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inAThe killer’s trial was marked by a couple of firsts. For one thing, it is thought to be the shortest murder trial in the province’s history. It started exactly one month after the killings, and lasted parts of three days. The summations of the lawyers, the judge’s charge, and the deliberation of the jury collectively took less than an hour.The other ‘first’ occurred two months later when John Streib became the first person hanged in Headingley Gaol’s new indoor execution chamber.George Walters and his sisters Irene and Doris weremurdered on May 20, 1931 and buned side-by-side in Winnipeg’s Elmwood Cemetery. Their killer, executed on Sept. 3,1931 and buned fivedays later, lies in an unmarkedV # 9grave in Brookside Cemetery on the other side of the city.• • •The second slaughter of innocents occurred in rural Manitoba. The participants in this pathetic drama lived a half-mile apart near Angusville, a small farming community north-west of Brandon near Russell. At 45, he was slightly older than his mistress. He was also a widower, while she was a married woman with five children at home and a husband working in the United States,According to the woman, the saga started in 1927, shortly after her husband left their shack to find work Her neighbour noticed his departure, and soon made his intentions known. The affair lasted two years before she became pregnant for the first time. The day she delivered she sent her children to sleep in the loft of a nearby barn, then her lover arrived to assist in the delivery. As soon as the baby was born, she said, he strangled it, put the body in a fruit box, and buned it in her garden.Within a few months she was again pregnant. Like last time, she sent her children to the loft, her lover arrived, the baby was born, strangled and buried. She said she endured the process four times in all, on each occasion delivering a living child, only to have it murdered. A fifth child was born when her lover was away. The baby was stillborn, and she hid its body under her bed for three days until her lover arrived to bury it.The first inclination anyone had of what happened came in the form of an anonymous letter sent in late fall, 1932 to the justice of the peace in Angusville. He turned it over the police, and within days investigators arrived at the woman’s ramshackle home. Almost as quickly they arrested Fred Stawycznyj.authorities to a garden behind the shack, and watched as officers dug through drifts of snow three feet deep. The process took so long Stawycznyj began complaining of the cold. The officer leading the search handed him a shovel and told him to start digging. After a token effort at shoveling Stawycznyj moved to a new spot, and within minutes unearthed the last body.Both parents of the dead babies were charged with murder, although at their preliminary heanng charges against the mother were reduced to concealment of birth. When Stawycznyj’s tnaldunng the tnal saw the accused at or around the time the babies were born, no one saw him bury the babies, and the coroner testified he had no ideafor clemency lodged with the federal government, was also rejected.The Angusville farmer faced death with equanimity.how the babies died, or even if Although his priest was withthey were carried to term. Nonetheless, jurors showed no reluctance in convicting Stawycznyj on what little evidence connected him to theThe accused was brought by deaths.Less than two hours after they began their deliberations the jury returned with a verdict of a guilty. It took a few moments for Stawycznyj to realize that he had just been sentenced to hang, and when he did tears began streaming down his face. His voice shaking with emotion, he protested that an innocent man had just been condemned to death, and demanded the right to appeal the verdict.Two months later that appeal was turned down by a panel of three judges, one of whom felt an injustice had indeed been done, and recommended that the case be re-tried. That wasgot underway in Minnedosa the not to be. A day and a half Crown proceeded with a single before he was to hanghim the night before he was to die, he managed to sleep soundly for at least a couple of hours, waking every so often to proclaim his innocence.When his time came Stawycznyj walked without aid to the gallows. Standing calmly while the executioner strapped his legs and prepared to pull the death hood over his face, he looked around the small room. “I thank everybody here for the way they have treated me, because I am innocent and prepared to meet my Maker.” Seconds after his words were translated into English the trap was sprung. Fourteen minutes later he may indeed have met his Maker.Fred Stawycznyj was hangedat 7:38 a.m. on Juiy 12,1933.His body was claimed by two sons and interred a few miles north-east of Angusville near, but not exactly in, the Lakedale Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholiccount of murder, holding the remaining charges in reserve.The accused’s lover was the prosecution’s star witness. She repeated much of the evidence she gave at her preliminary hearing, including the fact that over a 33-month penod she gave birth to five children, including one set of twins and a stillborn.None of those who testifiedStawycznyj’s last hope, a plea cemetery.Top, the Walters headstone in Elmwood Cemetery. Next, above, is a grave marker in the name ot Doris, one o! the victims. There is no marker tor the other two victims. Above left is the Minnedosa courthouse, where the Stawycznyj trial was held. And at left is his headstone.(Dale Brawn/For the Sun)Rice, shrimp, coconut
Newspaper Details
Brandon Sun Community News
Brandon, Manitoba, CA
Thu, Feb 05, 2009
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Samantha T.
CA 01 Dec 2021
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