What do you think?
Rate this book
Inside Peterborough: Three Murder Stories
Ed Arnold reveals the truth behind three Peterborough crime stories that need to be remembers for different reasons:
1) An OPP policeman, Norman Maker, served in Oshawa and Belleville before arriving in Peterborough where he died in the line of duty, the first and only officer to be murdered in the city. Arnold not only digs into the 1928 Simcoe Street shootout, but the constable's background, finding relatives, including daughters, who never got to know their father, not only a hero in Peterborough but in his British birthplace.
2) The legend of the last hanging in the history of Peterborough has been changed so much that some insist an innocent man died on the gallows in 1933. Arnold not only tells readers about the myth behind what actually happened on a farm near Warsaw where two Americans arrived hoping for new lives, but found only death. He uncovers two trials and information never before revealed about the killer and his victim.
3) In 1968 a Peterborough man was tried for murder and found not guilty by a jury, but unlike the double jeopardy law in the United States, he was tried again in a case that became a legal precedent. It was cited by lawyers throughout Canadian courts for decades to come. Arnold tells the story of the murder, but for the first time reveals what happened on a day in 1968 when police "borrowed" 22-year-old John Wray for a lie detector test.
And for the first time he also tells the story of the forgotten innocent victim, 20-year-old Donald Comrie.
1) An OPP policeman, Norman Maker, served in Oshawa and Belleville before arriving in Peterborough where he died in the line of duty, the first and only officer to be murdered in the city. Arnold not only digs into the 1928 Simcoe Street shootout, but the constable's background, finding relatives, including daughters, who never got to know their father, not only a hero in Peterborough but in his British birthplace.
2) The legend of the last hanging in the history of Peterborough has been changed so much that some insist an innocent man died on the gallows in 1933. Arnold not only tells readers about the myth behind what actually happened on a farm near Warsaw where two Americans arrived hoping for new lives, but found only death. He uncovers two trials and information never before revealed about the killer and his victim.
3) In 1968 a Peterborough man was tried for murder and found not guilty by a jury, but unlike the double jeopardy law in the United States, he was tried again in a case that became a legal precedent. It was cited by lawyers throughout Canadian courts for decades to come. Arnold tells the story of the murder, but for the first time reveals what happened on a day in 1968 when police "borrowed" 22-year-old John Wray for a lie detector test.
And for the first time he also tells the story of the forgotten innocent victim, 20-year-old Donald Comrie.
260 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 4, 2019
I didn't enjoy this book. The issues that go with self-publishing were evident: copy edits missed, fonts messed up.
The author is a retired newspaper man and he used extensive quotes from the newspaper that once employed him to narrate the story. I would not go to the archives to read these stories; the abridged versions were less interesting.
The political stance on police violence was tone deaf to present day realities and the author did not interrogate the systems that lead to the last death penalty execution in Peterborough to be a black man.
The upside is addresses and locations past and present are mentioned throughout and that sent me to Google Street view to see what they look like now. I haven't lived in my hometown in 20 years and I haven't visited in 6 so the book allowed me to have a look around in ways I wouldn't have otherwise.
The author is a retired newspaper man and he used extensive quotes from the newspaper that once employed him to narrate the story. I would not go to the archives to read these stories; the abridged versions were less interesting.
The political stance on police violence was tone deaf to present day realities and the author did not interrogate the systems that lead to the last death penalty execution in Peterborough to be a black man.
The upside is addresses and locations past and present are mentioned throughout and that sent me to Google Street view to see what they look like now. I haven't lived in my hometown in 20 years and I haven't visited in 6 so the book allowed me to have a look around in ways I wouldn't have otherwise.
Displaying 1 of 1 review