Mysterious Ontario-OH!


True Stories Your History Teacher Wouldn't Tell You!

Ontario's History is not as boring as you have been told and why have History Classes left out all the weird and ghostly tales that make up Ontario's History?-we're talking murders, public hangings, prisoner's buried alive, women burned at the stake for witchery and even Canada's own Ku Klux Klan! Read the untold real stories posted here each month.

Your Host is Patrick Cross. Ghost Researcher, Author and Radio Host bringing you covered-up and erased History stories of
Ontario's Mysterious History

Patrick is also Director of Burlington Ghost Walks and Tours, Burlington, Ontario which he conducts a 2 1/2 hour walk with Michelle Desrochers on Famous Hauntings and Ghosts of Burlington, History and Ghostly Folklore of Burlington, Ontario

Disappearance of the Beothuks Tribe

You probably haven't heard of the Beothuks, a tribe of some 500 Indians who originally formed within the Mohawks in Ontario and later migrated east to Newfoundland. Some of the early European settlers hunted these natives down as a blood sport and by 1827, the Beothuks were extinct-victims of mass murder, Canadian Style. Many were tortured, pulled by horses across the land till dead and also used as target practice by traders. Out of 27 history textbooks used in high schools-only 2 mention the tribes story, both were in-accurate, stating the tribe simply disappeared. The trouble with history books is they tell us the obvious facts of Canada's Political and Economic progress but ignore most of the controversy. Leaving out true stories past down from the ages that most people would find very interesting and want to know.


Public Hangings - Stand Back and Let the Ladies See!

It looked as if a Carnival had come to town! in Cayuga, Ontario. The town in what is now Southern Ontario, was swarming with people on a day in May 1855. Nearly 5,000 people-mostly women-surrounded the courthouse. Firecrackers were exploding, Merchants sold their wares, Men pitched pennies, Fathers held their kids on their shoulders. But at 1:30pm everyone stopped to stare at a platform at the courthouse door. A police constable waived his stick and shouted, "Stand Back and let the Ladies See-Make Way!". The crowd parted to make way for the women in the audience to watch 2 men being hanged that day. As the sound of a rope snapped, one of the prisoner's hood fell off exposing the man's eyes bulging out in death. The crowd cheered. Just another day in 19th century Canada.

The law was harsh back then. Offenders in Upper and Lower Canada were whipped in open court, branded on the hand, tongues cut out to set an example that hangings were held in public as warnings to wrong-doers. Often the hangings became like public holiday's with schools closing for the day and up to 10,000 people attending the execution. It makes you wonder how we ever had a honourable justice system. One of the first person's to be hanged was in York, now known as Toronto, where Humphrey Sullivan was executed publicly in 1800.

A fellow Irishman who witnessed Sullivan's death later wrote, "This man who was in for robbery and had the promise of a Pardon with Twenty Guineas to get him out of the country, had the office filled with people ignoring his pardon. The man who was to die, fell 3 times from the Gallows because the noose was not on the man's neck correctly!" The bungling of Sullivan's death was typical in those days. Hangmen were amateurs recruited for the occassion and they often wore masks to hide their identity. In 1846, 3 Negroes were hanged in the market square of Brantford, Ontario for merely robbing the mail boxes. Many people were hanged just for committing small crimes such as stealing bread or food to live.

Another man, also with the name Sullivan was convicted of forgery-forging a note less than one dollar, was hanged in York by a man named McKnight. The first time the trap was sprung, the knot on the noose didn't hold and Sullivan wasn't even hurt. As McKnight adjusted the rope for the second try, Sullivan spoke out; "I hope to goodness, man, you've got the rope right this time!". He Had. After the man's death, as the man's body was later taken away, people noticed a man standing by the gallows pointing out to the crowd, as if scolding them, then faded away in thin air. Could it be the ghost of the dead man seeking his revenge? It's a mystery to this day.

