At the first trial, John Dick’s brother-in-law, John Wall, testified. He told the court that he’d received a strange phone call from John’s new wife, Evelyn, around 3:00 p.m. on March 18th.

JOHN WALL, Affirmed.
EXAMINED BY MR. RIGNEY:
Q. Mr. Wall, where do you live, please?
A. Beamsville.
Q. How far is that from Hamilton?
A. Between twenty and twenty-five miles.
Q. And what is your occupation?
A. Fruit farmer.
Q. And do you carry on that occupation at or in Beamsville?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And have you been a resident there for some years? Have you been residing there for some years?
A. Yes, since 1942.
Q. Four years?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. I understand you were in some way related to the late John Wall (mistake, should be John Dick); were you?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What was the relationship?
A. He was my brother-in-law.
Q. Your brother-in-law. Was he in the habit of visiting your home from time to time.
A. Yes, he visited quite often there.
Q. Was your wife his sister?
A. Correct, sir.
Q. And were there any other members of his family living at Beamsville?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Who?
A. My brother Jake has his other sister and his mother.
Q. That is, whose mother?
A. John's mother.
Q. John's mother likewise lived at Beamsville?
A. Yes, Beamsville, R.R.1.
Q. Did she live with your brother Jake?
A. Correct, sir.
Q. So John was in the habit of going there?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And did that habit continue thoughout the year 1946.
A. Yes, sir, he came in 1946, too.
Q. Did you know of his marriage?
A. Yes, sir, I did.
Q. When did you learn of that? When did you learn that John Dick was married?
A. Was about a week after he was married.
Q. And do you know when that was?
A. About October, first days in October 1945.
Q. That is correct. I gather from what you say then, that you did not know before he was married that he was going to be married?
A. No, sir.
Q. You learned of it about a week after he was married?
A. Correct, sir.
Q. I think he was married on or about the 4th of October or someplace in that vicinity. So that would make it the 10th that you first learned of his being married?
A. Just about, sir.
Q. And did you know his wife, the lady whom he married?
A. Never met her.
Q. Did you ever see her following his marriage. After he was married to her did you ever then--
Q. No, never saw her.
Q. Never saw her?
A. Never saw her.
Q. You are able to tell us, though that after his marriage he came to Beamsville from time to time?
A. Correct, sir.
Q. And you knew, I suppose, what his work was, what he was working at?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And when he would come there would it be for a day or two, or would he make visits for a longer period?
A. No, sir, he just came in time when he was off his job, usually on Sundays; when he visited us was on Sundays.
Q. When was the last time you saw him, Mr. Wall? Please cancel that. I understand you were away down south in February and March 1946?
A. Correct, sir.
Q. And that you returned sometime about the middle of March?
A. Correct, sir.
Q. And the last time, I suppose, that you saw John Wall would be sometime before you left in February, wouldn't it?
A. John Dick.
Q. John Dick -- I beg your pardon.
A. Correct, sir.
Q. You did not see him on your return?
A. No, sir.
Q. What date exactly did you return, Mr. Wall?
A. It was March 17th, on a Sunday.
Q. Up to that time had you had any word abut John Dick?
A. No, sir.
Q. And following your return on the 17th of March when did you first receive any word regarding John Dick?
A. It was on Monday the 18th of March 1946, about three o'clock in the afternoon.
Q. What word did you have?
Q. I had a phone call. They called me to the phone, and as I lifted the receiver a voice said, "This is Evelyn Dick, John's wife talking."
Q. Yes?
A. She says, "Is this Mr. Jake Wall?" I says, "No, I am John Wall." She asked if I was Lena's husband. I says, "No, I am Anna's husband." And she asked me, "Mr. Wall, where is John?" I said, "I don't know." Then she says, "He owes here about five hundred dollars to different people, and a lady he owed seventy-five dollars sued him, and he should appear at the court this week before last, on Thursday, and he never showed up, so the judge give the order to look him up, and the police searched whole Hamilton and couldn't find him."
Q. Yes?
A. "And he even took the company's money along with him. Now they try to collect the money from me, and I haven't got no money."
Q. That is, from the person who was talking?
A. Yes, from the person that was talking. I am quoting now the talk.
Q. Yes?
A. Then I said, "Here, you made out John is a sucker, and now you try to make my brother-in-law a crook." I says, "I know what kind of a gang you got him in." I says, "How much money do you owe him? Then the voice said, what is supposed to be Evelyn Dick, "I don't owe him anything, Mr. Wall. In fact when John needed money we helped him out, and he said -- he even borrowed money from my mother and said that he is going to sell the shares in the canning factory and pay it back." After he said that mother -- not Sese -- it was a different name -- I am sorry -- mother claims the shares and wouldn't let to sell them.
Q. What does that mean? What canning factory has that reference to?
A. That was the canning factory at Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Q. Who owns it?
A. It was owned by a company, where my brother Pete is the president.
Q. What have you go to do with it?
A. I got just a few shares in there.
Q. I see.
A. So she said that John said he is going to sell his shares and pay the money back, and after he said that mother claims the shares and wouldn't let him sell the shares. "Mr. Wall, does John's mother have any shares in the canning factory?"
Q. She asked you, "Has John's mother any shares in this canning factory?"
A. Canning factory. I says, "No, John's mother never had any shares, and John didn't have any shares either," and I hung up.
Q. That conversation was by a person calling herself Mrs. John Dick, was it?
A. That is correct.
Q. And you fix it as Sunday the 18th of March?
A. 18th of March.
Q. All right.
A. That is on a Monday.
Q. Then after that what was the next? What next happened, Mr. Wall.
A. The next, I had a call at nine o'clock about at night -- no, i called at nine o'clock at night to my wife's cousin Alex Kammerer to find out---
Q. Perhaps we had better omit that, Mr. Wall; I didn't think that that perhaps would be helpful.
A. All right, sir.
Q. What is the next step? It brings it to your mind---
A. The next morning I came to hamilton.
Q. Yes?
A. To my cousin's place, because he was asking me to come up.
Q. Who was your cousin?
A. Was my wife's cousin, Alex Kammerer.
Q. Then you came in to the place where the person was telephoning you, or the woman was telephoning; is that right?
A. No, sir, it was another place.
Q. Some name; well, you and your brother came to Hamilton then, did you?
A. That is right, sir.
Q. What happened there, please?
A. Well, I went right up to the police station, to the Provincial Police Station, to find if it is my brother-in-law -- if it is the torso of my brother-in-law, and as I came to the police station I met Inspector Wood, and he wondered if he could see the---
Q. Well, just go along now; did you go over to the station?
A. Yes, to the police station.
Q. What did you do there?
A. Well, we just met Inspector Wood up at the Provincial Police Station.
A. And following that what happened, Mr. Wall?
A. I asked Inspector Wood---
HIS LORDSHIP: No, no; what you asked the inspector is not evidence.
MR. RIGNEY: Q. Don't tell me the conversation; tell me what you did, if you please. Did you go any place from there, or did you do anything when you were there?
A. Yes, we went from there, from the police station, we went to a different place where the torso was laying.
Q. You mean by torso what?
A. This torso was found somewhere up on the mountain.
Q. You went to a place where there was what you call a torso.
A. That is correct.
Q. And you did that, I take it, on the 18th or 19th---
A. It was the 19th.
Q. Of March? A. The 19th of March.

Source: RG 4-32 – Attorney General Central Registry Files, File 1946 Archives of Ontario.