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22 Murders: Investigating the Massacres, Cover-up and Obstacles to Justice in Nova Scotia
A shocking exposé of the deadliest killing spree in Canadian history, and how police tragically failed its victims and survivors.
As news broke of a killer rampaging across the tiny community of Portapique, Nova Scotia, late on April 18, 2020, details were oddly hard to come by. Who was the killer? Why was he not apprehended? What were police doing? How many were dead? And why was the gunman still on the loose the next morning and killing again? The RCMP was largely silent then, and continued to obscure the actions of denturist Gabriel Wortman after an officer shot and killed him at a gas station during a chance encounter.
Though retired as an investigative journalist and author, Paul Palango spent much of his career reporting on Canada’s troubled national police force. Watching the RCMP stumble through the Portapique massacre, only a few hours from his Nova Scotia home, Palango knew the story behind the headlines was more complicated and damning than anyone was willing to admit. With the COVID-19 lockdown sealing off the Maritimes, no journalist in the province knew the RCMP better than Palango did. Within a month, he was back in print and on the radio, peeling away the layers of this murderous episode as only he could, and unearthing the collision of failure and malfeasance that cost a quiet community 22 innocent lives.
As news broke of a killer rampaging across the tiny community of Portapique, Nova Scotia, late on April 18, 2020, details were oddly hard to come by. Who was the killer? Why was he not apprehended? What were police doing? How many were dead? And why was the gunman still on the loose the next morning and killing again? The RCMP was largely silent then, and continued to obscure the actions of denturist Gabriel Wortman after an officer shot and killed him at a gas station during a chance encounter.
Though retired as an investigative journalist and author, Paul Palango spent much of his career reporting on Canada’s troubled national police force. Watching the RCMP stumble through the Portapique massacre, only a few hours from his Nova Scotia home, Palango knew the story behind the headlines was more complicated and damning than anyone was willing to admit. With the COVID-19 lockdown sealing off the Maritimes, no journalist in the province knew the RCMP better than Palango did. Within a month, he was back in print and on the radio, peeling away the layers of this murderous episode as only he could, and unearthing the collision of failure and malfeasance that cost a quiet community 22 innocent lives.
596 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 12, 2022
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April 17, 2022
Two years ago, a massacre occurred in the normally peaceful Nova Scotian countryside. The rampage by Gabriel Wortman terrified the people across a vast stretch of Nova Scotia and shocked and saddened the nation. To my knowledge, this is the first book to be published about those horrifying events, but it probably won't be the last. A public inquiry is now being held, with new revelations coming to light.
The book was meticulously researched by a former editor of the Globe and Mail and investigative reporter, Paul Palango. He retired to Nova Scotia in 1990 and wrote three books highly critical of the RCMP. As the Mounties have been regarded as an incorruptible Canadian symbol, his findings were not always popular. He has essential sources and did impeccable research, and his latest book is an official narrative of the events of the two days of terror. Palango addressed problems within the organization of the RCMP, the training, the leadership, the ineptitude, and the cronyism. At their press conferences, spokespersons for the RCMP were believed to be engaged in a coverup, made excuses, spread disinformation, and revealed not much new. Their excuses and coverup left more unsuspecting victims dead, with bodies spread over a couple of hundred kilometres.
The COVID pandemic was in its early days, and Nova Scotia was in lockdown. The Premier had cautioned people to "Stay the Blazes Home." This phrase was made into a song. The Emergency Alert warning was used regarding restrictions.
The man on the murderous rampage on the night of April 18th was Gabriel Wortman, a denturist working in the Halifax area. He grew up in Moncton, NB, and attended the University of NB. He was obsessed with the RCMP, motor vehicles and weapons and was considered 'weird.' He owned a lot of property in Portipique, NS, some he acquired through fraudulent means. Portipique is a small seaside community situated away from the main road. On the night of April 18th, people in the neighbourhood saw fires and heard shots fired. Members of the RCMP arrived around 10.20 pm and saw vehicles and buildings burning. By the end of the night, 13 people were dead in Portipique. Why was there no general warning by Emergency Alert? Instead, the Mounties used their Twitter account to warn people of the ongoing danger at 11.30 pm. Very few Nova Scotians follow Twitter and would be unlikely to be using it at that time of night. The RCMP overestimated its effectiveness. They never admitted to this mistake in judgement.
Furthermore, phone records show three phone calls that evening informing the Mounties that Wortman was driving a police car replica and may have been dressed as an RCMP member. The police insisted that they only learned of this fact the following day. They had speculated that he may have died in one of the fires. The shooter headed towards Halifax by morning while taking detours, killing 9 more innocent victims. Most were hardly aware of the slaughter on the previous night and had no warning that he was in the area or that he was driving a car that was made to resemble an RCMP vehicle.
He was finally shot to death by two members of the RCMP while stopped at a gas station in Enfield, near the Halifax airport. This was shortly after killing a female Mountie and wounding another RCMP officer. It has just been revealed at the public inquiry that he shot himself in the head using the dead officer's gun while the RCMP officers were opening fire on him.
This was a difficult book to rate fairly. It was evident that a tremendous amount of work and careful research went into the writing. I liked his description of the 22 victims and their lives. I would have preferred a more linear approach and better organization of the material. The book was an exhaustive report, and at almost 600 pages, I found it exhausting to read. The narrative went back and forth in time, containing unnecessary filler and minutiae. I thought the photos would have been more relevant when inserted into the appropriate pages rather than gathered together at the end of the book. I would rate it 5 stars for the extensive facts he gathered and 2.5 stars for the organization and structure of the book.
The book was meticulously researched by a former editor of the Globe and Mail and investigative reporter, Paul Palango. He retired to Nova Scotia in 1990 and wrote three books highly critical of the RCMP. As the Mounties have been regarded as an incorruptible Canadian symbol, his findings were not always popular. He has essential sources and did impeccable research, and his latest book is an official narrative of the events of the two days of terror. Palango addressed problems within the organization of the RCMP, the training, the leadership, the ineptitude, and the cronyism. At their press conferences, spokespersons for the RCMP were believed to be engaged in a coverup, made excuses, spread disinformation, and revealed not much new. Their excuses and coverup left more unsuspecting victims dead, with bodies spread over a couple of hundred kilometres.
The COVID pandemic was in its early days, and Nova Scotia was in lockdown. The Premier had cautioned people to "Stay the Blazes Home." This phrase was made into a song. The Emergency Alert warning was used regarding restrictions.
The man on the murderous rampage on the night of April 18th was Gabriel Wortman, a denturist working in the Halifax area. He grew up in Moncton, NB, and attended the University of NB. He was obsessed with the RCMP, motor vehicles and weapons and was considered 'weird.' He owned a lot of property in Portipique, NS, some he acquired through fraudulent means. Portipique is a small seaside community situated away from the main road. On the night of April 18th, people in the neighbourhood saw fires and heard shots fired. Members of the RCMP arrived around 10.20 pm and saw vehicles and buildings burning. By the end of the night, 13 people were dead in Portipique. Why was there no general warning by Emergency Alert? Instead, the Mounties used their Twitter account to warn people of the ongoing danger at 11.30 pm. Very few Nova Scotians follow Twitter and would be unlikely to be using it at that time of night. The RCMP overestimated its effectiveness. They never admitted to this mistake in judgement.
Furthermore, phone records show three phone calls that evening informing the Mounties that Wortman was driving a police car replica and may have been dressed as an RCMP member. The police insisted that they only learned of this fact the following day. They had speculated that he may have died in one of the fires. The shooter headed towards Halifax by morning while taking detours, killing 9 more innocent victims. Most were hardly aware of the slaughter on the previous night and had no warning that he was in the area or that he was driving a car that was made to resemble an RCMP vehicle.
He was finally shot to death by two members of the RCMP while stopped at a gas station in Enfield, near the Halifax airport. This was shortly after killing a female Mountie and wounding another RCMP officer. It has just been revealed at the public inquiry that he shot himself in the head using the dead officer's gun while the RCMP officers were opening fire on him.
This was a difficult book to rate fairly. It was evident that a tremendous amount of work and careful research went into the writing. I liked his description of the 22 victims and their lives. I would have preferred a more linear approach and better organization of the material. The book was an exhaustive report, and at almost 600 pages, I found it exhausting to read. The narrative went back and forth in time, containing unnecessary filler and minutiae. I thought the photos would have been more relevant when inserted into the appropriate pages rather than gathered together at the end of the book. I would rate it 5 stars for the extensive facts he gathered and 2.5 stars for the organization and structure of the book.