Irish born, James Patrick Whelan was arrested for killing Thomas Darcy McGee, MP, one of the Fathers of Confederation - April 12, 1869. After claiming he didn't kill the man and 10 months of trial appeals, he was publicly hanged at the Ottawa Jail in a snowstorm on February 11, 1869. It was supposed to be the last public execution in Canada and were now banned by the Government, but hangings still went on including a gallows erected at Hamilton's Dundurn Castle, where over 355 men were hung in 1875 as traitors and war runaways outide the entrance of Dundurn Castle.

Most condemned men seemed to have made public confessions on the gallows, even asking for spirits or ale as a last request and some went out with real style. John Mitchell of Hamilton, who had killed his common-law wife, refused to have the usual hood covering over his face when he was executed in 1859. Samuel Lount and Peter Mathews-rebels convicted of fighting the government in 1837, both of them kissed the sheriff who came to prepare them for the hangings. Some men liked the attention of the crowd, they asked the crowd to cheer for them as they were hanged!


Canadian Exclusive News Story - Homolka's GHOSTS!

News: Homolka Sought Psychics to conduct an Exorcism and rid her of her Ghosts!

The actual story that was printed in the Toronto Star in 1994, Karla Homolka sought Psychics to conduct an exorcism or whatever it would take to get rid of ghosts in the basement of her home where Leslie Mahaffy was dismembered. In 1993, Patrick received a frantic call on his office answering machine from a woman who needed someone to conduct an exorcism. The name that was left said, "This is Karla Homolka, Pleassse Call Karla!, I need your help!"This article later mysteriously disappeared and was wiped from the newspaper's archives. There is no record of Karla's Ghosts or Hauntings and over 1,000 court pages documenting her experiences are said to be sealed and locked away from the trial evidence. Just what are in those pages of her psychic sessions? Some of the sealed court documents are believed to include details of Karla's haunting experiences including performing Satanic Rituals, drinking human blood and using a Ouija Board. A true Mystery of Evil...from the Devil's Mistress - Karla Homolka.

Canada's Ku Klux Klan - Thousands of Canadians Join

The Ku Klux Klan came to Canada in 1924. By the time it collapsed 6 years later, it had enlisted thousands of Canadians, stirred up ethnic and religious hatred and helped defeat Saskatchewan's Liberal government. The Klan began in Tennessee, USA in 1866. It was a violent group of white vigilantes dedicated to oppressing Negroes. In Canada, the Klan's preference was Jews, Roman Catholics and Immigrants. The Canadian Klan held outdoor meetings with burning crosses. Its leaders wore pointed white hoods with white or red robes emblazoned with a circled cross and a maple leaf.

Canada's first Klan known as Klavern (a local chapter) was reported started in Vancouver in 1924. The press soon criticized it so much, the Klan disbanded becoming no longer a threat. The same year, fire bombs exploded in some Catholic Churches in Quebec, the police blamed it on the Klan. It wasn't until a year later in 1925, that 2 American's came to Toronto and formally organized the Ku Klux Klan of Kanada. For a short time, the Klan was becoming popular until RCMP agents attended meetings and broke up the Ontario based group. One of the American's, J.H. Hawkins fled to Saskatchewan. In the 1920's, Saskatchewan really had greener pastures since it was a booming province with wheat crops giving it the highest per capita income of any province.

When Hawkins arrived, 3 Klansmen from Indiana were already enrolling members at $13.00 each to join. Their founding meeting at Moose Jaw had attracted some 8,000 interested people willing to join. At the end of 1927, tragedy again struck within the Klan, as one of the Indiana Organizers had run off with all the Klan's money. Determined to re-group the Klan, Hawkins joined up with J. J. Maloney, anti-Catholic preacher from Hamilton. The 2 men roamed Saskatchewan looking for new members and lecturing to the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority. The Klan preached, "the Klan believes in Protest-antism, Racial Purity, Economic Freedom, Just Laws, Seperatism from Church and State, Restrictive/ Selective Immigration, Fredom of Speech, Higher Moral Standards, Freedom and Protection from Mob Violence and White Supremacy.

