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THE LIBERAL, Richmondlastn ding in-lawNor-kVaka-n-lawOwenlalem,armerRea-laying; peo-spent Agers i Col-illandativesramp-lidays. andirmon : son-and n Is-pend-Fer-rillin-;k at ka. ilcox, i S stridinghas j Girl y are i^ove’sd a.iChurs-honieervict-failedfront B. He Hos eleas-For-j onlyupfhmanMrs.noon.taniedRev. on aly re-spital, ne oflooking• 4 ♦(Lois imsby teach-3 em-One hundred and seventeen years ago. on July 29 and 30, a double murder in Vaughan Township electrified the entire country. The murders resulted in one hanging, the female accomplice beginning, a life term in prison and left behind in the township an atmosphere of horror which was never fully dissipated for decades, indeed not before the majority of its adults had passed away. ■ • -'Locale of the murders was the plain white frame home of a Captain Kennear, two miles north of Richmond Hill, situated across the road from the house occupied by the Harrisons of whom William, then nine years old, was to become the scribe of Richmond Hill and district and who during his adult years, recaptured the story of the dreadful crime for the Newmarketnewspaper.Captain Kennear is described by Harrison as a gentleman of reputed wealth, of aristocratic bearing, pleasant and kind whose one eccentricity was that of watching through a spy glass for mischievous youngsters intent on raiding his orchard. His housekeeper, Hannah Montgomery, better known as ‘Nancy/ was of medium height, a shapely, happv person given to mild flirtations committed in a bantering, cheerfully laughing manner.James McDermot, an army deserter and the captain’s stable boy. was a lithe, smart, exceedingly agile young man who could out jump his youthful friends and run along the top of the old-fashioned zigzag wooden fences like a squirrel. According to Mr. Harrison he was an incorrigible liar.urora, n and * Sun-* AThe fourth person in the bloody affair was an 18-year-old Irish girl. Grace Marks, who apparently also went by the name of Mary Whitney. Little is known about her early years in Ireland. She was engaged at the Kennear farm as Nancy’s assistant and there seems to have been little love between the two.Mr. Harrison describes her as being of a lively disposition and pleasant manners and suggests that from the first McDermot exercised a baneful, hypnotic influence over her, making her the unfortunate dupe in the dreadful crimes which occurred only a few months after her arrival at the farna.-; A *}.The trial established the fact that McDermot was. determined to murder the captain for a large sum of money he was supposed to return with from one of hisweekly business trips to Toronto.A reconstruction of the crimes reveal that the stable boy pressed to his own evil advantage the growing dislike of Nancy by Grace and enlisted her support in ridding himself of the housekeeper preparatory to killing Kennear. Mr. Harrison’s account of the affair which began on a Friday in the absence of the captain reads: “....after tea the evening was spent in merriment, and fun. The Captain’s larder was drawn on for wine and stronger beverages. The conspirators saw that their (first) intended victim got a good supply, the effects of which soon became apparent. Playfully, they placed a long twisted towel around Her (Nancy’s) neck. Each pulled until Nancy fell, a strangled woman. While warm and limp, the two dragged and threw the body down the cellar, descended and pressed it into a large meat tub, turning the tub upside down/’Next morning McDermot crossed the farm road to the Newberry farm to ask Mrs. Harvey for the loan of her husband’s double-barrelled gun. presumably to get in some pigeon-shooting. Mrs. Harvey, whose man was not ai home, refused the request whereupon McDermot rudely entered the log cabin, removed the gun from the wall pegs and left.Late that evening when Kennear returned from the city. McDermot met him as he entered the house and fired. The ball pierced the captain’s heart, lodging in the skin of his back. He staggered and fell, exclaiming: “Oh, my God, I am shot!”Grace, who appears to have been a changeable sort, expressed her horror at the deed. McDermot whirled, fired at the girl, missed, and snarled: “If you ever tell, your life will not be worth a straw” He then dragged the captain’s body across the floor and flung it down the cellar steps. This grisly chore completed, he gathered together what money he could find, much disappointed in the amount, and with Grace firmly in tow set out for the city in the captain’s new buggy, intending to enter the United States*The two bodies were discovered next afternoon by a neighbour. At about the same time, in Toronto, a Mr. F. C. Capreol, a friend of the captain, noticed the buggy on the street and suspected something was wrong. On Monday, having been acquainted with the grisly events at the farm and learning that McDermot and his companion had taken a steamer for Lewiston, he took off in pursuit in the company of the High Bailiff, affecting the capture of McDermot and Grace.Subsequent to a sensational trial. McDermot was hanged in the old jailyard, Berkley Street, Toronto and Grace was sent to Kingston Penitentiary. Thirtyyears later, after three decades of exemplary behaviour during which time she became a trusted inmate of the Governor’s home, she was pardoned and taken to the home of a wealthy citizen in the United States.A strange discrepancy is to be noted in Mr. Harrison’s account of the affair. He indicates that Grace was more to he pitied than blamed and that there were grave doubts as to her having been the awful female incarnate .... despite the fact that along with McDermot she ‘playfully’ placed a long twisted towel around the neck of Nancy and helped strangle the woman.Of McDermot, at the close of the trial, Harrison writes: “....his adject cowardice and mental agonies. it was said, were too terrible to witness. He dashed himself to the floor of his cell, shrieked like a maniac, declaring that he could not and would not die. that the law had no right to murder a man’s soul as well as his body by giving him no time for repentence. that if he hung like a dog Grace Marks in justice should share his fate.”The towel used to strangle Nancy was picked up the day after her murder by Col. David Bridgeford who placed it on a tree in his orchard where it hung until the wind blew it to shreds.Bees OnBaker AvenueA little boy’s expected visit this week at the home of Mr. and Mrs. R. Lajambe, 178 Baker Avenue, terminated the week-long stay of thousands of bees in a large bird house set in a tree on the Lajambe property. Mrs. Lajambe said that last Thursday she noticed that the birdhouse was filled inside with bees and pretty well covered on the outside. “The bees appeared about a week ago. ’ she said, “and while they’ve minded their own business, you never can be certain about the outcome when a little boy’s curiosity about them is aroused.” A district bee-keeper responded to a telephone call and removed the bees, birdhouse and all, to his home.GORMLEY — Nelson Boynton, Gormley, placed first with 92 points in the field crop competition for wheat as sponsored by the Markham Agricultural Soc-'iety.
Newspaper Details
Richmond Hill Liberal
Richmond Hill, Ontario, CA
Thu, Aug 18, 1960
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA 06 Dec 2019
Other Publications Near Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill Liberal
Richmond Hill York Herald
