Beverly Van Horne - Railroad heiress got away with shooting a guest dead at her drinking party in Ste. Adele

Beverly Van Horne, 1960

   Beverly Van Horne (1932-1998) became instant Montreal royalty when she slid into this embattled planet, for she was the grand-daughter of William Cornelius Van Horne, who earned massive loot by helping organize Canada's national railroad. 

Beverly at 17

   Beverly's mother Audrey Fraser died when Beverly was young and Beverly's father William remarried a woman named Ann, who got all of her hubby's cash when he died in 1946. Beverly was partially, or fully, cut out of her juicy inheritance windfall from an early age.  

   Beverly was a sprightly 17 when she leaped onto the front pages in 1950. She had been living in Montreal with her maternal grandfather William J. Fraser, a 72-year-old retired accountant when she went missing. 

   The search for the missing heiress sparked an uncharacteristically hyped-up Canadian media frenzy. She was located a few days later in Western Canada washing dishes at a Vancouver hamburger joint where she lasted only a few days before getting fired. Beverly then flew to Calgary where photographers snapped her picture at a hotel, paparazzi style. 

     The incident was quickly forgotten and Beverly embarked on a normal adult life, marrying James Beattie and having two daughters Varina and Virginia. She divorced and remarried Martin Weary (1930-2007). Their home in Ste. Adele was destroyed by fire in July 1959 and on or around 1 January 1960 Martin split their home at 52 Montreux Ave. in Ste. Adele. 

Beverly in 1960

   Beverly rented her hubby's vacant bedroom to Marvin Aitken, 27, a photographer pal in Ste. Adele. An enraged Weary returned on 29 April and assaulted his estranged wife Beverly as well as Aitken. 

   Weary was arrested and charged with assault. Beverly briefly hired a bodyguard for protection but feared Weary still aimed to do her harm, as evidenced by her car being sabotaged. 

   Beverly borrowed a .22 calibre rifle from Marvin Aitken and kept it loaded just in case her ex returned to cause more mayhem.

   On 16 May 1960 Beverly - according to her lengthy witness statement - still felt nervous. She called a bunch of friends to drop by her place, including her roommate Marvin, her lawyer and Westmount divorcee Joyce Elfstron, 39.

   Thomas "Shady" Lane, who sold Aitkin the rifle, fielded Beverly's party invitation on the phone at his store and she ended up inviting a customer standing near him, Clifford Bruce Bridger, 33, an RCAF radar man, originally from Alberta, working at nearby Lac St. Denis

   The five were laughing and drinking and smoking cigarettes and having a grand old time soon after while the maid Marguerite Paquette watched TV and minded her own business. 

  Beverly got along great with her new acquaintance Bruce Bridger.  

Thomas Lane

     Bruce and I had a few experiences in common and made a date to get together again, I told him he could come anytime and would always be welcome.  I had never either heard of him nor met him before that day, though he mentioned he’d heard a lot about me, and had wanted to meet me for a long time.  He seemed intelligent, pleasant, amiable, the kind of person one immediately likes on first meeting, also he had a good sense of humour.  I couldn’t remember his last name, and of his persona life I know nothing whatsoever.

   Bruce Bridger got drunk by this point and left to have a fistfight with Marvin, a fight that apparently never materialized.

  Beverly, now left alone, was startled by a disconcerting noise, so she fetched her rifle from the kitchen cabinet. She was toting the loaded weapon when she slipped on the wet floor and the rifle fired. 

Marguerite 
Paquette

   Bruce Bridger, at this point, was standing in the corner of the verandah about eight feet from the kitchen door, talking to Aitkin when the bullet sliced through his heart and lungs. 

   Beverly later wrote in a witness testimony: 

   To my sickening horror there was Bruce, fallen and bleeding. I looked searchingly for a sign of life but dripping blood was all I saw. I turned running to get to the phone mumbling 'please god don't let him be dead, he can't be, he mustn't be.'  I tried to lift his head up and Marvin said 'Don’t move him,' but I thought he’d choke.  I tried to find a pulse and I found none, then I saw his eyes, and then I knew.  I’ve never seen a dead person before, but I knew for they were vacant, glazed, and glassy.  I was shaking and could feel hysteria rising in me, gently I closed the eyes till the remained shut.  I was crying and all I could think of was 'poor Bruce, if I can’t bring you back the least I can do is close your eyes.'

Marvin Aitken

    Beverly was treated for shock. Authorities charged her with murder on 3 June 1960 but her powerful criminal defence attorneys Fred Kaufman and Joseph Cohen managed to get her charge reduced to manslaughter a few days later.

   Joseph Cohen did his thing and challenged some witness testimony by pointing out that Beverly is left-handed, while witnesses reported seeing her haul the rifle with her right hand. 

   The maid Marguerite Paquette testified that she didn't notice anybody seeming particularly drunk that evening. 

   Others testified that Bruce, the victim, had been tossing back stiff rum and cokes and was hammered. 

   A jury took seven or eight hours of deliberations to acquit Beverly of manslaughter on 25 November, 1960. 

Beverly

  Nothing more was heard of any of the people involved.

  Beverly's daughters Varina and Virginia Beattie found themselves broke and mired in a complicated inheritance trust-fund situation that required a special provincial bill to settle in 1986.

 Beverly remarried yet again, this time to Jean Potvin (1920-1997), a dozen years her senior. 

   They appear to have lived either part time or full time in Florida and Beverly seems to have dabbled in real estate. 

   She died one year after her third husband.