Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Hey, we're doing some
Speaker 1: Canadian history. But it's also Halloween. Uh so that means
Speaker 1: this one is a little bit on the darker side.
Speaker 1: This one is a murder mystery sort of. We know
Speaker 1: what happened and who was involved, but the details of
Speaker 1: what led to everything happening the way it did are
Speaker 1: a little fuzzy, and there are a lot of things
Speaker 1: that have been it seems like, systematically erased from the
Speaker 1: historical record, So this one remains a mystery. Heads up,
Speaker 1: we do want to let you know this episode involves
Speaker 1: a lot of discussion of a domestic violence incident that
Speaker 1: involves guns. It also involves speculation in the press about
Speaker 1: the mental health of those involved. But this is about
Speaker 1: what's often called the Redpath murders. On June thirteenth, nineteen
Speaker 1: oh one, Ada Maria Redpath, who is fifty nine, and
Speaker 1: her son Jocelyn Clifford, aged twenty six, were found shot
Speaker 1: to death in their home, which was known as the
Speaker 1: Redpath Mansion. We're going to talk about that in the
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, but more than one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: years later, what exactly happened to lead to those deaths
Speaker 1: remains unknown. We know how they died, but why is
Speaker 1: probably something we're never going to understand. So we want
Speaker 1: to tell their story. But first we're going to start
Speaker 1: by talking about Ada's life and the lives of two
Speaker 1: of her children who are closest to this strange tragedy.
Speaker 1: Ada Maria Mills was born in April twenty sixth, eighteen
Speaker 1: forty two into a well off family. Her father, John
Speaker 1: Easton Mills, was a well known and successful businessman. He
Speaker 1: died when Ada was still a small child. He was,
Speaker 1: I believe, the mayor of Montreal when he died, held
Speaker 1: that post for I think less than a year at
Speaker 1: the time, but that's kind of illustrative of how how
Speaker 1: well known and how prominent he was. Aida married John
Speaker 1: James Redpath in Putney, England, when she was twenty five.
Speaker 1: Because she was from a well law family, Aida and
Speaker 1: John had a marriage contract that reads kind of like
Speaker 1: a modern prenup. It stated that she would retain total
Speaker 1: control of her own wealth and assets. It's often referred
Speaker 1: to as wording, being as though she had never married,
Speaker 1: so like literally completely siloed off away from her husband's money.
Speaker 1: She would later insist that her daughter would have the
Speaker 1: same financial autonomy should she ever choose to marry John.
Speaker 1: James Redpath was himself from a wealthy family. His father,
Speaker 1: John Redpath's senior, had moved to Canada from Scotland in
Speaker 1: the early nineteenth century and made a fortune in construction,
Speaker 1: and he used that fortune to purchase more than two
Speaker 1: hundred acres of land on Mount Royal, just northwest of Montreal.
Speaker 1: He subdivided this land and resold a lot of it,
Speaker 1: and his other wealthy families purchased the land and built
Speaker 1: on it. This established a really wealthy neighborhood that came
Speaker 1: to be known as the Square Mile. Over the next
Speaker 1: hundred years, the community of the Square Mile neighborhood became
Speaker 1: more and more intertwined. A lot of families became linked
Speaker 1: through various marriages amongst themselves. Yeah, and all of those
Speaker 1: families also kind of made a lot of business deals
Speaker 1: with each other, so their wealth kind of kept folding
Speaker 1: in on itself, and they, like I said, it became
Speaker 1: this little enclave. When John and Ada married, John was
Speaker 1: working in the Red Path Family sugar refinery. He had
Speaker 1: been a partner in the firm at that point for
Speaker 1: several years, but he didn't stay in that industry for
Speaker 1: a very long time after the marriage, though, and he
Speaker 1: actually left it to join the Victoria Rifles. That's a
Speaker 1: volunteer military regiment based in Montreal that had formed in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two. And that seems like sort of a
Speaker 1: good indication that John really did not have to worry
Speaker 1: about income. Ada and John had five children over the
Speaker 1: course of eight years, starting in eighteen sixty eight. They
Speaker 1: were Amy, Peter, John, Reginald Harold, and Jocelyn Clifford, who
Speaker 1: went by Clifford. Aida had been the one to purchase
Speaker 1: the family home at ten sixty five Sherbrook Street West
Speaker 1: in the Square Mile. She did that with her family
Speaker 1: money in eighteen seventy. We'll talk about that house a
Speaker 1: bit more on Friday. Yeah, there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: confusion about which house was the house that I ran
Speaker 1: into doing research looking for a picture to put on
Speaker 1: our social media for this, I sureted to look at
Speaker 1: a lot of incredibly similar looking houses from right on
Speaker 1: that same street. Yeah, this is also a problem where
Speaker 1: there's more than one house called the Red Path Mansion
Speaker 1: in this area. So at some point in her life,
Speaker 1: though Ada began having a variety of health problems. This
Speaker 1: is a little bit tricky because the specific nature of
Speaker 1: those issues is hard to pin down. She was treated
Speaker 1: for a lot of different things, both physical and psychological,
Speaker 1: including trigeminal neuralgia, melancholy, and joint pain. Any readings that
Speaker 1: the family wrote about her generally describe her in ways
Speaker 1: that kind of characterize her as just being frail or fragile.
