The Murder of George Campbell

In the middle of the night, a farmer in rural Southwestern Ontario is woken by screams coming from a nearby farmhouse. His 32-year-old neighbour, George Campbell, has been brutally murdered. George's wife, Phoebe, says two armed intruders attacked him before disappearing into the night, leaving her and their two young children huddled in a corner. As investigators search for the killers, the case takes a series of unexpected turns, eventually leading to a shocking truth. Further listening: Canadian True Crime's “Black” Donnellys episode https://www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes/59 Canadian True Crime donates monthly to those facing injustice. This month we have donated to the Foundation for Black Communities (FFBC) https://forblack.ca/. 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/224 https://www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes/224 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Think about how you'd describe your ideal car to a friend. Good on gas, highly reliable. Now describe it to CarGurus the same way using Guru. Search in your own words and get real listings that match. It's no wonder CarGurus is the number one most visited car shopping site, according to SimilarWeb's estimated traffic data. Buy or sell your next car today with CarGurus at cargurus.com. Go to cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S dot com.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  At Lowe's, this Veterans Day and every day, military members, veterans and their spouses get automatic MyLowe's Rewards Silver Status benefits. Plus, 10% off eligible purchases with no annual limit. It's one way we honor and give back to those who have served and still do. Learn more and verify now at lowe's.com/military. 10% discount can't be combined with another offer. Exclusions, terms and conditions apply. Loyalty program subject to terms and conditions. Details at lowe's.com/terms. Subject to change.

• 1:03Speaker 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.

• 1:28Speaker 03

  It's the early hours of a Saturday morning in mid-July when a farmer named Hugh suddenly wakes up and sits upright in bed. He hears what sounds like screaming outside. Hugh goes out to the porch and listens. The cries are coming from the direction of the next farm over, the Campbell family farm. That's where George Campbell and his wife Phoebe live with their young daughter and baby son. It sounds like Phoebe calling out for help. It sounds like something terrible has happened. Hugh pulls his boots on and runs towards the Campbell property to see what's wrong. This is the rolling rural countryside

• 2:12Speaker 03

  of the most southern part of the southwestern Ontario peninsula, right in the Great Lakes District, with Lake Erie to the south and the US state of Michigan to the west. The houses here are spread out across the countryside with farms and fields separating one property from the next. The closest local village to the Campbell farm is called Thordale. It's just outside the city of London, Ontario. On the way to the Campbell home, farmer Hugh calls out for two other neighboring farmers to wake up and come and help. One of those farmers catches up to Hugh quickly and the two approach the small house

• 2:56Speaker 03

  to find Phoebe Campbell sitting on the step outside the open doorway, holding her baby son. She's clearly distressed. She tells them that her husband George has been murdered and gestures inside. The sun will be rising soon, but it's still completely dark outside and inside the house. From the doorway, one of the farmers strikes a match and glances in. He can see George Campbell's body lying lifeless on the floor in a pool of blood. What happened? Who did this? Phoebe says they were woken in the middle of the night by two intruders who'd broken into the house, demanding money.

• 3:41Speaker 03

  They attacked and murdered George and then fled.

• 3:46Speaker 03

  The farmers are concerned for Phoebe and the children, and they want to get them somewhere safe. Phoebe hands her baby son to Hugh, then goes back inside to collect something to wrap around him and retrieve her young daughter, who's asleep inside. At around this time, the third farmer that neighbor Hugh had alerted for help arrives at the Campbell farm, not one to trust in an emergency, clearly. Phoebe and her children are taken to a nearby farm belonging to another family, where they're given clothing and somewhere to rest. Later that morning, they'll be taken to Phoebe's father's farm. The local authorities are alerted

• 4:29Speaker 03

  and word of George Campbell's horrific murder begins to spread through the district.

• 4:37Speaker 03

  By the time local law enforcement arrives to examine the scene, the morning sunlight is spilling into the small Campbell farmhouse. They can see the full extent of what happened inside. It's a gruesome sight. The body of 32-year-old George Campbell is lying face up on the floor. His head is pointing towards the doorway and his feet extend under a bed. There's a large pool of blood around his head. It's clearly been cut and hacked at. George's face is almost unrecognizable. There's blood on the floor, scattered across the ceiling and walls.

• 5:21Speaker 03

  There's blood on clothing hanging in the room and on a wooden ladder standing in one corner. A pistol is found close to George's body. Nearby is an axe covered in blood. There's hair and fragments of bone and tissue caught on its blade. A butcher knife is also recovered. In one wooden door, there's a notch, apparently made by an axe. Nearby, there's a bloody handprint on the wall. As a local doctor and medical examiner is called to examine the body, a lead investigator is quickly assigned to the case, Detective Henry Fair.

• 6:04Speaker 03

  By this point, Phoebe and her children have been taken to the farm owned by her parents, the McWains. It's not too far away. Detective Fair heads over there to get Phoebe's full statement about what happened and who the intruders were. Finding them is priority number one. 23-year-old Phoebe says that she and George went to bed at about 11:00 PM. They were suddenly woken up around midnight by two strangers standing beside the bed, demanding that George give them all of his money or else they would kill him. She said George screamed and one of the intruders pulled out a pistol, pointed it at his head and squeezed the trigger.

