Maritime Murder Read Online Free PDF

seemed oddly eager to help the authorities in any way she could. Whether she was actually displaying a degree of civic duty, or whether she was merely trying to save her own skin, is quite debatable.
    After three days of digging, rcmp Constable J. A. Fenwick uncovered the broken butt of a . 22 calibre rifle from a snow bank. The last bit of evidence fell into place.

Murder or Nothing
    On Tuesday, January 29 , the court assembled, and the last of Lambert’s delaying tactics played out. The Bannister family was led into the courtroom. The brothers smiled as if they were walking to a family picnic. May Bannister continued to scowl at those assembled about her. Young Frances looked nervously about the courtroom and fretted with her hair.
    By coincidence, the date of the final verdict happened to be the same day of the funeral of King George v , who had died early that week.Frances Bannister had been listening to a radio upstairs in one of the courtroom’s holding cells while the sentence was being read. She had left the radio turned up and playing loudly as the family walked slowly into the courtroom, seemingly accompanied by the distant, crackling strains of Handel’s “Funeral March.”
    T he final arguments were heard. Lambert continued to argue that the baby belonged to May Bannister. He argued that Daniel Bannister had been tortured and tormented by police into testifying. He argued that Frances Bannister had been bribed with candy. He argued that there was not enough evidence to prove that anyone in the Lake household had been murdered. He argued that there was no proven connection between the broken rifle, the bullet inside Philip Lake’s skull, and the Bannister family. Finally, he argued that anyone could have visited the Lakes’ homestead that night and done the deed. One by one, each of Murray Lambert’s arguments was raised and defeated.
    â€œThere is absolutely nothing in this case to warrant reduction of the charge to manslaughter,” Chief Justice J. H. Barry told the court. “It is murder or nothing.”
    Arthur Bannister was declared guilty of murder and kidnapping. “I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead,” Barry said,“and may almighty God have mercy on your soul.”
    â€œShe could have went either way,” Arthur declared nonchalantly, as he calmly accepted a cigarette from a spectator in the crowd.
    May Bannister was found guilty of harbouring a kidnapped infant. Even then, she remained unremorseful. “Hang me if you like,” she said. “I don’t need no prayers. Just bury me deep enough so the birds don’t peck my eyes out.”
    However, May Bannister was not to be hanged. She would serve three and a half years in Kingston Prison. Eventually, she received time off for good behaviour. Daniel Bannister was also found guilty of murder, but the jury decided that his role in the events warranted mercy.
    This wasn’t good enough for lawyer Lambert. He would clear his clients or die trying. Upon appeal, a second trial was allowed. The fact that rcmp Sergeant Bedford Peters actually fainted in the witness box as he examined the late Philip Lake’s gold teeth neither helped nor hurt the proceedings. However, at the end of the second trial, both Daniel and Arthur Bannister were convicted to be hanged.
    Perhaps May should have stuck with her first lawyer.
    On September 22 , 1936 , the famous Canadian hangman Arthur Ellis arrived in Dorchester Prison. He supervised the construction of a proper gallows. The black flag was raised at the Dorchester county courthouse to signal an execution.
    Daniel played it cool. He allowed no trace of worry or fear to show in his actions before the hanging. Arthur, on the other hand, raged and threw a tantrum in his cell. He seemed to think that he was being framed and ought not to be there.
    Visiting was allowed early in the evening. May spent a little time with her boys before