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Comparing Casualties: Canada's Homicide Count

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Comparing Casualties: Canada's Homicide Count

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Last updated on November 22nd, 2017, below is a link to a table posted by Statistics Canada. This table shows the number and rate of murder, manslaughter and infanticide offences in Canada's provinces and territories from 2012-2016.

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Homicide offences, number and rate, by province and territory (Number of homicides)

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Summary Table. Find data on the number and rate of homicide offences by province and territory by year. Homicide offences include murder, manslaughter and infanticide. Number of homicides.

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Serial killers are individuals who are known have committed at least three first-degree murders, where all of which have common characteristics to support the crimes being done by one person. Below is a link to an article posted on History.com regarding 8 very well-known murderers, which includes a video.

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From the widow who became known as "Lady Bluebeard" and the man who inspired Psycho to the British doctor who killed in the hundreds and the handsome slaughterer whose charm proved lethal, get the facts on some of history's most infamous serial killers.

Harold Shipman: "Dr. Death" who killed 218 patients

One of history's deadliest serial killers was a married family man who managed to squeeze in 218 credited murders (and as many as 250) while working as a popular British physician. Harold Shipman began his murderous spree in 1972, and it's believed he killed at least 71 patients while working at his first practice, and double that number at a second practice he joined after butting heads with colleagues who found him arrogant, brusque and overconfident.

Finally, in 1998, both a local undertaker and another doctor noticed the unusually high number of cremation certificates Shipman had signed off on. They also noticed striking similarities in the recently-deceased patients themselves; the majority were elderly women who were found sitting up and fully clothed, not in bed as would usually be the case with the gravely ill. Despite these clues, this initial investigation was shoddily handled, allowing Shipman to kill three more times.

Shipman's luck ran out later that year, when the daughter of his final victim, lawyer Kathleen Grundy, claimed he'd not only killed her mother, but had also tried to create a new, fake will, naming him as her sole beneficiary. Unlike his earlier victims, Grundy had not been cremated, and an autopsy revealed lethally high levels of diamorphine (the drug Shipman used for most of the killings). He was formally charged with 15 murders, and was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in 2000. Shipman died in 2004, after committing suicide in his cell. He never admitted to any of the killings.

Belle Gunness: She married to kill

The woman who became known as the "Lady Bluebeard" immigrated to America from Norway in 1881, settling in Chicago where she married a fellow Norwegian immigrant. The couple had four children (two of whom died young) and ran a candy store. By 1900 the store had mysteriously burned down, and Genness' husband was dead. Although both happened under suspicious circumstances, Genness was able to collect multiple insurance policy payouts allowing her to purchase a farm in La Porte, Indiana.

She quickly remarried, and just eight months later her second husband died. Gunness claimed that he'd received a fatal burn from scalding water and had been hit on the head by a heavy meat grinder. While an inquest was held, no proof of foul play could be produced, leading to another hefty insurance payout. She then began placing newspaper advertisements in search of a third husband, with the requirement that potential suitors had visit to her Indiana farm. Several prospective suitors made the trek, only to disappear forever-just one made it out alive, after reportedly waking up to see a sinister-looking Gunness standing over him.

Nobody knows for certain just how many people Belle Gunness murdered, but it seems she herself met a grisly end. In February 1908, a fire devastated the farm. Amongst the wreckage were the bodies of Gunness' remaining children and the decapitated corpse of a woman. Although officials identified the remains as Gunness', doubt quickly spread, as the body was much smaller than the tall, heavyset Belle. The search for her missing head (which never turned up) led to the gruesome discovery of almost a dozen bodies, including the missing suitors and several children. Ray Lamphere, a former farmhand that she had fired a few years earlier and later claimed was threatening her life, was arrested and tried for the crimes, but was only convicted of arson. Belle's true fate remains unknown, although unverified "sightings" continued for decades after her death.

Ed Gein: The inspiration behind Psycho

The man whose macabre and horrific acts helped inspire Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre grew up in an isolated area of Wisconsin. He was an abused child of an alcoholic father and a puritanical and domineering mother who instilled in her son a pathological fear of both women and sex. When his father, brother and mother died within a 5-year period, he was left alone at the family farm, where he eventually cordoned off parts of the house turning it into a shrine, of sorts, to his mother.