June 6, 2024
For full transparency, I’ll start this off by saying that, going into 22 Murders, I was sure its publication was a money-grab. 600+ pages from a journalist who’d been retired for the previous twelve years? Who replies to his wife’s “something terrible had occurred and was still occurring in […] Portapique […] he might be driving an RCMP vehicle” with “that would be a huge story”? Who opens 22 Murders with an entirely unnecessary six-paged description of Wortman’s sexual escapades one winter night, only months before his rampage? The further I got into the opening chapters of 22 Murders, the more sure I was of this opinion. Yes, I found some of what Palango was saying to be important, or fair. The rest, however, was completely tasteless.
What do I think Palango does well in 22 Murders? I’ll break it down.
RCMP: Palango is known for criticizing the RCMP, which he acknowledges in 22 Murders. He presents his information on the organization clearly and concisely, and, as someone who knows nothing about the RCMP itself or how it operates, the chapters Palango dedicates to explaining this (four and five, specifically) are enlightening. When Palango admitted to his dislike of the RCMP, I was afraid this bias of his would influence his description of it and its members—and it did (nothing can ever truly be devoid of bias), but not to the extent that I felt the information Palango was sharing was untrustworthy or incorrect. In Part 1 of 22 Murders—aptly titled “An Epic Failure In Policing”—particularly, the chapters dedicated to a critique of the RCMP and the response to the shootings were well-written/-organized, and Palango’s criticism was fair.
Later in the book, though, this does change. In Part 2 (“The Search For The Truth”), Palango uses up way too many words describing old encounters/scandals concerning the RCMP, something I feel does take away from the text as a whole. In my eyes, 22 Murders has merit as a genuine call to action. NOW (Toronto)’s tagline on the cover reads: “Why isn’t the Nova Scotia mass shooting a national scandal? It may well turn out to be if Paul Palango has anything to say about it.” And I agree with that. Especially after reading 22 Murders, I do think the failures of the RCMP—as an organization, not as individual members—should be investigated on a national scale, because I do think there is a lot of merit to what Palango is saying. But I do think the scope of 22 Murders got away from Palango a few times, where the RCMP were concerned.
Timeline: When I say “timeline,” I’m talking about chapters 10–15, which make up the better chunk of Part 1. They are titled:
These are, in my opinion, the only chapters Palango needed on the timeline of the massacre itself. Later, in Part 2, he’ll return to this timeline to insert new evidence, which is—objectively—good. Subjectively, however, the amount of pages taken up in Part 2 by Palango taking the reader through the timeline he’s already constructed so well again is ridiculous. But I’ll bring that up again in more detail in just a moment.
These chapters, paired with the labelled maps at the beginning of 22 Murders, provide a clear, concise, and fairly complete summary of Wortman’s path/actions during the massacres. What could have improved them would be, in my opinion, much of what Palango ends up including (and going on at great lengths about) in Part 2; things like the photos in between pages 326/327, or the 911 transcripts from chapter 32. Which leads me to my final “pro” of 22 Murders.
The 911 Transcripts: I don’t have much to say about these, other than that I think Palango made the right choice including them—the transcripts, and not the recordings themselves (though I know one could find them easily, now), proceeded by a content warning.
Unfortunately, the list of what I didn’t like about 22 Murders is much longer.
Genre & Glorification: True Crime as a genre has always been a bit of a grey-area for me. One of the main reasons is one Palango even acknowledges in 22 Murders: the notoriety it gives to those who’ve committed these horrible crimes. Contrastingly, after Palango mentions this (the context being that many news outlets weren’t using Wortman's name when reporting about the massacres to avoid this), he goes on to spend a good 80% of Part 2 delving deep into Wortman’s childhood, “sexual escapades,” and possible connections to both the Hells Angels (or organized crime in general) and the RCMP itself. It just seemed like a backhanded observation … which does become a theme. Do I think Palango was genuinely glorifying what Wortman had done? No. But too much of Part 2 was unnecessary (most of the parts surrounding Wortman’s sex life … in particular, Palango’s whole section on Wortman’s “homosexual tendencies,” which had absolutely no connection to the subject of this book—the mass shootings), and chapter 1 (detailing Wortman’s night with three women and beginning with one of the woman’s striptease on top of Wortman’s replica RCMP cruiser, which he would use in the shootings months later) itself was an awful way to begin this book.
Length: This is the big one. It ties back into just about every other piece of criticism I have for this book.
Why 600 pages?
It’s not just long—it’s dense. It’s repetitive. Palango doesn’t even include a big chunk of notes or citations at the end (which we’ll go back to) that most non-fiction would, so what you see is really what you get. So much of 22 Murders could—and should—have been edited out. Less so in Part 1, but while reading Part 2 I could find myself thinking that entire chapters were completely unnecessary, or could have been condensed into half the amount of words conveying the same information. (Ex. chapters 1, 26, 27 … among others.) Much of Part 2 is, as well, copy-and-pasted clippings of articles that Palango himself has written for other publications, and every single one of them either contains comments Palango has already made in previous sections of 22 Murders, or could have been summarized in a single paragraph instead of the three/four pages it actually spans.
Like I mentioned in the earlier section on the RCMP, Palango goes off on tangents, too—it’s like he forgets that the scope of this book is specifically the massacres, and not the faults of the RCMP across Canada in general. Do I think a lot of what Palango says about the RCMP is fair and deserves to be said? Yes. Do I think it should’ve been said in this book? No. Honestly, I think Palango could have split 22 Murders into two publications: one focused on the shootings (including the RCMP, in that instance), and the other focused on the RCMP as a whole. And it’s not just the RCMP—most of the facts included in Palango’s chapters on Wortman are unnecessary. And don’t even get me started on the chapters dedicated to the Hells Angels, Peter Alan Griffon, and Wortman’s possible illegal operations in Maine … all of which could’ve so easily been condensed into a single chapter rather than the four or five it actually is.
In short—you can tell Palango likes the sound of his own voice.
Editing: Length aside—though I think that, too, could’ve been rectified with a better editor—the amount of typos/grammatical errors I found while reading—without even looking for them—is way too high.
Page 413: I could also call this section “crossing boundaries,” but since page 413 was such a shocking and obvious example of it, we’re going with that for now.
Here’s an excerpt from page 413. For context, Palango is talking about an article he plans on releasing that includes the fact that Wortman was allegedly having an affair with Lisa McCully, one of his later victims.
There is a lot to unpack from this.
I’d like to first say that my criticism isn’t really directed at Palango’s decision to leak details of Wortman and McCully’s sex lives. Do I disagree with it? Yes, but I disagree with a lot of little things Palango does in 22 Murders. What I find so tone-deaf and tasteless about this page is how Palango is so flippantly callous about how this information might affect McCully’s family, and how he laughs at the thought of clearing it with them first. In particular, the line “it was their civic responsibility to keep nothing secret” makes my skin crawl. Who the fuck is Palango to decide these kids’ “civic responsibility”? Who the fuck is Palango to decide that no one involved in the massacres has the right to privacy? Above anything else in this book, these few lines are what really, really cemented my dislike of it.
Throughout the rest of 22 Murders, there are many other instances of Palango crossing boundaries like this. I won’t quote them all, but I’ve already mentioned a few. Do I think that some of the more embarrassing, private details of those involved were necessary to include? Sure, far and few between as they were. But, as with most of 22 Murders, a good 60% of the information on Wortman and his victims that Palango throws in is completely unnecessary. It’s like he wants to say: “Look, look at how much research I did! Here’s this person’s entire life story, all their dirty secrets … for absolutely no reason at all.”
Sources: I mentioned this briefly earlier, and I’ll just touch on it briefly now, too.
But you know when you read a non-fiction book, and at the end there’s a section of sources? Maybe it’s titled “Notes,” or “Bibliography,” or just a simple “Sources,” but they all look pretty much the same—a list of all the sources used to compile the book you just read. Publications, pictures, footage, etc., all arranged in a big list to support the points the author has just made. It’s a staple of non-fiction, right? Obviously, you’ve got to cite your sources.
In 22 Murders, this section is a mere three pages long, titled “A Note On Sources.” Here’s what Palango writes in the first paragraph:
Dude. “Printing lengthy books in the time of COVID-19 is an unreliable enterprise” … 22 Murders is already a good 300 pages longer than it needs to be—maybe those pages upon pages of personal anecdotes and redundant details of victims’ private lives could have been dedicated to citing your sources properly, if you’re worried about printing costs.
Palango goes on to say that he has incorporated enough identifying details in the bulk of his work that anyone could find the “underlying documents online by using a search engine.” Very vague. Very unhelpful. Why not just … cite your sources? Very easy. Very clear. Very helpful.
