Dean Jobb - Daring, Devious and Deadly

Praise for Dean Jobbs books

Empire of Deception

Intoxicating and impressively researched, Jobbs immorality tale provides a sobering post-Madoff reminder that those who think everything is theirs for the taking are destined to be taken.

The New York Times Book Review

Comprehensively researched and enthralling high-stakes drama of the first order unmasking [a] master swindler and revealing the author as an equally masterful storyteller.

The Washington Post

Fans of Erik Larson will love Jobbs latest true crime masterpiece.

Library Journal (starred review of audiobook edition)

Calculated Risk: Greed, Politics and the Westray Tragedy

A stunning book that proves that Jobb can dig as well as any Pictou County miner a powerful indictment of expediency taken to a senselessly tragic conclusion.

The Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine

I couldnt put the book down, mainly because of Jobbs ability to portray the people in the tragedy.

Financial Times of Canada

An excellent book This is investigative journalism as it should be: meticulously researched, judiciously reported, and enthrallingly written.

Canadian Book Review Annual

With painstaking diligence, Jobb pieced together a complex story a tale of lax safety, wrenching heartbreak and a project driven to disaster by politics and greed.

Canadian Press

The Acadians: A Peoples Story of Exile and Triumph

Marries a historians fidelity to research and detail with a journalists ability to tell a story with verve, colour and attention to the human elements beneath the historical record. Popular history just doesnt get much better than this.

Winnipeg Free Press

Highly authoritative engaging, well-written and evocative vivid descriptions bring people and places to life.

Canadas History magazine

Daring, Devious and Deadly

True Tales of Crime and Justice from Nova Scotias Past

Dean Jobb

Pottersfield Press

Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada

Copyright 2020 Dean Jobb

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used or stored in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any requests for photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems shall be directed in writing to the publisher or to Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (www.AccessCopyright.ca). This also applies to classroom use.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Daring, devious & deadly : true tales of crime and justice from Nova Scotias past / Dean Jobb.

Other titles: Daring, devious and deadly | True tales of crime and justice from Nova Scotias

past

Names: Jobb, Dean, 1958- author.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2020027807X | Canadiana (ebook) 20200278177 |

ISBN 9781989725238 (softcover) | ISBN 9781989725245 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: CrimeNova ScotiaHistory. |

LCSH: CriminalsNova ScotiaHistory. | LCSH: Criminal justice, Administration ofNova ScotiaHistory.

Classification: LCC HV6809.N6 J63 2020 | DDC 364.9716dc23

Cover design: Gail LeBlanc

Pottersfield Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada for our publishing activities. We also acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of Nova Scotia which has assisted us to develop and promote our creative industries for the benefit of all Nova Scotians.

Pottersfield Press
248 Leslie Road
East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2Z 1T4
Website: www.PottersfieldPress.com
To order, phone 1-800-NIMBUS9 (1-800-646-2879) www.nimbus.ns.ca

Printed in Canada

Pottersfield Press is committed to protecting our natural environment. As part of our efforts, this book is made of material from well-managed FSC-certified forests and other controlled sources.

Contents

He may well have been the wittiest, most sarcastic judge ever to grace the bench in Canada. Magistrate A.B. MacGillivrays one-liners at the expense of offenders and lawyers who appeared in his Glace Bay courtroom became legendary. But was this any way to dispense justice?

An incendiary letter published in The Novascotian, accusing Halifaxs civic leaders of corruption, landed pioneering newspaper publisher Joseph Howe in the prisoners dock in 1835 on a charge of criminal libel. If convicted, he faced imprisonment and financial ruin. Luckily, he had a good lawyer.

When the body of the crewman of a British warship was found on the steps of a notorious Halifax tavern in 1853, there was no shortage of conflicting stories, theories, and suspects. The trial that followed would prove to be even more chaotic.

By 1870 James Forman had been the Bank of Nova Scotias head cashier and most trusted employee for almost four decades. Too bad he was using his accounting skills to line his own pockets.

When P.T. Barnums famous circus arrived in Halifax for the first time in the summer of 1876, a couple of enterprising bank robbers stole the show.

Thirteen people were aboard Saladin when it left Chile in 1844, bound for London. Only six remained when the ship ran aground near the Eastern Shore hamlet of Country Harbour a few months later. And each survivor had a different story to tell.

Angus Walters raced Nova Scotias iconic schooner Bluenose to fame and glory. So when an American magazine shot his reputation full of holes in 1946, Lunenburgs renowned captain got even.

The mate said it was the cooks idea. The cook blamed the mate. One thing was certain when the ship Zero was found abandoned off the LaHave Islands, on the South Shore, in 1865: the captain was dead, slain by one of his crewmen.

The brutal death of a penniless Annapolis County woman in 1880 shocked Victorian-era Nova Scotia. It would take the skill of the provinces best prosecutor to ensure her killer did not escape justice.

Nicholas Martin, one of Sydneys leading citizens, brazenly shot and killed a judges son in 1853. Was it cold-blooded murder, an act of revenge, or the work of a madman?

Passions were running high during the 1859 provincial election, at a time when religion determined the choice of political party. At a polling station near Halifax, sectarian and partisan hatred exploded into open warfare.

After the explosion of 1917 devastated Halifax and killed almost 2,000 people, the hunt was on for scapegoats. The captain and pilot of the French munitions ship Mont-Blanc survived the blast, only to find themselves charged with manslaughter.

Fire swept through Halifaxs Queen Hotel on a bitterly cold morning in 1939, killing twenty-eight people. If the hotels owner had installed proper safety equipment, could more lives have been saved?

George and John Boutilier stood trial for murder in 1791 after a brutal attack near Lunenburg left three people dead. Their guilt or innocence turned on a single shred of evidence.

It was almost the perfect crime leave no witnesses, make a fast getaway. There was just one damning loose end. Why did the prime suspect in an 1838 murder at a Cumberland County farm have a dead mans wallet?