On This Day in Murder... March 26th, 1936

Mildred Susan Johnston was Raped & Strangled by Gordon Bliss

It appeared to be a very simple, yet strange case. The culprit not only confessed; he was actually the one to call police and report that the assault and murder had occurred. Catching a murderer is not usually that easy of a task. The only questions the police had: what exactly had happened that night, and why?

A portrait of the victim, 27 year old Mildred Susan Johnston

Mildred was born January 21st, 1909 in Cache Bay, Nipissing, Ontario to John Henry Johnston, a shoemaker, & Elizabeth Ann Wilkie. The family moved back to Quebec, where her parents were born, and lived there for a while before settling in the Thunder Bay area.

Mildred Susan Johnston was just 27 years old when she was murdered. She was working as a telephone operator with the Fort William Telephone Exchange, and living with her brothers Archie & at 421 S. Archibald St. in Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay).

On the night of March 25th, 1936, Mildred went to a dance, and it was there that she met the man who would murder her, 27 year old Gordon Bliss. After the dance, she apparently decided to accompany Gordon back to the house he lived in with his parents, who were absent that evening. She was found dead early the next morning with Bliss' necktie still pulled tightly around her neck in the parlor of the Bliss family home, located at 222 Franklin Street North in Fort William. She had also been raped and had been struck multiple times on the head with a monkey wrench.

The house at 222 Franklin St. N in Thunder Bay in 2009; Mildred Johnston was murdered in the parlor by Gordon Bliss in March of 1936 (Google maps)

Strangely enough, it was a call from Gordon Bliss himself that brought the police to the house where Johnston's body was discovered lying dead. Bliss made no attempt to escape or evade police in any way, and never denied that he was had murdered Mildred Johnston in cold blood.

Bliss met Sergeant Palmer of the Fort William police at the door on the morning of March 26th. When Sergeant Palmer discovered the body, her clothes were covering her face, and newspapers had been placed over her body. When he was asked who she was, Bliss stated that he didn't know. Shortly afterward, Bliss confessed to another officer, Constable Sims, stating that "I did it".

Death Registration record for Mildred Susan Johnston, found murdered on March 26th, 1936 (Ontario Archives)

Constable Sims questioned him further, and Bliss then admitted to strangling Mildred because she had resisted his advances. He further confessed that he had struck her after she resisted, then after he sexually assaulted her, he put his tie around her neck and strangled her. He said that he was drunk at the time, and did not know what he was doing. He told the Constable that his mother had recently told him that he ought to settle down.
  
Gordon Melville Vaughan Bliss, of Scottish origin, was born November 22nd, 1908 to Alder Vaughan Bliss & Mary McLaughlin in Port Arthur, Ontario. At the time of the murder, he had been working as clerk in a timber camp for 7 years.

The murderer, 27 year old Gordon Melville Vaughan Bliss

Bliss never recanted his confession or denied the charges against him. He pleaded guilty to the capital murder of Mildred Susan Johnson on October 23rd, 1936. Bliss was questioned if he understood what he was pleading guilty to, and what the consequences of that plea would be, and he answered that yes, he understood. Court proceedings at the inquest took about 30 minutes, and his plea of guilty was accepted. He was immediately sentenced to death by hanging for the offense. This was the first time in Canada that a death sentence had been handed down after a guilty plea.

On January 5th, 1937, approximately 8 months after he committed the heinous crimes of rape and murder against Mildren Johnston, Gordon Bliss was hanged at the Port Arthur District Goal. He was 28 years old.

Death Registration record for Murderer Gordon Bliss, hanged in January of 1937 (Archives of Ontario)

On This Day in Murder... March 20th, 1921

Louisa Warlow is Shot and Killed by Her Husband, Who Also Attempts Unsuccessfully to Take His Own Life

The tragedy unfolded on the night of March 19th, 1921, in the former town of Walkerville, now part of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. When Hiram Walker, the owner of Canadian Club Whiskey, founded the town in 1890 with the intent of making it a "model" town, one that would be the envy of others, he probably did not envision the story of family betrayal, and infidelity that would occur 30 years later, and result in a man on trial for the murder of his wife.

