- Evelyn Dick
The murder trials of Evelyn Dick (born
October 13 ,1920 ) remain the most sensationalized events inCanadian crime history.Dick was born in
Beamsville, Ontario . She was arrested formurder after local children inHamilton, Ontario cite press release| title =The Hamilton Memory Project;| publisher =The Hamilton Spectator- Souvenir Edition page MP38| date =Saturday June 10, 2006| accessdate = 2006-12-30] found thetorso of her missing estranged husband. The head and limbs had been sawed from his body and evidence that they had been burned in the furnace of her home later surfaced.A well known school yard song at the time went as follows:
:"You cut off his legs..."
:"You cut off his arms..."
:"You cut off his head..."
:"How could you Mrs Dick?"
:"How could you Mrs Dick?"The
Forgotten Rebels used these lyrics for the song "Evelyn Dick" on their "(Untitled)" album in 1998.She was first convicted of the murder in 1946 and sentenced to hang. Lawyer J.J. Robinette, however, appealed her case and won an eventual acquittal.
In the meantime, however, a partly mummified body of a baby boy was found in her attic, encased in cement in an old suitcase. She was tried again for murder in 1947 and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Dick was released from prison in 1958 and quickly disappeared from public.
A movie was released in 2002 which suggests that Evelyn protected her parents, who were also viable suspects in the murder of her baby and husband, and that she was sexually abused by her father and exploited by both parents (especially by her mother) to provide them a higher standing and income.
The case was also the subject of the 2005 film noir musical, Black Widow.
External links
* [http://home.cogeco.ca/~mrcarle/evelyn.htm Evelyn Dick - The 'Torso' Murder]
* [http://vantech.vsb.bc.ca/ss/pm/law12/online/criminal/evelyn_dick/evelyn_dick.htm Biography of Evelyn Dick]References
* cite video | people=Alex Chapple (Director), Dennis Foon, Marjorie Freeman Campbell (book) | year=2002 | title= [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274981/ Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story] | medium=Film | location=Canada | publisher= Shaftesbury Films Inc.
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