By the start of the provincial election campaign of 1929, the Klan had close to 10,000 members! listed in 119 Klaverns throughout the province. The members were filled with Klan propoganda about the immigrants and Catholics taking over the province with the encouragement of the Liberal government. This is what they believed and helped form a relationship with the Conservative Party at the time. Liberal Premier criticized the Klan and tried to stop it's propoganda, but Conservative leader Dr. J.T.M.Anderson wouldn't hear of it. Hawkins and other Klan leaders had attended the last Conservative party, while Maloney was engaged to the daughter of the Conservative Candidate in Biggar. The Klan and the Conservatives joined together to defeat the Liberals. It would have worked if not for the fact that drought and Depression soured Maloney on Saskatchewan.

The Klan died out within a year, with little members still remaining. In 1934, the Conservatives didn't win a single seat in the election due to the Klan's involvement with the Conservatives. The Ku Kux Klan gave it's last Canadian gasp in 1930 in Oakville, at the corner of John and Kerr when it burned a cross on the downtown main street to protest a proposed marriage between a white girl and a Negro (it turned out it was a Canadian Indian and not a Negro at all!).(Cross burnings were still going in the USA for racial protests into the late 1960's)

Ontario's Crown Attorney charged 4 of the local Klan leaders with "going abroad at night in white masks, setting fires and defacing property". One leader was sentenced to 3 months in jail, yet all records of the burning cross demonstration are erased from Oakville's history books! Oakville went on to became known as rich, conservative town in pleasant surroundings by the lake with no history of violence or disruptions ever! Just another mysterious story that has been mysteriously erased from the Local Canadian History Books. (Research and story by: Patrick Cross - from articles in newspapers, court journals dated 1878, 1905, 1924, 1929, 1934, and the Toronto Star-March 1972, May 1993)


The Mysterious Body That Never Was!

Barton Murder-1905 Hamilton, Ontario. Victim Without a Name - The Barton Murder In the late afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 10, 1905, three young lads from Hamilton's north-end hiked up the Mountain to search the farmlands south of the brow for chestnuts. For Mike Simms, Harry Capelle, and Eddie Dobbs who had followed a side road (Upper Wellington Street south to the Seventh Concession (Limeridge Road East), it was the opening chapter in a murder mystery that remains unsolved today. At Limestone Ridge, a farm owned by Harry Marshall, which fronted onto the stone road to Caledonia (now Upper James Street), the boys discovered the body of a woman, her head lying in a pool of blood.There was no question that woman had been murdered. Running across the road to a cornfield where James Johnston and his two sons were working, the boys breathlessly broke the news. Mr. Johnston had a look himself, then called the police from Mr. Marshall's house. The body was taken to the morgue at the Blachard and Son Undertaking parlor on King Street West in downtown Hamilton. It was found the woman had been shot in the head, but there were no clues as to her identity. After the body had been properly prepared, it was put on display in the hope someone would identify the unfortunate woman. More than 1.200 people passed through the funeral parlor on the first day, but no positive identification was made. All three Hamilton daily newspapers, The Herald, The Times and The Spectator splashed news of the murder in bold type across their front pages. The Times featured a drawing of the unknown woman, done from a photograph of the murder victim after the embalmers had done their work. The Spectator featured a large, hand-drawn map of the murder scene which was used by thousands who visited the scene of the crime from dawn until dusk the next day. Souvenir hunters took home parts of the bush used to hide the body. Before the woman was finally buried, an estimated 10,000 pepole viewed the body, but none know who she was. The case, which came to be known as the Barton Murder, was widely covered in newspapers throughout Canada and the United States. Several people confessed to the killing but none of their stories proved to be true. A spiritualist and mind-reader, Miss Ann Eva Fay, declared with great flair, she would reveal the name of the murdered woman and her assailant on stage at one of her Hamilton performances. She was unable to match her boasts and the Barton Murder remained a mystery. After an investigation lasting more than seven months, a coroner's jury on May 1, 1906, ruled that nothing more was to be determined about the identity of the murdered woman or about the person responsible for her death. The murderer or the real body was never found...the Hamilton mystery continues to this day.

