Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Episode 417: In the early hours of November 23, 2013, 18-year-old Lukas Strasser-Hird was violently beaten behind the Vinyl nightclub in Calgary, in an alley off 10th Avenue Southwest. He was rushed to the hospital, but the injuries were too severe, and he died later that morning from multiple stab wounds and massive blood loss. Walk with us through the events that led from a night out at the club to one of Calgary’s most closely watched murder cases, and examine how the chaos in that alley would ripple through the city, the courtroom, and the lives left behind. Sources: Lukas Strasser-Hird | Global News, Videos & ArticlesR.I.P Austin Lukas Strasser-Hird | FacebookR v Cabrera, 2019 ABCA 184 (CanLII)R v Cabrera, 2021 ABCA 291 (CanLII)R v Gervais, 2019 ABQB 344 (CanLII)R. v. Shlah, 2019 SCC 56 (CanLII), [2019] 4 SCR 136FM010_Appellant_Franz-Emir-Cabrera SCC File No.: 38677Lukas Strasser-Hird - Obituary | Calgary HeraldThe final homecoming of Lukas Strasser-Hird - National | Global News1st-degree murder conviction upheld for Calgary man in swarming death - CalgaryNathan Gervais sentenced to life with no parole for 25 years in Lukas Strasser-Hird swarming death - Calgary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 405: On the 17th of May 1984, 48‑year‑old Beverley Anne Dyke was found brutally murdered in a wooded area near Moray Street and Saskatchewan Avenue on the edge of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her killing, a frenzied sexual assault and stabbing, left her family and the wider community fearing a predator was on the loose. For years, detectives chased dead ends and even a dramatic prison confession, but the real killer remained a mystery. It would take more than two decades, and a cold‑case DNA match, to finally reveal who murdered Beverley and why. Sources: May 25, 1970, page 1 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com™Mar 25, 1971, page 3 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com™Mar 25, 1971, page 10 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com™Aug 19, 1974, page 8 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com™Aug 19, 1974, page 11 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com™May 13, 1975, page 11 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com™Dec 30, 1984, page 10 - The Winnipeg Sun at Newspapers.com™Dec 27, 1988, page 19 - Waterloo Region Record at Newspapers.com™Dec 27, 1988, page 7 - Edmonton Journal at Newspapers.com™May 07, 2001, page 5 - The Winnipeg Sun at Newspapers.com™Feb 28, 2005, page 5 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.com™Nov 19, 2005, page 4 - The Winnipeg Sun at Newspapers.com™Nov 30, 2005, page 9 - The Winnipeg Sun at Newspapers.com™Sep 14, 2007, page 5 - Edmonton Journal at Newspapers.com™Feb 26, 2010, page 2 - Fort McMurray Today at Newspapers.com™Mar 06, 2010, page 6 - Edmonton Journal at Newspapers.com™Mar 07, 2010, page 8 - Times Colonist at Newspapers.com™Nov 30, 2011, page 2 - Fort McMurray Today at Newspapers.com™"Evidence of Evil" The Murder of Beverley Ann Dyke (TV Episode 2019) - Reference view - IMDb"It was a vicious assault" | The Murder of Beverley Ann Dyke | Trace of EvilR. v. Kociuk, 2009 MBQB 154 (CanLII)R. v. Kociuk, 2009 MBQB 162 (CanLII)R. v. Kociuk (R.J.), 2011 MBCA 85 (CanLII)R. v. Kociuk, 2012 SCC 15 (CanLII), [2012] 1 SCR 529FM010_Appellant_Robert-Joseph-Kociuk | PDFSupreme Court of Canada | 34517Robert Joseph Kociuk v. Her Majesty the Queen (April 12, 2012) Case # 34517DNA Test Results In Charges | CastanetWinnipeg Homicide | Beverly Ann DykeJury finds Robert Kociuk guilty of first-degree murder in 1984 killing | Crime and Justice CanadaMar 2010: Murder verdict returned quickly | Winnipeg Free Press Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 403: Nicholas Melady Jr. was 24 years old when he stepped onto a wooden scaffold above the stone walls of Goderich Gaol in December of 1869, about to become the central figure in Canada’s last public hanging after the brutal murders of his father, Nicholas Melady Sr. and stepmother, Ellen, in a quiet Huron County farmhouse. In this episode, we return to a world of bush farms, rough taverns, and bitter family feuds over land and inheritance, tracing a path from a whispered meeting on a bridge and talk of “just a robbery” to a blood‑soaked kitchen floor, sloppy police work, and a coroner making two young men stand barefoot in dried pools of blood. Sources: Double Trap by John