WEBVTT - Redpath Murders 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:14.080 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.440 Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Hey, we're doing some 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:23.400 Canadian history. But it's also Halloween. Uh so that means 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.360 this one is a little bit on the darker side. 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.880 This one is a murder mystery sort of. We know 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.199 what happened and who was involved, but the details of 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:34.879 what led to everything happening the way it did are 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.559 a little fuzzy, and there are a lot of things 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:42.440 that have been it seems like, systematically erased from the 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:48.639 historical record, So this one remains a mystery. Heads up, 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:50.960 we do want to let you know this episode involves 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.680 a lot of discussion of a domestic violence incident that 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.240 involves guns. It also involves speculation in the press about 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:01.880 the mental health of those involved. But this is about 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:06.160 what's often called the Redpath murders. On June thirteenth, nineteen 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.120 oh one, Ada Maria Redpath, who is fifty nine, and 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:13.199 her son Jocelyn Clifford, aged twenty six, were found shot 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.160 to death in their home, which was known as the 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.720 Redpath Mansion. We're going to talk about that in the 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.199 behind the scenes, but more than one hundred and twenty 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.720 years later, what exactly happened to lead to those deaths 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:28.520 remains unknown. We know how they died, but why is 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:32.120 probably something we're never going to understand. So we want 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.080 to tell their story. But first we're going to start 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.240 by talking about Ada's life and the lives of two 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.760 of her children who are closest to this strange tragedy. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.679 Ada Maria Mills was born in April twenty sixth, eighteen 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:49.000 forty two into a well off family. Her father, John 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:53.600 Easton Mills, was a well known and successful businessman. He 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.000 died when Ada was still a small child. He was, 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.320 I believe, the mayor of Montreal when he died, held 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:01.840 that post for I think less than a year at 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.920 the time, but that's kind of illustrative of how how 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:09.000 well known and how prominent he was. Aida married John 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.519 James Redpath in Putney, England, when she was twenty five. 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.679 Because she was from a well law family, Aida and 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.400 John had a marriage contract that reads kind of like 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:21.880 a modern prenup. It stated that she would retain total 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.680 control of her own wealth and assets. It's often referred 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.320 to as wording, being as though she had never married, 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:33.560 so like literally completely siloed off away from her husband's money. 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.640 She would later insist that her daughter would have the 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.720 same financial autonomy should she ever choose to marry John. 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:45.080 James Redpath was himself from a wealthy family. His father, 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.440 John Redpath's senior, had moved to Canada from Scotland in 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.840 the early nineteenth century and made a fortune in construction, 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.320 and he used that fortune to purchase more than two 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:59.560 hundred acres of land on Mount Royal, just northwest of Montreal. 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.080 He subdivided this land and resold a lot of it, 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.880 and his other wealthy families purchased the land and built 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.639 on it. This established a really wealthy neighborhood that came 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.760 to be known as the Square Mile. Over the next 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.600 hundred years, the community of the Square Mile neighborhood became 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.800 more and more intertwined. A lot of families became linked 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:26.880 through various marriages amongst themselves. Yeah, and all of those 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.000 families also kind of made a lot of business deals 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.400 with each other, so their wealth kind of kept folding 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.520 in on itself, and they, like I said, it became 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.240 this little enclave. When John and Ada married, John was 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.240 working in the Red Path Family sugar refinery. He had 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.080 been a partner in the firm at that point for 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.800 several years, but he didn't stay in that industry for 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.040 a very long time after the marriage, though, and he 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.680 actually left it to join the Victoria Rifles. That's a 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.480 volunteer military regiment based in Montreal that had formed in 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.440 eighteen sixty two. And that seems like sort of a 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.040 good indication that John really did not have to worry 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:07.200 about income. Ada and John had five children over the 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.120 course of eight years, starting in eighteen sixty eight. They 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:15.040 were Amy, Peter, John, Reginald Harold, and Jocelyn Clifford, who 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.320 went by Clifford. Aida had been the one to purchase 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.640 the family home at ten sixty five Sherbrook Street West 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.159 in the Square Mile. She did that with her family 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.400 money in eighteen seventy. We'll talk about that house a 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:30.240 bit more on Friday. Yeah, there's a little bit of 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.560 confusion about which house was the house that I ran 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:37.359 into doing research looking for a picture to put on 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.600 our social media for this, I sureted to look at 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.360 a lot of incredibly similar looking houses from right on 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.719 that same street. Yeah, this is also a problem where 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.440 there's more than one house called the Red Path Mansion 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.520 in this area. So at some point in her life, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:58.720 though Ada began having a variety of health problems. This 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.320 is a little bit tricky because the specific nature of 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.679 those issues is hard to pin down. She was treated 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.239 for a lot of different things, both physical and psychological, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:15.360 including trigeminal neuralgia, melancholy, and joint pain. Any readings that 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.480 the family wrote about her generally describe her in ways 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:22.160 that kind of characterize her as just being frail or fragile. 