Thirteen years later, local police arrived at the farm, following up on a tip regarding missing hardware store owner Bernice Worden. They discovered Worden's headless corpse hanging upside down from the rafters. Their search of the property revealed a hall of horrors that included human body parts turned into household items such as chairs and bowls, faces used as wall hangings and a vest made up of a human torso. Many of these gruesome items were from already-dead bodies that Gein had stolen from their graves, but he had murdered one other woman in addition to Worden. He claimed that he was using the body parts to assemble a new version of his beloved mother. Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia and declared unfit for trial. A decade later, he was convicted of one of the murders, but was declared insane at the time of the crime. He spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.

John Wayne Gacy: He performed as a clown at children's parties

To most of his suburban Chicago neighbors, John Wayne Gacy was a friendly man who threw popular block parties, volunteered in local Democratic politics and often performed as a clown at local children's parties. But Gacy, who had already served a stint in prison for sexually assaulting a teenaged boy, was hiding a horrific secret right beneath his neighbors' unseeing eyes.

In 1978, when a 15-year-old boy who had last been seen with Gacy (whose construction business the teenager was hoping to work for) went missing, police obtained a search warrant for Gacy's house. There they found a class ring and clothing belonging to several young men previously reported missing. In a 4-foot crawl space beneath the house, where a penetrating odor was present, they were shocked to find the decomposing bodies of 29 boys and teenagers that Gacy had raped and murdered. Gacy's ex-wife had complained about the odor for years, but Gacy had chalked it up to moisture-causing mildew. Law enforcement also came under criticism, as the family members of several of the victims had previously pointed to Gacy as a possible suspect. In addition to the bodies found at his house, Gacy admitted to killing several additional men, disposing of their bodies in a nearby lake. His attempts at presenting an insanity defense failed, and he was convicted on 33 counts of murder and executed by lethal injection in 1994.

Jeffrey Dahmer: He committed his first murder at 18

Jeffrey Dahmer committed his first murder in 1978, when he was just 18. He would go on killing until his arrest in 1991, after an African American man escaped his clutches and hailed down police near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When the victim led police back to his captor's apartment, they discovered photographs of dismembered bodies, the severed heads and genitalia of several other men and a tub full of acid that Dahmer had used to dispose of some of his 17 victims.

Dahmer had lived a shiftless life, dropping out of college and the Army and living with various family members before being kicked out by his grandmother and settling in the Milwaukee apartment. Three years before his 1991 arrest-and with several murders already under his belt-Dahmer was convicted of drugging and sexually molesting a young teenager. But he was released after serving only a year, continuing his killing binge, which focused almost entirely on young, non-white men.

Dahmer's sensational trial, featuring lurid descriptions of his eating the body parts of some of his victims and admissions of necrophilia, renewed the world's interest in serial killers. In 1992, Dahmer was sentenced to 957 years in jail, but was killed by a fellow inmate just two years later.

Ted Bundy: The first televised murder trial

Handsome, well-educated and brimming with charm, Ted Bundy seemed the unlikeliest of serial killers. Which made his decade-long, multi-state killing spree all the more surprising-and to some, appealing. Born to an unwed, teenaged mother, Bundy never learned his father's identity and was raised believing that his grandmother was actually his mother (and his mother actually his sister).

Following a difficult adolescence, Bundy graduated from the University of Washington-and soon embarked on his murderous spree, killing his first victim in Seattle in 1966. Focusing primarily on attractive college co-eds, Bundy committed a series of murders across the Pacific Northwest. He continued on to Utah and Colorado, killing several more women before being arrested. Despite being convicted of kidnapping, he managed to escape police custody not once, but twice, while awaiting trial in Colorado. He moved to Florida, where he killed several members of a sorority and his final victim, a 12-year-old girl who he raped and murdered.

When Bundy was finally apprehended while driving a stolen car a week after his last murder, his trial quickly became a media sensation. It was the first murder trial to be fully televised, and featured Bundy front-and-center acting as one of his own defense attorneys. He became a media star, welcoming journalists to his cell, receiving letters of admiration from lovelorn fans (and even marrying one of them) and providing an endless list of clues about additional murders he may have committed, in the hopes of delaying his execution. It didn't work; he was executed in the electric chair in 1989, with the true number of his victims unknown.

Jack the Ripper: There are over 100 possible suspects

In 1888, London's Whitechapel district was gripped by reports of a vicious serial killer stalking the city streets. The unidentified madman lured prostitutes into darkened squares and side streets before slitting their throats and sadistically mutilating their bodies with a carving knife. That summer and fall, five victims were found butchered in the downtrodden East End district, sparking a media frenzy and citywide manhunt. A number of letters were allegedly sent by the killer to the London Metropolitan Police Service (also known as Scotland Yard), taunting officers about his gruesome activities and speculating on murders to come.

