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