I guess I just found it a bit unprofessional. But what can I say?
In the end, you’re going to see that I’ve rated this a flat two stars. Do I think 22 Murders has merit and is worth reading? As a call to action against corruption/incompetence in the RCMP—as I said earlier—yes. As a source of information on the timeline behind/during the shootings, yes. Those two things, I think Palango did well. But those two things only take up a good 300 pages of 22 Murders, and you have to dredge through a lot of unnecessary filler, tone-deaf comments, personal vendettas/anecdotes, and tangents to get there.
What do I think Palango does well in 22 Murders? I’ll break it down.
RCMP: Palango is known for criticizing the RCMP, which he acknowledges in 22 Murders. He presents his information on the organization clearly and concisely, and, as someone who knows nothing about the RCMP itself or how it operates, the chapters Palango dedicates to explaining this (four and five, specifically) are enlightening. When Palango admitted to his dislike of the RCMP, I was afraid this bias of his would influence his description of it and its members—and it did (nothing can ever truly be devoid of bias), but not to the extent that I felt the information Palango was sharing was untrustworthy or incorrect. In Part 1 of 22 Murders—aptly titled “An Epic Failure In Policing”—particularly, the chapters dedicated to a critique of the RCMP and the response to the shootings were well-written/-organized, and Palango’s criticism was fair.
Later in the book, though, this does change. In Part 2 (“The Search For The Truth”), Palango uses up way too many words describing old encounters/scandals concerning the RCMP, something I feel does take away from the text as a whole. In my eyes, 22 Murders has merit as a genuine call to action. NOW (Toronto)’s tagline on the cover reads: “Why isn’t the Nova Scotia mass shooting a national scandal? It may well turn out to be if Paul Palango has anything to say about it.” And I agree with that. Especially after reading 22 Murders, I do think the failures of the RCMP—as an organization, not as individual members—should be investigated on a national scale, because I do think there is a lot of merit to what Palango is saying. But I do think the scope of 22 Murders got away from Palango a few times, where the RCMP were concerned.
Timeline: When I say “timeline,” I’m talking about chapters 10–15, which make up the better chunk of Part 1. They are titled:
10. The First Massacre
11. The Commissionaire’s Error & A Mountie’s Twitch
12. The Interlude Between The Massacres
13. The Second Massacre, Part 1: Hunter Road
14. The Second Massacre, Part 2: No Roadblocks
15. The Second Massacre, Part 3: A Failure To Communicate
These are, in my opinion, the only chapters Palango needed on the timeline of the massacre itself. Later, in Part 2, he’ll return to this timeline to insert new evidence, which is—objectively—good. Subjectively, however, the amount of pages taken up in Part 2 by Palango taking the reader through the timeline he’s already constructed so well again is ridiculous. But I’ll bring that up again in more detail in just a moment.
These chapters, paired with the labelled maps at the beginning of 22 Murders, provide a clear, concise, and fairly complete summary of Wortman’s path/actions during the massacres. What could have improved them would be, in my opinion, much of what Palango ends up including (and going on at great lengths about) in Part 2; things like the photos in between pages 326/327, or the 911 transcripts from chapter 32. Which leads me to my final “pro” of 22 Murders.
The 911 Transcripts: I don’t have much to say about these, other than that I think Palango made the right choice including them—the transcripts, and not the recordings themselves (though I know one could find them easily, now), proceeded by a content warning.
Unfortunately, the list of what I didn’t like about 22 Murders is much longer.
Genre & Glorification: True Crime as a genre has always been a bit of a grey-area for me. One of the main reasons is one Palango even acknowledges in 22 Murders: the notoriety it gives to those who’ve committed these horrible crimes. Contrastingly, after Palango mentions this (the context being that many news outlets weren’t using Wortman's name when reporting about the massacres to avoid this), he goes on to spend a good 80% of Part 2 delving deep into Wortman’s childhood, “sexual escapades,” and possible connections to both the Hells Angels (or organized crime in general) and the RCMP itself. It just seemed like a backhanded observation … which does become a theme. Do I think Palango was genuinely glorifying what Wortman had done? No. But too much of Part 2 was unnecessary (most of the parts surrounding Wortman’s sex life … in particular, Palango’s whole section on Wortman’s “homosexual tendencies,” which had absolutely no connection to the subject of this book—the mass shootings), and chapter 1 (detailing Wortman’s night with three women and beginning with one of the woman’s striptease on top of Wortman’s replica RCMP cruiser, which he would use in the shootings months later) itself was an awful way to begin this book.
Length: This is the big one. It ties back into just about every other piece of criticism I have for this book.
Why 600 pages?
It’s not just long—it’s dense. It’s repetitive. Palango doesn’t even include a big chunk of notes or citations at the end (which we’ll go back to) that most non-fiction would, so what you see is really what you get. So much of 22 Murders could—and should—have been edited out. Less so in Part 1, but while reading Part 2 I could find myself thinking that entire chapters were completely unnecessary, or could have been condensed into half the amount of words conveying the same information. (Ex. chapters 1, 26, 27 … among others.) Much of Part 2 is, as well, copy-and-pasted clippings of articles that Palango himself has written for other publications, and every single one of them either contains comments Palango has already made in previous sections of 22 Murders, or could have been summarized in a single paragraph instead of the three/four pages it actually spans.
Like I mentioned in the earlier section on the RCMP, Palango goes off on tangents, too—it’s like he forgets that the scope of this book is specifically the massacres, and not the faults of the RCMP across Canada in general. Do I think a lot of what Palango says about the RCMP is fair and deserves to be said? Yes. Do I think it should’ve been said in this book? No. Honestly, I think Palango could have split 22 Murders into two publications: one focused on the shootings (including the RCMP, in that instance), and the other focused on the RCMP as a whole. And it’s not just the RCMP—most of the facts included in Palango’s chapters on Wortman are unnecessary. And don’t even get me started on the chapters dedicated to the Hells Angels, Peter Alan Griffon, and Wortman’s possible illegal operations in Maine … all of which could’ve so easily been condensed into a single chapter rather than the four or five it actually is.
In short—you can tell Palango likes the sound of his own voice.
Editing: Length aside—though I think that, too, could’ve been rectified with a better editor—the amount of typos/grammatical errors I found while reading—without even looking for them—is way too high.
Page 413: I could also call this section “crossing boundaries,” but since page 413 was such a shocking and obvious example of it, we’re going with that for now.
Here’s an excerpt from page 413. For context, Palango is talking about an article he plans on releasing that includes the fact that Wortman was allegedly having an affair with Lisa McCully, one of his later victims.
Maher was a little like my mother. When I told him I was planning to report on McCully’s relationship with Wortman, he asked, with a note of concern in his voice, “Are you going to clear it with the family first?”
“The family?” I asked incredulously. “Her young children? Her sister? What do you think they are going to say? I have enough proof to publish.”
“I would ask them first,” Maher said.
“And they’re going to say no,” I said. “That’s how stories don’t get published.”
My job was to get justice for McCully, not to worry about making her blush in her grave. It was unfortunate that she’d slept with Wortman, but that was her decision—her personal responsibility. Embarrassing as it might well be to her family, it was their civic responsibility to keep nothing secret.
There is a lot to unpack from this.
I’d like to first say that my criticism isn’t really directed at Palango’s decision to leak details of Wortman and McCully’s sex lives. Do I disagree with it? Yes, but I disagree with a lot of little things Palango does in 22 Murders. What I find so tone-deaf and tasteless about this page is how Palango is so flippantly callous about how this information might affect McCully’s family, and how he laughs at the thought of clearing it with them first. In particular, the line “it was their civic responsibility to keep nothing secret” makes my skin crawl. Who the fuck is Palango to decide these kids’ “civic responsibility”? Who the fuck is Palango to decide that no one involved in the massacres has the right to privacy? Above anything else in this book, these few lines are what really, really cemented my dislike of it.
Throughout the rest of 22 Murders, there are many other instances of Palango crossing boundaries like this. I won’t quote them all, but I’ve already mentioned a few. Do I think that some of the more embarrassing, private details of those involved were necessary to include? Sure, far and few between as they were. But, as with most of 22 Murders, a good 60% of the information on Wortman and his victims that Palango throws in is completely unnecessary. It’s like he wants to say: “Look, look at how much research I did! Here’s this person’s entire life story, all their dirty secrets … for absolutely no reason at all.”
Sources: I mentioned this briefly earlier, and I’ll just touch on it briefly now, too.
