The following is a re-print of a past column by former Advertiser columnist Stephen Thorning, who passed away on Feb. 23, 2015.
Some text has been updated to reflect changes since the original publication and any images used may not be the same as those that accompanied the original publication.
During the 1870s and 1880s, Donald McLeod of Morriston operated a plastering business based in Morriston.
In the summer of 1885, he secured the contract to finish the interior of the new Mount Pleasant Methodist Church, in Nichol Township just south of Ennotville, at Concession 9, Lot 8.
Sept. 8 had been a typical working day for McLeod and his crew of three men: Jack O’Donnell, Joseph Murphy and Bernard Brown. They had no premonition that the day would end in tragedy.
Shortly after 2pm the men stopped for the day, climbed aboard McLeod’s wagon, and headed back home through Guelph. McLeod left early to have the shoes replaced on his horse at a Guelph blacksmith shop.
While waiting for the horse to be shod, the group split up. Joe Murphy and Bernie Brown headed for the Wellington Hotel. McLeod had some business calls to make, and Jack O’Donnell went for a short visit with his parents.
The four men met again at 6pm at the blacksmith shop, and resumed their journey, stopping briefly at the Fountain House, a working man’s hotel on Gordon Street. McLeod had a bill to pay there. All the men except O’Donnell went to the bar for a quick glass of beer.
Jack O’Donnell had sworn off liquor under pressure from his priest. A year before, a drunken break-and-enter spree had landed him in serious trouble with the law, and he was trying to put his life back in order.
At about 6:15pm, the four men piled back into the wagon, headed for Morriston. Though a little tipsy, Joe Murphy took the reins. Several times McLeod cautioned the driver to slow down. Murphy had a weakness for liquor, and became belligerent and obnoxious when drunk. Otherwise, he was a good worker, and had become a valuable employee in the two years he had been with McLeod. He was 28 years old.
When Murphy did not slow down, Don McLeod took over the reins himself, and Murphy moved to the back of the wagon, where Jack O’Donnell was already sitting. The two men had never gotten along well, and in Murphy’s intoxicated state they soon began arguing and insulting each other. They had known one another for years – the families of both lived in St. Patrick’s Ward in Guelph – and there were long-standing differences between them.
Jack O’Donnell had worked periodically for Don McLeod since 1868, and most recently since McLeod had taken on the Mount Pleasant contract in August. A wild and unruly man since youth, Jack had a history of scrapes with the law, on charges of burglary, assault (once against his own father) and attempted rape. He had been in jail for brief periods on a half-dozen occasions, and for a three-year term in the penitentiary.
Twice he had escaped from jail, feats that earned him the nickname “Slippery Jack.” At 45, he was less rambunctious than formerly, but still had a fiery temper. For the past year he had led a more temperate life, after a serious talk with his priest following his escapade the previous year. Jack had taken the pledge and joined the League of the Cross.
The men were almost home when violence flared up. As they passed near the Aberfoyle Mill, Murphy swung his fist at O’Donnell, who responded by shoving Murphy out of the wagon. Then he jumped out with a plasterer’s hod in his hand. When Murphy tried to get up, O’Donnell struck him on the head with the hod. The commotion startled the horse, but McLeod quickly got it stopped, and ran back to the scene with Bernie Brown. Before they could stop him, O’Donnell struck Murphy twice again.
Brown then wrested the hod from O’Donnell. Brown and McLeod managed to lift Murphy onto the wagon, and took him immediately to McLeod’s house in Morriston. Jack O’Donnell followed on foot, uttering defiant threats the whole time.
Dr. Courtenay, a Morriston physician, soon arrived, but could do little. Murphy was breathing, but unconscious, with a deep gash in his forehead. The doctor tried in vain to revive him. Joe Murphy died at about 10pm.
All the while, O’Donnell who boarded with McLeod, remained very much agitated, and paced around the house and garden. A couple of dozen people had been attracted by the commotion, but no one attempted to seize him.
Crown Attorney Henry Peterson happened to be in the area, attending a meeting with Reeve Nichol of Puslinch. Hearing of the attack, he soon arrived at the McLeod residence, and instructed bystanders to keep an eye on O’Donnell. But it was too late. The culprit had disappeared.