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.680 By the time she was in her forties. It also 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:27.760 seems like she was away from her home and her 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:32.240 children a lot for treatments for these various problems. In 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.960 an undated letter that she sent the family from New 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.840 York while she was being fitted for braces for her 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.880 joint problems, she wrote, quote, my dear children, the doctors 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:43.760 say that it would be much better if I could 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.600 remain until Monday. They want me to get quite accustomed 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.520 to my new brace before I leave, and find out 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.520 all its faults, so that they can send me home 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.520 in good order and comfortable, for they do not want 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.320 me to have to come back here very very soon. See, 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:02.640 there is no one in Montreal who can alter the 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:04.919 brace and change it if it should hurt me, and 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.520 it is better that I should stay here until they 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.680 have made it fit well. It has hurt me dreadfully, 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.080 but every day they make some little change, and tonight 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.479 it is more comfortable, although not quite right yet. And 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:19.719 I cannot walk it all yet without my crutches. It 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.080 stretches my legs so much that it makes it an 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.000 inch longer than the well leg. And doctors say that 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.279 I must let them put a thick three quarter inch 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.520 sole on the boot of my well foot. If they 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:33.960 do this, poor Harold will think me more of a 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.160 giant than ever. But never mind. If only they will 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.280 let me go home, I will be willing to wear 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.440 anything they please. And bless you, my darlings, will be 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.080 so glad to see your mother that you won't stop 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.960 to find fault with her looks. God, bless you, my 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:53.239 precious children, your loving mother. After AIDA's husband, John James 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:57.599 Redpath died on June fourth, eighteen eighty four, Ada relied 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:02.000 increasingly on her children, particularly her only daughter, who was 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:06.599 also her oldest child. That was Amy, and her youngest son, Clifford. 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.240 Amy was born on May sixteenth, eighteen sixty eight, the 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:14.239 year after Ada and John were married. The red Paths 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.440 lived abroad during their early marriage, so Amy was born 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:19.800 in Europe and then arrived in Canada when she was 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.240 still a small child. From an early age, Amy was 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.480 deeply devoted to her family, although we don't really know 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.480 if this was just her natural tendency or if it 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.080 was because she knew. The expectation was that she would 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.040 need to help with running the house and caring for 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:42.040 her younger siblings. Was really routinely expected of unmarried daughters 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.360 at the time that they would fill a role of 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:48.120 that nature within their family, and Amy had never expressed 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.240 any obvious interest in marriage or even mentioned any suitors 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.560 in her writing growing up. This of course led to 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.960 various speculations. Uh yeah, we'll talk about some of them 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.360 on Friday as well. Jocelyn Clifford Redpath was born on 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:08.840 November seventeenth, eighteen seventy six, and although his sister Amy 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.080 was only eight, she was one of his sponsors slash 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:16.520 godparents at his baptism. Clifford, who also went by Cliff, 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.360 studied at McGill University, and he joined the law program 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.200 there in eighteen ninety seven. Once he started studying law, 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.800 he also started apprenticing at the law firm of Campbell, Meredith, 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.560 Allen and Haig, and he was on track for a 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.000 law career when he graduated in nineteen hundred and started 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.959 to study for the bar exam. By the end of 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.640 the eighteen hundreds, only Amy and Clifford were still at 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.839 home with Ada, and they took care of her. Amy 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.120 ran the house and Clifford managed the finances with advice 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.520 from his older brothers and uncles. To be clear, while 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.960 they were their mother's primary companions, they weren't managing her 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.439 care alone. There was also a full house staff who 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:01.800 Amy hired and managed, including an nurse, but they were 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.480 put in the position of being the heads of the household. 