Speaker 1: By the time she was in her forties. It also
Speaker 1: seems like she was away from her home and her
Speaker 1: children a lot for treatments for these various problems. In
Speaker 1: an undated letter that she sent the family from New
Speaker 1: York while she was being fitted for braces for her
Speaker 1: joint problems, she wrote, quote, my dear children, the doctors
Speaker 1: say that it would be much better if I could
Speaker 1: remain until Monday. They want me to get quite accustomed
Speaker 1: to my new brace before I leave, and find out
Speaker 1: all its faults, so that they can send me home
Speaker 1: in good order and comfortable, for they do not want
Speaker 1: me to have to come back here very very soon. See,
Speaker 1: there is no one in Montreal who can alter the
Speaker 1: brace and change it if it should hurt me, and
Speaker 1: it is better that I should stay here until they
Speaker 1: have made it fit well. It has hurt me dreadfully,
Speaker 1: but every day they make some little change, and tonight
Speaker 1: it is more comfortable, although not quite right yet. And
Speaker 1: I cannot walk it all yet without my crutches. It
Speaker 1: stretches my legs so much that it makes it an
Speaker 1: inch longer than the well leg. And doctors say that
Speaker 1: I must let them put a thick three quarter inch
Speaker 1: sole on the boot of my well foot. If they
Speaker 1: do this, poor Harold will think me more of a
Speaker 1: giant than ever. But never mind. If only they will
Speaker 1: let me go home, I will be willing to wear
Speaker 1: anything they please. And bless you, my darlings, will be
Speaker 1: so glad to see your mother that you won't stop
Speaker 1: to find fault with her looks. God, bless you, my
Speaker 1: precious children, your loving mother. After AIDA's husband, John James
Speaker 1: Redpath died on June fourth, eighteen eighty four, Ada relied
Speaker 1: increasingly on her children, particularly her only daughter, who was
Speaker 1: also her oldest child. That was Amy, and her youngest son, Clifford.
Speaker 1: Amy was born on May sixteenth, eighteen sixty eight, the
Speaker 1: year after Ada and John were married. The red Paths
Speaker 1: lived abroad during their early marriage, so Amy was born
Speaker 1: in Europe and then arrived in Canada when she was
Speaker 1: still a small child. From an early age, Amy was
Speaker 1: deeply devoted to her family, although we don't really know
Speaker 1: if this was just her natural tendency or if it
Speaker 1: was because she knew. The expectation was that she would
Speaker 1: need to help with running the house and caring for
Speaker 1: her younger siblings. Was really routinely expected of unmarried daughters
Speaker 1: at the time that they would fill a role of
Speaker 1: that nature within their family, and Amy had never expressed
Speaker 1: any obvious interest in marriage or even mentioned any suitors
Speaker 1: in her writing growing up. This of course led to
Speaker 1: various speculations. Uh yeah, we'll talk about some of them
Speaker 1: on Friday as well. Jocelyn Clifford Redpath was born on
Speaker 1: November seventeenth, eighteen seventy six, and although his sister Amy
Speaker 1: was only eight, she was one of his sponsors slash
Speaker 1: godparents at his baptism. Clifford, who also went by Cliff,
Speaker 1: studied at McGill University, and he joined the law program
Speaker 1: there in eighteen ninety seven. Once he started studying law,
Speaker 1: he also started apprenticing at the law firm of Campbell, Meredith,
Speaker 1: Allen and Haig, and he was on track for a
Speaker 1: law career when he graduated in nineteen hundred and started
Speaker 1: to study for the bar exam. By the end of
Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds, only Amy and Clifford were still at
Speaker 1: home with Ada, and they took care of her. Amy
Speaker 1: ran the house and Clifford managed the finances with advice
Speaker 1: from his older brothers and uncles. To be clear, while
Speaker 1: they were their mother's primary companions, they weren't managing her
Speaker 1: care alone. There was also a full house staff who
Speaker 1: Amy hired and managed, including an nurse, but they were
Speaker 1: put in the position of being the heads of the household.
