70 years ago - 9 September 1939 - the only Verdun crime ever to lead to a capital punishment was committed after landlord Jean-Baptiste Beaudry, 70, of 3467 Decarie put up a For Rent sign in the unit of an unpaying tenant at 324 Egan.
Gordon Campbell Smythe lured the landlord into the basement to show him something allegedly awry and then hacked the large man to death and left his corpse in the basement.
Beaudry, in spite of his age, was physically impressive.
He had made his fortune as a coal merchant. After one appeal, Gordon Smythe was hanged September 19, 1941.
At least two other Verdun murders could have gone to the gallows but the perpetrators were deemed insane. The actual hanging appears to have received no coverage in the two newspapers that are online from that era.
Google Maps is off again, as usual.
ReplyDeleteI lived right next door to Beaudry at 3463 Décarie for many years (it was many years after Beaudry died) and the house is far closer to Sherbrooke than Google reveals.