264 episodes

True crime, legends, folklore, dark history and other creepy topics from the perspective of real live Canadians.

Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History Curiouscast

    • True Crime
    • 4.6 • 3.3K Ratings

True crime, legends, folklore, dark history and other creepy topics from the perspective of real live Canadians.

    Twisted: The Murders of Jessica Grimard, Christine Speich and Anna Lisa Cefali

    Twisted: The Murders of Jessica Grimard, Christine Speich and Anna Lisa Cefali

    Episode 259: After she’d been missing only one day, on the evening of May 7th, 2002, the body of 14-year-old Jessica Grimard was discovered by her father in a stream within a wooded area near her home in Rivière-des-Prairies, a suburban borough on the eastern tip of the city of Montreal, Quebec.
    As her killer had placed Jessica in the water, washing away evidence, there was not much for the cops to go on. At first, police considered that Jessica had been killed by someone known to her. However, thanks to a few strange twists, the case would head in a new direction, eventually capturing a known sexual predator and suspected serial killer who had bragged about his crimes. The boasting included confessions of responsibility for two other 1993 deaths around Montreal, initially ruled accidental, that of 12-year-old Christine Speich and 20-year-old Anna Lisa Cefali. The killer had used water and fire to cover his crimes.
    Sources:
    Angelo Colalillo | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
    Une marche pour commémorer le triste événement | TVA Nouvelles
    Meurtre de Jessica Grimard: un an plus tard, la douleur reste vive | TVA Nouvelles
    Grimard (Jessica) - La Mémoire du Québec
    2000 CanLII 6067 (QC CQ) | R. c. Paccione | CanLII
    2003 CanLII 10002 (QC CQ) | R. c. Chalfoun | CanLII
    2005 CanLII 49803 (QC CS) | R. v. Colalillo | CanLII
    2005 CanLII 49804 (QC CS) | R. v. Colalillo | CanLII
    2006 QCCS 274 (CanLII) | R. c. Colalillo | CanLII
    2006 QCCS 7903 (CanLII) | R. c. Colalillo | CanLII
    Search - Newspapers.com: Angelo Colalillo
    The Man Behind the Letters | PressReader.com
    Letters to be examined in Chalfoun trial | CBC News
    Colalillo laisse derrière lui son testament criminel | TVA Nouvelles
    Colallilo (Angelo) - La Mémoire du Québec
    West Island man who sexually assaulted about 20 women denied parole | Montreal Gazette
    Cold Careers and Occupational Hazards: The Occupational Preferences of Canadian Serial Killers
    Accused Quebec serial killer dies in hospital | CBC
    Quebec murder suspect took own life: report | CBC News
    The sudden death of a man ‘like a wolf amongst the lambs’ - The Globe and Mail
    The Murderer Who Used Water To Hide His Trace | Real Stories |YouTube
    Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder | Scribd
    Angelo Colalillo (1964-2006) - Find a Grave Memorial
    Lifeless in a Stream | Real Crime | By Real Crime
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    • 1 hr
    The Tragic Tale of Janice and Clayton Johnson

    The Tragic Tale of Janice and Clayton Johnson

    Episode 258: On the morning of February 20, 1989, stay-at-home mother of two Janice Faye Johnson was found unconscious, gravely injured and barely clinging to life at the foot of a flight of basement stairs in the Shelburne, Nova Scotia home she shared with her family, Clayton Norman Johnson and daughters Darla and Dawn. Even though she was still alive when she was found by a neighbour, who called for an ambulance immediately, Janice died in the hospital just after noon that day.
    More than three years after her death, police arrested Janice’s husband, Clayton, a high school industrial arts teacher, and charged him with first-degree murder. Consistently maintaining his innocence throughout subsequent proceedings, on May 4, 1993, Clayton was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his wife. He was later sentenced to life in prison — his appeals, citing spurious forensic evidence, were rejected. He spent the next five years in prison.
    Sources:
    Clayton Johnson - Innocence Canada
    Crown Halts Clayton Johnson Murder Prosecution - Government of Nova Scotia, Canada
    Clayton Johnson Settlement - Government of Nova Scotia, Canada
    Clayton Johnson: Innocent man convicted by so-called experts
    Clayton Johnson walks as Crown balks at new trial | CBC News
    Shelburne man, wrongly convicted of wife’s murder, dies | CBC News
    1998 NSCA 14 (CanLII) | R. v. Johnson | CanLII
    1994 NSCA 79 (CanLII) | R. v. Johnson | CanLII
    Clayton Johnson - Wrongful Conviction - Pyzer Criminal Lawyers
    Clayton Johnson: obituary and death notice on InMemoriam
    Clayton Johnson wrongful murder conviction: Tide of Suspicion (1998) - The Fifth Estate — YouTube
    Wrongly convicted man cleared in wife’s death - The Globe and Mail
    Accident or Murder? | Forensic Files Wiki | Fandom
    “Forensic Files” Accident or Murder? (TV Episode 1999) - Reference View - IMDb
    Obituary | Clayton Norman Johnson of Barrington, Nova Scotia | H.M. Huskilson’s Funeral Home
    Scribd | Justice Miscarried: Inside Wrongful Convictions in Canada 
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    • 1 hr 5 min
    Unknown Monster: The Murder of Agnes Bings

