When Jerry Crewe posted on Facebook that he’d found some old newspapers as he pulled up the floor of his recently purchased home on Paling Avenue, my phone began to ping. It was hard not to notice the headline of the 1947 copy of The Hamilton Spectator. ‘NEW TRIAL ORDERED FOR EVELYN DICK,’ screamed the January 17th headline. As an added bonus for Jerry, the date is also his birthday.
Jerry and his wife, Jenny, found two or three partial newspapers from that era in their home as they renovated the kitchen, but only one carried a reference to Evelyn’s trial.
In the basement of the 1920s home, they also found a framed photograph of the 1932 Hamilton General Hospital’s nurse’s graduating class, and a car licence plate from 1967 tucked on top of an air vent.
Of course, it was the stories inside The Hamilton Spectator that caught my eye. I reached out to Jerry, explaining my intrigue and fascination with the case, and he very kindly shared the copies with me.
From January 17, 1947:
Appeal Counsel Christmas Gift For Daughter
Engagement of J. J. Robinette, K.C., to conduct the winning appeal of Mrs. Evelyn Dick for a second trial in the torso murder was a Christmas present from her mother, Mrs. Alexandra MacLean, the Spectator learned today. Mrs. MacLean said she was a happy woman when advised this morning of the success of the appeal, “even though I held high hopes and was optimistic from reports in the papers.”
Mrs. MacLean got her information from Toronto “about a minute after the news was made public.”
After that, the telephone rang incessantly as Mrs. MacLean tried to finish the housework in her neat and attractively furnished Carrick Avenue home.
“I last heard from Evelyn on Monday,” Mrs. MacLean said, “and her letter was cheerful and hopeful.” Evelyn, she said, had been filling in the solitary hours at Barton Street jail by reading and putting together jig-saw puzzles.
Still hoping for eventual vindication of her daughter, Mrs MacLean would not conjecture on the outcome of the second trial. She reiterated statements made earlier that “I think she must be shielding someone.”
Praises Counsel
The grey-haired mother with the Scottish burr … paid tribute to other counsel associated in the case in reporting on the engagement of Mr. Robinette. Walter J. Tuchtie and Montalieu MacLean had given splendid service, she said, but were already devoting time to the defence of her husband, Donald MacLean. She praised the appeal preparation of John J. Sullivan and said she got in touch with Mr. Robinette after reports of his success in the appeal court.
While she hasn’t seen her daughter since the latter days of the trial, she hoped she might see her today or tomorrow. She hasn’t been able to send foods or other comforts directly to Evelyn but has left money at the jail from which officials can buy her fruit, cigarettes and other items allowed persons in solitary confinement.
The Hamilton Spectator January 17, 1947
But wait … there’s more! As I got to know Jerry and his wife, I discovered he was on his own mission to solve puzzles involving his own family members. One day I met up with Jerry and his aunt, Betty-Anne, at Woodland Cemetery near Burlington’s Royal Botanical Garden. They were standing by the grave of Jerry’s grandfather as I approached. We had a chat, and I gave Betty-Anne a brief rundown of how I’d met her nephew.
“You’re looking into that Evelyn Dick?” she asked me, with a quizzical look on her face.
“That’s right,” I said. “For a few years now.”
“I used to babysit for her daughter,” she told me.
I stood there in shock. Not quite believing what I was hearing.
“What do you mean? “
“I babysat for Evelyn’s daughter, Marie. She lived down the road from me on Francis. I babysat for her daughter, Cindy. I think I have a photo somewhere …”
Standing there at the graveside I felt a chill run through me. How could such a random meeting bring such fruitful outcomings? Still, it didn’t seem real.
She dug out the photo and sent it to me a few weeks later. I have no way of knowing if this is actually Cindy Muirhead, other than what I’ve been told. But it’s a good story, nonetheless. Did you live on Francis Street in the 1960s? If you have anything to add to the story, please let me know.
The Evelyn Dick Files 
I’m curious is anybody has ever considered that Evelyn Dick was put in the witness protection program? Was there one back then? Perhaps she had a connection to the mob and became an informant and in exchange for spilling g the beans they gave her a new life?
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My granduncle Bill Pearson lived at #90 Francis Street. He owned about 12 houses up and down Francis Street. Other of my cousins lived at #91 and at #21, I wonder what the Muirhead’s address was?
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