The Kosberg Axe Murders podcast is based on a story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Mount Pleasant:
When police arrived at the house in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant area on December 10, 1965, the first thing they saw was the bright red Santa Claus painted on the front window. They kicked in the front door and found the bodies of Osborne and Dorothy Kosberg, Barry, 15, Gayle, 11, Vincent, 2 and Marianne, 13 clinging to life. They had all been hacked to bits with a double-bladed axe. Only the baby survived.
Tom, 17, had a history of mental illness, but no one could imagine him plotting a murder, let alone killing his own family.
On the night of the murder, he bought a bottle of 25 sleeping pills from a local drugstore. He made chocolate milkshakes for his mother, for Florence a family friend who was visiting, and for his two brothers and two sisters.
Watching Television:
The family was watching television. Florence sat at one end of the chesterfield while Tom sat at the other reading a book. She remembers Dorothy saying, “I didn’t know that I was that tired.” Florence then fell asleep and woke up about 11:00 pm. Tom suggested she stay the night, but she called a taxi and left. While the rest of his family slept, Tom waited up for Osborne who was working a late shift as a truck driver for Allied Heat and Fuel. He made his Dad a milkshake. When everyone was asleep he went to the basement to fetch the double-bladed axe.
Neatly dressed and calm:
Tom drove off in the family’s 1954 sedan and ran it into a power pole. Police described him later as “neatly dressed” and “calm”.
The court ruled that Tom was not guilty by reason of insanity and shipped him back to Riverview.
Ten years later Tom was released. He married and worked for BC Children’s Hospital for the next 30 years. He died in 2016.
In the podcast, criminologist Heidi Currie helps me explore the differences and similarities between the Kosberg murders, the Blackman family murders in Coquitlam in 1983, and the murder of Tim McLean by Vince Li on a Greyhound bus in 2008. All three killers were found not criminally responsible for their actions and released in less than 10 years.
Show Notes
Intro: Mark Dunn
Music: Bittersweet by Myuu, The Dark Piano
Sponsor: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours
PSA: Vancouver Police Museum and Archives
Promo: Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance
Guest: Dr. Heidi Currie, criminologist
Sources:
The Vancouver Police Museum and Archives
Vital Statistics – death certificates
Lazarus, Eve. Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020
- All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
28 comments on “The Kosberg Axe Murders”
Another super interesting and informative podcast from Eve Lazarus. Eve is a brilliant story teller, and I literally can’t wait until the next episode arrives in my podcast feed!
Thanks so much for making my day Wallace! Thrilled that you’re enjoying my podcasts
This is interesting but there is no mention of my father picking him up after the murders . He drove Tom all over Vancouver before taking him to Doctor Wongs house in West Vancouver .
Actually, there is a lot about your father’s connection to Tom in the podcast. The blog is only meant as a short summary of the story.
Everyone who murders another human being is insane and forfeits the right to be free.
Very good story Eve. I was a little boy growing up around the same age as the these kids, but was shielded from these stories. Its mind boggling to me how ten years after a crime like this, that Tom could start a new life and basically get away with murder. Look forward to your next story.
Glad you enjoyed it Brad! Thanks for stopping by
I’ll respectfully dissent from Dr Currie’s contention that Tom Kosberg would’ve been executed had he been convicted of first degree murder after these killings in 1965. The last execution in BC was carried out in 1959. The last in Canada was in 1962, in Ontario, and death sentences were commuted after that until formal abolition of the death penalty. True, Stephen Truscott was sentenced to death, as a youth, in 1959, which seems to have been mandatory for first degree murder, but that was commuted. As to whether Tom Kosberg’s planned and organized behaviour (unlike Bruce Blackman’s) should’ve resulted in a finding of guilt rather than not guilty by reason of insanity, as Dr Currie argues, isn’t it possible for schizophrenics to appear normal while experiencing profound delusions? Rare, but possible? I wonder. It’s useful to compare this result with Walter Madsen’s shooting of several teenagers in Rosedale in 1977. He was convicted of first degree murder on contested psychiatric testimony, in circumstances where the crime was clearly planned to some degree, but apparently as a bizarre, irrational plan to kidnap a wealthy person for ransom. Instead he encountered a random group of young people socializing near the river bank and shot them all.
