Marion Hamilton, 68 was murdered in her Shaughnessy home in 1975. It’s a creepy story of a once prominent Vancouver family, a run-down old mansion, greed, and the shocking identity of her murderer.
The story of Marion Hamilton’s murder first appeared in my book At Home With History
When police found the body of Marion Hamilton, 68, in her Nanton Street home in 1975, they assumed it was death by natural causes. The widow suffered from dementia and lived in the decrepit old house since the death of her elderly mother nine months before.
Marion had two guardians, both cousins, appointed to look after her. Olga Young had wanted to put her into a nursing home where she would receive around the clock attention; but Elouise Roads Wilson, Marion’s co-guardian told Young that she didn’t want the estate to be “depleted” by the cost of private care. So the 47-year-old Elouise Wilson left her law practice in Victoria and moved into the Nanton Street house to take care of her cousin.
Soon afterwards, Marion was dead.
The autopsy found ligature marks around her neck. Either someone had strangled her, or she had either accidentally or intentionally hanged herself with a thin cord or wire.
The story got decidedly creepier. It turned out that Eunice Coote, Marion’s 93-year-old mother had died in the same house several months before. Apparently, she was dead for two to three weeks, lying in the same bed and decomposing and Marion hadn’t noticed.
Show Notes:
Intro: Mark Dunn
Music: Background track created by Nico Vettese www.wetalkofdreams.com
Seagulls and crows sound effects:
Sponsor: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours
Promo: Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance
Sources:
Lazarus, Eve. At Home with History: The Untold Secrets of Vancouvers Heritage Homes. Anvil Press, 2007
McDonald, Glen and John Kirkwood. How Come I’m Dead? Surrey, BC. Hancock House, 1985
Official Report of Debates of the Legislative Assembly, June 7, 1978
Death Certificates
City Directories
Newspapers:
BC News
Nanaimo Daily News
Ottawa Journal
Province
Times Colonist
Vancouver Sun
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
10 comments on “The Shaughnessy Murder of Marion Hamilton”
Eve, very much enjoyed this podcast, as always. We will never know for sure of Marions death, but we can speculate on what may have happened. My wife is an ex lawyer and I would like to think all lawyers are honest/sincere and are only working to serve the publics best interest.
Thanks for listening Brad! Have to agree, the lawyers I know are all hard working professionals. But bad apples in every industry
recently my niece…sent me your podcast…regarding the death of marion hamlton…as my mother was one of the guardians for marion…i am quite familiar..with the story…i have also read the trial transcript….i was somewhat surprised …as you implied one of my sister..was involved with the auction…which is entirely incorrect…in fact none of us were aware that there was such an auction…perhaps you could enlighten us on the entails and distribution of this auction..best regards…paul harrison young
Hi Paul: a notice about the auction appeared in the Times Colonist on Feb 16, 1983 page 35. The person to contact for “special viewing appointments” was a Miss N. Young.
Is the house still there on Nanton Street Eve??
It is. Looks like it sold fairly recently and had been beautifully renovated
The house did sell recently. You can get a peek at the (newly renovated) interior in this youtube clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1icY1ZNERo
Beautiful home. I could live there. But I wonder if there are ghosts. 🤔
Eve, I am so grateful for your story about this house. It is now demolished, but my friend Kathleen Shearer Lochhead (1912-2005) was raised in this house. Her father was the US customs agent. This house was right across from the church, and the family maintained a hat rack in the front hall for ladies that forgot to bring their hats to church and were directed to the Shearer house to borrow a hat. Kathleen was married in the back garden of this house in the 1930’s, I have the images.
The fact that they torn that house down, after such a beautiful renovation, is a crime!