The Murder of Francis Rattenbury: The Man Who Built B.C.

Lives On Display: The Dionne Quintuplets

Episode 425: In May 1934, five identical girls were born in a farmhouse outside Corbeil, Ontario. They were the first quintuplets known to survive infancy anywhere in the world. Within weeks, the Province of Ontario had taken them from their parents. What followed was nine years inside a government-run compound called Quintland, where millions of tourists paid to watch the Dionne sisters play through one-way glass, twice a day, while their faces sold soap, cereal, and corn syrup across North America. The girls went home in 1943. The horror of what happened next took decades to come to light. Sources: * The Canadian Encyclopedia — Dionne Quintuplets [https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dionne-quintuplets] | (Canadian Encyclopedia) * Dionne Quintuplets: The Miracle Babies [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dionne-quintuplets-miracle-births-at-the-height-of-the-depression-feature] | (Canadian Encyclopedia) * Dionne quintuplets [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionne_quintuplets] | (Wikipedia) * Dionne quintuplets | Deaths, Parents, Names, & Facts [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dionne-quintuplets] | (Britannica) * The Birth of the Dionne Quintuplets [https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2018/08/the-birth-of-the-dionne-quintuplets.html] | (Government of Canada) * The Dionne Quintuplets National Historic Event [https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/evenement-event/dionne] | (Parks Canada) * Dionne Quintuplets (1934—) [https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dionne-quintuplets-1934] | (Encyclopedia.com [Encyclopedia.com]) * Dionne Quintuplets (b. 1934) [https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dionne-quintuplets-b-1934] | (Encyclopedia.com [Encyclopedia.com]) * The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets by Sarah Miller (Scholastic Focus, 2017) | (Book) * We Were Five: The Dionne Quintuplets' Story from Birth through Girlhood to Womanhood by James Brough with Annette, Cécile, Marie, and Yvonne Dionne (1965) | (Book) * Family Secrets: The Dionne Quintuplets' Own Story by Jean-Yves Soucy with Annette, Cécile, and Yvonne Dionne (1997) | (Book) * The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama by Pierre Berton (1977) | (Book) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Unnatural Selection — The Alberta Eugenics Act

Episode 424: Between 1928 and 1972, the Alberta government authorized the forced sterilization of nearly 3,000 Albertans deemed "unfit" to reproduce. They were told they were having their appendix removed. Many were children. Most had no idea what was being done to them. The targets were the poor, the mentally ill, Indigenous people, immigrants — anyone who didn't fit the province's vision of a productive society. This wasn't a fringe movement. It was backed by doctors, politicians, newspapers, and some of the most celebrated figures in Canadian history. Sources: * The Canadian Encyclopedia — Eugenics [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/eugenics] * History of Rights Canada — Eugenics [https://historyofrights.ca/encyclopaedia/main-events/eugenics/] * Prairie History Journal, University of Alberta [https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/pi/index.php/pi/article/view/18879/14667] * Gladue / University of Saskatchewan — Eugenics Resource [https://gladue.usask.ca/sites/gladue1.usask.ca/files/gladue/resource541-2c6e0413.pdf] * Eugenics Archive Canada — Timeline [https://www.eugenicsarchive.ca/timeline?id=5172e8a0eed5c6000000001e] * Eugenics Archive Canada — Our Stories [https://www.eugenicsarchive.ca/our-stories] * City Museum Edmonton — Leilani Muir and Eugenics in Alberta [https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2023/03/14/leilani-muir-and-eugenics-in-alberta/] * National Post — When Canada Lost Its Mind Over Eugenics [https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/when-canada-lost-its-mind-over-eugenics] * CBC News — Leilani Muir, Advocate for Alberta's Sterilization Victims, Dies [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/leilani-muir-advocate-for-alberta-s-sterilization-victims-dies-1.3492829] * CBC News — Cash Settlement for Sterilized Women (BC) [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/cash-settlement-for-sterilized-women-1.565802] * Alberta Law Review — Mikkel Dack [https://albertalawreview.com/index.php/ALR/article/view/145/145] * Toronto Sun — The Controversial Beliefs of Canada's Famous Five [https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-the-controversial-beliefs-of-canadas-famous-five-suffragettes] * Wired — CRISPR Babies and Human Genome Editing [https://www.wired.co.uk/article/crispr-babies-human-genome-editing] * Scientific American — The Dark Side of CRISPR [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-dark-side-of-crispr/] * NFB — The Sterilization of Leilani Muir [https://www.nfb.ca/film/sterilization_of_leilani_muir/] * The Guardian — What Is Pronatalism? [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/11/what-is-pronatalism-right-wing-republican] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

The Murder of Francis Rattenbury: The Man Who Built B.C.

