If you recorded songs off the radio for a mixtape, it might be time to screen for colon cancer. The Cologuard test is non-invasive, requires no special prep or time off, and you start screening right from your home. It’s just three simple steps: setup, sample and ship. If you’re 45 or older and at average risk, ask your doctor about the Cologuard test. Available by prescription only. Learn more or request a prescription at cologuard.com/podcast.