MeladySeaforth Doors Open | shopseaforth.caAudio-Tour-of-North-Street | goderich.caHuron Historic Gaol‘Morbid curiosity’: When executions were public spectacles in Ontario | TVO TodayMar 27, 1869, page 1 - The Globe and Mail at Newspapers.com™Apr 02, 1869, page 3 - Ottawa Daily Citizen at Newspapers.com™Dec 08, 1869, page 4 - The Critic and Record at Newspapers.com™Dec 09, 1869, page 4 - Buffalo Courier Express at Newspapers.com™Dec 17, 1869, page 1 - Brampton Times at Newspapers.com™Dec 07, 1869, page 3 - Boston Evening Transcript at Newspapers.com™Carling R. Marshall ~ Public History Blog: Semi-public? - The Hoag Hanging, Walkerton - 1868Carling R. Marshall - Capital punishment: Huron County opinion in 1869Nicholas Melady | Wikipedia1869: Nicholas Melady, the last public hanging in Canada | Executed TodayResearching Canada’s ‘Last Public Hanging | Huron County MuseumThe Final Days of Nicholas Melady Jr. as Witnessed by William Dickson - Champlain Society Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 401: At the start of the twentieth century, Vancouver, B.C., was a fast-growing Pacific port. Most residents were white settlers of British or European descent, but Chinese and Japanese communities were already well established and growing. They lived, worked, and built businesses in neighbourhoods like Chinatown and Powell Street, playing a central role in the city’s economy while being denied political rights and social acceptance. By 1907, economic anxiety and racial resentment had hardened into open hostility. Asian workers were blamed for falling wages and job insecurity, a message repeated by newspapers, politicians, and organized exclusionary groups. The riots that followed on September 7 were not sudden outbursts, but the result of years of public rhetoric that treated entire communities as threats. This episode examines how those ideas gave rise to violence on Vancouver’s streets. Sources:The 1907 Racist Riots – Union Zindabad!The Asiatic Exclusion League Riot, 1907 — Published by BC Labour Heritage CentreThe Vancouver Anti-Asian RiotsCauses of the 1907 anti-Asian riots :The Lessons of the Anti-Asiatic Riot"Images" and "Issues" : the portrayal of Asians in the Vancouver Daily Province and the Vancouver Daily World, 1907 to 1908Anti-Asian Riots of 1907 - British Columbia - An Untold HistoryMayor Ken SimDavid LamChinese Immigration ActChinese Head Tax in Canada1907 Vancouver anti-Asian riotsAsian Labour History in British ColumbiaA White Man's Province by Patricia Roy | Internet ArchiveW.L. Mackenzie King’s 1907 Report on Japanese Losses in Vancouver RiotsW.L. Mackenzie King’s 1907 Report on Chinese Losses in Vancouver RiotsThe History of Canada Series: Trouble on Main Street: Mackenzie King Reason Race And The 1907 Vancouver Riots Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 399: As the clock strikes midnight, not everyone welcomes the New Year with champagne and resolutions. In this episode of Dark Poutine, we explore the darker, stranger, and sometimes dangerous traditions used around the world—and across Canada—to chase away bad luck and invite prosperity. From gunfire and forgotten parades in Newfoundland, to Hogmanay superstitions, poverty-banishing rituals, icy polar bear swims, and fire-lit celebrations meant to ward off evil, these customs reveal what people have been willing to risk for a clean slate. We also venture beyond Canada, examining ancient sacrifices, ritual fights, smashed plates, burning effigies, and other unsettling ways humanity has tried to reset the calendar. It’s a look at New Year’s Eve not as a party—but as a threshold, where superstition, fear, and hope collide. Episode Sources:Guns, parades and superstitions: A host of forgotten New Year's traditions in N.L. | CBC NewsOut with the old, in with the new — East Coasters share their unusual past and present New Year’s Eve traditionsNewfoundland and Labrador CustomsNew Year's Day in Canada: Traditions, History and InsightsNew Year's leveeTop safety tips for New Year’s Eve revellers35 Crazy New Year’s Eve Celebrations Throughout HistoryBizarre New Year’s Eve Traditions From Around the World | Ripley's Believe It or Not! | Aquariums, Attractions, MuseumsDecision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 6.COM 13.26New Years in Ecuador: Yellow Panties and EffigiesThe Traditional Fighting Festivals of PeruDivers had Set the Christmas Tree Underwater of the Baikal Lake6 traditions from around the world for marking a Jan. 1 new year | CBC