• 6:49Speaker 03

  Phoebe said she only heard a click. The pistol did not fire. As the intruder checked it and realized it was jammed, George sprang up from the bed to protect his family and a violent struggle broke out. Phoebe said the intruder threw the jammed pistol on the floor. George yelled at her, "Get the axe." So she did, but the intruders wrestled it off her before she could give it to her husband. Now they had a new weapon and George was still completely defenseless. She says George yelled to her, "Butcher's knife." So she ran to the cupboard to get that, but the two intruders took it off her just as quickly.

• 7:34Speaker 03

  George called out again for her to help him, but Phoebe said she froze, too terrified to even scream. The children were now crying as well. She tells Detective Fair that she watched helplessly from the bed as the fierce struggle continued around the room, her husband desperately fighting back against two intruders with sharp weapons, suffering various wounds and cuts as he did. George had no chance. He was soon overpowered and fell to the floor. Phoebe remembered one of the intruders swinging the axe and it went right into her husband's head. They swung again and again and again

• 8:19Speaker 03

  until George stopped moving. She told Detective Fair that the two intruders then ransacked the house for money, but only found a couple of coins in her children's piggy bank. They then threatened her. If she raised the alarm of what happened before the sun rose, they would return and kill her as well. Then, they fled the house. Phoebe said she ran to her husband's side, unsure what to do at first, but then she was hit with the realization that there wasn't anything she could do. George was dead. She heeded the warning for a while, staying inside the house with her children

• 9:02Speaker 03

  and her husband's dead body. After about an hour, the sun still wasn't quite up, but she decided it was time to get help.

• 9:13Speaker 03

  Detective Fair asked Phoebe to describe these two intruders. She says the house was completely dark when they broke in, and the only description she was able to give was that they were both black men and they were wearing dark clothing. They were both shorter than George was, which put them at about average height. It's not much to go off at all, but Detective Fair begins canvassing the surrounding farms and local residents in the village of Thordale. By the end of the day, he's covered a lot of ground. He's spoken to all of the neighbours and almost all of the local residents. But not one person has seen two black men they didn't know in the area

• 9:58Speaker 03

  or even heard of any sightings. And now, the locals are terrified. How can they sleep at night until these killers are caught? As Detective Fair continues investigating, the village of Thordale offers up a cash reward for any information leading to the capture of the killers. As local residents wait for news, they start gossiping, wondering if perhaps the killers were among them. Some of the neighbours heard that Phoebe had described them as black men to some, but also described them as having blackened faces to others. Could the killers be someone they know?

• 10:42Speaker 03

  Attention soon turns towards a farmer who lived close to the Campbell farm, Davis. He's the one who took his time responding to the emergency. Within hours, the neighbours are scrutinising his actions in comparison to Hugh and the other farmer, who rushed over to the farm as soon as they heard Phoebe's screams. Yet Davis lagged behind. Was there something he didn't want to see there? Or was there something he needed to hide, maybe? When these rumours reach Detective Henry Fair, he goes to the Davis farm immediately to get the story straight. Davis protests that when he heard his neighbour shouting for help that morning,

• 11:27Speaker 03

  he was inside recovering from an epileptic seizure. He insisted that he ran straight over to the Campbell farm as soon as he felt able to. Detective Fair takes a look around Davis's home to see if anything looks suspicious. There's a pile of damp clothing on the floor. There's a couple of rusty coloured stains that looks like blood. Maybe it was George Campbell's blood. When asked about it, Davis says he's been slaughtering chickens, but he didn't know about the stain. Just to be safe, Detective Fair arrests and detains Davis,

• 12:07Speaker 03

  along with his father-in-law, for being complicit in whatever they believed had happened. See, this was 1871, just after Confederation. Canada had only existed as a country for four years by this point, although British colonisation had been underway for generations. This area of southern Ontario is the traditional land of the Atawandaron, Anishinaabe, Haudashone and Lunapwak peoples. In the decades leading up to Canada's Confederation, indigenous peoples entered into treaties with the British Crown,

• 12:48Speaker 03

  believing they would be sharing the land while maintaining their relationship to it. But the Crown increasingly treated these agreements as land surrenders, opening up vast areas of territory to European settlement. And as settlers moved in, indigenous communities were pushed off much of the land they and their ancestors had lived on and cared for for thousands of years. The newcomers were mostly working-class people from the British Isles, England, of course, Ireland, like Phoebe's family, and Scotland, like George's. Many were escaping poverty, famine and economic hardship,

• 13:31Speaker 03

  and they were encouraged to emigrate to what was then known as British North America, with the promise of Crown land that they could clear and develop as farmland. It was an opportunity they would never have had in Britain or Ireland. Of course, it came at the expense of the local indigenous peoples.