Speaker 1: Ada would travel to upstate New York in the summers
Speaker 1: to spend time in specialty clinics or health resorts, and
Speaker 1: Clifford usually traveled with her. On one occasion in eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety eight, when Ada was traveling with her older son
Speaker 1: Peter instead of Clifford, she was so clingy with Amy
Speaker 1: at the train station she was set to leave that
Speaker 1: Amy decided she had to go with their mother as well,
Speaker 1: even though she did not have any luggage or travel
Speaker 1: gear with her. Yeah, she wrote in a letter to
Speaker 1: I believe it was a cousin about like, I'm going
Speaker 1: to Saratoga Springs and I don't even have gloves. She
Speaker 1: just was like, I have nothing. Amy and Clifford were
Speaker 1: also very close, and they spent a lot of time together,
Speaker 1: even when it was not necessitated by their household duties
Speaker 1: or responsibilities. So they would attend social gatherings and church together.
Speaker 1: They often took long walks together, and Amy helped cliff
Speaker 1: with his law study. You would even rewrite the notes
Speaker 1: that he had taken during lectures so that they would
Speaker 1: be easier for him to study when he was studying
Speaker 1: for the bar, basically like she was writing study guides
Speaker 1: for him. Clifford was also very very close with their mother.
Speaker 1: In a letter to Clifford in eighteen ninety eight, AIDA's
Speaker 1: attachment to her youngest son is a parent. She wrote, quote, dearest, Oh,
Speaker 1: how I miss you. I have come so to depend
Speaker 1: on you that I am lost without you. Nothing seems
Speaker 1: worthwhile without you, your most loving old mother. Though she
Speaker 1: was still only in her late fifties. By nineteen oh one,
Speaker 1: when the shooting took place, AIDA's health had declined to
Speaker 1: the point that she spent her time almost exclusively in
Speaker 1: her bedroom, and she had stopped attending even family events.
Speaker 1: Cliff on the other hand, seemed to have a life
Speaker 1: that was just on the precipice of real success. In
Speaker 1: early June of nineteen oh one, there were discussions at
Speaker 1: the law firm where he'd apprentice about making him a
Speaker 1: partner once he passed the bar. That never happened. We
Speaker 1: are going to talk about how the tragedy in the
Speaker 1: Red Path Home unfolded, but first we will pause for
Speaker 1: a sponsor break. So we mentioned at the top of
Speaker 1: the episode that Ada and Clifford were quote found dead,
Speaker 1: and that is often how it's reported, but to me,
Speaker 1: that wording tends to convey this sense of distance, like
Speaker 1: the house had been empty except for them, or that
Speaker 1: they had been dead for some period of time before
Speaker 1: being found, or that there could be questions about if
Speaker 1: someone else had been in the house. None of that
Speaker 1: was the case. It was absolutely not. They had been
Speaker 1: discovered immediately because there were plenty of other people in
Speaker 1: the house when the shots were fired. Those people heard
Speaker 1: the shots and they went to investigate right away. That
Speaker 1: sort of hazy and confusing sense of them being discovered
Speaker 1: later started. Immediately in the press. The Calgary Old ran
Speaker 1: a brief notice about the deaths that read, in part quote,
Speaker 1: Missus John J. Redpath of Sherbrooke Street, a widow lady
Speaker 1: and her son twenty five were found dying in their
Speaker 1: house in Missus Redpath's room late in the night from
Speaker 1: bullet wounds in the heads. The son is in the
Speaker 1: hospital unable to make a statement. The mother died within
Speaker 1: an hour without making a statement. All of this actually
Speaker 1: happened around six pm, So the late in the night
Speaker 1: statement it's not really correct. No, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: incorrect as we'll discuss. As we said, there were other
Speaker 1: people home. The oldest of the redpath sons, Peter, was there.
