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The Other Suspects
An
air force base and a small town harbour many secrets. The
fact that sexuality was more taboo in the 1950s than today
did not mean that sexual problems were any less common than
they are today-only that they were more suppressed. When murder
strikes, it is the job of the police to turn over rocks and
unearth the hidden secrets of a community.
"Until
You are dead" reveals in Chapter 9 that there were other men,
besides Sgt. Alexander Kalichuk
whom the police could have investigated:
-
An electrician with a conviction for rape who lived in Seaforth,
worked regularly at the air force station and knew the Harpers.
- A
nineteen-year-old airman at RCAF Station Clinton who also
worked as a lifeguard at the swimming pool, and therefore
presumably knew Lynne, an avid swimmer.
- Three
men working on gas station signs in the Clinton area at
the time of Lynne's murder. One of the men had died, but
the other two, brothers named Ronny and Russ, served time
in Kingston Penitentiary for armed robbery in the 1960s.
In
November 1967, William Bowman, the director of public prosecutions
for the Ontario government and the lawyer who represented
the Crown at Steven's Supreme Court hearing, wrote a memorandum
that revealed how much the senior justice authorities knew
about these potential suspects.
In
the letter from Bowman, excerpted below, he reported that
Ronny claimed his brother "showed him the body of a
young girl whom he said he had assaulted ... [Ronny] further
indicated that he thought that the body was that of Lynne
Harper." Bowman said both brothers "may be described as pedophiles."
Bowman concluded, nevertheless, "there was no connection
between [these] statements and the Truscott case." Any investigation
of the "Three Painters" quickly died. Here is Bowman's letter:
Read
more about other suspects in Chapter 9 of "Until you are Dead".
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