• 13:53Speaker 03

  By the mid-1800s, life for most settler families in rural southwestern Ontario revolved around the struggle to make a living from that land. The work was relentless, the days were long, physically demanding, and every member of the family was expected to contribute. Even then, success was far from certain. A failed harvest, a brutal winter, or sickness affecting either the family or their livestock could quickly push a household into hardship. By the time of Canada's Confederation in 1867, the village of Thordale had a railway station connecting local farmers to bigger towns and cities.

• 14:37Speaker 03

  But other than that, people still travelled by horse and wagon, or on foot. There were no telephones or electric lights, and when something went wrong, people often depended on their neighbours for help. Investigating crimes was very different then, too. Law enforcement was largely handled by local constables with limited resources. Fortunately, the city of London, Ontario, was only a little over 20 kilometres away. And by 1871, when George Campbell was murdered, it had an established police force with a small number of investigators. Detective Henry Fair was one of them.

• 15:20Speaker 03

  And as a little historical side note, nine years later, he would find himself investigating another historic, horrific crime not far from Thordale. That's the massacre of five members of a certain Irish immigrant family with the surname Donnelly.

• 15:41Speaker 03

  And this is the late 1800s, long before modern forensic science and crime labs. Investigators relied on old-fashioned detective work, gathering clues and physical evidence, canvassing the neighbourhood, interviewing witnesses, and following up on rumours and information passed around the community. The legal system was different, too. There were early laws governing arrests and detention, but Canada didn't have a criminal code yet, or the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Flimsy evidence could end up carrying considerable weight. And in the case of farmer Davis, the suspicion over how long it took him to respond to the emergency at the Campbell farm,

• 16:26Speaker 03

  combined with the stains on clothing found at his home, is apparently considered sufficient grounds to detain him and his father-in-law for good measure. Both men spend a few days in custody, being questioned, but there's no evidence of their involvement in the murder, and they're released.

• 16:48Speaker 03

  In the meantime, another local resident had come forward with something they'd remembered. It was a conversation that had taken place in the months before the murder at the Campbell farm between another local man and George Campbell. That man, named Barry, was overheard randomly warning George that because his farmhouse was so isolated, he and his family could easily be attacked. No one thought much of the comment at the time, but looking back on it in hindsight, now that George had been attacked and murdered inside that very farmhouse, the warning took on a different meaning.

• 17:29Speaker 03

  So Detective Fair detains Barry and questions him about the meaning of this comment. But it becomes very clear that it's another dead end. Barry had nothing to do with the murder.

• 17:46Speaker 03

  The neighbours, local residents and farmers are still talking amongst themselves, remembering things that might be relevant and comparing stories. And they're starting to realise that one particular person has not told everyone quite the same story.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  Whoever said good things come to those who wait, never shopped Black Friday early at Lowe's. Right now, get up to 50% off select major appliances. Plus, get free delivery, free haulaway, and free basic installation and parts when you spend $896 or more on select major appliances. Shop Black Friday early in-store and online now at Lowe's. Valid through 12/2 while supplies last. Selection varies by location. See associate on Lowe's.com for details.

• 18:52Speaker 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 OSA works a different way. It treats a root cause instead of managing the noise, and you use it while you're awake. 20 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.

• 19:36Speaker 04

  No sleep study required. Prescribed online, shipped to your door. Excite OSA at springsleep.com/sleep20. Code SLEEP20 for 20% off. Excite OSA 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.

• 20:15Speaker 03

  So far, in the investigation into George Campbell's murder, Detective Henry Fair has arrested two local men and released them. But the neighbors are still talking, racking their brains for any other details that might be relevant, and comparing what they'd seen and heard after the murder. And as they pieced together what they'd been told, they started to notice something strange. Phoebe Campbell's story has been a little different every time she told it. Most recall her saying that George yelled to her to get the axe and then the butcher knife, and that she went to get each one only to have them snatched away by the attackers.

• 21:00Speaker 03

  But one neighbor remembers Phoebe saying that George called for both weapons together, and she couldn't recall whether she actually handled the knife at all. Another neighbor remembers Phoebe saying one of the attackers pushed her onto the bed, a detail others hadn't mentioned. There are also questions about Phoebe's own actions, and why she just sat there with the children and didn't try to help George more when he was being attacked. She told one neighbor that she didn't want to leave the children. She told another that the room was so dark she couldn't see what was happening. But she was also able to describe their movements around the room in considerable detail.

• 21:45Speaker 03

  She'd told yet another person that the two intruders had a very dim lantern they were trying to hide, so it wasn't completely dark the entire time. And now that they think about it, some neighbors think that Phoebe's behavior in the hours and days after her husband's murder was a little strange. She seemed emotionless and not as distressed as they might have expected. But others recalled her crying and appearing deeply upset. When Detective Fair heard these new details, he couldn't help but think about George and Phoebe's bed. On George's side, the bedding was disturbed.

• 22:29Speaker 03

  But Phoebe's side of the bed was made up and didn't appear to have been slept in at all. Given she said she was in bed when the intruders broke in, that didn't quite add up. None of these observations pointed to Phoebe having any knowledge of her husband's murder. But with nothing else to go on, there were some questions. Detective Fair circled back with Phoebe about all of this, and she was shocked. She insisted she had nothing to do with any of it. Even so, he started inquiring with those who knew George and Phoebe Campbell the best about their lives together.