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.560 Ada would travel to upstate New York in the summers 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.840 to spend time in specialty clinics or health resorts, and 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.880 Clifford usually traveled with her. On one occasion in eighteen 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.600 ninety eight, when Ada was traveling with her older son 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:22.360 Peter instead of Clifford, she was so clingy with Amy 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.320 at the train station she was set to leave that 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.920 Amy decided she had to go with their mother as well, 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.920 even though she did not have any luggage or travel 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.800 gear with her. Yeah, she wrote in a letter to 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.920 I believe it was a cousin about like, I'm going 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.920 to Saratoga Springs and I don't even have gloves. She 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.600 just was like, I have nothing. Amy and Clifford were 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.160 also very close, and they spent a lot of time together, 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.600 even when it was not necessitated by their household duties 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.880 or responsibilities. So they would attend social gatherings and church together. 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.840 They often took long walks together, and Amy helped cliff 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.360 with his law study. You would even rewrite the notes 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.880 that he had taken during lectures so that they would 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.199 be easier for him to study when he was studying 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.800 for the bar, basically like she was writing study guides 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.760 for him. Clifford was also very very close with their mother. 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.600 In a letter to Clifford in eighteen ninety eight, AIDA's 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:21.120 attachment to her youngest son is a parent. She wrote, quote, dearest, Oh, 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.600 how I miss you. I have come so to depend 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.000 on you that I am lost without you. Nothing seems 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.560 worthwhile without you, your most loving old mother. Though she 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.840 was still only in her late fifties. By nineteen oh one, 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.960 when the shooting took place, AIDA's health had declined to 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:40.760 the point that she spent her time almost exclusively in 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.640 her bedroom, and she had stopped attending even family events. 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.720 Cliff on the other hand, seemed to have a life 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.520 that was just on the precipice of real success. In 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.640 early June of nineteen oh one, there were discussions at 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.559 the law firm where he'd apprentice about making him a 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:02.600 partner once he passed the bar. That never happened. We 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:04.840 are going to talk about how the tragedy in the 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.920 Red Path Home unfolded, but first we will pause for 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:19.920 a sponsor break. So we mentioned at the top of 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.160 the episode that Ada and Clifford were quote found dead, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.680 and that is often how it's reported, but to me, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.440 that wording tends to convey this sense of distance, like 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:31.680 the house had been empty except for them, or that 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:33.839 they had been dead for some period of time before 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.000 being found, or that there could be questions about if 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.280 someone else had been in the house. None of that 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.160 was the case. It was absolutely not. They had been 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.520 discovered immediately because there were plenty of other people in 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.960 the house when the shots were fired. Those people heard 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.280 the shots and they went to investigate right away. That 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:56.000 sort of hazy and confusing sense of them being discovered 0:11:56.280 --> 0:12:00.440 later started. Immediately in the press. The Calgary Old ran 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.160 a brief notice about the deaths that read, in part quote, 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.800 Missus John J. Redpath of Sherbrooke Street, a widow lady 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.800 and her son twenty five were found dying in their 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.240 house in Missus Redpath's room late in the night from 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.360 bullet wounds in the heads. The son is in the 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.520 hospital unable to make a statement. The mother died within 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.000 an hour without making a statement. All of this actually 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.960 happened around six pm, So the late in the night 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:32.680 statement it's not really correct. No, there's a lot of 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.960 incorrect as we'll discuss. As we said, there were other 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:41.480 people home. The oldest of the redpath sons, Peter, was there. 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.560 He heard the gunfire and he ran right to the sound, 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.600 which was, as we've said, in his mother's room. There 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.000 were also members of the house staff in the home 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.240 who also went to the room. Ada did die on 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.160 the scene. Some reports say she died instantly, others make 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.280 it sound like she may have died a few minutes 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:04.079 after being found owned Clifford was still alive, although unconscious, 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.520 and he was reportedly taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital. 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.160 He died that night at eleven or eleven fifteen, or 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.080 maybe eleven fifty, maybe shortly after midnight, depending on what 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.079 account you read. Incidentally, he was never registered in hospital 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.240 records as having been admitted to the Royal Victoria or 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.040 to any other hospital. This is one of just a 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.520 lot of small inconsistencies and gaps and the information about 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.560 the shooting that have kept people scratching their heads for 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.640 more than a century. As soon as this tragedy hit 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.079 the news, there were rumors about what had really happened 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.080 in the Red Path home, and there were a lot 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.400 of factors that fueled the spread of those rumors. For one, 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.080 the red Paths were very, very wealthy. They were from 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.800 a largely insular community of similarly wealthy families, so people 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.880 naturally had a tendency to want to speculate. But for another, 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.559 the sheer shock of a tragedy like this just led 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.520 people to say speculate about it. But there were really 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:08.920 three very significant contributing factors. One, there was little investigation 