Speaker 1: He heard the gunfire and he ran right to the sound,
Speaker 1: which was, as we've said, in his mother's room. There
Speaker 1: were also members of the house staff in the home
Speaker 1: who also went to the room. Ada did die on
Speaker 1: the scene. Some reports say she died instantly, others make
Speaker 1: it sound like she may have died a few minutes
Speaker 1: after being found owned Clifford was still alive, although unconscious,
Speaker 1: and he was reportedly taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Speaker 1: He died that night at eleven or eleven fifteen, or
Speaker 1: maybe eleven fifty, maybe shortly after midnight, depending on what
Speaker 1: account you read. Incidentally, he was never registered in hospital
Speaker 1: records as having been admitted to the Royal Victoria or
Speaker 1: to any other hospital. This is one of just a
Speaker 1: lot of small inconsistencies and gaps and the information about
Speaker 1: the shooting that have kept people scratching their heads for
Speaker 1: more than a century. As soon as this tragedy hit
Speaker 1: the news, there were rumors about what had really happened
Speaker 1: in the Red Path home, and there were a lot
Speaker 1: of factors that fueled the spread of those rumors. For one,
Speaker 1: the red Paths were very, very wealthy. They were from
Speaker 1: a largely insular community of similarly wealthy families, so people
Speaker 1: naturally had a tendency to want to speculate. But for another,
Speaker 1: the sheer shock of a tragedy like this just led
Speaker 1: people to say speculate about it. But there were really
Speaker 1: three very significant contributing factors. One, there was little investigation
Speaker 1: into the shootings. Two, the family was largely unwilling to
Speaker 1: discuss the matter publicly. Now, on the one hand, this
Speaker 1: is totally understandable. Who would want to talk about the
Speaker 1: sudden murder suicide of two family members while grieving and
Speaker 1: likely in shock. But because no one from the house
Speaker 1: was saying very much, their quiet started to be framed
Speaker 1: as possibly covering something up, and three, the details kept
Speaker 1: changing from report to report. One idea was that Ada
Speaker 1: had a mental break that was brought on by ongoing
Speaker 1: insomnia and that somehow led to the shooting. This is
Speaker 1: the narrative that came up in news reports immediately after
Speaker 1: the tragedy. The Sherbrooke Daily Record of Montreal printed the
Speaker 1: following on June fourteenth, quote, A very sad affair occurred
Speaker 1: last evening. For some months, Missus jj Redpath had been
Speaker 1: a confirmed invalid one of the characteristics of her malady
Speaker 1: being prolonged insomnia. About six o'clock, the household heard an explosion, and,
Speaker 1: hurrying to her room, found both Missus Redpath and her son,
Speaker 1: mister Clifford Redpath, seriously wounded by revolver shot. Missus Redpath
Speaker 1: died in a short time. Her son was removed in
Speaker 1: an unconscious condition to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where he
Speaker 1: expired about midnight. Neither could give any account of what
Speaker 1: had happened. A write up in the Weekly News Advertiser
Speaker 1: of Vancouver, British Columbia offered similar speculation, offering quote, no
Speaker 1: details of the tragedy are known. Missus Redpath had been
Speaker 1: ill for some time, suffering from insomnia. The surmise is
Speaker 1: that while temporarily mentally deranged, Missus Redpath attempted to end
Speaker 1: her life, and in attempting to prevent her, her son
Speaker 1: was shot. The unfortunate lady then completed her undertaking. But
Speaker 1: the Ottawa Citizen had a different take. Yes, Ada was
Speaker 1: having issues with mental health because of insomnia, but she
Speaker 1: wasn't dangerous because of it. Their ride up states quote
Speaker 1: who was responsible for the tragedy is yet a mystery.
Speaker 1: For some years, Missus Redpath has suffered greatly from insomnia,
Speaker 1: to such an extent that her mind was affected. Doctor
Speaker 1: Roddick had been in constant attendance upon her, but it
Speaker 1: was not imagined that her condition was at all likely
Speaker 1: to result in violence to herself or the members of
Speaker 1: her family. Another account from the Quebec Daily Mercury seems
Speaker 1: to state as fact the idea that Clifford murdered his
Speaker 1: mother and then himself in a drunken rage. Quote. It
Speaker 1: has transpired in connection with the Redpath tragedy that Clifford
Speaker 1: Redpaths shot his mother and then put two bullets in
Speaker 1: his own head. They had been quarreling for some time,
Speaker 1: and young Redpath is said to have been under the
Speaker 1: influence of liquor at the time of the tragedy. The
Speaker 1: young man was a law student. The actual findings of
Speaker 1: the coroner's inquest were different from all of these theories,
Speaker 1: and it happened very quickly, as in the day after
Speaker 1: the shooting is when the inquest was held, and the
Speaker 1: coroner's jury was made up of members of wealthy families
Speaker 1: from the small square mile community. There were John Dunns Junior, H. Browning, Lansing,
Speaker 1: Lewis ECB. Fanshawe, George Hyde, Bartlett McLennan, Francis McLennan, John Walker, W. Maurice,
Speaker 1: John Savage, W. W. Watson, Charles Esdley and Herbert Wallace.
