In Search of the Donnellys by Ray Fazakas

Yet Biddulph Township, as it was then known, was once the scene of a crime so shocking that it inspired books, movies, television shows and even a Stompin’ Tom Connors song: The Murder of the Black Donnellys. The stately yellow-brick homes and bucolic farm fields make an unlikely setting for a massacre. I nudge into a higher gear for a low-rpm lope as we roll by endless cornfields and through the main streets of quaint small towns: Tavistock, Fairview, Elginfield, and, finally, Lucan. From time to time, our noses wrinkle with the pungent smell of superheated manure. The land is flat, the road straight, and the wind hairdryer-hot.

Some 130 years later, my wife and I ride west under a baking sun into the heartland of Southern Ontario’s farm country. The doors burst open and men filled the cabin, their faces smeared with soot, clubs raised for killing blows. demanded an explanation for the intrusion. As the family gathered in the kitchen, James Sr. Young Johnny O’Connor, a visitor from next door, remained in bed unseen. “What is it this time? What’s the charge?”Ĭarroll ignored Tom and roused the rest of the family: James Donnelly Sr., his wife Johannah and their young niece, Bridget, recently arrived from Ireland. Realizing his hands were bound, Tom cursed. He opened his eyes to see the face of Jim Carroll, the hated local constable. The sound of locking manacles woke big Tom Donnelly. He tested the cabin door, and then quickly slipped inside. The leader of the group motioned for the men to remain where they were. As they approached the log cabin they tightened their grips on the weapons they carried: axe handles, spades, and pitchforks. The night was bitterly cold, but whisky had numbed their senses and fired their sense of purpose. The group of men walked in silence, the snow crunching softly beneath their boots. Paul Bremner rode out and picked up the story. The murder of the Donnelly family is a tale so depraved that it could have happened in the gothic South of William Faulkner rather than the pastoral farmland of southwestern Ontario.

In Search of the Donnellys by Ray Fazakas