Canada's most famous murder

[Tealeaf]

I've run up against a brickwall on the SS Accrington. In the mwantime, however, here is the inscription from a plaque in Ontario, Canada - Unfortunatly, as yet I don't have the Piccy.....but I'm working on that..


PLAQUE #22


Location: Just west of Princeton, on #2, at Princeton
Cemetery near Hornor plaque

FREDERICK CORNWALLIS BENWELL

SEPT. 15, 1865 - FEB. 17, 1890

The most famous murder and murder trial in Canadian history took place in the Princeton area. Frederick C. Benwell of Cheltenham, England, came to Eastwood with John Reginald Birchall of Accrington, England, believing that he was to train and invest with Birchall under the popular Farm Pupil Industry Program. Supposedly en route to a prospective farm, Birchall took Benwell to a swamp on the 2nd conc. of Blenheim Twp. Later, two local woodcutters found Benwell's body, which was taken to J.B. Swarts Funeral home in Princeton. An autopsy showed cause of death to be two gunshot wounds to the head. Though buried unidentified, the body was exhumed and identified by Birchall.
Due to the work of Ont. Chief Government Detective John W. Murray, Birchall was charged with murder. His trial by jury took place in Woodstock before Justice Hugh MacMahon. The case became world famous due to widespread interest in the farm pupil industry, Murray's unprecedented use of newspapers to publish a picture of an as-yet-unidentified corpse, legal use of meteorological evidence to determine time of death and transmission of the trial proceedings via the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.
Convicted on circumstantial evidence, Birchall was hanged Nov. 14, 1890- and is buried in the Woodstock Jail Yard. Benwell is buried here in the Princeton Cemetery.