    Unknown Monster: The Murder of Agnes Bings

    Episode 257: In Victoria, B.C., on the rainy evening of Friday, September 29, 1899, on her way home from work alone, forty-four-year-old Agnes Bings walked across a railroad bridge, cutting through the Songhees Reserve as she did every other night without incident. This night, however, would be her last. Someone took her life somewhere during the 20-minute walk between her bakery on Store Street and the Bings family home on Russell Street. The next morning, Agnes Bing’s body was discovered. She’d been strangled, and her body mutilated. Her slaying has never been solved, although there have been a few suspects, interestingly including the world’s most famous serial killer, Jack the Ripper, whose 1888 crimes also remain unsolved.
    Sources:
    HISTORY OF DOWNTOWN VICTORIA | LIVE SITE
    Home | Victoria
    Canada’s Jack the Ripper
    Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency Records Relating To The Murder of Agnes Bings | PDF
    Historical police records give a glimpse into Victoria’s seamier side | Times Colonist
    The British Colonist 1858-1961
    Agnes Bings (1855-1899) - Find a Grave Memorial
    Murder & Mutilation In Victoria - Jack The Ripper Forums - Ripperology For The 21st Century
    Unlocking the Dark Secrets of Victoria - Monday Magazine
    Coroner Inquests in BC around the time of Agnes Bings’ Murder
    Seeing Dead People E23 — Mrs. Bings Meets a Madman
    The History of Garrick’s Head Pub | Victoria, BC, Canada
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    • 1 hr 11 min
    The Killing of Colten Boushie

    The Killing of Colten Boushie

    Episode 256: Colten Boushie was a 22-year-old Indigenous man from the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, who was shot and killed on a farm near Biggar, Saskatchewan, on August 9, 2016. His death received widespread attention and led to a national conversation in Canada about systemic racism and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system. The trial and acquittal of the farmer who was charged with Boushie’s death, a man named Gerald Stanley, also sparked controversy and led to calls for reforms in the Canadian justice system.
    Sources:
    Red Pheasant Cree Nation – A prospering Nation
    2017 SKQB 366 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII
    2017 SKQB 367 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII
    2018 SKQB 27 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII
    Colten’s friend Eric talking about the shooting | Twitter
    Victim, friends needed help with flat tire before farmyard shooting: witness | 650 CKOM
    DocumentCloud | FSIN Media Release
    The night Colten Boushie died | The Globe and Mail
    The Legal Trial of Gerald Stanley - a second look at the case through the lens of law | CanLII Connects
    CRCC Final Report on the Death of Colten Boushie
    ‘Have to keep talking about it,’ says Boushie’s mother, five years after Stanley acquittal | Star Phoenix
    Colten Boushie, Gerald Stanley and a case that’s hard to defend | The Star
    Read ‘The Rodney King of Western Canada’: Killing of Indigenous Man Heads to Trial Online
    Who was Colten Boushie? | CBC News
    Colten Boushie Archives - APTN News
    ‘White Lives Matter’ signs show up in North Battleford Saskatchewan
    Debbie Baptiste | Canada’s National Observer: News & Analysis
    Brad Wall - Racism has no place in Saskatchewan. | Facebook
    We Will Stand Up | CBC Docs POV |YouTube
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    • 1 hr 13 min
    The Murder of Natsumi Kogawa