Speaker 1: The Halifax Morning Harold reported quote. Investigation by the coroner's
Speaker 1: jury today put a new light on the Redpath tragedy
Speaker 1: of yesterday. The evidence showed that missus Redpath had been
Speaker 1: shot twice, once in the back of the head and
Speaker 1: then a second time in the right shoulder while the
Speaker 1: bullet had entered young redpass head to the right of
Speaker 1: the left temple. The jury brought in a verdict that
Speaker 1: the young man had killed his mother in a fit
Speaker 1: of temporary insanity brought on by an epileptic fit, and
Speaker 1: then taken his own life. The first story given out
Speaker 1: by the family that the shooting had probably been done
Speaker 1: by the mother was due to the fact that the
Speaker 1: young man was still alive. I feel like we should
Speaker 1: just note that a lot of the language being used
Speaker 1: to discuss things like epilepsy and mental illness completely outdated,
Speaker 1: very outdated and offensive by today's standards, so like, just
Speaker 1: don't go repeating it in casual conversation. This also brings
Speaker 1: into focus one detail that changed repeatedly about all this.
Speaker 1: Although initial accounts for multiple sources stated that there were
Speaker 1: two shots, there was one account in a paper that
Speaker 1: Clifford had shot himself twice, and then this account which
Speaker 1: said that he had shot his mother twice. That would
Speaker 1: be three shots total. So that's just another aspect of
Speaker 1: all this that was inconsistent. Now, subsequent testimonies, and we're
Speaker 1: going to get to those in a moment, do support
Speaker 1: that three shots number. It seems like some papers may
Speaker 1: have run on the assumption that it was just two
Speaker 1: in their haste to get the news to print. As
Speaker 1: we said, we're reading these news reports that are happening
Speaker 1: like day of But that is also the kind of
Speaker 1: detail that you might think would surely show up in
Speaker 1: a police report. Of course it would. Hey, there isn't
Speaker 1: one because there was no police investigation. A coroner's jury
Speaker 1: was assembled there at the home, but there was never
Speaker 1: a police presence. They were never called. Now how the
Speaker 1: coroner ended up there but the police didn't is a
Speaker 1: little unclear, although it is most likely that someone from
Speaker 1: the house staff or the family called the coroner ed
Speaker 1: McMahon through some sort of personal connection. The Weekly News
Speaker 1: Advertiser of Montreal even noted in an article about the
Speaker 1: shooting quote the family refuse any information and the ps
Speaker 1: LELAE only heard of the matter by accident. The family
Speaker 1: have issued a statement, but from it nothing can be
Speaker 1: learned of the details of the tragedy beyond the fact
Speaker 1: that two people are dead. We'll get into the details
Speaker 1: of those witness testimonies to try to unravel this thing
Speaker 1: a bit after we first pause to hear from the
Speaker 1: sponsors that keep the show going. There were several witness
Speaker 1: statements that were given and heard by the coroner's jury.
Speaker 1: Those statements were given by Peter Redpath, AIDA's son and
Speaker 1: Clifford's older brother, Thomas George Roddick, the family doctor Hugh Patton,
Speaker 1: and Rollo Campbell, both of whom were doctors. Rose Shallow
Speaker 1: who worked for the Red Paths. Sometimes her name is
Speaker 1: written as Rosa, but it appears to have actually been
Speaker 1: Rose and Charles James Fleet, who also worked in the home.
Speaker 1: According to the coroner's jury report, Peter to the details
Speaker 1: that we've already mentioned. According to Peter Redpath, here's what happened.
Speaker 1: Quote yesterday evening, I saw my brother, the deceased, arriving
Speaker 1: home at around six o'clock. He seemed ill and was tired,
Speaker 1: working hard to prepare for his bar exams. He went
Speaker 1: up to the room of my mother, Ada Maria Mills,
Speaker 1: aged sixty two, and a few seconds later I heard
Speaker 1: a shot from a firearm, followed by two others. I
Speaker 1: ran up and broke down the door. I saw my
Speaker 1: mother lying on the floor, and several feet from her,
Speaker 1: my brother also lying in a pool of blood, a
Speaker 1: revolver a foot away from him near his hand. My
Speaker 1: brother had been very nervous for some time. Incidentally, he
Speaker 1: got his mother's adron. She was fifty nine. So doctor
Speaker 1: Roddick also testified that he was called to confirm the death.