Episode 423: Francis Mawson Rattenbury designed the BC Parliament Buildings, the Empress Hotel, and the building that now houses the Vancouver Art Gallery, as well as many others. He was the most celebrated architect in the province for thirty years. In 1935, he was beaten to death in his armchair in a rented house in Bournemouth, England, by his wife Alma’s teenage lover, a chauffeur named George Percy Stoner. Both Alma Rattenbury and Stoner confessed. The trial at the Old Bailey gripped the English-speaking world. What happened after the trial was even more shocking than the murder. Sources: Sean O'Connor, The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury (Simon & Schuster, 2019) [https://www.amazon.com/Alma-Rattenbury/dp/1471132714] Anthony A. Barrett & Rhodri Windsor Liscombe, Francis Rattenbury and British Columbia: Architecture and Challenge in the Imperial Age (UBC Press, 1983) [https://www.ubcpress.ca/francis-rattenbury-and-british-columbia] Terry Reksten, Rattenbury (Sono Nis Press, 1978; revised 1998) [https://sononis.com/product/rattenbury/] Francis Mawson Rattenbury — Dictionary of Canadian Biography [https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/rattenbury_francis_mawson_16E.html] Francis Rattenbury — Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada [http://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/node/1409] Francis Rattenbury — Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Rattenbury] Alma Rattenbury — Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Rattenbury] Newspapers.com | Search: Francis Rattenbury [https://www.newspapers.com/search/results/?keyword=%22francis+rattenbury%22] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

The Hogg’s Hollow Tunnel Disaster

Episode 422: On St. Patrick's Day, 1960, five Italian immigrant construction workers — Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Carriglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and brothers Alessandro and Guido Mantella — died beneath the Don River in Toronto's Hogg's Hollow neighbourhood. They were trapped in a tunnel less than two metres wide with no fire extinguishers, no hard hats, and no way out. The fire was preventable. The violations were known. A foreman had been fired for raising them. No one was ever charged. This is the story of five men whose names were nearly forgotten — and the laws that exist today because they died. Sources: The history of the Hoggs Hollow neighbourhood in Toronto [https://www.blogto.com/city/2021/03/history-hoggs-hollow-neighbourhood-toronto/] The Hoggs Hollow Disaster | definingmomentscanada.ca [https://definingmomentscanada.ca/all-for-9/historical-articles/the-hoggs-hollow-disaster/] The Hogg’s Hollow Disaster | Canadian Labour Congress [https://canadianlabour.ca/the-hoggs-hollow-disaster-killed-five-workers-galvanized-a-community-and-changed-workplace-health-and-safety-laws-for-the-better/] Hogg's Hollow Disaster National Historic Event [https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=13076] Hoggs Hollow | cobtrades.com [https://www.cobtrades.com/hoggs-hollow] Remembering the Hoggs Hollow disaster | spacing.ca [https://spacing.ca/toronto/2023/03/17/remembering-the-hoggs-hollow-disaster/] Disaster at Hogg’s Hollow | jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com [https://jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com/2022/03/17/disaster-at-hoggs-hollow/] The Hogg’s Hollow Disaster | unionsong.com [https://unionsong.com/u480.html] Breaking Ground The Hogg's Hollow Memorial 40 th Anniversary Project | costi.org [https://www.costi.org/supportingcommunity/breakingground.php] Hogg's Hollow Tragedy (1960) | Toronto Workers' History Project [https://twhp.ca/hoggs-hollow-tragedy-1960/] BASTA! NO MORE FEAR! Remembering the Hoggs Hollow Disaster of 1960 [https://mayworks.ca/project/basta-no-more-fear-remembering-the-hoggs-hollow-disaster-of-1960/] The Hogg’s Hollow Disaster of 1960 | dresden1957.com [https://dresden1957.com/the-hoggs-hollow-disaster-of-1960] Hoggs Hollow Disaster | wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoggs_Hollow_Disaster] https://www.newspapers.com/image/1001301968/?match=1&terms=%22Hogg%27s%20Hollow%22%20tunnel [https://www.newspapers.com/image/1001301968/?match=1&terms=%22Hogg%27s%20Hollow%22%20tunnel] https://www.newspapers.com/image/950111466/?match=1&clipping_id=new [https://www.newspapers.com/image/950111466/?match=1&clipping_id=new] https://www.newspapers.com/image/1324439704/?match=1&clipping_id=new [https://www.newspapers.com/image/1324439704/?match=1&clipping_id=new] https://www.newspapers.com/image/1227727450/?match=1&clipping_id=new [https://www.newspapers.com/image/1227727450/?match=1&clipping_id=new] https://www.newspapers.com/image/1226718453/?match=1&clipping_id=new [https://www.newspapers.com/image/1226718453/?match=1&clipping_id=new] https://www.newspapers.com/image/941541607/?match=1&clipping_id=new [https://www.newspapers.com/image/941541607/?match=1&clipping_id=new] https://www.newspapers.com/image/941541580/?match=1&terms=%22Hogg%27s%20Hollow%22%20tunnel [https://www.newspapers.com/image/941541580/?match=1&terms=%22Hogg%27s%20Hollow%22%20tunnel] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Ripoffs and a Rolex: The Murder of Ronald Joseph Platt

