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. Photo Rene Castellani and Jack Cullen (courtesy Colleen Hardwick).
I’ve had a fascination with the Castellani murder case ever 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 Catholic Church, decided to poison his wife with arsenic so that he could marry Lolly Miller, the 25-year-old receptionist.
I’ve read various accounts of the murder over the years, even written about it myself in At Home with History, grounding the story in the house, or in this case, the duplex, where most of the poisoning took place. Occasionally, I’ve 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 wrote to tell me that Lolly had a son called Don, not a daughter, as I had written. And her husband Don would very much like to find Jeannine Castellani, because he’d been searching for her for nearly 50 years. I wrote back and thanked Debbie and said I would also like to find Jeannine.
And then, in June 2017, Jeannine found me.
Jeannine and her daughter Ashley came to my book launch for Blood, Sweat, and Fear at the Vancouver Police Museum. The museum had put their true crime exhibits in the morgue which was next to the autopsy suite and where we had set up our cash bar, and where Esther’s body 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 well-known murders in Vancouver’s history?
Well, for several reasons. It took place in the 1960s—a decade of incredible change. On the one hand, you have conservative, small-town Vancouver and two juries that convicted Rene mostly because of his infidelity. On the other hand, you have 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 lunches. It was a 19th century-style murder solved by a 20th 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 the book and now create this podcast to tell Jeannine’s story.
SHOW NOTES
Sponsors: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours and Erin Hakin Jewellery
Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’
Intro and voiceovers: Mark Dunn
Interviews: former CKNW staffers George Garrett and Norm Grohmann; Jeannine Castellani.
Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media
Sources:
- Lazarus, Eve. Murder by Milkshake: an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic, and a charismatic killer, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018
- CKNW Owl Prowl tapes courtesy Colleen Hardwick
- CKNW Maharaja Promo tape courtesy George Orr
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