But you know when you read a non-fiction book, and at the end there’s a section of sources? Maybe it’s titled “Notes,” or “Bibliography,” or just a simple “Sources,” but they all look pretty much the same—a list of all the sources used to compile the book you just read. Publications, pictures, footage, etc., all arranged in a big list to support the points the author has just made. It’s a staple of non-fiction, right? Obviously, you’ve got to cite your sources.
In 22 Murders, this section is a mere three pages long, titled “A Note On Sources.” Here’s what Palango writes in the first paragraph:
[…] in my approach to researching, gathering evidence and writing this book I deliberately did not adopt a traditional format for sourcing non-fiction. In part because printing lengthy books in the era of COVID-19 is an unreliable enterprise, I’ve avoided dozens of pages of largely redundant endnotes […]
Dude. “Printing lengthy books in the time of COVID-19 is an unreliable enterprise” … 22 Murders is already a good 300 pages longer than it needs to be—maybe those pages upon pages of personal anecdotes and redundant details of victims’ private lives could have been dedicated to citing your sources properly, if you’re worried about printing costs.
Palango goes on to say that he has incorporated enough identifying details in the bulk of his work that anyone could find the “underlying documents online by using a search engine.” Very vague. Very unhelpful. Why not just … cite your sources? Very easy. Very clear. Very helpful.
I guess I just found it a bit unprofessional. But what can I say?
In the end, you’re going to see that I’ve rated this a flat two stars. Do I think 22 Murders has merit and is worth reading? As a call to action against corruption/incompetence in the RCMP—as I said earlier—yes. As a source of information on the timeline behind/during the shootings, yes. Those two things, I think Palango did well. But those two things only take up a good 300 pages of 22 Murders, and you have to dredge through a lot of unnecessary filler, tone-deaf comments, personal vendettas/anecdotes, and tangents to get there.
August 15, 2022
Audiobook
* Overall ZERO
* Performance - no major issues withe the narrator. Feel bad he had to read this as well.
* Story DNF
I live in Nova Scotia, less than an hour and half from Portapique where this tragedy occurred. The shooters rampage shocked our province and our country.
I purchased this book in hopes of gaining insight to why this tragedy occurred, in return it felt more like was reading the Enquirer 🙄
Couldn’t finish after 55%
* Overall ZERO
* Performance - no major issues withe the narrator. Feel bad he had to read this as well.
* Story DNF
I live in Nova Scotia, less than an hour and half from Portapique where this tragedy occurred. The shooters rampage shocked our province and our country.
I purchased this book in hopes of gaining insight to why this tragedy occurred, in return it felt more like was reading the Enquirer 🙄
Couldn’t finish after 55%
July 18, 2022
While this book is bound to draw the ire of many, to me this is one book that will stick in my memory for a long, long time. Investigative journalism at its core, this is a blueprint for all current and up and coming journalists. If your first reaction is to laugh and come to the defence of the rcmp, that’s okay, it’s your right to do so. But that’s further proof that Paul Palango is right on the money and that with time, the truth will reveal itself. Hope you’re on the right side of it one day. To all his citizen investigators and fellow MSM members who vigorously aided and helped push this forward, I thank you. It gives me hope as a fellow Canadian to know there are still some out there who are willing to challenge official narratives and are not deterred from the hurling abuses that those are so willing to throw around. Will mistakes be made along the way? Certainly, everyone is human and in an ever evolving story such as this, it’s bound to occur but that’s what investigating involves. Don’t let that detract from the idea that for every slight error, loads of new and shocking information was brought to line thanks to Paul and his sources. I feel tremendous sorrow for all the victims and their families that are being cheated by the MCC and the provincial and federal governments. They don’t deserve what they’ve been forced to contend with, it is time the thousands of questions start to become answered. Cheers Paul.
July 8, 2022
The author is known for criticizing the RCMP, which is almost more of what this book is about. In my opinion, this should be two books. At 600 pages, it is just too much!
And I did not want to read details over and over again of timelines.
I wanted the author to sum it up for me, not take me through all these documents.
It might have been interesting to him, but as a reader it was monotonous.
At times I felt some of the material was more of a tabloid nature.
In truth I had to skim a lot. It was just so boring!
Long winded!
Often, I wanted to scream, “Just get to the point!”
And I did not want to read details over and over again of timelines.
I wanted the author to sum it up for me, not take me through all these documents.
It might have been interesting to him, but as a reader it was monotonous.
At times I felt some of the material was more of a tabloid nature.
In truth I had to skim a lot. It was just so boring!
Long winded!
Often, I wanted to scream, “Just get to the point!”
July 3, 2022
3.0 Stars
This book provided a compelling narrative of a horrific, but lesser known Canadian massacre. I acknowledge that the communication of law enforcement could have been better, but I did not fully buy the conspiracy theories presented in these pages. The author acknowledges that he's a known critic of the RCMP and his bias here is clear. Maybe I am another naive Canadian, but I am skeptical of the degree of conspiracy that the author presents. Also, this book was too long, offering too many unnecessary details that muddied the narrative.
This book provided a compelling narrative of a horrific, but lesser known Canadian massacre. I acknowledge that the communication of law enforcement could have been better, but I did not fully buy the conspiracy theories presented in these pages. The author acknowledges that he's a known critic of the RCMP and his bias here is clear. Maybe I am another naive Canadian, but I am skeptical of the degree of conspiracy that the author presents. Also, this book was too long, offering too many unnecessary details that muddied the narrative.
June 19, 2022
Some very fair and important criticism of the RCMP, but way too long. And I really could have done without all the personal information Palango inserted. He revealed a bit too much about himself, and I can see why he often burns bridges. In the end it felt like having one of those conversations where one guy takes up all the air in the room. I couldn't wait to be done.
July 8, 2022
I am having to put this book at 2 stars but I do find it to be more 2.5 stars. I went in blind, not knowing who Paul Palango really is other than that he is a Investigative Journalist. I was very much unaware that he has written 2 books previously about the RCMP. Going in, knowing that he is an investigative journalist, I was excited to see his take on the Nova Scotia Massacres that had happened April 18 and 19, 2020. To see what his thoughts of what had happened, what he thinks brought it to that point, and the evidence to back him up on the his findings of the crime, not of the RCMP.
From page 1, I was angry because of how he worded things which really sets the tone on how this whole book was going to go. The direction it was going to take and that direction is bashing the Emergency Responders (such as the RCMP) and on how they didn't help. I can't back them up but I can tell that he could not really back up his findings either. I found it to be one giant opinion piece that was not very much backed. He has written 2 previous books on bashing the RCMP. He truly believes them to be incompetent, unreliable, disfunctional, and should be disbanded (to put it in his exact words). There is a belief that I go by that everyone in entitled to their own opinion and own voice but I also believe that to say something negative, you have to balance it with a positive. Paul does not do that. He continuously and repeatedly says why he hates the RCMP and he does it so much that it is repetitive and starts to become as bragging. He brags about his work as if only his word is God and I understand that he is a retired journalist but it was practically every 2nd page where he repeats what he just said then repeats it again in every chapter.
I have friends and family who work for and in the RCMP and I will take there side anytime of the day unless it truly is unlawful with blinding evidence. He has no evidence really to back up his theories and then he fills parts where he can't bash the RCMP with his own personal problems which is not relevant to the book as well with more irrelevant information that is not needed in the book.
I expected more investigation into the murders than into why he hates the RCMP and thinks they should be disbanded. It was a way for him to put his opinion out there and thinks everyone should take his opinion. I am sorry, but I do not agree with him and I do not agree with his findings in the book and was very disappointed in the whole read. Don't pick this book up because it is not worth it. Sorry.
From page 1, I was angry because of how he worded things which really sets the tone on how this whole book was going to go. The direction it was going to take and that direction is bashing the Emergency Responders (such as the RCMP) and on how they didn't help. I can't back them up but I can tell that he could not really back up his findings either. I found it to be one giant opinion piece that was not very much backed. He has written 2 previous books on bashing the RCMP. He truly believes them to be incompetent, unreliable, disfunctional, and should be disbanded (to put it in his exact words). There is a belief that I go by that everyone in entitled to their own opinion and own voice but I also believe that to say something negative, you have to balance it with a positive. Paul does not do that. He continuously and repeatedly says why he hates the RCMP and he does it so much that it is repetitive and starts to become as bragging. He brags about his work as if only his word is God and I understand that he is a retired journalist but it was practically every 2nd page where he repeats what he just said then repeats it again in every chapter.
I have friends and family who work for and in the RCMP and I will take there side anytime of the day unless it truly is unlawful with blinding evidence. He has no evidence really to back up his theories and then he fills parts where he can't bash the RCMP with his own personal problems which is not relevant to the book as well with more irrelevant information that is not needed in the book.
