The Parkdale Murder Mystery - Part 1

On October 6, 1894, 18-year-old Frank Westwood answered the door of his family's Toronto mansion, Lakeside Hall in Parkdale. Someone standing outside shot him through the gap left by the door chain. In part one of this two-part Victorian true crime story on Canada Is Boring, Rhys Waters takes Jesse Harley through the Parkdale Mystery, the Toronto murder that caused a newspaper frenzy in 1890s Canada. Before Frank died of his stomach wound, he described the gunman as a man in dark clothes with a thin mustache. The only name he gave police was Gus Clark, a "stone hooker" his family had chased off their shoreline for digging out shale. We cover the crowded funeral and the chaotic inquest. We meet amateur sleuth W. H. Hornberry, whom the papers mocked as "Parkdale's Sherlock Holmes." We also look at how newspapers begged Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, to solve the case. Then there's the Listowel Horror, the murder of 13-year-old Jessie Keith, which set off rumours that Jack the Ripper had moved to Canada. Part one ends on a cliffhanger: police arrest a surprising new suspect, a 32-year-old woman.

After the story, the Small Talk Dimension Zone covers Jesse's Tuscany wine festival trip, inspired by The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. Jesse also shares a trick for quitting smoking with ice-cold ginger ale. Rhys helps elderly nuns at Rome's Ciampino airport, and the two trade TIFF celebrity sightings, including Jay Baruchel at the Ken Carter film Stuntman. It closes with Danny Elfman's story of writing the Batman theme in an airplane bathroom. If you like Canadian history, historical true crime, unsolved mysteries and a comedy podcast, subscribe so you don't miss part two.

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