    The Murder of Natsumi Kogawa

    Episode 255: On September 28, 2016, a police dog discovered the nude and decomposing body of a young woman on the grounds of Gabriola House, a famous and, at that time, abandoned mansion on Davie Street in Vancouver’s West End. The body was that of Natsumi Kogawa, 30, a Japanese woman who’d been in Canada on a Visa to study English since May that year. Natsumi’s friends and family had not heard from her since September 8, and she’d been officially listed as a missing person four days after that. 
    On the same day as discovering Ms. Kogawa’s body, police arrested William Victor Schneider, a man from Vernon, B.C. Schneider’s brother Warren turned him into the police after William had told him where he’d put Natsumi’s body and that he ‘done something bad.’ Warren also recalled to police about overhearing a phone conversation during which he said he’d thought William had admitted to having killed Natsumi.
    The legal proceedings that followed dragged on into the fall of 2022.
    Sources:
    Hirosaki – Travel guide at Wikivoyage
    Tonari Gumi - Japanese Community Volunteers Association - Vancouver, Canada
    FIND Natsumi Kogawa/古川夏好さん捜索情報 — Facebook
    Search for Natsumi Kogawa - TokyoReporter
    Japanese woman missing in Canada - Japan Today
    Vancouver Shinpo - 古川夏好さん三回忌しめやかに
    Vancouver Shinpo - その三十五 古川夏好(こがわなつみ)さんの一周忌
    古川さん殺害、終身刑の男が控訴 | 日加トゥデイ/JC Today
    Police Looking for Missing Woman | Vancouver Police Department
    Update: Body of Missing Woman Found | Vancouver Police Department
    EXCLUSIVE: Friends of murdered Japanese student, Natsumi Kogawa, speak out - BC | Globalnews.ca
    A look at the troubled life of William Schneider, the killer of Natsumi Kogawa - Vernon News - Castanet.net
    ‘It’s my fault,’ court hears accused tell police in murder trial of Japanese student | The Star
    Man gets life in prison for killing Japanese woman in Canada | The Japan Times
    ‘People listened’: Mother of murdered Japanese student grateful for guilty verdict | CBC News
    New trial ordered for man found guilty of murdering Japanese student Natsumi Kogawa | Globalnews.ca
    Murder conviction of B.C. man who killed exchange student restored: Supreme Court of Canada | Globalnews.ca
    ‘People listened’: Mother of murdered Japanese student grateful for guilty verdict | CBC News
    1523 Davie St, Vancouver, BC • Vancouver Heritage Foundation | Vancouver Heritage Site Finder
    YOU SHOULD KNOW: About The History Of “The Gabriola Mansion” In The West End – Scout Magazine
    2021 BCCA 41 (CanLII) | R. v. Schneider | CanLII
    2022 SCC 34 (CanLII) | R. v. Schneider | CanLII
    Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Docket - 39559
    Supreme Court of Canada - 39559
    Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Webcast of the Hearing on 2021-12-10 - 39559
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    • 1 hr 6 min
    Failed Justice: The Murder of Brigitte Grenier

    Failed Justice: The Murder of Brigitte Grenier

    Episode 254: On Saturday, June 23, 1990, three teenagers, Brigitte Grenier, 16, Kyle Unger, 19, and Timothy Houlahan, 17, all separately attended a music festival at a ski resort near Roseisle, Manitoba. The following morning, Brigette was discovered dead in a creek in a heavily forested area within the resort. She’d been sexually assaulted, beaten, tortured and strangled to death. As both had been seen with the victim during the hours before her death, police quickly targeted Kyle Unger and Timothy Houlahan as suspects in Brigette’s slaying. 
    Forensic evidence pointed to Houlahan, and he, in turn, pointed to Kyle Unger as Brigette’s murderer, but Kyle was adamant he’d had nothing to do with Brigette’s death. The physical evidence against Kyle Unger was a single strand of hair found on Brigette’s sweatshirt. RCMP needed more, so they turned to their tried and true Mr. Big technique and, sure enough, acquired a confession from Kyle Unger. In February of 1992, both Unger and Houlahan were convicted of first-degree murder. Both appealed. Houlahan’s appeal was successful, and in July 1993, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for him. Tim Houlahan completed suicide before his second trial. Kyle Unger’s conviction was upheld.
    Did the justice system get it right? Unfortunately, we will see that it did not, at least not right away.
    Sources:
    Historic Sites of Manitoba: Roseisle Pioneer Monument (Roseisle, RM of Dufferin)
    1992 CanLII 13202 (MB KB) | R. v. Unger (K.W.) and Houlahan (T.L.) | CanLII
    1993 CanLII 4409 (MB CA) | R. v. Unger | CanLII
    Kyle Unger settles wrongful murder conviction | CBC News
    Kyle Unger — Innocence Canada
    Kyle Unger | News, Videos & Articles — Global News
    Real Justice: A Police Mr. Big Sting Goes Wrong: The Story of Kyle Unger by Richard Brignall

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    • 1 hr 10 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
3.3K Ratings

3.3K Ratings

riley...yhe life of ,

Love Dark Poutine!

This is one of my favourites! So well done!

asilmai ,

dark side in decline

love mike and what he brings to the stories he tells but i can’t listen with the current cohost.

DarciThomson ,

Love the podcast but the editing is so bad!

I love the content of this podcast for the most part. But the editing is pretty bad. Last night I listened to an episode that had a full 10 seconds of each host’s dialogue laid on top of one another. I couldn’t hear a thing from either.

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