Without modern forensic techniques, Victorian police were at a loss in investigating the Ripper's heinous crimes. After taking his final victim in November, the killer seemed to disappear like a ghost. The case was finally closed in 1892, but Jack the Ripper has remained an enduring source of fascination. The most popular theories suggest that the killer's understanding of anatomy and vivisection meant he was possibly a butcher or a surgeon. Over 100 possible suspects have been proposed.

H.H. Holmes: A pharmacist who built a "murder castle"

H.H. Holmes spent his early career as an insurance scammer before moving to Illinois in advance of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to work as a pharmacist. It was there that Holmes built what he referred to as his murder "castle"-a three-story inn that he secretly turned into a macabre torture chamber. Some rooms were equipped with hidden peepholes, gas lines, trap doors and soundproofed padding, while others featured secret passages, ladders and hallways that led to dead ends. There was also a greased chute that led to the basement, where Holmes had installed a surgical table, a furnace and even a medieval rack.

Both before and during the World's Fair, Holmes led many victims-mostly young women-to his lair only to asphyxiate them with poisoned gas and take them to his basement for horrific experiments. He then either disposed of the bodies in his furnace or skinned them and sold the skeletons to medical schools.

At the same time, Holmes worked insurance scams-collecting money from life insurance companies. Holmes was finally caught one of his co-conspirators tipped off the police when Holmes failed to deliver his pay-out. Holmes was eventually convicted of the murders of four people, but he confessed to at least 27 more killings before being hanged in 1896.

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8 of History's Most Notorious Serial Killers

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From the widow who became known as "Lady Bluebeard" and the man who inspired Psycho to the British doctor who killed in the hundreds and the handsome slaughterer whose charm proved lethal, get the facts on some of history's most infamous serial killers.

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Know Your Limits: Texting, Mental Health, and an Unfortunate End

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Know Your Limits: Texting, Mental Health, and an Unfortunate End

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The video included below discusses the outcome of the case of Commonwealth v. Carter (2016). The accused, Michelle Carter, is charged with involuntary manslaughter after having an ongoing text relationship with boyfriend Conrad Roy III regarding his suicidal ideations, which she later encourages him acting on. Involuntary manslaughter refers to her lack of mental intent to cause death, with the case directly stating:

"A reasonable juvenile would not know that
expressions of support for a romantic partner’s
fervent desire to end his pain — however unwise and
misguided — would constitute a criminal “infliction”
of serious bodily harm."

The mens rea involved Carter intentionally planning Roy's suicide with the belief that it was what he wanted. The actus reus in the conviction was Carter's instruction for Roy to commit suicide via carbon dioxode, as well as instructing him to return to the truck when he had changed his mind about killing himself.

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What happened in the Massachusetts suicide texting case

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The last duel to occur in Upper Canada was on June 13th, 1833, and involved two law students who engaged in a pistol duel over a school teacher named Elizabeth Hughes. John Wilson was victorious, serving three months in jail prior to trial. Representing himself, Wilson was acquitted, went on to marry Hughes, and later became a judge and member of parliament.
While homicide crimes committed with guns is nothing of the past, crime in this manner certainly is.

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False Hope: The Victims of the Mysterious Muskoka Murders, and a Lack of Justice

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False Hope: The Victims of the Mysterious Muskoka Murders, and a Lack of Justice

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The video included is a documentary outlining The Fifth Estate and The Walrus magazine's investigation into the murders of four senior citizens in the Muskoka Region, north of Toronto, Ontario. Kathrine Laan, Paul Laan, Walter Laan, David Laan, and their uncle Ron Allen began the family business of running three Christian retirement homes in the woods in the 1990's, appealing to less-fortunate senior citizens with little to no family support. Upon police investigation, the promise of "dieticians, nurses and meals" was met with eleven elderly people crammed into a four-person space, with mattresses on the floor. In 1998, Erin Burke, a young detective, was assigned to the case of missing person Joan Lawrence; she was not prepared for the extent the crime in this region would go to. Burke found John Crofts in his 70s, John Semple in his 90s, and Ralph Grant in his 70s to be missing as well. With almost $100,000 taken from these seniors, Kathrine Laan was convicted with a 9-month conditional sentence, while Paul and Walter pled guilty to multiple counts of theft and fraud, being given a conditional sentence and ordered to repay tens of thousands of dollars. Regardless, nobody has been charged or has spent time behind bars for these crimes to this day.
The motive behind these crimes seems clear to be the money that the Laan's were stealing from their elderly tenants. With an intent to kill, it would make sense that this family lured in those in a time of need, who had few to no outside connections to question what was happening. Unlucky for them, they didn't account for Joan Lawrence making friends.