I expected more investigation into the murders than into why he hates the RCMP and thinks they should be disbanded. It was a way for him to put his opinion out there and thinks everyone should take his opinion. I am sorry, but I do not agree with him and I do not agree with his findings in the book and was very disappointed in the whole read. Don't pick this book up because it is not worth it. Sorry.
May 13, 2022
After reading this book I guess I am mostly feeling overwhelmed…..by information (587 pages),by possibilities of what is true, and by my own inability to decide what is fact and what is fiction. Not being a part of the lifestyle of smugglers, motorcycle gangs, politicians, police or the press/media, I don’t have a basis to feel able to judge the accuracy of the book. I would have thought I would be comfortable that the Mass Casualty Commission would get to the truth of events but based on what this author has to say I am now not confident in that.#indigoemployee
March 31, 2022
Never too soon to be writing books about this
July 11, 2022
Say it with me …. DEFUND THE POLICE. Paul Palango really puts his entire self into speaking truth for the people, and asking the questions we all need to be asking. Thank you to Paul and his team of supporters for providing us with a different perspective on the NS massacre.
December 18, 2022
3.5.
This is a lot to take in.
This is a lot to take in.
June 29, 2022
I'm going to start this review by stating that I am a true Bluenoser, born and bred in Nova Scotia, and I lived through these events firsthand. I know this province like the back of my hand and have family and friends who have been just as affected by this as I have been. This has likely influenced the way I feel about this book.
I picked up this book knowing it would make me uncomfortable, and upset me. But that is the point. My experience tells me the RCMP was inadequate but is that the truth? At the time this was going on, that was hard to tell, and Palango does a good job of showing you the confusion that stemmed from police press conferences and small admissions of information.
Palango comes from a long journalistic career of exposing the RCMP for its wrongdoings, and if you were in NS during the events of April 17th & April 18th, it is SO IMPORTANT that you question what the heck was going on inside that institution for things to have escalated the way they did.
Perhaps it was my experiences that day that allowed me to share in the frustration Palango expresses toward the RCMP, and therefore, made this investigation into the events of April 17th & 18th one that made me deeply upset; if I wasn't already.
Is a lot of the book speculation? Yes. Did the RCMP allow that to happen by not being transparent? Yes. It is inherently Nova Scotian to spread rumors and speculate. The grapevine for most of our rural communities is the primary method of communicating information (sorry Twitter, more than half of the population doesn't have access to reliable internet). Also keep in mind that there was so much information out there about what the RCMP were and were not doing that Palango tried to include.
Overall, Palango provides a well-researched and speculative investigation into the massacre that we still don't have all the answers for. By fusing in his own opinions and experiences at that time, he demonstrates the wide range of emotions we were all feeling. However, I think as someone who was in NS when this happened, the length of this book is due in part to the fact that he is processing it and hasn't fully come to terms with it enough to have a succinct and clear argument. Nevertheless, this book is timely and important, and I hope more authors follow in his footsteps to get the heart of what happened. The world needs to know just as much as we Nova Scotians deserve the truth.
**Steps off soap box**
I picked up this book knowing it would make me uncomfortable, and upset me. But that is the point. My experience tells me the RCMP was inadequate but is that the truth? At the time this was going on, that was hard to tell, and Palango does a good job of showing you the confusion that stemmed from police press conferences and small admissions of information.
Palango comes from a long journalistic career of exposing the RCMP for its wrongdoings, and if you were in NS during the events of April 17th & April 18th, it is SO IMPORTANT that you question what the heck was going on inside that institution for things to have escalated the way they did.
Perhaps it was my experiences that day that allowed me to share in the frustration Palango expresses toward the RCMP, and therefore, made this investigation into the events of April 17th & 18th one that made me deeply upset; if I wasn't already.
Is a lot of the book speculation? Yes. Did the RCMP allow that to happen by not being transparent? Yes. It is inherently Nova Scotian to spread rumors and speculate. The grapevine for most of our rural communities is the primary method of communicating information (sorry Twitter, more than half of the population doesn't have access to reliable internet). Also keep in mind that there was so much information out there about what the RCMP were and were not doing that Palango tried to include.
Overall, Palango provides a well-researched and speculative investigation into the massacre that we still don't have all the answers for. By fusing in his own opinions and experiences at that time, he demonstrates the wide range of emotions we were all feeling. However, I think as someone who was in NS when this happened, the length of this book is due in part to the fact that he is processing it and hasn't fully come to terms with it enough to have a succinct and clear argument. Nevertheless, this book is timely and important, and I hope more authors follow in his footsteps to get the heart of what happened. The world needs to know just as much as we Nova Scotians deserve the truth.
**Steps off soap box**
May 27, 2022
As a Nova Scotian I've followed this tragedy - and the reporting on this tragedy - from the start. Paul Palango does nothing in this (bloated) book to shake the impression of him I've gained over the past two years: he's a defensive, pedantic, conspiratorial thinker. So even where I agree with him - the failures of the Mounties in this case are astonishing and he is right to expose the depths of their cowardice and disorganisation, and he is nothing if not tenacious in his reporting - I cannot respect him, because I feel he has lost sight of what is in the public interest in favour of exposing every skeleton in the closet of every single individual touched by the tragedy. He frames it as a crusade for justice, but you're left with the feeling that this whole production is a lot of sordid ambulance chasing. And it is simply too early for this book to be released; we are too close to what happened; and even if the casualty commission ultimately fails, there's a lot of info coming out that this book needed.
(Again, as a Nova Scotian? He does not prove his central conspiracy that GW was a Mountie informant. His evidence seems to be the volume of personal connections GW had with shady low-lifes. Buddy... have you been to Nova Scotia? That doesn't prove much.)
(Again, as a Nova Scotian? He does not prove his central conspiracy that GW was a Mountie informant. His evidence seems to be the volume of personal connections GW had with shady low-lifes. Buddy... have you been to Nova Scotia? That doesn't prove much.)
October 24, 2023
I listened to the audiobook version of 22 Murders and I didn’t enjoy it for many reasons…
1. The story is too long, it jumps all over the place and tells several stories at the same time and tries to connect it all but I didn’t enjoy the flow. This could have been a much shorter book IMO. You lost my interest so many times. I didn’t finish because it was too much, too repetitive and disorganized. A story like this needs to be clear and concise.
2. Although the author makes a lot of good points about how the RCMP mishandled the events of those days, it feels more of an obsession of his to find all their flaws and he fails to seek to understand and acknowledge reasons behind some of the decisions made.
3. I wish the audiobook was read but someone local to Nova Scotia to properly pronounce names, and certain words only locals may know.
4. I’m suppose to believe this story based on the authors journalistic research however near the end of the story he tries to say nuknuks from Costco cost over $50. False information, how can I believe anything he says? 😂
5. Circling back…it was TOO LONG.
1. The story is too long, it jumps all over the place and tells several stories at the same time and tries to connect it all but I didn’t enjoy the flow. This could have been a much shorter book IMO. You lost my interest so many times. I didn’t finish because it was too much, too repetitive and disorganized. A story like this needs to be clear and concise.
2. Although the author makes a lot of good points about how the RCMP mishandled the events of those days, it feels more of an obsession of his to find all their flaws and he fails to seek to understand and acknowledge reasons behind some of the decisions made.
3. I wish the audiobook was read but someone local to Nova Scotia to properly pronounce names, and certain words only locals may know.
4. I’m suppose to believe this story based on the authors journalistic research however near the end of the story he tries to say nuknuks from Costco cost over $50. False information, how can I believe anything he says? 😂
5. Circling back…it was TOO LONG.
August 10, 2022
This was a tough read. And a tough book to rate.
Though I believe there is merit in reading this book for the information about the 22 murdered victims and the murderer GW, Palango was too disorganized and biased to be rated any higher.
Granted Palango wrote this book prior to the current inquiry, so he didn’t have the story we know today.
I had many issues with this book:
- Palango was very clear from the beginning, of his dislike of the RCMP as a business. He had already written 3 books highlighting all the things he saw wrong with the force and he didn’t hold back in this book. This may have soured my opinion right from the beginning as my father was RCMP and I couldn’t mesh my father’s stories with what Palango wrote. It was very clear that Palango had an axe to grind.
- Palango was very upset about the disorganized timelines and lack of clear communication from the RCMP. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I don’t think I have ever read a book that was so disjointed, disorganized and unclear!
- Palango had no empathy for the victims. He was writing a sensational book and seemed to get such glee out of reporting any salacious detail. Many times I felt I was reading gossip girl rather than corroborated facts.
