Eve Lazarus - Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer

MURDER BY MILKSHAKE

MURDER
BY
MILKSHAKE

AN ASTONISHING TRUE STORY OF ADULTERY, ARSENIC, AND A CHARISMATIC KILLER

EVE LAZARUS

MURDER BY MILKSHAKE

Copyright 2018 by Eve Lazarus

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any part by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanicalwithout the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may use brief excerpts in a review, or in the case of photocopying in Canada, a licence from Access Copyright.

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The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council for its publishing program, and the Government of Canada, and the Government of British Columbia (through the Book Publishing Tax Credit Program), for its publishing activities.

Arsenal Pulp Press acknowledges the xmkym (Musqueam), Swxw7mesh (Squamish), and slilwta (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, speakers of Hulquminum/Halqemylem/hnqminm and custodians of the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories where our office is located. We pay respect to their histories, traditions, and continuous living cultures and commit to accountability, respectful relations, and friendship.

Unless otherwise attributed, photos are courtesy of Jeannine Castellani-Waller.

Cover and text design by Oliver McPartlin

Edited by Susan Safyan

Copy edited by Shirarose Wilensky

Proofread by Alison Strobel

Printed and bound in Canada

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication:

Lazarus, Eve, author

Murder by milkshake : an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic, and a charismatic killer / Eve Lazarus.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-55152-746-8 (softcover).ISBN 978-1-55152-747-5 (PDF)

1. Castellani, Esther. 2. Castellani, Rene. 3. MurderBritish ColumbiaVancouver. 4. Trials (Murder)British ColumbiaVancouver. I. Title.

For Mike, Mark, Megan, and Matthew
and for
Jeannine, Ashley, and Lindsay

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Ive had a fascination with the Castellani murder case since I first saw the true-crime exhibit at the Vancouver Police Museum in the 1990s. This crime had all the ingredients for a movie of the week: an adulterous middle-aged celebrity husband, who, rather than fight for divorce and face the wrath of the Roman Catholic Church, decided to poison his wife so that he could marry a twenty-five-year-old switchboard operator.

Ive read various accounts of the murder over the years, even written about it myself in my book At Home with History, grounding the story in the house, or in this case, the duplex, where most of the poisoning took place. Occasionally, Ive told the story on the radio, usually around Halloween, and then, in 2011, I wrote a post about it on my blog Every Place Has a Story.

The blog post changed everything, because, fortunately for me, I had made a mistake.

Debbie Miller emailed to tell me that Lolly, the other woman, had a son called Don, not a daughter, as I had written. And Donher husbandwould very much like to find Jeannine, the Castellanis daughter, because hed been searching for her for nearly fifty years. I wrote back and thanked Debbie and said I would also like to find Jeannine.

And then, in June 2017, Jeannine found me.

She and her daughter Ashley came to my book launch for Blood, Sweat, and Fear at the Vancouver Police Museum. The museum had recently overhauled its true-crime exhibits and now had more detailed and sensitive coverage of the Castellani murder, featuring Esther instead of Rene, situated right next to our makeshift bar in the old autopsy suite where Esther had once lain.

I told Jeannine that Don had been looking for her, and she got quite emotional. She had also been searching for Don for nearly half a century.

So why write a book about what is already one of the most sensational and unbelievable murders in Vancouvers history?

Well, several reasons. It took place at a turning point in the 1960sa decade of incredible change in Vancouver and elsewhere. On the one hand, you had conservative, small-town Vancouver and two juries that condemned Rene mostly because of his infidelity. On the other hand, you had free love and be-ins, hippies and the Beatles, and a seismic political, cultural, and legal shift happening all over North America.

It was the era of Mad Men, of gin breakfasts and martini lunchesand Rene Castellani may just have been the maddest ad man of them all.

It was a nineteenth-centurystyle murder solved by a twentieth-century doctor and old-fashioned police work.

And it was a time when the death sentence was still on the table.

But, most of all, I wanted to write this book to tell Jeannines story.

Authors Note

With the exception of the taped interviews of Gloria Yusep, Esthers sister, by author Susan McNicoll in 2005 and 2006, the quotes from those directly involved in the Castellani murder case have come from police statements, the inquest, the preliminary hearing, and the two trials. Ive made extensive use of newspaper clippings from the period for colour and conducted dozens of interviews with family members, friends of the family, and experts.

THE CAST

Esther Castellani (19251965)

Mother: Mabel Henderson Luond

Stepfather: Karl Luond

Brother: Karl Jr., married to Sheila

Sister: Gloria, married to Bud Foxgord (19481964)

married to George Ridgeway (19631964)

married to Elmer Yusep (1965)

Daughter: Jeannine (1953)

Granddaughters:

Lindsay (1980)

Ashley (1984)

Rene Castellani (19251982)

Mother: Marie Castellani

Father: Rene Castellani

Sisters:

Jeanne

Louise

Rose

Adelaide Ann Darwin (Lolly) (1939?)

Husband: Donald Miller (19601962)

Mother: Augie Giuliani

Stepfather: Mario Giuliani

Son: Donald Miller (1959)

Iaci Family

Frank Iaci (senior)

Wife: Eva Iaci (19181962)

Sons:

Frank Jr.

Ross (Jake)

Benito (Benny)

Daughters:

Lucia (Toots)

Rose (Koko)

Marie Helen (Teenie)

Brother: Joseph Iaci, married to Erma Iaci

Daughters:

Gloria

Josephine

CKNW Senior Staff, 1965

Bill Hughes: Station manager

Mel Cooper: General sales manager

Erm Fiorillo: Comptroller

Hal Davis: Program manager

Medical Personnel (in order of appearance)

Dr John Sector: General practitioner

Dr Bernard Moscovitch: Internal medicine specialist

Dr Richard Beck: Specialist in hematology

Dr David Percy Jones: Neurologist

Dr David Hardwick: Senior pathologist (VGH)

Dr Frank Anderson: Associate resident in pathology

Ted Fennell: City analyst

Alexander J. Beaton: Chemist

Eldon Rideout: Assistant city analyst

Norman Erickson: Biologist, Crime Detection Laboratory, Ontario

Glen McDonald: Judge and coroner