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:13.840 into the shootings. Two, the family was largely unwilling to 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:17.320 discuss the matter publicly. Now, on the one hand, this 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.760 is totally understandable. Who would want to talk about the 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:24.880 sudden murder suicide of two family members while grieving and 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.920 likely in shock. But because no one from the house 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.320 was saying very much, their quiet started to be framed 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:37.280 as possibly covering something up, and three, the details kept 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:41.720 changing from report to report. One idea was that Ada 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.120 had a mental break that was brought on by ongoing 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.640 insomnia and that somehow led to the shooting. This is 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.080 the narrative that came up in news reports immediately after 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.240 the tragedy. The Sherbrooke Daily Record of Montreal printed the 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:01.400 following on June fourteenth, quote, A very sad affair occurred 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:05.400 last evening. For some months, Missus jj Redpath had been 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.320 a confirmed invalid one of the characteristics of her malady 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:14.640 being prolonged insomnia. About six o'clock, the household heard an explosion, and, 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:18.000 hurrying to her room, found both Missus Redpath and her son, 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:23.800 mister Clifford Redpath, seriously wounded by revolver shot. Missus Redpath 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.680 died in a short time. Her son was removed in 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.960 an unconscious condition to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where he 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.120 expired about midnight. Neither could give any account of what 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.920 had happened. A write up in the Weekly News Advertiser 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.480 of Vancouver, British Columbia offered similar speculation, offering quote, no 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.920 details of the tragedy are known. Missus Redpath had been 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:50.200 ill for some time, suffering from insomnia. The surmise is 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:54.520 that while temporarily mentally deranged, Missus Redpath attempted to end 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.640 her life, and in attempting to prevent her, her son 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:02.520 was shot. The unfortunate lady then completed her undertaking. But 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.320 the Ottawa Citizen had a different take. Yes, Ada was 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.720 having issues with mental health because of insomnia, but she 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:14.040 wasn't dangerous because of it. Their ride up states quote 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.320 who was responsible for the tragedy is yet a mystery. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:21.280 For some years, Missus Redpath has suffered greatly from insomnia, 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.560 to such an extent that her mind was affected. Doctor 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.200 Roddick had been in constant attendance upon her, but it 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.400 was not imagined that her condition was at all likely 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.560 to result in violence to herself or the members of 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.840 her family. Another account from the Quebec Daily Mercury seems 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.800 to state as fact the idea that Clifford murdered his 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:46.720 mother and then himself in a drunken rage. Quote. It 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.280 has transpired in connection with the Redpath tragedy that Clifford 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.520 Redpaths shot his mother and then put two bullets in 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.800 his own head. They had been quarreling for some time, 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.240 and young Redpath is said to have been under the 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.320 influence of liquor at the time of the tragedy. The 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:06.080 young man was a law student. The actual findings of 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:09.560 the coroner's inquest were different from all of these theories, 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.280 and it happened very quickly, as in the day after 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.359 the shooting is when the inquest was held, and the 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.840 coroner's jury was made up of members of wealthy families 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:26.200 from the small square mile community. There were John Dunns Junior, H. Browning, Lansing, 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:34.880 Lewis ECB. Fanshawe, George Hyde, Bartlett McLennan, Francis McLennan, John Walker, W. Maurice, 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:40.320 John Savage, W. W. Watson, Charles Esdley and Herbert Wallace. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.320 The Halifax Morning Harold reported quote. Investigation by the coroner's 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:48.280 jury today put a new light on the Redpath tragedy 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.040 of yesterday. The evidence showed that missus Redpath had been 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.040 shot twice, once in the back of the head and 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.680 then a second time in the right shoulder while the 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.760 bullet had entered young redpass head to the right of 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.760 the left temple. The jury brought in a verdict that 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:05.960 the young man had killed his mother in a fit 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.879 of temporary insanity brought on by an epileptic fit, and 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.960 then taken his own life. The first story given out 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.480 by the family that the shooting had probably been done 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.760 by the mother was due to the fact that the 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.439 young man was still alive. I feel like we should 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.960 just note that a lot of the language being used 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:29.359 to discuss things like epilepsy and mental illness completely outdated, 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.760 very outdated and offensive by today's standards, so like, just 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:39.159 don't go repeating it in casual conversation. This also brings 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.800 into focus one detail that changed repeatedly about all this. 