- 900 pages? Seriously?!?! This book needed soooooo much editing. There was a lot of repetitive content and my OCD went into overdrive with all the spelling and grammatical errors.
- My own personal opinion here……Palango brought up his cancer diagnosis, his wife’s medical issues and his desire NOT to get involved in journalistic coverage of this story. Me thinks he doth protest too much! Was he just so egotistical that he felt he was the only one who could do this story justice? Was he looking at his mortality and wanted his name in lights once more? Or was he so self absorbed that he wanted people to think he was a martyr for this story……no idea, but the whole thing really smelled fishy.
- Palango’s conspiracy theories were way over the top and had no proof, only questions.
- Did I mention how repetitive this book was?
Things I did like about this book:
- Palango doesn’t hold any punches. He didn’t care who he hurt in his search for the “truth”. He was definitely a dog with a bone.
- Palango highlighted some very concerning practices with the RCMP and Nova Scotia Emergency Response. Because of his articles, I believe Canada will have better and safer responses to horrific crimes like this.
I wouldn’t recommend this book and think there are much better information sources. But Palango definitely did a mountain of research for this book.
Though I believe there is merit in reading this book for the information about the 22 murdered victims and the murderer GW, Palango was too disorganized and biased to be rated any higher.
Granted Palango wrote this book prior to the current inquiry, so he didn’t have the story we know today.
I had many issues with this book:
- Palango was very clear from the beginning, of his dislike of the RCMP as a business. He had already written 3 books highlighting all the things he saw wrong with the force and he didn’t hold back in this book. This may have soured my opinion right from the beginning as my father was RCMP and I couldn’t mesh my father’s stories with what Palango wrote. It was very clear that Palango had an axe to grind.
- Palango was very upset about the disorganized timelines and lack of clear communication from the RCMP. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I don’t think I have ever read a book that was so disjointed, disorganized and unclear!
- Palango had no empathy for the victims. He was writing a sensational book and seemed to get such glee out of reporting any salacious detail. Many times I felt I was reading gossip girl rather than corroborated facts.
- 900 pages? Seriously?!?! This book needed soooooo much editing. There was a lot of repetitive content and my OCD went into overdrive with all the spelling and grammatical errors.
- My own personal opinion here……Palango brought up his cancer diagnosis, his wife’s medical issues and his desire NOT to get involved in journalistic coverage of this story. Me thinks he doth protest too much! Was he just so egotistical that he felt he was the only one who could do this story justice? Was he looking at his mortality and wanted his name in lights once more? Or was he so self absorbed that he wanted people to think he was a martyr for this story……no idea, but the whole thing really smelled fishy.
- Palango’s conspiracy theories were way over the top and had no proof, only questions.
- Did I mention how repetitive this book was?
Things I did like about this book:
- Palango doesn’t hold any punches. He didn’t care who he hurt in his search for the “truth”. He was definitely a dog with a bone.
- Palango highlighted some very concerning practices with the RCMP and Nova Scotia Emergency Response. Because of his articles, I believe Canada will have better and safer responses to horrific crimes like this.
I wouldn’t recommend this book and think there are much better information sources. But Palango definitely did a mountain of research for this book.
December 20, 2025
I'm giving this a three for a few reasons. I would give the first half of this book a 4.5. It was very well researched, laid out many important facts (and some unnecessary ones), and went through the massacre in a deliberate and informative chronology.
I would give the second half of this book a 1.5 - 2. The second half fell off hard. What started as a promising and interesting investigative journalism book turned into a jumble of unnecessary facts and opinions that lost all resemblance of a coherent story.
If you are interested in learning about the massacre in Nova Scotia, the first half of this book will provide great information that will make your blood boil at times (due to the incompetence of the RCMP) and deeply upset at others. I cannot recommend the second half however.
I would give the second half of this book a 1.5 - 2. The second half fell off hard. What started as a promising and interesting investigative journalism book turned into a jumble of unnecessary facts and opinions that lost all resemblance of a coherent story.
If you are interested in learning about the massacre in Nova Scotia, the first half of this book will provide great information that will make your blood boil at times (due to the incompetence of the RCMP) and deeply upset at others. I cannot recommend the second half however.
May 14, 2022
Page 115. Second complete paragraph on this page. How does someone born in 1950 serve in the Second World war?
July 26, 2025
A critical eye of the RCMP and all their mess ups (and there’s a lot!), blatant lies and it’s very eye opening. It’s a well written piece that covers each detail of the horrific events that took place in April 2020 leading to the deaths of 22 people in Nova Scotia.
Palango does an excellent job for the first half bringing the lives of the victims to the forefront when we often see murderers in true crime getting sensationalized (Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka to name a few). We learn about the victims lives, their interests and who they were as people from those who knew them best. There is also insight into the recordings of the 911 tapes that are terrifying and hard to listen to (audiobook) or read.
A catastrophe that the RCMP bungled up so badly, Palango writes through a critical lens and reveals where they went wrong so many times during this terrible crisis. “They did whatever they could to make the “bad stuff” go away. They’re creating a new script.” says an informant to Palango.
Palango then does dive into Wortman’s past and people came forward who had had encounters with him in the past. Palango really goes into depth through the timeline leading up to the murders. He also dives DEEP into Wortman’s criminal history.
Is the book biased and solely based on Palango’s negative, distrustful outlook towards the RCMP? Probably. But he has plenty of examples to back it up.
I love listening to true-crime podcasts and this was just like that, only better. Noam Chomsky is quoted “the general population doesn’t know what’s happening and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know.”
At the end of the book, Palango poses some questions, the most disturbing being:
“Why was evacuating [a] convicted drug trafficker more important than rescuing four children?”
Palango does an excellent job for the first half bringing the lives of the victims to the forefront when we often see murderers in true crime getting sensationalized (Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka to name a few). We learn about the victims lives, their interests and who they were as people from those who knew them best. There is also insight into the recordings of the 911 tapes that are terrifying and hard to listen to (audiobook) or read.
A catastrophe that the RCMP bungled up so badly, Palango writes through a critical lens and reveals where they went wrong so many times during this terrible crisis. “They did whatever they could to make the “bad stuff” go away. They’re creating a new script.” says an informant to Palango.
Palango then does dive into Wortman’s past and people came forward who had had encounters with him in the past. Palango really goes into depth through the timeline leading up to the murders. He also dives DEEP into Wortman’s criminal history.
Is the book biased and solely based on Palango’s negative, distrustful outlook towards the RCMP? Probably. But he has plenty of examples to back it up.
I love listening to true-crime podcasts and this was just like that, only better. Noam Chomsky is quoted “the general population doesn’t know what’s happening and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know.”
At the end of the book, Palango poses some questions, the most disturbing being:
“Why was evacuating [a] convicted drug trafficker more important than rescuing four children?”
November 21, 2023
The fact that I not only live in Canada but in the province right next to where this horrific killing spree happened and had never heard of it until seeing this book in the bookstore 3 years after the fact just speaks volumes. And shows exactly why Paul Palango had to write this book because the world needs to know about this horrific incident and the incompetence of the police force surrounding it. With every page I read I became more and more horrified, so many deaths could so easily have been stopped. The RCMP had so many chances and they failed countless times, it almost seems like a practical joke. Highly recommend this book, even though some parts were a tad long and could have been cut down a bit to make it less of a brick.
November 5, 2025
An interesting read, but also a long read. Will be sure to read the follow up book though! Crazy what goes on in our own country.
June 30, 2024
This book, written by retired journalist Paul Polango and published in 2022, reports his findings as he sought to understand what happened during the mass shooting that took place in 2020, in and around the small rural community of Portapique in Nova Scotia. In a brutal killing spree that occurred on April 18th and 19th and lasting thirteen hours, Gabriel Wortman murdered a total of twenty-two people in cold blood, making that violent event the worst killing spree in Canadian history. It started on Saturday evening on the 18th, when sometime between 9 pm and midnight, Wortman shot thirteen people and set several buildings on fire. The RCMP and police called to the area, believed he then ended his life and posed no further threat, but the next morning on Sunday the 19th, he was still on his killing spree and gunned down nine more victims.
As the events unfolded, information about what was happening was hard to come by and when the rampage ended, there was conflicting information about what had happened and how the RCMP responded both during and after the event. Many of those questions have never been answered and the families of the victims are still waiting for answers.