Speaker 1: Roddick's testimony really is the one that sets up the
Speaker 1: idea that, based on the position of the bodies, he
Speaker 1: believed that cliff shot his mother and then himself. He's
Speaker 1: also the one that introduced the information that cliff was epileptic,
Speaker 1: and this really establishes the way things shook out in
Speaker 1: the jury investigation. But there is a little snag here.
Speaker 1: Roddick had been in Montreal on the day of the shooting,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, not where Square Mile is. It's
Speaker 1: a little outside the city, and by some accounts, he
Speaker 1: didn't actually get to the Square Mile neighborhood until the
Speaker 1: following day when doctor Patten gave his statement. He said
Speaker 1: that Aida had been shot in the back of the
Speaker 1: head and that Clifford was shot through the left temple.
Speaker 1: Doctor Campbell backed up Patten's account and added that he
Speaker 1: thought he saw foam in Clifford's mouth, suggesting that as
Speaker 1: evidence that some kind of epileptic seizure was the cause
Speaker 1: of Clifford's behavior. Rose Shallow stated that she had hearched
Speaker 1: the shots and followed Peter Redpath up the stairs to
Speaker 1: Ada's room, and that she had seen the two bodies
Speaker 1: on the floor a few feet apart, as well as
Speaker 1: two revolvers near cliff Charles James Fleet stated that doctor
Speaker 1: Campbell had given him the two revolvers from the scene
Speaker 1: to secure, which he produced for the jury to show
Speaker 1: that one had been discharged twice and the other had
Speaker 1: been discharged once. In the matter of the death of
Speaker 1: Ada Redpath, the jury's statement read quote, we the undersigned Jurors,
Speaker 1: having heard the evidence, declare that Aida Maria Mills died
Speaker 1: at Montreal on the thirteenth day of June nineteen hundred
Speaker 1: and one from a gunshot wound apparently inflicted by Clifford
Speaker 1: Joscelyn Redpath, while unconscious of what he was doing and
Speaker 1: temporarily insane owing to an epileptic attack from which he
Speaker 1: was suffering at the time. There is actually a very
Speaker 1: long quote from Ada Redpath's son Harold, which was released
Speaker 1: in a lot of papers along with the news of
Speaker 1: the coroner's jury's findings. In it, Harold stated that quote,
Speaker 1: I left Clifford about two o'clock yesterday in good spirits,
Speaker 1: though somewhat unwell. In fact, Clifford had been indisposed for
Speaker 1: some time owing to hard work preparing for his day examinations.
Speaker 1: No one knows just how the affair occurred. Clifford was
Speaker 1: particularly fond of his mother. The statement from Harold Redpath
Speaker 1: goes on to say that the older brother believed that
Speaker 1: the only explanation that made any sense was that Clifford
Speaker 1: had some sort of quote, moment of temporary aberration and
Speaker 1: that led to the shooting. The brothers had, according to Harold,
Speaker 1: been planning a trip to Quebec so that Clifford could
Speaker 1: get in some quiet time and continue his studying. As
Speaker 1: we said, this statement is long. It's paragraphs long, and
Speaker 1: even though it's framed in the write up as though
Speaker 1: it was part of a conversation that Harold had with
Speaker 1: a reporter, it really reads like a press release. Harold
Speaker 1: may have been exactly as well spoken as the lengthy
Speaker 1: quote makes him seem, but his answer may also have
Speaker 1: been edited by the paper to take out things like
Speaker 1: repetition or to improve clarity. This also makes it seem
Speaker 1: kind of like this was the family's one public statement
Speaker 1: that they were going to make on the matter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you've ever read somebody's interview and read a press statement,
Speaker 1: they're not the same in tone, and this one definitely,
Speaker 1: like I said, it reads like a press statement. There
Speaker 1: are some pieces of information that are held up as
Speaker 1: evidence that Clifford read Path was not in any way suicidal.
Speaker 1: One of these is a check which he wrote to
Speaker 1: the Bar of Montreal just two days before the shooting
Speaker 1: to pay for his examination fee. As we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: he was also in discussion with his bosses at the
Speaker 1: law firm where he was apprenticing about becoming a partner
Speaker 1: just days before this all happened. People that hold this
Speaker 1: theory that Clifford was not suicidal point out that conversely,
Speaker 1: his sister Amy's descriptions of their mother Ada in the
Speaker 1: months leading up to the deaths describe her as being
Speaker 1: in a very depressed state where she considered life a burden.