Transfixed. Great job, Eve!
Thanks so much Andrew, glad you enjoyed it!
My mom and dad went to school with Tommy. My dad actually saw Tommy when he was in his way to the drugstore. Told my dad he was going to get soda. Very sad story. From what my dad told me there only 5kids including Tommy.
That must have been very hard for your father and his family. There were six kids in total – a baby survived
My mom was in the same grade at Tupper Secondary with one of the sisters. Mom said she was in shock
Does anyone remember a horrific murder of a woman in an empty lot around 41st and Knight St? I remember reading a lot about it in the late 50s early 60s?? Never knew what happened or if it was solved.
Yes that was Lila Anderson on Christmas Day in 1959. I did a podcast on this just recently https://evelazarus.com/episode-07-the-christmas-day-murder-of-lila-anderson/
I knew the family well and went to school with them. It was a devastating time when this happened. I was young when it happened but something that I will never ever forget.
I was actually friends with Gail and Marianne, and lived very close. I remember looking at the back porch of our apartment and seeing the police and police tape. My mom broke the news to me that day, and I stayed at home from school. What I can share, is Tom had previously tried to set fire to the home before this incident. That is one of the reasons he was getting help and wasn’t living at home until they had him home for Christmas. I spent many times playing at their home. They were the nicest family, and always very close. So very sad even to this day I look at old birthday party pictures and see them happy.
Very sad , do you have more photos of the family ? There is only that grainy black and white one .
Tom Kosberg. My brother was in the group home with Tom. Wong ‘ treated ‘ them both. Disaster outcome for both young men.
Tommy was my room mate at the home. He was certainly very disturbed. I had left there before this happened, but I knew immediately upon being told what had happened that it was true without any more info that day. He had wanted to do this for a long time before it actually happened. His thoughts were so outrageous that the few people he mentioned his desires to would just tell him to stop talking nonsense and he would for a time. Many people talk about doing crazy things, thankfully very few follow through. Who was your brother Greg?
How do we find more information regarding Thomas’ life after being released back into society. His obituary states he was married to a Maggi, how do we find out more about her?
Thanks for asking! You could listen to my podcast – the link is on the post you’re comment on, or buy my book – Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History – https://evelazarus.com/book/vancouver-exposed/
I will always remember Gayle. We were classmates at General Wolf. I had just been transferred out of General Brock school as I literally lived on the wrong side of 28th Ave. I remember being shy and didn’t know anyone. But I vividly remember her empty desk. I also remember the dark rumors of murder and the poor teacher running out of the classroom periodically – presumably when she couldn’t hold it together. Jeepers this article brings it all back…
And if you look at the house now on Google Street View… Christmas decorations are up. Again.
I don’t remember this but I would have been 6 at the time. My first memory of something horrible happening was the little girl named Evangeline. She went to either Emily Carr Elementary or Edith Cavell. I remember the police knocking on everyone’s front door asking if they could search backyards and garbage bins. We lived in Dunbar and I remember my dad giving them permission and explaining to me what was going on. Every day after that I would read the newspaper and see that she was still missing..until they did find her body. I remember seeing a picture somewhere of the dad, pleading for her return. I believe they were new to Vancouver from Asia. It had a huge impact on me, and occasionally today I will think about it and remember how much it upset me. I don’t remember if they ever caught the guy.
I wrote about Evangeline Azarcon in my book Cold Case Vancouver. She went to Edith Cavell. Sadly, her case was never solved.
[…] The duplex where Esther Castellani was slowly poisoned to death by arsenic in 1965 and featured in Murder by Milkshake is still standing in Kerrisdale.That same year, 17-year-old Thomas Kosberg made milkshakes for his father, mother and four siblings, drugged them, and after they fell asleep, hacked the family to bits with a double-bladed axe. That story is in Vancouver Exposed and is now a podcast. […]
Hi Eve,
I wrote to you about Detective Archie Mackay else where as you know.
I’ve just remembered that he told me that he and some other detectives would visit Tom from time to time when he in hospital.
By what he said it seemed that he and his colleagues had quite a lot of sympathy for Tom
If I remember rightly Archie retired from police around 1975 after 30 years service