Murder on North Drive
by
H. Vi Jamieson
Source: Winnipeg's Westgate Murders
- Frank W. AndersonNorth Drive in the Fort Garry area of Winnipeg was the scene of a murder on Thursday, February 16, 1928. Running from Pembina Highway to the Red River, it jogged at the Cabbage Patch Inn, cut through the centre of what is now the golfing greens of the Wildewood Golf Club, followed the bend in the river and continued south past the residence of Colonel Thompson (now St. John's Ravenscourt School). A street called Willow crossed North Drive about four hundred meters beyond the Cabbage Patch Inn. It was here, beside a large culvert, that William Watkins, father of a teacher at nearby General Steele School, found the victim's body.
Seventy-two year old Mr. Watkins, out to stretch his legs after a February weekend blizzard, left his house on Somerset Avenue and headed toward the river. At the end of Somerset he crossed to North Drive and, walking as briskly as his aging legs would allow, went as far as the bend in the road. Feeling one leg beginning to ache, he turned there and retraced his steps. This time he walked close to the deep, snow-filled ditch alongside.
Near the culvert at the corner of Willow Street, Watkins saw a bit of black fur, 'perhaps a hat,' he thought, lying half covered by the snow. Getting closer, he saw, to his horror, a human hand and part of a woman's leg protruding from the snow. Shocked, and not sure what to do, he paced back and forth believing that the body was that of some poor soul who had fallen and frozen to death during the storm. A car turned from Colonel Thompson drive and drove towards him. He flagged it down and asked the driver to report his grisly find to the Fort Garry police. A few moments later three boys, breathless with excitement, rode up on bicycles, skidding to a stop beside him. Realizing that the folk in the car had done all they intended to do, Watkins dispatched the eldest boy back to the Cabbage Patch Inn to call the police; he resumed his vigil accompanied now by two goggle-eyed boys.
Chief Carrabre of the Fort Garry Police received the call. From the excited lad's garbled report, he was unable to ascertain whether the body was that of a man or a woman. He told the boy to remain at the Inn. He then phoned Police Chief Jourdain of St. Vital. "Art, a body has been found on North Drive. You'd better get over here. It might be Mrs. Adams."
Lottie Adams, wife of the T. Eaton Company store detective, James Reid Adams, had been missing from her home for four days. Although Adams and Lottie had been married for six years, there were no children and their family life left a lot to be desired. Lottie loved to visit her numerous friends in the city and James, in addition to his duties as a store detective, taught aviation three times a week and spent Sunday afternoons as a flying instructor.
The evening of the day his wife went missing, Adams arrived home at about six o'clock. He found the package of fruit and a magazine he had sent to her earlier in the afternoon by messenger, still on the front doorstep. In the empty house, he found an unmade bed in the bedroom and his wife's nightgown discarded on the bathroom floor. When she hadn't returned by bedtime, he wasn't alarmed. Assuming that she was visiting her father and sister across the river as she often did, he went to bed.
Next morning he went to work as usual. On returning home that evening to a still empty house, he was seriously annoyed although he knew it was quite in keeping with her behaviour lately. He waited up until midnight and then, leaving the lights on, went to bed. Saturday morning the lights were still on and the house still empty. Angry now, he drove to the home of her close friend on Essex Avenue in St. Vital where he learned for the first time that Lottie was involved with a taxi driver, Albert Westgate. Westgate was the son of a wealthy merchant of Sussex, England. It was rumored he was a remittance man sent to Canada some years back to avoid a family embarrassment. Adams, now increasingly worried and unable to ascertain Westgate's address, called several other friends of Lottie. It was common knowledge, he soon learned, that she and Westgate had been seeing a great deal of each other. He made more telephone calls. Now seriously distraught, he filed a Missing Person report with the St. Vital police.
St. Vital's Chief Jourdain reached North Drive within ten minutes of receiving the call from Fort Garry police. He found a small crowd of spectators gathered and noticed that the elderly man who had made the discovery was beginning to shiver from shock and cold. He ordered his constable to take Watkins to the Cabbage Patch Inn to get a statement from him. He busied himself keeping the spectators back from disturbing the scene until police reinforcements, the coroner and photographer arrived. He realized from the shoe on the foot protruding from the snow that the body was that of a woman; he suspected that indeed it could be the missing Mrs. Adams.
Police photographers arrived. They set up their cameras, took shots of large patches of blood (uncovered when the fresh snow was brushed aside), severed body parts, another shoe, and several other articles that bore witness to a grisly crime having been committed. Dr. Laurendo of the police medical team made a short preliminary examination and left.
The road was cleared of spectators. The crime scene was roped off and a police ambulance transported the body to Thompson's Funeral home on Main Street. James Adams was brought to the undertakers parlor. He identified the remains as those of his wife, Lottie Adams.