When Peterson and the others inspected his bedroom, they found his work clothes on the floor. He had changed into his best clothes to make his escape, slipping away quietly out the back door.
Peterson found County Constable Mitchell Todd of Aberfoyle, and turned the case over to him. With some assistants recruited quickly, Todd searched through Aberfoyle and Morriston without success, then sent a message to Guelph’s Chief Randall to be on the watch.
Randall searched the home of O’Donnell’s parents, then sent out a telegraph message to other police forces in the area to be on the watch for the fugitive.
The coroner, Dr. Tom Keating of Guelph, called an inquest for the afternoon of Sept. 9.
Don McLeod testified that O’Donnell’s temper could flare easily, but that he had never known him to strike anyone before the attack of the night previous. He told the jurors that Joe Murphy had been drinking, and that the altercation began when Murphy called O’Donnell some uncomplimentary names. McLeod also revealed that Murphy and O’Donnell had a serious argument in the summer of 1884.
Bernie Brown corroborated his employer’s testimony. In addition, he stated that Murphy had taken several glasses of gin at the Wellington Hotel, and had become intoxicated. Brown recreated, for the benefit of the jury, the final conversation between O’Donnell and Murphy, including the barrage of profanities.
The other major evidence came from Dr. Courtenay, who explained that death could have occurred from several causes, all of them resulting from the wound. The jury took only a few minutes to come to a verdict. They found that Murphy had died as a result of a wilful murder by Jack O’Donnell.
Meanwhile, the authorities picked up O’Donnell’s trail. He had passed the toll gate on the road at Puslinch about midnight, and afterwards passed through Freelton to Strabane.
County Constable Ingram, with Constable Flowers of the Guelph force, led the pursuit, arriving in Stabane at 5am on Sept. 9. They spent the day on a circuit to Carlisle, Waterdown, Clappison’s Corners, Dundas and Bullock’s Corners. Finding no leads, they returned to Strabane about 7pm, completely exhausted.
A local farmer told them that he had seen O’Donnell climbing a fence to the west of the hamlet. The constables renewed their pursuit, with aid from Wentworth authorities. They traced O’Donnell to Rockton, where he was spotted in the bar room of a hotel. The constables waited until he left the building. O’Donnell assaulted two officers, one with a knife, when they attempted an arrest, but they soon overpowered their quarry.
News of Murphy’s death and the escape of the suspect captured headlines in daily papers across the province. Most accounts sensationalized the story, exaggerating O’Donnell’s ferociousness and criminal record beyond recognition.
After travelling all night, Ingram and Flowers arrived in Guelph at 10am on the morning of Sept. 10. Word of the capture had already spread through the city. Several hundred people gathered around the police station to catch a glimpse of the murderer. He presented a frightful appearance: his clothes dirty and torn, and his face haggard with the remnants of his beard – he had hacked it off with his knife to aid his escape.
O’Donnell’s trial took place at the Fall Assizes in Guelph on Sept. 15 before Chief Justice Cameron. Crown Attorney Peterson called Don McLeod, Bernie Brown, Dr. Courtenay, and the constables. Their testimony repeated that given at the coroner’s inquest, but in much more detail. O’Donnell’s defence consisted largely of character witnesses, who assured the court that O’Donnell was only violent when drinking.
Several residents of Aberfoyle testified that Murphy had been taunting the accused loudly with name-calling and vile language when the wagon passed through Aberfoyle.
Working very much in O’Donnell’s favour was the stirring summation by his lawyer, E.F.B. Johnston. He contrasted O’Donnell’s peaceable conduct with the constant prodding from Murphy during the journey. He stressed that Murphy had provoked the altercation.
The trial took only five hours. After deliberating for two more, the jurors returned with a verdict of “Not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.” Judge Cameron stated that he did not believe the accused intended to kill or seriously injure Murphy. On the other hand, O’Donnell should have used more discretion in dealing with a drunken man. The sentence, five years in the Kingston penitentiary with hard labour, surprised the spectators. Most had expected a more severe sentence.
Neither Murphy nor O’Donnell were married, so there were no children who suffered as a result of the crime. But both had parents and siblings.
To them and to the rest of the community, the Murphy homicide remained a cruel lesson that liquor and bad tempers can be a fatal combination.
*This column was originally published in the Wellington Advertiser on Sept. 20, 2002.