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Murder in Cottage Country - The Fifth Estate

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It's a dark tale of people vanishing, mystery, and suspicion of murder: Nearly two decades ago in a secluded part of Ontario's cottage country, four elderly people disappeared without a trace. Police spent years searching for bodies, clues and answers. To this day, the seniors have never been found -- and no one has been held accountable for their disappearance.

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Disturbed or Just Plain Disturbing: No Devotion to a "Duty of Care"

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Disturbed or Just Plain Disturbing: No Devotion to a "Duty of Care"

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Elizabeth Wettlaufer was a Registered Nurse (RN) in Ontario, Canada until 2016. On June 1st, 2017, Wettlaufer was taken to court on 14 charges including first-degree murder, aggravated murder, and aggravated assault that occurred from 2007 to 2014. With lethal injections of insulin, she caused 8 deaths in the Woodstock and London areas, as well as 6 serious injuries with non-lethal doses. What started the investigation into Wettlaufer last September was some comments she made to a psychiatric hospital in Toronto. Wettlaufer has been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder, which she is receiving medication for; though for the victims of Wettlaufer's killing spree, this treatment really is too little, too late.

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She was angry about her career and her life, and her elderly patients, some suffering from dementia, were easy prey.

Former registered nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer, 49, who pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Woodstock, Ont., today to 14 charges including first-degree murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault, told the court that a "red surge" would come over her when she was about to kill someone.

Wettlaufer worked at homes in the Ontario communities of Woodstock, Paris and London, often as the registered nurse overseeing the nightshifts.

In October, Wettlaufer was charged in the deaths of eight residents at nursing homes in Woodstock and London. In January, she faced six additional charges related to seniors in her care. She worked at the facilities between 2007 and 2014.

Family members of Wettlaufer's victims were faced with a long and emotional day in court. Some broke down in the courtroom as Wettlaufer entered her pleas.

Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas told the families, "I can't imagine the betrayal" and said their strength dealing with what they saw in court impressed him.

They have already heard that the ex-nurse told police she used insulin pens to administer lethal and non-lethal doses of the drug to kill eight people and seriously harm six.

'A laughing feeling'

Wettlaufer stood up straight and spoke clearly and concisely as she pleaded guilty to the charges.

"You realize that first-degree murder is punishable with life in prison?" Justice Bruce Thomas asked Wettlaufer.

"Yes, your honour," she answered.

In one case, a victim's family had thanked Wettlaufer for her care, having no idea she had just killed the patient.

After injecting another of her victims, she got what she told police was "a laughing feeling."

She left on a Caribbean cruise the next day.

Wettlaufer confirmed that she was not intoxicated by drugs or alcohol while injecting victims with insulin with the intent to kill.

"You knew this could be fatal?" Thomas asked Wettlaufer.

"Yes, your honour," she answered.

Chilling video confession

"I honestly thought God wanted to use me," Wettlaufer told police during an almost three-hour taped confession that was played in court Thursday afternoon.

Wettlaufer says on the tape she had resigned from her last job, with Saint Elizabeth Health Care, after five weeks because she was told she would be caring for diabetic children at a school in Ingersoll, Ont., and she feared she wouldn't be able to keep herself from harming them. She told police that was her "breaking point."

On the tape, Wettlaufer describes how she killed her first victim, James Silcox, while working at the Caressant Care home in Woodstock.

She told police she knew Silcox had dementia and said "there were others before him" whom she tried to kill.

She said the home kept insulin in the refrigerator, which gave her "easy access" to it.

After Silcox died, Wettlaufer said she felt awful, but "just went home to bed."

'She must be the next'

She claimed that another one of her victims, Mary Zurawinski, told her she believed she would die soon, which Wettlaufer said was a trigger for her.

"She didn't hurt the nurses or anything, she was just very outspoken and feisty, and one night she said, 'You know, I'm going to die tonight,'" Wettlaufer told police. "I said, 'Are you sure?' and she said, 'Yeah, put me to bed. I'm going to die.' So I said, 'OK, then.'"

Wettlaufer said she got another one of the nurses on duty to help her get Zurawinski to bed.

