BowMac

Murder by Milkshake Part 2

by Eve Lazarus on October 1, 2021

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

Rene Castellani:

Rene Castellani was known for his outrageous stunts. Shortly before his wife’s death, he had climbed to the top of the BowMac sign on West Broadway and vowed to stay there until every last car on the lot sold. It took nine days.

Clowning around at Joyce Dayton’s children boutique with Esther and Jeannine, ca.1963. Courtesy Jeannine Castellani

While Rene was selling cars for a CKNW promotion, his wife Esther was in hospital. She had been ill for several months. At first she had stomach and lower back pain severe enough to keep her off work at the Kerrisdale children’s boutique, and then she had bouts of nausea and diarrhea which quickly turned into intense pain and vomiting. Her fingers and toes went numb. Esther saw several specialists, spent seven weeks in hospital, and went through more than 120 different tests before she died.

Mabel Luond (Esther’s mother), Esther and Jeannine on Granville Street, ca.1960

Disneyland:

The day after Esther’s funeral, Rene took Jeannine, Lolly and Don to Disneyland and soon the couple moved in together. In Vancouver, Esther’s doctor was still looking into the cause of her death. He went back over everything and realized that arsenic could have caused the symptoms. Dr. Moscovich had Esther’s body exhumed and the autopsy revealed that her arsenic levels were 1,500 times the normal arsenic content of the body.

Rene in handcuffs after his trial. Vancouver Sun, November 12, 1966

Arrested:

Rene was eventually arrested several months later when he and Lolly applied for a marriage license. While the case against Rene was all based on circumstantial evidence, there was a lot of it, including a box of arsenic-laden ortho triox weed killer found under his kitchen sink.

The Vancouver Police Department Homicide Squad in 1967. Bill Porteous second from right first row; Alex Reid top row left; Archie McKay top row, second from left. Courtesy Mike Porteous

New forensic technology was able to chart the amount of arsenic Esther had received through her nails and strands of her hair. What helped to convict Rene though, was that for the nine days he was sitting up on the BowMac sign there wasn’t any sign of poison and she became violently ill the evening Rene came down.

Roy Peterson’s depiction of Rene Castellani’s murder trial. Vancouver Sun, October 9, 1967

For many years Jeannine clung to her father’s innocence, even committing perjury during his trial. Rene was convicted of capital murder, but the death penalty was commuted to life in prison two weeks before he was scheduled to hang.

Within a few years, he was out on day parole, often visiting Jeannine with a different woman in tow. Within 12 years he had full parole, remarried and became Rene the Roadrunner for an Abbotsford radio station.

Jeannine and Rene out on Parole, ca.1976. Courtesy Jeannine Castellani

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Show Notes:

Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’

Intro : Mark Dunn

Interviews: Jeannine Castellani; Mike Porteous (retired) superintendent Major Crimes Vancouver Police Department; George Garrett (retired) CKNW investigative reporter

Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media

Promo: Blood, Sweat and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance

Sources:

Lazarus, Eve. Murder by Milkshake: an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic, and a charismatic killer, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018
Vancouver Police Museum and Archives
CKNW Owl Prowl tapes courtesy Colleen Hardwick

Murder by Milkshake Part 1 https://evelazarus.com/s2-e22-murder-by-milkshake-part-1/

Guy in the Sky https://evelazarus.com/guy-in-the-sky-the-bowmac-sign/

The Maharaja https://evelazarus.com/the-maharajah-alleebaba/

Lolly, CFun and the brill bus https://evelazarus.com/lolly-cfun-and-the-brill-trolley-bus/

Tags BowMac, CKNW, Esther Castellani, Jeannine Castellani, murder by milkshake, Rene Castellani

Guy in the Sky: The BowMac Sign

by Eve Lazarus on January 5, 2019

Photo courtesy Angus McIntyre ca.1968. From the roof of the Fairmont Apartments at Spruce and W.10th

On June 4, 1965, CKNW personality Rene Castellani climbed to the top of the scaffolding next to the BowMac Sign and promised not to come down until every last car on the lot was sold.

That would take nine days.

The following story is an excerpt from Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer.

These days, the scene takes a bit of imagination. Auto row and the Bowell McLean Motor Company on West Broadway are long gone, and the giant neon sign has been neglected and was partially covered over by the current tenant—Toys-R-Us—more than 20 years ago.

But back to 1965.

The BowMac car dealership had a history of staging stunts to lure customers away from the Dueck Chevrolet Oldsmobile dealership down the road. Under Jimmy Pattison’s management, promotions included dressing up a performing monkey in overalls and hiring the Leavy brothers—seven-foot-tall twins—to hang out in the used car lot. In 1958, Pattison staged what was billed as the “world’s largest checker game” where models in red or black bathing suits became the checkers moving across a board of two-foot squares.

Pattison topped even that the following year when he commissioned Neon Products—a company he later brought—to build a sign the height of a seven-storey building with orange and red letters that spelled BOWMAC, and powered by a transformer that could light up 30 houses.

The sign cost $100,000, weighed 12 tons, and was briefly North America’s largest free-standing sign.+

Castellani’s assignment was called “the Guy in the Sky” and the stunt called for him to live in a station wagon next to the neon sign. The station wagon was equipped with a telephone and a direct line to CKNW, bedding, and a chemical toilet. Food was sent up to him in a bucket. The car was brightly lit up, and he was quite visible from the ground most of the time. He would give regular broadcasts from the tower. Passerbys were encouraged to drive by and honk their horns, and they could see a clothesline strung from the station wagon to the sign with a pair of Castellani’s shorts swaying in the wind.

Rene Castellani and Jack Cullen, ;1964. Courtesy Colleen Hardwick

The BowMac Sign promotion became a central part in Castellani’s capital murder trial for the arsenic poisoning of his wife Esther. A Toronto lab was able to use a nuclear reactor to chart the progress of arsenic in Esther’s hair and fingernail growth and provide a rough timeline of when she received the poison and in what quantities. Esther, who had been in Vancouver General Hospital for the nine-day duration of the promotion, had greatly improved while Castellani was away. On the day after he came back down from the sign, she got really ill and never recovered. It coincided with the charts that showed she had received a massive dose of arsenic while she was in hospital and sometime within 35 days of her death on July 11, 1965.

As for the sign, it was the subject of a Heritage Revitalization Agreement in 1997 where Toys-R- Us was allowed to add their signage instead of demolishing the sign. That agreement now runs until 2022 or until Toys-R-U goes bankrupt.

Murder by Milkshake is now a two-episode Cold Case Canada podcast:

Tags Bowell McLean Motor Company, BowMac, Dueck Chevrolet, Esther Castellani, Jimmy Pattison, Neon Products, Rene Castellani

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