Speaker 1: The funeral for Ada and Clifford was held at Saint
Speaker 1: John the Evangelist Church the day after the coroner's jury
Speaker 1: came to their conclusion regarding the shooting, was less than
Speaker 1: forty eight hours after it happened. This was unusual because
Speaker 1: they were both given a high Anglican funeral, even though
Speaker 1: suicide and homicide would have both been disqualifiers for such
Speaker 1: a service for Clifford, a paper written by researchers from
Speaker 1: McGill University about the family and the deaths for the
Speaker 1: Material Culture Review makes the case that Amy Redpath was
Speaker 1: influential enough in the Square Mile community she was able
Speaker 1: to get Clifford the formal funeral, despite it really being
Speaker 1: contrary to church policy. Both Ada and Clifford were interred
Speaker 1: at Mount Royal Cemetery. Yeah. It's also pointed out often
Speaker 1: that in municipal records there are no suicides listed as
Speaker 1: having occurred that year. So whether or not Amy was
Speaker 1: influential enough to have made sure those were not on
Speaker 1: the record, we don't know. But Amy really controlled the
Speaker 1: flow of information or black thereof about the shooting and
Speaker 1: prevented anything else from spreading to the public. She seems
Speaker 1: to have destroyed any discussion of the matter that may
Speaker 1: have passed among family members in letters, and wrote to
Speaker 1: her sister in law on August twenty fourth, so just
Speaker 1: a little over two months after this tragedy quote, I
Speaker 1: spent yesterday sorting and tearing up old letters, rather a
Speaker 1: mournful business. One of the things that really stands out
Speaker 1: as odd in the weeks and years following the murder
Speaker 1: suicide was the way in which cliff was discussed within
Speaker 1: the red Path family in the few surviving letters. Every
Speaker 1: note about this tragedy speaks of what an amazing young
Speaker 1: man he was, and how adored he was, what a
Speaker 1: loss it is that he's gone. But the same really
Speaker 1: cannot be said for Ada. They don't say much of her.
Speaker 1: We don't know, of course, if this is a case
Speaker 1: where Clifford's youth played a role in shaping the way
Speaker 1: that people in the family grieved for him, or if
Speaker 1: there were any kind of missives that expressed anger about
Speaker 1: his actions or spoke more mournfully about the family matriarch
Speaker 1: that we just don't have. Ada is a state valued
Speaker 1: at one hundred and seventy nine thousand and eighty six
Speaker 1: dollars and six cents was distributed among her heirs. Amy
Speaker 1: chose to stay in the house where her brother and
Speaker 1: her mother died, although the rest of the family mostly
Speaker 1: left the Montreal area in the decade that followed the tragedy.
Speaker 1: She also married doctor Thomas Roddick, who had been the
Speaker 1: attending physician to Missus Redpath and a key witness in
Speaker 1: the Corner's inquest. Three years after the shooting, one of
Speaker 1: the Redpath cousins, Lily Dougal, wrote a novel titled The
Speaker 1: Summit House Mystery, which borrowed details from this murder suicide
Speaker 1: at the Redpath home in nineteen oh one. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: also kind of combined some details that seem like they
Speaker 1: came from the Lizzie Board stories, So like, it's not
Speaker 1: something you can point to you and go, haha, this
Speaker 1: is there clues. It was definitely fictionalized stuff. McGill University
Speaker 1: still has the Red Path Library and the Red Path Museum.
Speaker 1: Their family donated a lot of money to the university
Speaker 1: over the years. The library's function has changed. It's now
Speaker 1: used as a hall for large events like school ceremonies,
Speaker 1: But the Red Path Museum, which was designed by architects
Speaker 1: Hutchinson and Steel in eighteen eighty two and has been
Speaker 1: called the first purpose built museum in Canada. Is still
Speaker 1: a natural sciences museum. The Red Path Mansion is not
Speaker 1: a place you can visit, though it no longer exists.
Speaker 1: The home was demolished in nineteen fifty six. Amy had
Speaker 1: died two years prior, and the property was purchased by
Speaker 1: a development company. We will, of course, never know what
Speaker 1: exactly happened in Ada's bedroom on June thirteenth, nineteen oh one.