"And I thought, 'Well, she must be the next one.' I had a feeling inside of me that she must be the next one."

Caressant Care suspended Wettlaufer several times before firing her. Wettlaufer told police that within a month of being fired from the Woodstock home, she was hired at Meadow Park in nearby London. In the taped confession, Wettlaufer tells police that Meadow Park managers knew she had been fired from Caressant Care for medication errors, but she was told they believed "in second chances."

'I'm not going to forgive her'

Susan Horvath, the daughter of one of the seniors Wettlaufer has admitted to killing, spoke to CBC News on her way into court Thursday.

"She will be telling us why and how, and we will all know the final moments of our loved one's lives," said Horvath, whose father, Arpad Horvath, was murdered.

Horvath later told CBC Radio's As It Happens, "I'm not going to forgive her for nothing, she knew what she was doing."

During her taped confession, Wettlaufer said she laughed when a co-worker suggested that Arpad Horvath's blood sugar had spiked dangerously due to a past stroke, and not due to her attempts to kill him with insulin.

Shortly after that section of tape was played in court, the victim's son, Arpad Jr., left the courtroom with help from court staff, tears streaming down his face.

Arpad Horvath Jr is a tough man. He just left the courtroom w help from court staff. Weeping, tears streaming down his face.
- @jlancasterCBC

Bipolar disorder diagnosed

Wettlaufer's mother, Hazel Parker, told CBC News her daughter had asked that her parents not be in court for her appearance today.

Parker said her daughter, who has been staying at the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ont., has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is receiving medication.

"What has been lost in the media is that had Beth not come forward, police never would have known any of this. She's dealing with this the best she can," Parker said.

Wettlaufer waived her right to a preliminary hearing in April and instead opted to go straight to trial.

The families of those Wettlauffer killed were told their victim impact statements will likely be read in court June 26 and June 27, when Wettlaufer is scheduled to be sentenced.

The police investigation into Wettlaufer began last September after Toronto police became aware of information she had given to staff at a psychiatric hospital in Toronto that caused them concern, a police source told The Canadian Press.

Records from the College of Nurses of Ontario show Wettlaufer was first registered as a nurse in August 1995, and resigned Sept. 30, 2016.

The Live Blog from the court on June 1:

With files from John Lancaster and Laura Fraser

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Ex-nurse who killed 8 seniors says she got 'a laughing feeling' after injecting patient

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She was angry about her career and her life, and her elderly patients, some suffering from dementia, were easy prey. Former registered nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer, 49, who pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Woodstock, Ont., today to 14 charges including first-degree murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault, told the court that a "red surge" would come over her when she was about to kill someone.

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25 to Life: Meika's Murderers Receive no Mercy

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25 to Life: Meika's Murderers Receive no Mercy

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In December 2017, the Alberta Court of Appeal changed the charges placed on Spencer Jordan and Marie Magoon from second-degree murder to first-degree murder. They were charged following the death of Meika Jordan on November 14th, 2011, after the young girl was tortured by Jordan, her father, and Magoon, her step-mom. Meika's mom Kyla Woodhouse and step-dad Brian Woodhouse reflect on the good news below.
With the murder of Meika Jordan being considered first-degree, this means a life sentence for both appellants, with "no chance of parole for at least 25 years."

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Thu, Dec 22: Charges against an Alberta couple have been upgraded from second to first-degree murder, in connection with the beating death of their six-year-old daughters. As Nancy Hixt reports, the news comes as an unexpected surprise to Meika Jordan's mom and step-father.

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Convictions for couple found guilty of killing Meika Jordan upgraded to first-degree murder | Watch News Videos Online

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Thu, Dec 22: Charges against an Alberta couple have been upgraded from second to first-degree murder, in connection with the beating death of their six-year-old daughters. As Nancy Hixt reports, the news comes as an unexpected surprise to Meika Jordan's mom and step-father.

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Shown below are the murder weapons used by Sandy Hook Massacre shooter Adam Lanza, 20, as seen in the New York Daily News. Considering the lenient laws in the United States, guns are a common weapon used in American homicide cases.

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Shown below is a comparison of the percent of people killed with poison, about how they know the killer. This information is taken from The Washington Post, which includes more in-depth analysis of the most common weapons used to kill, as well as who uses them the most.

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MURDER/HOMICIDE: A CASE STUDY ON R. V. PARENT [2001]

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MURDER/HOMICIDE: A CASE STUDY ON R. V. PARENT [2001]