Every Place Has a Story

Murder by Milkshake Part 1

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In 1965, Rene Castellani, a 40-year-old radio personality decided to murder his wife Esther with arsenic-laced milkshakes so could marry Lolly, CKNW’s 25-year-old receptionist. The couple had an 11-year-old daughter called Jeannine, who became the collateral damage in one of the most sensational murder cases of the 20th century.

This podcast episode is based on my book Murder by Milkshake: an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic and a charismatic killer

Audio clips from CKNW’s Owl Prowl, 1961.

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Pat Lowther: Murder of a Poet

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When Pat Lowther was murdered in her East Vancouver home, she had just signed a contract with a major publisher. The 40-year-old mother of four was carving out a new voice in the Canadian literary scene and being recognized for her strong, often violent, feminist poetry.

the lowthers:

The mustard-coloured house where Pat and Roy Lowther lived on East 46th Avenue near Mountain View Cemetery, is a three-storey, classic kit home with a welcoming front porch and stained glass on the front door.

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Murder in Mole Hill: Muriel Lindsay

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In the months leading up to her murder, Muriel Lindsay had been targeted and harassed. Her cat was stolen, she’d received bizarre anonymous letters, and someone had used her credit card to take out subscriptions and make a donation to the United Way in her name. Who was stalking Muriel and why was this 40-year-old postal worker found beaten to death in her West End apartment?

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Jimmy and Lily Ming: On the Edge of Chinatown

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At the start of 1985, things looked good for Jimmy and Lily Ming. They had two small children, owned their own home and worked in the family’s thriving Robson Street restaurant. But by the end of January, Jimmy and Lily had been kidnapped from their Vancouver house, the restaurant was closed and the rest of the Ming family lived in fear of their lives.

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Danny Brent’s Body

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Danny Brent’s body was found on the tenth green at UBC’s golf course on September 15, 1954. An early edition of the newspaper was stuffed inside his shirt soaked with his blood. There was a half-smoked cigarette inside his shirt where it had dropped from his mouth when he was shot—once in the back and twice in the head with .45-calibre bullets.

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Would you buy a murder house?

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You wouldn’t buy a house without having a building inspector check the foundation, so why wouldn’t you research your potential home’s history?

A heritage house at Fraser and East 10th went up for sale last week for $1.4 million. It wasn’t the price-tag though (low by Vancouver standards) that captured people’s attention, it was the house’s murder history.

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