• 23:13Speaker 03

  George and Phoebe Campbell had been married for just over four years, since Phoebe was 19 and George 28. Phoebe's parents, brother, and sister-in-law recalled the couple appeared to live comfortably together, and they'd never heard George speak a harsh word to his wife. But some members of George's family recalled signs of tension, particularly when it came to money and their relationships with their families. George's father, John Campbell, was upfront about the fact that he hadn't approved of the marriage. He and Phoebe didn't like each other much and didn't speak to each other at all.

• 23:56Speaker 03

  He didn't really elaborate on what this was based on. And behind closed doors, money had been a constant source of friction for Phoebe and George. At the time, it was common for sons to work on their family's farms for years in exchange for meals, clothing, and a bed, but regular wages were rare. These farms were still in the building phase. They did not have a lot of disposable cash. So as payment for their years of hard labor, the sons would receive IOUs, promising land, a financial settlement later on, or an inheritance. George's father owed him this kind of debt,

• 24:40Speaker 03

  and George was happy to wait for it. But Phoebe wanted him to push his father to pay up now. They argued about this a lot. According to George's father, in the months before he was murdered, his son had confessed to him that if he knew then what he knew now, he never would have gotten married. During the investigation into George Campbell's murder, Detective Fair also learned that George had taken action behind his wife's back to clear his father's debt. He was sick of all the tension, so he traded that IOU for a horse and cow. That meant his father now owed someone else.

• 25:24Speaker 03

  He made that person promise never to tell anyone because Phoebe would be livid if she found out. Phoebe swore she had no idea about this. But then, something else started bubbling to the surface. One of the neighbors, Mary Firth, reported seeing Phoebe talking with a young farmhand she recognized outside her family's farmhouse. She said his name was Thomas Coyle, and this was the Saturday evening, just after George Campbell was murdered. Mary Firth said Phoebe and the young farmhand were having a conversation in the dark on the side of the road.

• 26:08Speaker 03

  When they saw her approaching, they moved out of the way. Were they deliberately trying to avoid being seen? She couldn't say.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  Detective Fair had heard a couple of rumors that Phoebe may have been romantically involved with a farmhand employed by her family. And he'd asked her about it, but she strenuously denied any improper relationship. And a lot of rumors had been flying around. But now, with neighbor Mary's sighting of them, he decided to speak with Phoebe's family members at the McWayne farm to see what they knew.

• 26:49Speaker 03

  Thomas Coyle was just 19 years old, and he lived and worked with the McWayne family in their farmhouse. Before that, he worked and lived on the farm owned by George Campbell's father, so he was well-known to both families. Phoebe's family, the McWaynes, said they'd never seen anything to suggest a romantic relationship between the two. And Thomas Coyle was at home all night that night. He retired upstairs to bed about 9:00 PM along with Phoebe's brothers. But what if he snuck out later to murder George Campbell and then returned? The McWaynes insisted they didn't hear anyone leave

• 27:34Speaker 03

  or return during the night. The next thing they knew, they were all woken by word that George Campbell had been murdered. So it appeared that Thomas Coyle had a solid alibi. Once again, just rumors. But another neighbor suddenly recalled something that now seemed worth mentioning. A week or two before George's murder, the young farmhand, Thomas Coyle, had mentioned a trip he was planning to make to the nearby town of St. Mary's, a bustling trading center where people from surrounding farming communities went to buy supplies they couldn't find closer to home. A few days after that,

• 28:17Speaker 03

  Thomas mentioned that he'd returned from the trip to St. Mary's. This neighbor had no idea what he was purchasing there and didn't think to ask. But when he heard someone from Phoebe's family deny that Thomas Coyle had gone, that struck him as strange. It seemed that this neighbor had his wires crossed. The McWaynes all confirmed that Thomas Coyle had indeed traveled to St. Mary's the Saturday before the murder.

• 28:49Speaker 03

  But this misunderstanding did result in a new lead for Detective Fair. He made contact with the firearms merchant in St. Mary's who remembered selling a pistol to a young, slimly-built man who seemed to match Thomas Coyle's description. The date he gave was the weekend before George Campbell's murder. The merchant said the young man paid $1 for the pistol, some ammunition, and other associated supplies. Detective Fair questioned Thomas Coyle. The 19-year-old denied that he had ever purchased a pistol, denied any improper relationship with Phoebe Campbell, and insisted he knew nothing about George Campbell's murder.

• 29:36Speaker 03

  Meanwhile, a coroner's inquest was underway to formally examine George Campbell's death. Things are different today, but in the late 1800s, it was common for this to happen at the same time as a police investigation. A coroner's jury was tasked with not only determining the likely circumstances of a suspicious death, but also identifying suspects who should face a criminal trial. It all fed into the same process. So while Detective Fair continued his own investigation, the coroner's jury began hearing sworn evidence from witnesses, like those from the Campbell farm, the McWayne

• 30:19Speaker 03

  farm, all the neighbours and nearby farmers, and Phoebe herself. The jury also heard from a local doctor and medical examiner, Dr Charles Moore, about George Campbell's injuries. He said they were extraordinary, an estimated six or seven heavy blows to the head and face with an axe, leaving fractures in several areas of his skull and parts of his brain exposed. His throat was cut with a deep wound, and there were several other wounds to his left forearm and a deep cut to his right wrist that almost severed his hand entirely.