In his first-person narrative, Polango presents everything he has been able to learn about what happened before, during and after the crimes were committed. Using the skills of a veteran journalist, he follows every lead he can, some he searches out, others come to him, some anonymously. They include “deep throat” informants who are current or retired members of both the police and the RCMP, others are citizen witnesses who saw and heard things which run contrary to the accounts of the RCMP, but may have been ignored. Polango details the processes he used to collect the information, how he validated it and theorizes about what it means in the overall picture of the crimes. He raises important questions about why the RCMP did not communicate with local residents, why they never sent out a provincial mobile phone alert, did not set up road blocks, go house to house to check on residents and why it took police more than three hours to rescue children hunkered down in a basement while the killer was still on the loose.
He questions how Wortman was able to evade the police for so long. They never knew where he was, but he seemed to know where they were. Did he have a police scanner or radio in his vehicle as he drove around in his replica RCMP vehicle dressed as an RCMP officer, and if so, how did he get it? He questions whether Wortman was connected to the biker network in the adjoining province of New Brunswick and if he was a confidential informant. He also wonders why police claimed in the aftermath of the killings, they had no prior knowledge of Wortman, when in fact he had a long history of criminal activity. He questions why, when Wortman was later viewed on surveillance footage, he was calm and measured, never in a panic, despite being in the middle of a brutal rampage and hunted down by police. He also wants to know why the RCMP claimed for over three and a half hours, that they had Wortman in custody, when in fact he lay dead at a gas station. He raises questions about the role of Lisa Banville, Wortman’s live-in partner for over twenty years, who has been declared a victim of spousal abuse and responds to questions only through her lawyer. He criticizes the press briefings when they finally came, describing those participating as unprofessional, uncertain and inept. No one from the RCMP communicated a clear understanding of the evidence they had and took longer than usual to identify the number and names of the victims for the public. Their official version of events, presented as facts, changed at subsequent briefings, especially when it contradicted what was on the 911 tapes and surveillance videos. From the beginning they insisted Wortman was a lone gunman, but never produced the evidence that led to that conclusion.
In the midst of all the diversions and contradictions, Polango questions why such an historic and violent event was not followed by a public inquiry, requiring the testimony of witnesses and sworn statements. The victim’s families and the public were calling for an open and fully transparent process, but were ignored. Polango strongly suggests the reason is, something else was going on. The RCMP were covering up what really happened for some important but unknown reason.
This book provides a very detailed account of what Polango found in his dogged search for the truth as he tried to construct an accurate timeline of events that fit all the facts. His first-person narrative takes readers on his personal journey as he hunts down information, obtains interviews, continues to build a verifiable narrative of the events and tells the story as he understands it
Polango has done important work, but the fact he has been openly critical of the RCMP for many years has colored the reception of his work; some applaud it, others dismiss it. He also presents a very dense narrative, important he believes to provide readers with the full story, substantiate the information he received and explain why he accepted some, but not all of it. He also includes several of the newspaper and magazine articles he wrote shortly after the massacre which adds even more length to the narrative. It is easy for the common reader to become awash in the details of everything that went wrong, the mistakes that were made and the communication that relayed wrong or misleading information. It makes their reading experience cumbersome, difficult for some to stand back and get an overall view of the event and the legitimate questions Polango poses.
This is an important book. Polango is a stubborn and dogged investigative reporter and if readers can manage their way through this long account, they will learn more about what happened than what was provided by other media. He has also put a face on the victims, providing readers with a backstory to their lives and theorizing about why Wortmann chose them as his victims. Most importantly he raises many questions that have yet to be answered.
The book was published before the Mass Casualty Commission proceedings began, but Polango had already reported many details never reported by the RCMP, the police or other media. We do not know and may never know why these people were killed, whether there was a hit list and what determined who was on it. We only know part of the story. It is still not clear what the RCMP did or did not do, before, during and after the rampage that killed twenty-two innocent people. What remains are many questions and no answers.
It is an exhaustive piece of investigative reporting, a long report, but well done.
As the events unfolded, information about what was happening was hard to come by and when the rampage ended, there was conflicting information about what had happened and how the RCMP responded both during and after the event. Many of those questions have never been answered and the families of the victims are still waiting for answers.
In his first-person narrative, Polango presents everything he has been able to learn about what happened before, during and after the crimes were committed. Using the skills of a veteran journalist, he follows every lead he can, some he searches out, others come to him, some anonymously. They include “deep throat” informants who are current or retired members of both the police and the RCMP, others are citizen witnesses who saw and heard things which run contrary to the accounts of the RCMP, but may have been ignored. Polango details the processes he used to collect the information, how he validated it and theorizes about what it means in the overall picture of the crimes. He raises important questions about why the RCMP did not communicate with local residents, why they never sent out a provincial mobile phone alert, did not set up road blocks, go house to house to check on residents and why it took police more than three hours to rescue children hunkered down in a basement while the killer was still on the loose.
He questions how Wortman was able to evade the police for so long. They never knew where he was, but he seemed to know where they were. Did he have a police scanner or radio in his vehicle as he drove around in his replica RCMP vehicle dressed as an RCMP officer, and if so, how did he get it? He questions whether Wortman was connected to the biker network in the adjoining province of New Brunswick and if he was a confidential informant. He also wonders why police claimed in the aftermath of the killings, they had no prior knowledge of Wortman, when in fact he had a long history of criminal activity. He questions why, when Wortman was later viewed on surveillance footage, he was calm and measured, never in a panic, despite being in the middle of a brutal rampage and hunted down by police. He also wants to know why the RCMP claimed for over three and a half hours, that they had Wortman in custody, when in fact he lay dead at a gas station. He raises questions about the role of Lisa Banville, Wortman’s live-in partner for over twenty years, who has been declared a victim of spousal abuse and responds to questions only through her lawyer. He criticizes the press briefings when they finally came, describing those participating as unprofessional, uncertain and inept. No one from the RCMP communicated a clear understanding of the evidence they had and took longer than usual to identify the number and names of the victims for the public. Their official version of events, presented as facts, changed at subsequent briefings, especially when it contradicted what was on the 911 tapes and surveillance videos. From the beginning they insisted Wortman was a lone gunman, but never produced the evidence that led to that conclusion.
In the midst of all the diversions and contradictions, Polango questions why such an historic and violent event was not followed by a public inquiry, requiring the testimony of witnesses and sworn statements. The victim’s families and the public were calling for an open and fully transparent process, but were ignored. Polango strongly suggests the reason is, something else was going on. The RCMP were covering up what really happened for some important but unknown reason.
This book provides a very detailed account of what Polango found in his dogged search for the truth as he tried to construct an accurate timeline of events that fit all the facts. His first-person narrative takes readers on his personal journey as he hunts down information, obtains interviews, continues to build a verifiable narrative of the events and tells the story as he understands it
Polango has done important work, but the fact he has been openly critical of the RCMP for many years has colored the reception of his work; some applaud it, others dismiss it. He also presents a very dense narrative, important he believes to provide readers with the full story, substantiate the information he received and explain why he accepted some, but not all of it. He also includes several of the newspaper and magazine articles he wrote shortly after the massacre which adds even more length to the narrative. It is easy for the common reader to become awash in the details of everything that went wrong, the mistakes that were made and the communication that relayed wrong or misleading information. It makes their reading experience cumbersome, difficult for some to stand back and get an overall view of the event and the legitimate questions Polango poses.
This is an important book. Polango is a stubborn and dogged investigative reporter and if readers can manage their way through this long account, they will learn more about what happened than what was provided by other media. He has also put a face on the victims, providing readers with a backstory to their lives and theorizing about why Wortmann chose them as his victims. Most importantly he raises many questions that have yet to be answered.
The book was published before the Mass Casualty Commission proceedings began, but Polango had already reported many details never reported by the RCMP, the police or other media. We do not know and may never know why these people were killed, whether there was a hit list and what determined who was on it. We only know part of the story. It is still not clear what the RCMP did or did not do, before, during and after the rampage that killed twenty-two innocent people. What remains are many questions and no answers.
It is an exhaustive piece of investigative reporting, a long report, but well done.
March 12, 2023
This is the worst book that I've read all the way through in at least the last three years. Normally, I wouldn't continue reading a book so bad, but I kept holding out hope that Palango would draw meaningful conclusions rather than provide superficial conjecture. Alas, it was not to be.
The mass murder event in Nova Scotia is criminally underreported in Canada. The policing failures that exacerbated the rampage deserve an in-depth examination. This ain't it.
The mass murder event in Nova Scotia is criminally underreported in Canada. The policing failures that exacerbated the rampage deserve an in-depth examination. This ain't it.
May 1, 2022
Very interesting read. Could things have been different, absolutely. I remember as this was going down in Nova Scotia I had to question how could it take so long to capture the guy, or at least get him penned in somewhere. The 2nd day should never have happened? Could it have been stopped? Only those involved know.