The Winnipeg Tribune and The Free Press kept the public abreast of the sensational story. As a result, persons with vital and incriminating information came forward. Their stories placed Westgate on North Drive near where the body was found on the day that Lottie Adams was assumed to have been killed. Several witnesses picked him out of police lineups. These identifications were added to the mounting incriminating evidence: a blood-stained .32 calibre revolver (found after careful raking of snow at the site), pieces of clothing, the second shoe, blood on Westgate's clothes, and a white scarf which had been identified as one habitually worn by Westgate. All this convinced the police that they had a case against him. They turned all evidence over to the Crown Prosecutor, G.K. Cousley, and arrested Westgate for the murder of Charlotte (Lottie) Christine Adams.
Westgate lost no time in contacting the law firm of Tupper, McTavish, Foley and Tupper, of which the late Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, British baronet, had been senior partner. The Westgate family in England hoped that the young Sir Charles Stewart Tupper would be assigned to the case. Instead, because of his experience and skill in murder trials, law partner, Joseph Foley, was appointed to defend him.
The progress of the preliminary hearing was incredibly slow. Unfortunately for both the Crown and the Defence, the science of classifying human blood had not been perfected in 1928. The hearing had to be adjourned more than once to await reports from the Chemistry Department of the University. Mr. William Watkins, who had discovered the boy, died in May. Joseph Foley, the defence lawyer, was stricken with a fatal illness. The young Sir Charles Stewart Tupper was assigned to the defence. Coming into the picture so late, he decided not to contest the findings of the preliminary hearing. Magistrate Welsford therefore ruled that he found there was enough evidence for a trial before the Court of King's Bench.
The trial opened in the old courthouse on Kennedy Street, with Mr. Justice Dysart on the bench, Mr. Cousley representing the Crown, and Sir Charles Stewart Tupper standing for the defence. Reporters from the Free Press and the Winnipeg Tribune again covered the proceedings, keeping the public apprised of events as they occurred. After three days of evidence and argument, the jury retired. To the surprise of everyone, the jury filed back into the courtroom at 8:30 p.m. the same evening. Veteran crime reporters who had covered many sensational murder cases and prided themselves on being able to guess the verdict as the jury returned reported, "It could be seen by their faces what their finding had been. Not one of them glanced at the prisoner but, with averted heads, took their places in the jury box. The guilty verdict was no surprise.
Sir Charles Tupper, deeply concerned that all the evidence against his client had been circumstantial, filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada. The appeal was granted and a new trial ordered to take place at the opening of the Spring Assizes. Again the verdict was 'guilty', and Albert Westgate was sentenced to be hanged on June 5, 1929.
Although two juries had found him guilty, and a death sentence pronounced, the Westgate affair was still not beyond the stage where something could be done. A petition for clemency was circulated. Its length grew daily as hundreds of people, who either believed in his innocence or who opposed capital punishment, signed it. The case wound its way through the normal legal channels until it reached the desk of N.F. Gallagher, Chief of the Remission Branch of the Department of Justice in Ottawa. He studied the material, condensed it to an eight-page document, and forwarded it to the Deputy Minister of Justice on May 30, 1929, six days before Albert Westgate had a scheduled early morning appointment with the hangman.
The office of the Minister of Justice communicated with the office of the Governor General. On Saturday, June 1, 1929, a letter of Commutation was issued containing the all-important sentence, "The Governor General is pleased to order, and hereby orders, that the sentence of death passed upon the prisoner be commuted to a term of life imprisonment in the Manitoba Penitentiary".
Nine years after Westgate entered the penitentiary as a lifer, the subtle influence of the Westgate family in England, well hidden during the trial, became apparent again. A procedure known as a Ticket of Leave had been set up in 1899 whereby selected prisoners could be released from prison to serve the balance of their sentence under surveillance and strict conditions of movement within the community. Lifers, it was understood, would be on parole for the rest of their lives.
First, under the auspices of Sir Charles Tupper, Westgate's estranged wife, then living in Vancouver, applied for his parole on a ticket of leave. Next, a Canadian Senator made a quiet approach to the Remission Branch as to the possibility of Westgate's being released. The case was reviewed and Westgate was informed that the Department of Justice was not prepared to free him "at this time". The pressure continued. Several eminent Canadian senators joined forces with Mrs. Westgate and Sir Charles Tupper to petition for his release.
On May 15, 1943, fourteen years later, on a Ticket of Leave and on parole, Westgate was taken from prison to a room in the Marlborough Hotel. He abided by the conditions of his parole. He got a job and reported to the police that he was moving to a room on Spence Street. He wrote regularly to his wife in Vancouver and talked about wishing to go there...until... Some time in September, when grace Edith Cook, age 16, moved into the same rooming house.
On Monday, December 6, 1943, newspaper headlines announced that Grace Edith Cook, waitress, had been murdered in the Marlborough Hotel and that Albert Westgate was accused of her murder. Another trial ensued. Another guilty verdict was reached. Another appeal was attempted by the defence. This time the Winnipeg papers reported the decision of the Minister, "That nothing could be done to interfere with the sentence of the Court."
At a few minutes after one o'clock on the morning of July 24, 1944, Albert Victor Westgate was hanged at Headingley Jail.