Speaker 1: We know that both of those people died by gunshot,
Speaker 1: but because of how the whole incident was handled, it
Speaker 1: can be difficult to trust even the official record on
Speaker 1: the matter of who shot who, and we have no
Speaker 1: idea what may have transpired between Ada and Cliff to
Speaker 1: catalyze their tragic deaths. If there was any insight into that,
Speaker 1: it seems that Amy Redpath probably destroyed it. One thing
Speaker 1: we haven't talked about regarding the Redpath family and Amy
Speaker 1: in particular, is that she was a writer. She wrote
Speaker 1: a number of closet dramas those are plays that were
Speaker 1: written to be performed either privately or not at all,
Speaker 1: and she also wrote poetry. She wrote two poems about
Speaker 1: her brother cliff after he died. We don't know of
Speaker 1: any that she wrote for her mother. One of her
Speaker 1: poems to Clifford, which is titled perfect in Thy Promise,
Speaker 1: clearly shows her working through her grief in an effort
Speaker 1: to find peace in the loss of her brother. So
Speaker 1: that seemed like a good place to end this one.
Speaker 1: Perfect in Thy Promise as the but unfolding, perfect in
Speaker 1: thyself as rose, fresh blown, ever gracious, all that's pure
Speaker 1: and good, upholding perfect spirit. Hast thou really flown? Must
Speaker 1: I dwell alone the many dismal morrows, far from blissful
Speaker 1: hope together spanned, hope of service through assuaging dearth and sorrows,
Speaker 1: hope of golden deeds. Together planned know the heavy morning
Speaker 1: weeds I tear as under struggle from the clouds that
Speaker 1: blacken round, close my ears to their unholy woesome thunder,
Speaker 1: rise anew to life from grief, unbound perfect spirit. Now
Speaker 1: I know that thou art near me in thy prescient calm.
Speaker 1: I rest content, trusting in thy love to guard and
Speaker 1: help and steer me till I too have reached life's
Speaker 1: high ascent. Not the most halloween ee of Halloweene episodes,
Speaker 1: but you know, a mystery murder seemed like the right
Speaker 1: fit for today. You have some listener man for us,
Speaker 1: I sure do. It's about an older episode and an
Speaker 1: artist that I love, because that seems like a peppy
Speaker 1: place to land. This. This is from our listener, Andy,
Speaker 1: who writes, Hi, Holly and Tracy. I've been listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast since twenty fifteen ish and I'm always trying
Speaker 1: to come up with a good reason to write you. Well,
Speaker 1: this may or may not actually be a good reason,
Speaker 1: but it made me think of you as an asign.
Speaker 1: Can you just write us and say hi, and also hello?
Speaker 1: If you're going to talk about art, that's always a
Speaker 1: very good reason. Andy writes, I was in Venice recently
Speaker 1: at the end of a three month trip around Europe,
Speaker 1: and the Palazzo Ducale had a special showing of Artemisia
Speaker 1: Gentileski's Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy on loan from a private collection.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I think a lot of people brushed
Speaker 1: past it, and I wouldn't have even known who Artemisia
Speaker 1: Gentileski was if it wasn't for the podcast, So I
Speaker 1: kind of felt like I was in on a secret.
Speaker 1: I wish I had some insightful info to add here,
Speaker 1: but this is mostly just me popping in to say hello,
Speaker 1: and you don't really want the deluge of all the
Speaker 1: history nerdery I soaked up on the trip, though, I
Speaker 1: suspect you two of all people would appreciate it. Thank
Speaker 1: you for all the cheers, Andy. This also has photos
Speaker 1: of that painting and Venice and her cat and Andy's
Speaker 1: cat Luna, which is always a delight. Luna is very
Speaker 1: very cute and and is wearing a kicky little red
Speaker 1: sweater and looks adorable. Yay, Andy, thank you so much. No,
Speaker 1: I love hearing that people you know appreciate it art
Speaker 1: in a new way because of the show. That's a
Speaker 1: great honor to us. But also ooh lucky. Anytime there's
Speaker 1: a painting like that that's normally in a private collection
Speaker 1: and not a public view and then goes up as
Speaker 1: a loner, that's kind of a thrill. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: you got to see it, and I'm glad you shared
Speaker 1: that with us. If you would like to write to us,
Speaker 1: you can do so at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also find us on social media. As missed
Speaker 1: in History and if you haven't subscribed to the podcast yet,
Speaker 1: easiest pie. You can do that on the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 1: or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff you
Speaker 1: Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For
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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.