May 4, 2022
Didn't finish this book. From what I read, he used this very tragic event in Nova Scotia's history to bash the RCMP. He should be ashamed to profit from these families.
August 5, 2022
Audiobook:
It was more like a podcast type book- I was shocked to hear how everything was handled by the rcmp .
It was more like a podcast type book- I was shocked to hear how everything was handled by the rcmp .
July 16, 2025
5⭐️
Okay. Okay. I’ll admit, I approached 22 Murders with some hesitation. Paul Palango has long been known for his criticism of the RCMP, and I wondered whether this book would be more agenda-driven than fact-based. But any skepticism I had quickly faded. What Palango delivers here isn’t opinion, it’s a rigorously researched, meticulously laid out account of the horrifying events of April 18–19, 2020, and the staggering failures that enabled them. By the time I finished, there was no doubt in my mind: the RCMP did not do their job, and their failure cost lives.
This book is not just compelling, it’s absolutely gripping. the author has a journalist’s eye for detail and a storyteller’s sense of pacing. He weaves together timelines, radio transcripts, testimony, and survivor accounts to paint a devastating picture of a police force that was unprepared, disorganized, and, perhaps most disturbingly, unwilling to accept responsibility. From missed warnings and delayed responses to miscommunication and misinformation in the aftermath, the RCMP’s actions (or inactions) are laid bare.
What makes 22 Murders especially powerful is that it goes beyond just recounting the events. It asks hard questions about who we trust to protect us, and what happens when those institutions stop being worthy of that trust. It doesn’t feel like an attack on law enforcement; it feels like a call for justice, for transparency, and for meaningful change. The Mass Casualty Commission was clearly necessary, but even that feels like just the beginning. A complete reimagining of the RCMP is long overdue, and this book makes that painfully clear.
For me, this story also carried a deep personal weight. I knew Lillian Hyslop. You never think you'll see the name of someone you know in the headlines… especially not in this kind of tragedy. It hit me hard. My heart aches for her husband and son, and for every family affected. This wasn’t just a news story. It was real. It was preventable. And it deserves more attention than it got.
22 Murders is a book every Canadian should read, not just to honor the victims, but to understand how a tragedy of this scale could happen in our country. It forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, but that’s exactly what makes it so important. We owe it to those who were lost to demand better from our institutions, from our leaders, and from the systems meant to keep us safe.
Okay. Okay. I’ll admit, I approached 22 Murders with some hesitation. Paul Palango has long been known for his criticism of the RCMP, and I wondered whether this book would be more agenda-driven than fact-based. But any skepticism I had quickly faded. What Palango delivers here isn’t opinion, it’s a rigorously researched, meticulously laid out account of the horrifying events of April 18–19, 2020, and the staggering failures that enabled them. By the time I finished, there was no doubt in my mind: the RCMP did not do their job, and their failure cost lives.
This book is not just compelling, it’s absolutely gripping. the author has a journalist’s eye for detail and a storyteller’s sense of pacing. He weaves together timelines, radio transcripts, testimony, and survivor accounts to paint a devastating picture of a police force that was unprepared, disorganized, and, perhaps most disturbingly, unwilling to accept responsibility. From missed warnings and delayed responses to miscommunication and misinformation in the aftermath, the RCMP’s actions (or inactions) are laid bare.
What makes 22 Murders especially powerful is that it goes beyond just recounting the events. It asks hard questions about who we trust to protect us, and what happens when those institutions stop being worthy of that trust. It doesn’t feel like an attack on law enforcement; it feels like a call for justice, for transparency, and for meaningful change. The Mass Casualty Commission was clearly necessary, but even that feels like just the beginning. A complete reimagining of the RCMP is long overdue, and this book makes that painfully clear.
For me, this story also carried a deep personal weight. I knew Lillian Hyslop. You never think you'll see the name of someone you know in the headlines… especially not in this kind of tragedy. It hit me hard. My heart aches for her husband and son, and for every family affected. This wasn’t just a news story. It was real. It was preventable. And it deserves more attention than it got.
22 Murders is a book every Canadian should read, not just to honor the victims, but to understand how a tragedy of this scale could happen in our country. It forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, but that’s exactly what makes it so important. We owe it to those who were lost to demand better from our institutions, from our leaders, and from the systems meant to keep us safe.
January 14, 2024
1.5⭐️
i have a lot of problems with this book. First, let me say that I do agree with the central premise of this book - it's clear that the RCMP were flawed in their response, and that there exist systemic problems with policing in Canada. However, I have major problems with Palango's writing, which mostly fall into two categories.
1) this book is far, far too long. The first third is a fairly compelling and concise discussion of Palango's main arguments, but the rest of the book feels like it's going in circles. Towards the end, it gets even more egregious, with Palango just directly inserting the text from other articles that he has written (for example, he reminds you who all the individuals are, after you've been reading about them for 400+ pages)
2) perhaps what sits with me the worst is how adamant Palango is that the shooter's partner was not a victim of domestic violence. It reads as if Palango believes that two things (the botched police response and the shootings being an escalation of a domestic violence situation) are mutually-exclusive, and he devotes pages upon pages to discrediting the testimony of the shooter's partner
overall, I think it's important that more people are aware of what the police did wrong in this case, however I don't think this is the best book for that
i have a lot of problems with this book. First, let me say that I do agree with the central premise of this book - it's clear that the RCMP were flawed in their response, and that there exist systemic problems with policing in Canada. However, I have major problems with Palango's writing, which mostly fall into two categories.
1) this book is far, far too long. The first third is a fairly compelling and concise discussion of Palango's main arguments, but the rest of the book feels like it's going in circles. Towards the end, it gets even more egregious, with Palango just directly inserting the text from other articles that he has written (for example, he reminds you who all the individuals are, after you've been reading about them for 400+ pages)
2) perhaps what sits with me the worst is how adamant Palango is that the shooter's partner was not a victim of domestic violence. It reads as if Palango believes that two things (the botched police response and the shootings being an escalation of a domestic violence situation) are mutually-exclusive, and he devotes pages upon pages to discrediting the testimony of the shooter's partner
overall, I think it's important that more people are aware of what the police did wrong in this case, however I don't think this is the best book for that
Read
June 6, 2024This book dove very deep into the 22 murders in Nova Scotia in 2020. It discussed many inconsistencies in the reporting during the incident, the lack of transparencies after the event and still to this day. It gave a lot of information about the victims, and their connections to the man responsible for this horrible two day nightmare. I can imagine that this book was quite difficult for some of the victims families to process, although there was also some support for the author from different family members. There was a lot of repetition through out - as I think some of it was a collection of published articles by the author through out the years after the incident.
I tried to approach this book with an open mind, taking into account the authors previous published work, it was clear he did have some bias to start with. But truly, it’s hard to chalk all of these errors up to bias. I can only imagine how the victims families must feel with all the unanswered questions , and what appears to be a cover up in many ways. It left me with so many questions, and so bewildered. What did I just read? How could this happen? How could there be no accountability?
Overall, this was a very hard read, eye opening and really hard to process. Once you read it you won’t be able to undo it. So tread carefully.
May 8, 2022
I'll probably have more to say on this after I've had some time to sit with it for a bit. There's certainly a lot to unpack.
To be brief: I cruised through the first half of this book. The first half was quite interesting, as we really got to read about the events that unfolded with details that probably the average Canadian didn't know from just watching the news. The second half is where it bogged down a bit, where the author begins to dive into the investigative portion of the book more. It's quite clear that the author, Paul Palango, has been a vocal critic of the RCMP, so large portions of the book will feel a bit preachy if you aren't prepared to read the book through that lens. That's my word of caution going in if you're expecting a rosy tale of RCMP heroics: you won't find that here.
Overall, don't regret it. Learned a lot - and I'd agree that perhaps more attention should be focused on the handling of the massacre. It seems objectively obvious that something went terribly wrong. But, I don't want to get overly political on here.
Onward!
To be brief: I cruised through the first half of this book. The first half was quite interesting, as we really got to read about the events that unfolded with details that probably the average Canadian didn't know from just watching the news. The second half is where it bogged down a bit, where the author begins to dive into the investigative portion of the book more. It's quite clear that the author, Paul Palango, has been a vocal critic of the RCMP, so large portions of the book will feel a bit preachy if you aren't prepared to read the book through that lens. That's my word of caution going in if you're expecting a rosy tale of RCMP heroics: you won't find that here.
Overall, don't regret it. Learned a lot - and I'd agree that perhaps more attention should be focused on the handling of the massacre. It seems objectively obvious that something went terribly wrong. But, I don't want to get overly political on here.
Onward!
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