• 31:02Speaker 03

  Something didn't add up to the doctor, though. The attackers landed the blows to George's head and face with extreme accuracy, yet Phoebe had told multiple people that the room was completely dark during this time. How were the intruders able to see? Of course, Phoebe had mentioned to one person something about the intruders trying to hide a dim lantern at some point, towards the end when they were searching for money, but she always maintained it was completely dark before that. Phoebe Campbell was called to testify before the coroner's jury. She recounted waking up to two men beside the bed demanding money, the pistol that

• 31:47Speaker 03

  didn't fire, the physical struggle, how George called for the axe, then the butcher's knife, how the intruders snatched them away before Phoebe could give them to her husband. Now, she clarified that the intruders had kept a dim lantern on throughout the attack, but it was so dim that it didn't illuminate much. When asked to describe the intruders, Phoebe testified that they were both black men dressed in black clothing with dark felt hats pulled low over their faces. She said that they both, quote, "talked darky." This was a racist expression used at the time that referred to a way of speaking

• 32:30Speaker 03

  associated with black people. See, George Campbell's murder happened just six years after the end of the American Civil War, and for decades before that, tens of thousands of enslaved black people had fled the American South to seek freedom in the northern states. Many were helped by the network of people known as the Underground Railroad. Some of these freedom seekers decided to keep going north into the territory now known as Canada to seek refuge and build lives and communities, an estimated 30 to 40,000.

• 33:10Speaker 03

  Many entered from the states of Michigan and New York and settled in communities around Windsor and the Niagara region. By the 1870s, London, Ontario also had a thriving black community. But not everyone welcomed them. They still faced racism, discrimination, and segregation in Canada. It turned out that freedom was one thing, but equality was something else. And these attitudes were reflected in the news and entertainment. Some local newspapers in Canada deliberately fed into the existing fears and prejudices among European settlers.

• 33:51Speaker 03

  They frequently portrayed black freedom seekers as dangerous or associating them with criminality. Papers also published racist caricatures. And then, we get to minstrel shows, which by this point had spread up into Canada. White performers toured local towns and cities, entertaining the European settlers by appearing in blackface with exaggerated voices and mannerisms to mock formerly enslaved black people. Today, this way of speaking is known as early African-American vernacular English.

• 34:30Speaker 03

  So in 1871, when Phoebe Campbell testified before the coroner's jury that two black intruders talked darky, that's what she might have been referring to. But on cross-examination, when she was asked to describe the men again, her account changed. Now, she admitted she couldn't tell whether they were actually black. All she could say was that their faces appeared to be, quote, "blackened." This opened up a troubling possibility. Had the intruders intentionally presented themselves as black men, including imitating their speech, to throw suspicion elsewhere?

• 35:13Speaker 03

  Whatever the explanation, the coroner's jury wasn't convinced by Phoebe's story. They concluded that George Campbell had been murdered by two people, his 23-year-old wife Phoebe Campbell and the 19-year-old farmhand Thomas Coyle. Phoebe immediately protested her innocence. The jury's finding resulted in both Phoebe and Thomas Coyle being detained and charged with murder. Now, they were headed for separate trials. The finding was controversial. Newspapers reported that many people questioned whether there was enough evidence to implicate

• 35:54Speaker 03

  the pair, especially when a clear motive hadn't been established. But within days, there was a dramatic new development. From jail, Phoebe voluntarily requested to give a new sworn statement. She claimed she'd been terrified to tell the truth before, but she wasn't afraid anymore. Now, Phoebe said there hadn't been two intruders at all. There was only one man, and although the room had been too dark to make out his face, she'd recognised his voice. It was Thomas Coyle, the farmhand. She described hearing George struggling with Thomas Coyle, who was armed with an axe.

• 36:38Speaker 03

  Phoebe completely left out any mention of a jammed pistol. When George called for the butcher's knife, Thomas threatened Phoebe that he would kill her if she gave it to him, so she dropped it on the ground. She described Thomas picking it up and repeatedly striking her husband with the axe. When she asked why he was doing this, he allegedly replied that George had wronged him and he wanted revenge. According to Phoebe, when George was laying lifeless on the ground, Thomas Coyle instructed her to tell the authorities that two black men broke into her home and threatened to kill her if she ever revealed the truth.