Life Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 397: In April 1895, two young women, both twenty-one, from San Francisco’s Emmanuel Baptist Church vanished days apart. Blanche Lamont, a dedicated teacher-in-training, and Minnie Williams, a hardworking domestic with dreams of her own classroom, both entered the same church and never left. Their bodies were later discovered inside the building, setting off one of the most sensational murder trials in California history. This episode explores the lives of Blanche and Minnie, the discovery of their deaths, the investigation that followed, and the arrest and trial of Canadian-born medical student William Henry Theodore Durrant, accused of killing them. Sources:Clara at the Door with a Revolver — Carolyn Whitzman (UBC Press, 2023)Toronto Public Library – Digitized Toronto newspapersNewspapers.com – Historical Toronto press coverageCity of Toronto ArchivesArchives of Ontario – Mercer Reformatory & judicial recordsRace on Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts, 1858–1958 — Barrington WalkerAfua Cooper – Black Canadian history resources1897 film of convicted killer Durrant shapes prison policy -Theodore DurrantSympathy for the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San FranciscoBy Virginia A. McConnellTheo Durrant — The Origin of Monsters — Crime Library on truTV.comTrue Detective Mysteries, February 1929: Internet ArchiveThe tale of the 'Demon of the Belfry,' San Francisco's forgotten Jack the Ripper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 395: On a cold December day in 1983, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, was shaken by a deeply unsettling crime. Dr. Edith Wightman, a respected scholar, was discovered dead in her office: bound with tape, handcuffed, and suffocated with a cloth. The investigation took an even stranger turn when police arrested Michael Allen Crowley, a chemist from Welland, who had been seen on campus in disguise, dressed in women’s clothing and a wig. With no personal connection to the victim, and the bizarre methods used, the murder left students and faculty reeling, and raised questions still unanswered to this day. Sources:A Brief History Of McMaster UniversityHistory of McMasterWIGHTMAN, Edith Mary | RutgersDec 19, 1983, page 1 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.comDec 24, 1983, page 16 - The Hamilton Spectator at Newspapers.comEdith Wightman - Search - Newspapers.com™Michael Alan Crowley - Search - Newspapers.com™"72 Hours: True Crime" Murder on Campus (TV Episode 2005)Canadian News Briefs - UPI ArchivesEdith Wightman | Wikipedia1984_3Winterhttps://www.reddit.com/r/McMaster/comments/jl1ew5/trying_to_find_details_of_on_campus_death/Review: [Untitled] on JSTORWightman: Gallia Belgica (Book Review)Detectives say Robert Garrow now 'best suspect' in 1973 Komorowski murder | CBC NewsAdele Komorowski Homicide Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 393: On a cold February day in 2022, tragedy struck the small communities of Creston and Kimberley, British Columbia. Julia Howe, a familiar face to her neighbours, was found lifeless in the bathroom of her partner's home. Just hours later and nearly a hundred kilometres away, David Creamer, a father and trusted friend, was discovered dead in his own house. Both initially believed accidental or natural, no one suspected that these two deaths would soon be linked. The true story was finally revealed, albeit in a peculiar manner. The connection between the deaths was finally revealed when Mitchell Earl McIntyre, a man known to both victims, confessed to hospital staff that he was responsible for both deaths. The problem was that, at first, no one believed him. It was the killer’s insistence and admissions of guilt that finally cracked the case. Sources: 2024 BCSC 774 (CanLII) | R. v McIntyre | CanLII2024 BCSC 2026 (CanLII) | R. v McIntyre | CanLIIObituary information for Julia Ann HoweOnline Tribute for David Creamer'You need to detain me' | Kamloops NewsB.C. man who confessed to 2 killings not arrested until a month laterMcInytre murder trial underway | My East Kootenay NowBC man allegedly confessed to two killings originally ruled as accidentsB.C. man charged with woman’s death reportedly also admitted killing someone elseBC homicide suspect confessed to 2 killings weeks before arrest, court documents showSecond-degree murder trial moved | Kamloops NewsAccidental Deaths That Were Really Homicides | Tyee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices