Harold Walkley

Toronto Police Service

---

Cold Case Files

Homicide #5/1975

Victim: Arthur Harold WALKLEY

 

Age: 52

Gender: Male

Murdered on: February 18, 1975

Location: 14 Division

Details of Investigation:

On Tuesday, February 18, 1975, at about 3:50 a.m., police responded to a 911 call on Borden Street near Bloor Street W.

The victim was discovered inside a residence, suffering from stab wounds. The victim was transported to hospital, where he died shortly after arrival.

Additional Information:

Harold Walkley, 51, a one-time high school teacher and part-time lecturer at the University of Toronto, was stabbed five times in the back and chest at his home on Borden St. on February 18th, 1975.

Police received an emergency call at 3:43 a.m. by a man who refused to give his name. He reported there was trouble at 286 Borden St. The call came from a payphone more than 1.5km away. An officer who attended the property found the house silent and the door locked, and left.

His wallet was stolen. Although police believe Walkley had taken a taxi home from Quest, a gay bar at 585 Yonge St. that sat above a well-known hard rock bar, a cab driver was never traced. He reportedly stayed until closing and left alone. One of the house owner’s stolen credit cards was used four times in Moncton, N.B. by a man in his 20s with a slight build. Staff Sgt. Donald Sangster of Toronto police immediately flew out to Moncton and visited those stores, plus local motels, but came up empty.

How You Can Help:

If you have any information regarding this case, please contact Homicide at 416-808-7400, or at homicide@torontopolice.on.ca

Crime Stoppers

Phone anonymously at 416−222−TIPS (8477); or via the internet at www.222tips.com; or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637); or download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World.

Overkill: Victim Number Seven? (Body Politic?)

Note: The murder of Marlon McRae was solved.  Anthony Guy Ritchie was caught in September 1981.

TORONTO — On March 1, 1981, the brutally stabbed body of Marlon McCrae was discovered in a pool of blood in the underground parking lot of the expensive apartment building where he lived.

Earlier that same evening, McRae had run into some friends at Crispin’s Restaurant and joined them for dinner.  Later, he crossed over to Buddy’s Backroom Bar, and at some point during the evening left either alone or with someone.

McCrae’s neighbours now say that he was so discreet that no one had ever noticed men entering or leaving his apartment. But Marlon McCrae met someone that night and brought him home.  Evidence in the apartment indicates that McCrae had sex on the night he died.

After sex, Marlon accompanied his guest to the parking lot, perhaps to drive the man back downtown, perhaps because he was forced to. The assailant used a large knife. The stab wounds in the neck and abdomen were “multiple, and with forceful penetration,” forceful enough to penetrate bone. McCrae died at the hands of someone who was either very strong or very angry. His body was found by another resident of the building on his way to work at 4:00 am.

*  McCrae’s car was found the next day parked in front of the Catholic Children’s Aid Society on Maitland Street, in the heart of Toronto’s gay “ghetto.”

The police have been generally uncooperative in keeping TAP informed of developments. Sergeant Dicks of the Homicide Squad claims to have 5 men on the case, working 8-hour shifts twenty-four hours a day. Officers are canvassing homes and bars in the area, showing people a photograph of McCrae and asking for information.

Police admit they are having difficulty obtaining information. People in the gay community seem reluctant to approach the police, “perhaps because of the bath raids.” Having exhausted almost all their own leads. Sergeant Dicks says they might be ready to go to the press for help “sometime next week.”

Police claim that no composite drawing of a suspect is available. Reports that a composite was in fact hung in the waiters’ area at the St. Charles Tavern remain unconfirmed.

But it is known that police have resurrected their file on the unsolved murder of Duncan Robinson. Robinson was also brutally stabbed to death, on November 26, 1978. A composite of the suspected murderer was made in that case, and a reward has been offered for information leading to the killer’s arrest.  When asked if the two cases are connected, Dicks said, “We have our own theories.”

Note:  The murder of Duncan Robinson is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled tomorrow)

The murders of five other Toronto gay men over the past six years are also unsolved. The deaths of Harold Walkley, James Douglas Taylor, James Kennedy, Brian Latocki and Sandy Leblanc shared a similar element — overkill. The victims were stabbed many times. Two also had their heads beaten in. In three of the unsolved deaths, the victim was last seen leaving the St Charles Tavern on Yonge Street.

Note:  The murders of James Douglas Taylor, James Kennedy, Brian Latocki and Sandy (Alex) Leblanc are still unsolved.  Please see below for profile dates of each individual.

Anyone having any information which might lead to the arrest or conviction of the murderer of these seven men should call Sgt Dicks at (416) %7-2375 or speak to someone in the gay community who is in a safe position to go to the police.

Toronto Police Chief Harold Adamson claims that “homosexuals, like any other citizen, receive fair and equal treatment under the law.”

Frankly, we don’t believe him.

Adamson’s assertion has a particularly hollow ring after the recent actions of two police officers under his command. In one instance, an officer phoned a senior official of the Toronto Board of Education to report the conviction of a newly elected board trustee on an “indecent act” charge following entrapment in a shopping centre washroom. In another instance, Staff Sergeant Gary Donovan notified officials of three boards of education that six of their teachers had been arrested as “found-ins” in a gay steambath. Note:  How many of the murdered were teachers?

Police also seized the full membership list of The Barracks, consisting of some 800 names, as well as a number of membership cards. According to the Toronto Star, many gay men are “living in fear” as a result of the seizure, and at least a few of the names on the list are those of closeted and frightened Metro police officers.

OVER KILL

Getting dead in Hogtown: p 19

The headlines scream “Homosexual Murder.” You’d think gay people were doing the killing, but the truth is that we’re the victims in at least 13 Toronto homicides in the past four years. What do these cases have in common? Why aren’t they being solved? And how can you keep yourself out of the statistics?
TBP’s Robin Hardy investigates and advises.

FEBRUARY 1979

BodyPolitic

Since February 18, 1975, fourteen gay men have been murdered in Toronto. Eight of these killings remain unsolved. Could they have been committed by one man? The police aren’t saying.

But the crimes do show a certain similarity…

Murder in Toronto-the-Good

by Robin Hardy

William Duncan Robinson has been described as a quiet, shy man who lived alone. Robinson was last seen at 2:30 am Sunday, November 26, 1978. He was leaving the St. Charles Tavern, a downtown Toronto gay bar, accompanied by a tall, lanky man with dark brown greasy hair, sloping shoulders, large dirty hands and feet, and an offensive body odour. Robinson’s companion walked clumsily and was scruffy in appearance. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would take him home.

Late Saturday night, a neighbour of Robinson heard a “peculiar loud hollow noise.” When another neighbour passed Robinson’s door around 9 PM Sunday night he heard nothing. An hour later he passed the door again, and heard the stereo blasting away.

“On Tuesday November 28,” the police bulletin reports, “the lifeless body of William Duncan Robinson was found in his apartment situated at 205 Vaughan Road, Apt No 32. The cause of death was determined to be as a result of stab wounds to the chest.”

The murder of Duncan Robinson achieved notoriety as the fourteenth “homosexual slaying” in Toronto since 1975. Eight of those murders are unsolved.

Note:  The murder of Duncan Robinson is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled tomorrow)

It has made great copy for local papers: “Homosexuals fear mass killer,” “Slow hustling on homosexual row,” “Murders put homosexuals on guard,” and “14th murder chills city’s homosexuals.”

The rumour factory ran overtime: the killer is the father of a 14-year-old boy who became involved with homosexuals and has vowed “the revenge killings will continue”; the murderer is a sickie on the loose; the murderer is someone quite involved with the Toronto gay community.

Shortly after Robinson’s murder a message was scrawled on the wall in the washroom of the St. Charles Tavern: “I’ll kill again Saturday night.” During the same week, on the graffiti board at Buddy’s Backroom Bar, someone wrote “Billy is next.” Billy, a waiter, was understandably worried. A University of Toronto professor active in the Damien Committee and the Gay Academic Union received by mail a clipping about the unsolved murders torn from the Toronto Star. Typewritten across it were the words “You’re next.” It was postmarked Malton, a Toronto suburb.  Note: Anything on the identity of the UofT Professor mentioned?

The series of unsolved murders begins in 1975. On February 18, the body of Harold Walkley, a 51 -year-old history teacher and community activist, is discovered by his roommate in Walkley’s bloodied bedroom. He is nude, and has been stabbed several times in the back and chest. No knife is found and credit cards have been stolen.

1 year later, on February 11, 1976, James Taylor, a 41 -year-old painter and decorator, is found in his home, beaten to death with a baseball bat. Another six months, and on September 20, 1976, the caretaker finds 49-year-old James Kennedy dead in his apartment, nude, with a towel knotted around his neck. He has been beaten about his face. Again, credit cards are missing. Kennedy’s neighbours describe him as “a recluse.” Kennedy was last seen at the St. Charles Tavern the night before he was killed.

Note:  The murder of James Douglas Taylor is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Saturday, October 1st)

Six months pass. On January 25, 1977, the nude body of Brian Latocki, a 24-year-old bank analyst, is found in his blood spattered bedroom, he is tied to the bed, his head badly beaten. He has been strangled and stabbed. Again, no knife is found. An autopsy determines that his death occurred January 22. The night before he had been seen hitch-hiking home from the St. Charles Tavern. Latocki is described as “shy and new on the gay scene.”

Note:  The murder of Brian Latocki is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Monday, October 3rd)

These murders have not been solved.  

Nor do police know who murdered Fred Fontaine, Donald Rochester, and Sandy Leblanc. Fontaine was severely beaten in the washroom of the St. Charles Tavern on December 20,1975, and died in hospital six months later. Rochester was shot dead February 13, 1978, while on duty as a night porter at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club. Police suspect a “homosexual connection” in this death.  Sandy Leblanc, a well-known club owner on the Toronto gay scene, was found dead in his apartment September 21, 1978. He had been stabbed more than 100 times from head to foot. As police walked around the body, the carpet squished from the sound of absorbed blood, and bloody footprints led to an open window. It takes a lot of time to stab 100 times through flesh and bone.

Note:  The murder of Fred Fontaine is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Wednesday, October 5th)

Note:  The murder of Donald Rochester may have been solved as it does not appear on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site.

Note:  The murders of James Douglas Taylor, James Kennedy, Brian Latocki and Sandy (Alex) Leblanc are still unsolved.  Please see below for profile dates of each individual.

With eight of the fourteen murders.

Cosistently through all fourteen deaths is “overkill.” “Overkill” means that the victim is repeatedly stabbed, bludgeoned or beaten even after death.

Inspector Hobson of Homocide Division, Metropolitan Toronto Police, appears helpful, but has an abrupt manner. He refuses to connect the unsolved gay murders. “In several of the murders there is a common denominator: the victim was last seen at the St Charles Tavern, and met his murderer there. Beyond that we cannot say if there is a connection. We don’t even know if there was robbery in all the unsolved, belief in the existence of a single psychokiller is widespread. But police are encouraging the theory that the murders are unconnected random killings. This means there could be eight killers “out there” somewhere.

Until the murderers of the eight men are found, little will be known of the circumstances which led to their deaths.  Of the six murders which have resulted in arrests or convictions, six different people have been proved or alleged to be killers.

The “solved” murders have involved robbery, fights over payment for sex, and violent assault resulting, unintentionally, in death. They prove one thing: death by murder is unpredictable, and the reasons for it are usually quite banal.

There are enough similarities between the “solved” murders and the unsolved ones to indicate that just as there were six killers in the “solved” cases, there could well be eight killers for the unsolved murders.

The element which runs most consistently throughout the cases. Often the victim lived alone.  Sometimes a relative could say something was missing.”

But Inspector Hobson admitted there was much information he was not revealing. It was more a case of “we’re not telling you,” than “We don’t know.” If someone is brought in for the crime and a confession is extracted, the police need evidence to corroborate that confession in court. Corroborating evidence must be material not known to the general public. Hobson refused to say how many murderers the police were looking for in the eight unsolved cases.   He also refused to say whether or not police knew if the men had been killed before or after sex. In the case of Duncan Robinson, he did divulge one piece of information in his possession when he let drop the comment: “I guess the killer can’t change his bloodtype.”

Police found blood samples to indicate the killer had been injured. Robinson fought back.

The question the police should answer is why these murders have not been solved. “We have difficulties with this kind of case,” Hobson said. “First, it seems that the pick-up is made just before closing hours. The victim is seen with his pick-up only for a very short time, and by witnesses who have been drinking and who are going home. They have hazy memories. I just wish people, not only gays, were more observant.”

A Toronto newspaper, using the murders as yet another indictment of the gay lifestyle, reported the problems the police had in the “murky, secretive world of gay bars and discos.” Apparently two policemen, “disguised” as lovers, haunted gay bars for a month to find the murderer of Neil Wilkinson, who was beaten to death in his apartment in December, 1977. But Inspector Hobson said the gay community has been most helpful in coming forward with information. The composite drawing of the suspect wanted for Robinson’s murder was compiled from descriptions given by witnesses at the St Charles Tavern.

Yet even as police encourage gays to come forward with information on the eight unsolved murders, they spend energy criminalizing gays by raiding the baths, one of the safest places to have sex.

John Allan Lee, gay sociologist and author of Getting Sex, disagrees with any police analysis which says there is no pattern to the murders, although he doesn’t suggest there is necessarily one murderer. He believes the victims fall into one of two categories. “In the first category are young men who are incapable of safe cruising. They are shy, don’t know how to talk to people. The second category is made up of desperate.unattractive and usually older men.”  Probably the two categories overlap.  Lee was a friend of the first victim in the series of fourteen murders, Harold Walkley. Walkley’s murderer has not been found.

“Harold fell into the second category,” said Lee.  “For some time before his murder he would take anyone home. He was getting older, losing his looks and was lonely. He had difficulty finding lovers he could be compatible with. By the time closing hour came around at a bar he would settle for anything. I was at a party he attended just before his death. Someone put on a record with the words ‘You’re nobody ’til somebody loves you /So find somebody to love.’ Harold stood up and yelled, ‘Yeah, and how do you find someone to love?'”

These are old and weary stereotypes of gay men, but they still have some basis in reality. There are older men who grew up long before the renaissance of gay liberation, men who internalized the vicious myths of the aging, unhappy, friendless gay man. And there are younger men who, unsure of their gayness, cautiously begin to leave their isolation in the straight world. As more gays come out, Lee believes that the number of victims in this category will increase. “There is more homophobic violence to come. It’s almost like the second law of thermodynamics: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A reaction is forming to the social movements of gays and women. These movements are ones which seek concessions. It hurts people to concede things. It is, for example, no coincidence that rape statistics increased dramatically when women entered the economic system. As more gays make their presence known through marches or protests or what have you, more people are going to react and act out against gays.”

Lee thinks the murderers are more likely to be repressed homosexuals rather than homophobic and violent straight men. “The killers of these gay men may themselves have a predisposition to homosexuality.  However, they have been trained to hate homosexuality. In destroying someone they’ve gone home with, they kill that part of themselves. They are filled with self-hatred.”

Dan Paitich, senior psychologist in Forensic Sciences at Toronto’s Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, also doubts the unsolved murders were the work of one psychokiller.   But Paitich disagrees with Lee that the murderers are repressed or latent homosexuals.

“This is an aggressive homophobic situation. These killers, as far as any profile can be made, are homophobic, derelict, from a low social class or the criminal subculture; they are poorly educated and likely alcoholic. Overkill is a sign of drunkeness and of the tremendous rage released. But there has been no real research on this kind of thing in relation to the murders of homosexuals.”

“If these murders are done by different men it may be a case of the homosexual being attracted to an aggressively masculine drunk and thereby putting himself in a potentially dangerous situation. But the motive may simply be robbery — and hatred of the victim after the robbery has taken place.”

George Hislop, a leading spokesperson for the Toronto gay community, has followed some of the solved murder cases as they went through court. Said Hislop, “One thread I see running through most of these cases is that they originate in Yonge Street bars, and that the murderer is a person with a background as a hustler, and a history of robbery, drugs, and alcohol. There are some men out there who simply want to rob and commit violence against people. They use a sexual advance — or one they fabricate later — to justify the violence they are already planning.”

Three of the solved murder cases seem to support that theory. The killing of Earl Cross by Bradley Benoy in December 1977, may not have been a homosexual murder at all. There was no evidence in court that either was gay, and Benoy spun several strange yarns to explain who killed Cross. That Cross had made sexual advances may simply have been one such yarn — newspaper reports have never made this clear.

When James Walker murdered Neil Wilkinson, also in December of 1977, he told police he was provoked by Wilkinson’s sexual advances and his fantasies of having intercourse with young boys. This occurred at a time when the murder of Emmanuel Jaques, the 12- year-old Toronto shoeshine boy, was fresh in everyone’s mind. When it was shown in court that Walker had been naked in Wilkinson’s apartment. Walker was driven to the absurdity of saying he had taken off his clothes to “avoid Wilkinson’s sexual advances.” The prosecutor established that Walker had gone to Wilkinson’s apartment with
an intent to rob. The stories of sexual fantasies were merely desperate attempts on Walker’s part to mitigate the gravity of murder, and lessen his culpability.

When 19-year-old John Sharkey killed Colin Nicholson in August 1978, he claimed he had been provoked by sexual advances. Nicholson had picked up Sharkey, who claimed he was straight, outside the Manatee, a gay afterhours disco in Toronto. After hitting Nicholson over the head with an iron skillet, Sharkey stole liquor, clothes, money and silver from the apartment. The judge rejected Sharkey’s claims of provocation, saying it was hard to believe the young man did not know what he was getting into. In that trial, the prosecutor made a speech asserting that the two hundred thousand homosexuals in Toronto had a right to be protected in their homes. Sharkey was sentenced to seven years for (murder?  Note: information was cut off at source)

Nor were there any indications that the murders were as a result of a decadent lifestyle. Of 51 murders in Metro Toronto in 1978 only five — 10% — of the victims were identified as gay in media coverage. It appears, then, that the number of murders of gays is not out of proportion to the number of gays in the population generally. Furthermore, while gay murders seem strongly connected with the bar and cruising scenes, most heterosexual murders are domestic, and take place in the home between members of the same nuclear family. Gay people are no more victims of their lifestyle than straight people.

When is a murder a “homosexual” murder?

Whenever the media think it’s grabby copy to link gay people with violence and a “murky, secretive underworld.” Headlines often give the impression of the gay community cringing in fear, and almost never indicate whether it was the victim, the killer or both (or, as in the murder of Earl Cross), possibly neither.

A few years ago the courts might not have agreed with the prosecutor of John Sharkey. In the early Sixties, in Guelph, Ontario, a young man was acquitted on a murder charge when he said the victim had made sexual advances. The youth, acting in self-defence according to the court’s ruling, had stabbed the victim 17 times.

The sexual liberation movements of the last 10 years may have made the courts somewhat more careful in their handling of cases of violence against gay people. But gay men and women will be targets for violence and murder until more fundamental changes have occurred in our society.

At the same time, queer bashers whose activities lead to murder, and psycho- killers with enormous reserves of hatred for homosexuals, are psychological terrorists, keeping gays discreet and in the closet.

The media, especially newspapers, capitalize on this with lurid headlines suggesting homosexuals are victims of a decadent lifestyle.

How not to get yourself killed?

There is no guaranteed way to avoid murder. It’s as much a function of chance as crossing the street or taking an airplane. Basic self-defence training seems one obvious solution, but in Toronto, at least, there are no self- defence courses available for men, except judo and karate lessons. Handy little items like aerosol mace, available in American cities, are illegal in Canada. But there are ways of avoiding dangerous situations and preparing for emergencies. If John Lee is right in grouping the victims into two categories, it’s obvious that there is one lifestyle which is safer: the lifestyle of the “out of the closet” gay.

A gay man alone and closeted is more likely to be a victim of violence than an individual who accepts his gayness and has developed a circle of self accepting gay friends and acquaintances. Someone in the closet is likely to pick his sexual partners only after he’s drunk enough to face up to it, and fear of discovery may drive him to select the kinds of men he’s not likely to meet again. If a gay man is open, on the other hand, he ends up meeting many of his sexual partners through mutual friends. Not that most of us won’t be tantalized by strangers and hustlers from time to time — but if there are any doubts, it’s
good to remember that sex at the baths is safer than sex at home.

It’s important, even in bars, to develop friendships with other patrons. Part of being out of the closet is the ability to feel comfortable with a gay lifestyle. There should be no shame involved in saying good-night to friends while you make it discreetly obvious that you’re heading home with the hot new friend panting beside you. After that, a psychopath is likely to flee immediately.

There are techniques for screening people which should be a part of every man’s cruising. “I can find out what kind of person I’ve met by talking to him,” says John Lee. “For instance, I’m very wary of people who have no opinions on anything. I met a man once at a bar and we went to have coffee. He began asking me questions about my work, my politics, and my life. Finally I said to him, ‘Are you aware of what you’re doing?’ He said ‘I’m just trying to find out what kind of person you are.’  But unconsciously he was screening me for danger.” In other words, it boils down to humanizing communication in the bar scene.

There are other precautions which can be taken. Those who live alone can pretend they have a roommate, saying to a new friend as he comes in the door, “Shhh, we have to be quiet so we don’t wake up Joe. . . ” But it had better be at least a two-room apartment!

If a person likes a lot of one-night stands, it’s probably a smart idea not to live alone. But those who do should invest in some common sense safety precautions such as alarm bells, an escape route, locks which cannot be picked or pried, and an understanding neighbour to escape to. Again, it’s best to be out of the closet.

Fourteen murders in four years is frightening. Homosexuality may simply be used as an excuse by murderers for robbery and gain. There could be 14 murderers, a terrifying indication of homophobia. Or there may be a psycho killer, coldly anticipating a victim every six months.

Whatever the reasons for the deaths, and whoever the murderers are, gays can protect themselves, and they can help solve the murders as well. Individuals who may be afraid to take information to the police for fear of exposure should give their information to someone more open in the gay community who can pass it on.

James Kennedy, 49, was “a recluse.”
Brian Latocki, 24, was “shy and new on the gay scene.”
Duncan Robinson, 24, was “a quiet shy man who lived alone.”

These men, and eleven others, did not have to die. They were caught in a familiar contradiction: uncomfortable in the gay world because they were not “out”; not “out” because they were uncomfortable with the gay world.

Tragedy cannot be measured, but somehow the deaths of those “shy” and “new on the gay scene” HMHI particular significance. The straight world isolated these men because they were gay It made them outsiders. Just as they reached for their freedom in a community of their people , they became victims of their isolation.

A plea for help

Three murders still unsolved

Brian Latocki, James Kennedy, and Harold Walkley each brutally murdered within the last two years in Toronto, each found naked in his bedroom, dead from some combination of stabbing, strangulation and beating.  Each had been robbed.  Each man was gay and had been at a gay bar the night before his murder.

Brian Latocki died on January 22, 1977 and his death is still under investigation.  His nude body was found in the blood spattered bedroom, tied to the bed, with his head badly beaten. He had been strangled and there were knife wounds in the back and chest, but no knife was found.

Police know he hitchhiked home from the St Charles the night before, but are not sure he was with anyone else at the time He was a financial analyst, 24, shy and new on the gay scene.

Some property was missing from his apartment which suggests robbery as a motive Apparently, the murderer took time to make an extraordinarily thorough cleanup of his fingerprints.
Note:  The murder of Brian Latocki is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Monday, October 3rd)
James Kennedy, a 49-year-old civil servant, lived an almost reclusive life according to his neighbours.  He was last seen at the St.  Charles Tavern the night before he was killed on September 20. 1976.
Several days later he was found by the caretaker, nude, with a towel knotted around his neck.  He had been beaten about the face and his credit cards were stolen, and police suspect the same man who killed Latocki.

Note:  The murder of James Kennedy is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Tuesday, October 4th)

Harold Walkley 51, was a history teacher, much involved in neighbourhood politics He was last seen getting into a cab in the vicinity of the Quest bar where he had been until closing.  He was apparently alone.  There is m ot (no idea) the inp (not a clue) in any of the taxi company log books. He was found by his housemate early the next morning on February 18, 1975, nude, in the dishevelled, bloodied bedroom with several slab wounds in the back and chest.  Again, no knife was found and credit cards were stolen.

1 lone person may be responsible for all three

The blind alleys police have run into in the Kennedy and Walkley murders is largely due to lack of information.

The police are hamstrung in their investigation by the reluctance of gay people to come forward with information about the victims or the events leading up to the crimes, however small and seemingly unimportant.

This reluctance within the gay community is understandable for two reasons a general fear or mistrust of the police and a deeper fear that if they give information. they may be called as a witness in court and be exposed as gay.

When interviewed, Detective Sergeant Bernard Nadeau, who is investigating the Latocki case, volunteered that pari of the difficulty gay people have in approaching the police may be the result of the kind of treatment police have given some gays in the past.  He emphasized that the police are trying hard to see that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again if any gay person comes forward with information, “rest assured that he or she will be treated with all due respect and confidentiality ”

Solitary street pick-ups are always potentially dangerous, but the fact that all three murders involved visits to bars led Sergeant Nadeau to suggest if you pick up someone in a public place like a bar, introduce him to a friend or in some

Along with Hovey, Jones, and the still-unidentified cross-dresser found in Markham in 1980, all of whom I believe were murdered by James Henry Greenidge, the following are cases in which he should be considered, assuming he was out of jail and in the Toronto area at the time:

●Harold Walkley, 51, a one-time high school teacher and part-time lecturer at the University of Toronto, was stabbed five times in the back and chest at his home on Borden St. on February 18th, 1975. No further information, but case remained unsolved in 1978 when last newspaper citation occurred.
●On February 11th, 1976, James Douglas Taylor, 41, was murdered with a baseball bat in a robbery at his home on Elmhurst Ave. Four-and-a-half years later, Taylor’s brother Claire was also beaten to death, this time with a hammer. While Claire’s killer was quickly arrested, James’s has never been identified. His murder was one of a spate of murders of gay men in the mid-to late-‘70s, which raised fears in the homosexual community.

Note:  The murder of James Douglas Taylor is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Saturday, October 1st)
●On Wednesday, September 20th, 1978, Alex Leblanc, 29, a manager at a disco club, was found murdered in his St. Joseph St. apartment. No further information is available, including on the cause of death, but the deceased’s murder was one of a rash of murders of homosexuals in Toronto in the late-‘70s and early-‘80s, some cases of which have been covered in earlier posts of this thread.

Note:  The murder of Alex (Sandy) Leblanc is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Sunday, October 2nd.)
●Tuesday, January 25th, 1977: The nude body of 24-year-old Brian Latocki is found tied to a bed in his Erskine Ave. apartment. The victim, a financial analyst with the Toronto Dominion bank, had been strangled, beaten, and stabbed several times in the chest and back. Latocki was last seen on the evening of Friday the 21st as he left a gay bar on Yonge St. with a man who purportedly offered him a ride home. That man was described as of East or West Indian origin, in his mid-twenties, with thin features, a medium-brown complexion, and an Afro.
Police at the time believed the killer was a sadist who enjoyed torturing and killing homosexuals. He may have been responsible for the deaths of several other gay men around the same time.

Note:  The murder of Brian Latocki is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Monday, October 3rd)
●James Stewart Kennedy, 49, was found strangled and beaten to death in his apartment on Jarvis St. on Monday, September 20th, 1976. Kennedy worked at the Department of National Revenue on Adelaide St., and his body was found when he failed to show up for work as usual. A towel had been knotted tightly around his neck and his face had been badly battered. The victim, a bachelor, had last been seen Saturday night. No further information.

Note:  The murder of James Kennedy is still listed on the Toronto Police Services Cold Case site (to be profiled Tuesday, October 4th)

Note:  There may be a connection with the murders of Graham Pearce in 1983 (to be profiled Thursday, October 6th) and Thomas Cahill in 1983 (to be profiled Friday, October 7th)