• 37:22Speaker 03

  In this latest statement, Phoebe said she'd been terrified of him. That's why she'd stayed silent all this time, even keeping the truth from her own family. She insisted she'd only been trying to protect herself and her children. So now, Phoebe was admitting that her original story about two black men breaking into her home and murdering her husband was a lie she'd been instructed to tell by the real intruder, Thomas Coyle. But it didn't change the material facts. Phoebe Campbell was still an innocent victim. The local public had been following every development closely, and the local newspapers

• 38:06Speaker 03

  continued to have a field day. According to The Sun, opinion had turned against Phoebe. Her statements were so contradictory that many believed nothing she said could be trusted without independent evidence. In addition, The Hamilton Spectator reported that Phoebe had been openly hostile towards Detective Fair and his team, trying to hamper their investigation. Her character was now being called into question. And the newspaper had some strong words about what should happen next. If Phoebe Campbell really was the monster she now appeared to be, the public would

• 38:48Speaker 03

  expect a punishment severe enough to deter anyone else from doing the same thing. The way the paper put it, Phoebe had, quote, "satiated her thirst for human blood at the cost of human life." But that wasn't the end of the drama. Within days, the newspapers had yet another development to report. The story of what happened to George Campbell had taken a truly bizarre turn.

• 39:35Speaker 01

  Good news for anyone who's bad at waiting. Black Friday deals at Lowe's are already on. Get up to three free select DeWalt, Craftsman, or Cobalt power tools with the purchase of a select battery kit. Three for free? You better believe it. Plus, select ladders are up to 50% off. So go ahead, get in there early. Shop Black Friday deals in-store or online now. At Lowe's. Valid through 11/18 while supplies last. Free tools vary based on battery kit purchased and location.

• 40:04Speaker 05

  The Quarter Pounder with Cheese is made with 100% fresh beef, cooked when you order it. Add hot crispy fries and an iced cold Coke, and hopefully, a lot of napkins. All for $8. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

• 40:28Speaker 03

  Phoebe Campbell had abandoned her original story about two unknown intruders breaking in and murdering her husband, George Campbell. She'd written out a new sworn statement accusing the young farmhand, Thomas Coyle. She continued to deny any kind of romantic relationship, instead claiming Thomas told her he was getting his revenge as a result of a personal issue with her husband. Nothing to do with her.

• 40:59Speaker 03

  But just a couple of days later, still from jail, Phoebe had a new announcement to make. She now claimed that her late husband George had visited her in jail the previous night. His spirit, that is. She said he'd appeared before her bed, looking exactly the same as he had before the murder, without any injuries. The spirit took her hand and reassured her that she had nothing to worry about because she was innocent, and so was Thomas Coyle. So Phoebe announced she must have been mistaken when she thought she'd recognized Thomas's voice. Well, that settled that then.

• 41:43Speaker 03

  If anyone could identify George Campbell's murderer, surely it was George Campbell's spirit.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  One local reporter managed to speak with Phoebe's cellmate, who described a rather strange incident the previous night. Sometime after midnight, Phoebe had sat up in bed and appeared to be having a conversation with someone the cellmate couldn't see or hear. When Phoebe was asked about this, she explained that George's spirit had only come to speak to her. So naturally, she was the only person who could see or hear him. That's just the way it worked.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  With this, Phoebe's older sister visited her in jail, demanding the truth. By now, the McWayne family had heard so many conflicting stories, they didn't know what to believe. Phoebe insisted she was innocent. So was Thomas Coyle. But she had another confession to make. She was finally ready to name the real murderer. It was their cousin, John McWayne. According to this latest version, John had brought his own axe to the home that Phoebe and George shared with their children. He broke in, attacked George with it, and then tried to cover his tracks by making it look like the murder weapon was George's own axe.

• 43:16Speaker 03

  As for the motive, she suggested that her husband might have been having an affair with her cousin's wife, and that John wanted revenge.

• 43:26Speaker 03

  John McWayne flatly denied all of the allegations. There was also no evidence to support them, or the new details Phoebe provided, like a second axe. But John McWayne found himself in jail anyway.

• 43:43Speaker 03

  So now, Phoebe had accused two black men, then two men with blackened faces, then the farmhand, Thomas Coyle, who she may or may not have been having an affair with, and now, her own cousin. None of these dramatic incidents made any difference. John McWayne was released from prison after a few days. Phoebe Campbell was still headed for trial, and after that, so too would Thomas Coyle.

• 44:21Speaker 03

  Phoebe's trial began on April 1, 1872, in the city of London, Ontario. The case had attracted enormous public interest in Canada and across the States. The courtroom was crowded with spectators, and they were spilling out into the street. Newspapers scrutinized Phoebe's every move, her appearance, the way she sometimes laughed, or buried her face in a handkerchief as though she was crying. Some said she could seem remarkably composed for someone facing a murder charge. Others suggested she didn't appear upset at all. The prosecution's case was that Phoebe was not the innocent eyewitness

• 45:05Speaker 03

  she initially presented herself to be. But because all the evidence was circumstantial, the jury had to figure out how and why. They heard evidence about George's horrific injuries, the position of his body, and the bloodstains throughout the room. There was evidence suggesting Phoebe was in a romantic relationship with the young farmhand, Thomas Coyle. And then, there were Phoebe's many conflicting accounts of what happened that night, which were largely incompatible with each other. But Phoebe herself didn't testify in her own defense. She couldn't. Canada had inherited a rule from England based on the belief that a person accused of a crime

• 45:50Speaker 03

  was not a competent witness in their own case. It would be another 20 years before that law changed and allowed an accused person to testify if they chose to. They still had the right to silence, though.