Episode 421: On July 28, 1996, a fisherman hauling nets off the coast of Devon, England pulled up a body. The dead man had no wallet, no identification — nothing but a Rolex watch still ticking on his wrist. When British police traced the watch, it gave them a name: Ronald Joseph Platt, 51, of Essex. When they went looking for him, they found him — apparently alive. The trail led back across the Atlantic to Ayr, a small town in southwestern Ontario, where roughly seventy people had spent years trusting the wrong man with everything they had. By the time anyone understood what he'd done, he was already gone, and Ronald Platt was dead in the English Channel. Sources: Walker, Re, 1998 CanLII 14906 (ON SC) [https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/1998/1998canlii14906/1998canlii14906.html] A Hand in the Water: The Many Lies of Albert Walker — Bill Schiller (HarperCollins, 1998) [https://www.amazon.ca/hand-water-many-Albert-Walker/dp/0002557517] Nothing Sacred: The Many Lives and Betrayals of Albert Walker — Alan Cairns (McClelland-Bantam, 1998) [https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Sacred-Multiple-Betrayals-Walker/dp/0770427669] Walker's Trail of Pain — Maclean's (July 6, 1998) [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/walkers-trail-of-pain] Walker Money Hunt — Maclean's (July 20, 1998) [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/walker-money-hunt] Walker Faces Daughter at First Day of Trial — CBC News (June 1998) [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/walker-faces-daughter-at-first-day-of-trial-1.166438] Mysterious Mr. Walker Sentenced for Fraud — The Globe and Mail (July 2007) [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/mysterious-mr-walker-sentenced-for-fraud/article20399709/] Fugitive Financier Sentenced to Four Years for Fraud — CBC News (July 2007) [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fugitive-financier-turned-killer-sentenced-to-4-years-for-fraud-1.680783] Rolex Killer Denied Day Parole from B.C. Prison — Vancouver Sun (February 2024) [https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/bc-rolex-killer-albert-walker-denied-day-parole] Albert Johnson Walker — Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Johnson_Walker] The Rolex Murder — therolexmurder.com (Elaine Boyes's site) [https://therolexmurder.com/] The Rolex Killer - True Crime [https://www.watchesofespionage.com/blogs/woe-dispatch/rolex-killer-murder-mystery] Explore topics about albert-johnson-walker | Crime and Investigation UK [https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/taxonomy/term/306] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]