Prime Minister Trudeau believed in Ghosts and Conducted Seances for Political Advice!

It's true, the private life of former Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau had a private licence plate for his personal limousine using the numbers 666 displayed on the plate, he was also know to conduct seances and contact the dead for political advice and get regular psychic readings. The Prime Minister's car was rarely seen publicized on tv, yet several news tv stations in Ottawa had filmed the car with licence plate on several Parliament appearances. Asked what the licence plate meant, Pierre Trudeau responded simply by saying, "You Figure It Out!" It's still a puzzling mystery to this day!


Shopping With The Dead In Toronto's Yorkville District

Just visit Toronto's upscale Yorkville District and you will find expensive stores, salons and fine dining but you just might be shopping with the dead. This was also known as Old York and many believe that human remains are still buried in the area under fine restaurants and stores. Also known as the city's original Potter's Field. The area served as a mass grave when thousands of Upper Canada settlers perished in the cholera epidemic of 1832 and 1834. The city officials not knowing what to do with so many bodies, buried the dead under mud and water in shallow graves in Potter's Field. Although most of the bodies were relocated in 1870, skeletal remains have still been popping up. In 1929, human remains were found when workers were excavating what is now the site of Holt Renfrew at Yonge and Bloor Street. The corner of Bay and Bloor had similar human remains also found piled upon each as new stores and high risers were being built.Historians also believe, several posh restaurants in Yorkville have bodies buried in or under the basement.Today, the district has no articles about this tragedy or any record in recent history books of Yorkville. They want it to remain posh and rich and don't want the history to be known that may tarnish Yorkville's Image. So if you are eating out in Yorkville, just remember you may be dining on top of human bones and the dead.Bon Appetite!

Evelyn Dick - Black Dahlia Murderer In Hamilon

In 1946 she was arrested for murder after local children in Hamilton, Ontario found the torso of her missing estranged husband. The head and limbs had been sawn from his body and evidence that they had been burned in the furnace of her home later surfaced. She was convicted of the murder in 1946 and sentenced to hang. However, lawyer J.J. Robinette appealed her case and won an eventual acquittal. However, in the meantime, the decayed remains of Evelyn's baby boy were found encased in cement under the floor boards of her home. She was convicted of the murder in 1947 and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Evelyn was released from prison in 1958 and quickly disappeared from public view. A series of serial murders started again shortly after her release where torso's of bodies were showing up in fields in different parts of Hamilton. No suspects could ever be found of the murders and the victims were never identified due to the heads and arms were missing. To this day, the mysterious murders are still unsolved.

Did You Know!

TRUE CANADIAN NORTH - The Reference Point of True Geographic Canadian North is the North Pole For Magnetic North and Magnetic South to make one complete orbit as the earth turns, it takes 900 years! Most Ghost Activity is measured by magnetic instruments which start out as pointing true magnetic north. Ghosts or Orbs Do Not travel in straight lines as once thought, and have been seen to travel at 45 degrees. The same precise angle in which the Pyramids in Egypt are constructed.


Media: Patrick Cross has been Featured on the Creepy Canada Show, Art Bell Radio Show, City TV-Breakfast Television, CTV Travel, CBC-News Hour, Haunted Voices Radio show, Global TV News Hour, Talk 640am Mojo Radio, City TV-Newsline, City TV-Space, CH TV, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and many more tv-radio shows

(Patrick can be reached for special guest appearances, interviews, talkshows, radio host, news stories, as speaker on ghosts for seminars, tradeshows, ghost investigations and the "clearing of ghosts")-contact media office Mysterious Ontario

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Copyright / Protected 2002-2009 Patrick Cross Publications, Canada's Most Haunted Media Franchise, copyright 2005-2008 Ontario's Mysterious History, Burlington Ghost Walks and Tours, Burlington, Ontario, Canada. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.