• 46:06Speaker 03

  For this jury, the evidence presented by the Crown was enough. And after a short deliberation, they found Phoebe Campbell guilty of murdering her husband, George Campbell. Phoebe burst into tears and cried out in what one reporter described as an agonizing way. Her mother collapsed in the courtroom. In 1872, a murder conviction meant a mandatory death sentence. Phoebe Campbell was sentenced to hang three months after that. The Hamilton Spectator reported that someone, likely one of Phoebe's family members, started a petition asking the government to spare her life by reducing her sentence.

• 46:51Speaker 03

  The newspaper noted, however, "It is not being extensively signed." Phoebe Campbell was not done. While she was awaiting execution, she wrote another sworn statement and told the local sheriff that it was a true confession of the crime and her part. For the first time, Phoebe admitted that she had helped plan her husband's murder, and she had participated. She mentioned their marital problems and financial issues. But mostly, she said George had been jealous and controlling, and was restricting her freedom. So she'd confided in the young farmhand, Thomas Coyle.

• 47:35Speaker 03

  He was four years younger than her, but he'd worked for both families, and the two had grown close. It soon turned into a romantic relationship. "Before long," Phoebe wrote, "Thomas asked her to marry him, and she accepted. But to do that, George needed to be out of the way. Their first idea was to poison his food. Phoebe wrote that they obtained the poison. She didn't mention what kind, but when the time came, she lost her nerve. So they decided to use a pistol instead." She wrote that Thomas Coyle traveled to the town of St. Mary's and returned with a pistol. The plan was that he would act

• 48:19Speaker 03

  like he was going to bed with everyone else at the McWayne farmhouse at 9:00 PM. A couple of hours later, he would escape out the window and run over to the small home where Phoebe and George Campbell lived. And that's exactly what he did. But Phoebe wrote that when he showed up, she became frightened and went to bed. She didn't let him in, so he ran back to the McWaynes. That was the Wednesday night.

• 48:50Speaker 03

  On the Thursday, Thomas confronted her about it and they agreed to try again on Friday night. Phoebe wrote that on that evening at their small home, George went to bed with the children but she stayed up, mending clothes while she waited for Thomas Coyle. He arrived with the pistol about an hour or two later and this time she went outside to meet him. They went over their plan again. They would keep the house dark so George wouldn't wake up and Thomas would shoot George in the head while he was still asleep. It would be quick and easy. He'd run back to the McWayne Farm and enter via the window again. Now it was time.

• 49:33Speaker 03

  Thomas approached the bed, pushed the pistol against George's head and pulled the trigger. The gun didn't fire and George and the children were still asleep. So Phoebe and Thomas huddled together in the dark, whispering about what to do next. With no Plan B, they decided they had to use the axe. Phoebe wrote that Thomas struck her husband with the blunt side of the axe on the arm for some reason. He woke up startled, leapt from the bed and a violent struggle broke out between the two men. At one point, George appeared to be getting the upper hand. In Phoebe's original version of events,

• 50:16Speaker 03

  it was her husband who asked her to get the butcher's knife so he could defend himself against two intruders. But in this confession, it's Thomas who asks for it, to use against her husband. Phoebe wrote that Thomas then instructed her to cut George's throat, reminding her that she had promised to help. Phoebe claimed she couldn't bring herself to do it. So Thomas cut George's throat and he fell to the floor dying. But according to Phoebe, Thomas was afraid George might recover, so he picked up the axe again and repeatedly swung the blade at George's face and head to make sure he wouldn't.

• 51:00Speaker 03

  The medical examiner had testified that the blows to George's head and face landed with such extreme accuracy, they didn't believe the room was completely dark as Phoebe originally claimed. Well, apparently, it was. In her latest confession, she wrote that after George was confirmed dead, Thomas lit a match to check his face for blood and then went outside to wash it all off and change. Then he ran back to the McWayne farmhouse.

• 51:34Speaker 03

  Phoebe Campbell insisted that no one in her family knew about any of this. No one heard him enter through the window. Phoebe wrote that his bloodstained clothing was burned. She waited for a couple of hours and then called for help. Then when the neighbours arrived, she claimed that two black men she didn't know had broken into the house and murdered George. And as people started to question her story, she changed that detail to blackened faces. History is full of documented cases of white people committing crimes and then falsely blaming black people,

• 52:15Speaker 03

  exploiting racist stereotypes to make their stories more believable and direct suspicion elsewhere. As a result of these false allegations, innocent black people have been questioned, arrested, subjected to aggressive police investigations and worse. Fortunately, that didn't happen in this case. In the lead-up to Phoebe's execution date, she made multiple attempts to contact Thomas Coyle, but he refused to answer her letters or visit her in prison. But the day beforehand, he changed his mind. The Brantford Expositor reported that the two spoke privately for some time,

• 52:59Speaker 03

  but no one knew what was said between them. January 20th, 1872, was Phoebe Campbell's execution day in London, Ontario. The surrounding streets were crowded with people hoping to catch a glimpse of it, but the scaffold had been arranged so that the public could not see the execution itself. George and Phoebe's two young children had already lost their father. That was the day they became orphans. Their mother would go down in history as the first woman to be executed in Canada since Confederation five years earlier.