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.840 Although initial accounts for multiple sources stated that there were 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.280 two shots, there was one account in a paper that 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.600 Clifford had shot himself twice, and then this account which 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.960 said that he had shot his mother twice. That would 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:00.879 be three shots total. So that's just another aspect of 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:05.400 all this that was inconsistent. Now, subsequent testimonies, and we're 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:07.919 going to get to those in a moment, do support 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.600 that three shots number. It seems like some papers may 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:13.720 have run on the assumption that it was just two 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:15.960 in their haste to get the news to print. As 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:18.399 we said, we're reading these news reports that are happening 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.840 like day of But that is also the kind of 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.600 detail that you might think would surely show up in 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.560 a police report. Of course it would. Hey, there isn't 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:32.520 one because there was no police investigation. A coroner's jury 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.440 was assembled there at the home, but there was never 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:39.840 a police presence. They were never called. Now how the 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.520 coroner ended up there but the police didn't is a 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.400 little unclear, although it is most likely that someone from 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.560 the house staff or the family called the coroner ed 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.800 McMahon through some sort of personal connection. The Weekly News 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.080 Advertiser of Montreal even noted in an article about the 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:00.119 shooting quote the family refuse any information and the ps 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:04.080 LELAE only heard of the matter by accident. The family 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:06.800 have issued a statement, but from it nothing can be 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.600 learned of the details of the tragedy beyond the fact 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.959 that two people are dead. We'll get into the details 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.240 of those witness testimonies to try to unravel this thing 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.000 a bit after we first pause to hear from the 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:31.800 sponsors that keep the show going. There were several witness 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.719 statements that were given and heard by the coroner's jury. 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.080 Those statements were given by Peter Redpath, AIDA's son and 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:43.440 Clifford's older brother, Thomas George Roddick, the family doctor Hugh Patton, 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.680 and Rollo Campbell, both of whom were doctors. Rose Shallow 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.199 who worked for the Red Paths. Sometimes her name is 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:52.639 written as Rosa, but it appears to have actually been 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:56.800 Rose and Charles James Fleet, who also worked in the home. 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:00.960 According to the coroner's jury report, Peter to the details 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:05.080 that we've already mentioned. According to Peter Redpath, here's what happened. 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.600 Quote yesterday evening, I saw my brother, the deceased, arriving 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.560 home at around six o'clock. He seemed ill and was tired, 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.920 working hard to prepare for his bar exams. He went 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.320 up to the room of my mother, Ada Maria Mills, 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.000 aged sixty two, and a few seconds later I heard 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:25.119 a shot from a firearm, followed by two others. I 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:27.600 ran up and broke down the door. I saw my 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.240 mother lying on the floor, and several feet from her, 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.479 my brother also lying in a pool of blood, a 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:37.840 revolver a foot away from him near his hand. My 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.960 brother had been very nervous for some time. Incidentally, he 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.720 got his mother's adron. She was fifty nine. So doctor 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.280 Roddick also testified that he was called to confirm the death. 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.919 Roddick's testimony really is the one that sets up the 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.720 idea that, based on the position of the bodies, he 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:00.160 believed that cliff shot his mother and then himself. He's 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.320 also the one that introduced the information that cliff was epileptic, 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.960 and this really establishes the way things shook out in 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.120 the jury investigation. But there is a little snag here. 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:13.960 Roddick had been in Montreal on the day of the shooting, 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:17.639 which is, you know, not where Square Mile is. It's 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.399 a little outside the city, and by some accounts, he 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:24.040 didn't actually get to the Square Mile neighborhood until the 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:28.240 following day when doctor Patten gave his statement. He said 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:30.359 that Aida had been shot in the back of the 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:33.520 head and that Clifford was shot through the left temple. 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.639 Doctor Campbell backed up Patten's account and added that he 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:41.800 thought he saw foam in Clifford's mouth, suggesting that as 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:45.800 evidence that some kind of epileptic seizure was the cause 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:50.360 of Clifford's behavior. Rose Shallow stated that she had hearched 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:53.560 the shots and followed Peter Redpath up the stairs to 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:56.000 Ada's room, and that she had seen the two bodies 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:58.320 on the floor a few feet apart, as well as 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:03.119 two revolvers near cliff Charles James Fleet stated that doctor 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:05.960 Campbell had given him the two revolvers from the scene 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:09.160 to secure, which he produced for the jury to show 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.040 that one had been discharged twice and the other had 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:15.720 been discharged once. In the matter of the death of 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:20.159 Ada Redpath, the jury's statement read quote, we the undersigned Jurors, 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.480 having heard the evidence, declare that Aida Maria Mills died 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:27.520 at Montreal on the thirteenth day of June nineteen hundred 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:31.640 and one from a gunshot wound apparently inflicted by Clifford 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:35.639 Joscelyn Redpath, while unconscious of what he was doing and 0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:39.879 temporarily insane owing to an epileptic attack from which he 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:44.080 was suffering at the time. There is actually a very 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:48.000 long quote from Ada Redpath's son Harold, which was released 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:50.199 in a lot of papers along with the news of 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:54.640