• 53:41Speaker 03

  Four months after Phoebe Campbell's execution, Thomas Coyle finally stood trial for the murder of George Campbell. Now 20 years old, he continued to insist he was innocent and had no knowledge of it. But just like Phoebe, he couldn't testify at trial in his own defence. The prosecution alleged that Thomas Coyle helped Phoebe Campbell plan the murder so that they could be together. Then he carried it out himself, just as she had described in her final confession. But proving that version of events was another matter. This is when that pistol came back into play.

• 54:25Speaker 03

  A pistol that jammed and didn't fire was part of Phoebe's first version of events. A pistol was also found at the crime scene, along with the axe and the butcher's knife.

• 54:39Speaker 03

  At Thomas Coyle's murder trial, the firearms merchant from St Mary's testified about selling a pistol for $1 to a young man the weekend before George Campbell was murdered. He recalled it well because the pistol had an essential part of the firing mechanism missing. Evidently, he thought the young man understood that it wouldn't actually fire until the part was replaced. The merchant examined the pistol recovered from the crime scene and quickly identified the same missing part. And then he pointed to a small label from his store that was still attached to the pistol.

• 55:23Speaker 03

  This testimony was a significant piece of evidence. It gave the jury good reason to believe that this was the same pistol. They'd also heard evidence that Thomas Coyle had travelled to St Mary's the same weekend it was sold there. But there was a problem. The firearms merchant couldn't say for certain that Thomas Coyle was the young man who'd purchased that pistol. When asked to identify him in court, the merchant hesitated. He said the accused man resembled the customer he sold the pistol to, but there were differences in his appearance, including his facial hair. He wasn't confident enough to say they were one and the same.

• 56:09Speaker 03

  That left a significant gap in the prosecution's case. The only evidence that placed Thomas Coyle at the crime scene was from Phoebe Campbell herself, but it was just one of a number of contradictory statements she'd made. So without a positive identification of Thomas Coyle as the person who purchased the pistol that was found at the scene, the evidence connecting him to the murder of George Campbell was far from conclusive. The jury had reasonable doubt. They found Thomas Coyle not guilty and he was released from prison a free man.

• 56:51Speaker 03

  But not everyone was satisfied with the outcome. According to The Hamilton Spectator, Thomas was later assaulted in a local tavern by a man who believed he'd escaped justice and should have been convicted. Another newspaper article suggests Thomas Coyle left Canada and moved to England. And that might have been the end of Thomas Coyle's story. But in October of 1874, two years after he was acquitted, The Ottawa Daily Citizen was among a number of Canadian newspapers who published a small article saying, quote, "Thomas Coyle, arrested as an accomplice in the Campbell murder,

• 57:35Speaker 03

  has been executed in England. And on the scaffold, he confessed to having struck the first blow at Campbell, who was murdered, near London, Ontario."

• 57:55Speaker 03

  Thanks for listening. This episode was pieced together primarily from the newspaper archives dating back to the 1870s, which is a fun but often confusing task. Journalism back then was very different. Newspapers regularly mixed facts with speculation. There's little to no fact-checking or independent verification and there's often contradictory or highly dramatized details and sometimes complete poetic licenses taken. We've traced this case back to the earliest available sources and relied on the strongest available evidence, cross-reference with other sources as much as possible.

• 58:36Speaker 03

  For the full list of resources, a link to listen to our episode about the Donnelly family massacre 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. This podcast donates monthly to those facing injustice. This month, we have donated to the Foundation for Black Communities, a national charity supporting black youth, organisations and businesses across Canada. Learn more at forblack.ca. Eric Crosby voiced the disclaimer. Our senior producer is Lindsay Eldridge. Research, writing, narration and sound design was by me

• 59:21Speaker 03

  and the theme song was composed by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back soon with another Canadian True Crime episode. See you then.

• 59:57Speaker 01

  You know you don't have to wait to shop Black Friday at Lowe's, right? Save up to $150 now on select power tools, equipment, and accessories. Got gifts to get? We've got plenty under $50. Plus, MyLowe's Rewards members get same-day delivery for free. Shop Black Friday deals before the rush at Lowe's. Valid through 11/18. $25 minimum and loyalty membership required. Order eligible items by 2 p.m. Subject to weight and size restrictions and availability. Terms at Lowe's.com/shippingterms.

• 1:00:25Speaker 06

  Hey, I'm Pablo Torre, host of Pablo Torre Finds Out. And I have chased down a lot of strange stories, but nothing quite like what's inside a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese. 100% fresh beef, cooked right when you order it. Hand-topped onions, plus cheese and pickles in every bite. And right now, you can get one with medium fries and a drink for just $8. Only at McDonald's. For a limited time only, prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska, and California. And for a delivery, fresh beef not available in Alaska and Hawaii. Offer not valid for delivery.