Walkerville, Ontario, the Hiram Walker Distillery, taken between 1895-1899 (Library of Congress)

John James Warlow was born in 1883 in Egham, Surrey, England to John Warlow & Mary Harrington. He moved around a bit when he was young, living in both London & Wales, where he worked as a bricklayer before he met and married Louisa Tree, daughter of Henry Tree in the town of her birth, Croyden, Surrey, in 1911. He & Louisa came to Canada sometime around 1913. They settled in the Walkerville/Windsor area, where John's sister Gertrude and brother George, who was a police officer before becoming a Windsor Police court clerk in 1917, also settled. His cousin Norman Warlow, who was also a Windsor Police court clerk, lived in the area as well.

On that night 91 years ago, 37 year old Louisa Warlow was just leaving Clegg Bakery located on Ottawa St., after a long day of work, and was walking to the house of a friend Mrs. John Tierney at 67 Ottawa St., whom she was staying with. Louisa had worked at the Clegg Bakery for a number of years, as had her husband John, whom she was separated from in January of that year. The bakery was owned by the family of his brother-in-law, James Clegg, who had married his sister Gertrude just 11 months before the shocking story unfolded.

When Louisa Warlow started her walk home from work that night, she had no clue it would be her last. She knew her estranged husband John was angry. She was planning to leave Walkerville and move to Windsor the next day, it was rumoured, to live with Norman Warlow, her husband's cousin. Unfortunately, the rumours reached John before she left, and she was at the corner of Ottawa St. and Kildare Rd., which was a very short distance from the bakery, when John approached her. Apparently, he approached her with the intent to make a plea with her to return to him. That is when she refused and turned to walk away, getting just as far as the outside of the Tierney house, which was just a short distance away on Ottawa St.

Photo of Kildare Rd. in Walkerville, looking north, taken between 1905-1915 (Library of Congress)

It was 10:30pm when he followed her to the Tierney house, and continued to quarrel with her.  Mrs. Tierney testified in the trial that she turned on the porch light, and went outside to see what was going on. Seeing the pair together, she tried to break up the argument, telling Warlow to "leave her alone tonight", and pulling Louisa by the arm to try and bring her inside the house. To which Warlow apparently replied "No you don't!", pulled out his gun, and fired at his wife. Mrs. Tierney described how Mrs. Warlow had slumped over her arm and fallen over, the bullet having pierced her abdomen. Then she heard another shot, and looked over to see John Warlow lying on the lawn, bleeding from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the chest. They were both rushed to the hospital, Louisa was unconscious at the time and feared dead, but she was revived briefly, and was able to tell the police what had occurred. Louisa Warlow died less than two hours later, at 12:20am on March 20th, 1921. John Warlow, though seriously wounded, had not caused any fatal damage, and recovered from the wound. He was then charged with the murder of his wife, on March 25th, he was moved from the Hotel Dieu hospital and taken to Sandwich jail to await his trial.

Death registration record of Louisa Warlow (Archives of Ontario)

Mrs. Tierney also told the court that there had been frequent visits between Louisa Warlow and Norman Warlow, her husband's cousin.  James Clegg, John's brother in law, testified against him in the trial as well. He told the court that he had seen frequent arguments between John and his wife Louisa. They had agreed to separate in January, which is when Louisa went to live with the Mr & Mrs. Tierney. He further testified that 10 days before the murder, John Warlow had shown him the revolver, and had explained that he was carrying it because his cousin Norman was "carrying on" with his wife.

The defense did not deny that Warlow had shot his wife, but they argued that Louisa had provoked the crime. The jury was out for more than three hours before returning with a verdict. John Warlow was found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to serve 15 years in prison.

On This Day in Murder... March 16th, 1938

Lillie Mae Curtis Murders 6 of her 9 Children

On the night of Wednesday, March 16th, 1938, in Center, Texas, 38 year old Lillie Mae Curtis kissed her children goodnight, and then sat in a chair nearby watching them, waiting with a .22 caliber pistol on her lap for them to fall asleep.

Lillie Mae Curtis

After she determined they were all sleeping, she went from the oldest to the youngest child, shooting each one in the heart. First was Thomas "T.O", who had turned 13 just 3 days prior, followed by Gloria Gene, 11; Billie Burk, 9; Robert, 8; Margie Dee, 7; and Marcia Jack, 5. The only child in the house that night that she spared was 15 year old Travis James. It was to him that she immediately confessed the crime, and he promptly called police. Her other two children were thankfully not in the house; her oldest child, Opal, 18, was married and living with her husband, and her son Vance, 17, was visiting his grandparents at the time of the crime. Gravesite photos courtesy of http://www.findagrave.com.

Graves of Thomas "T.O", Gloria

Billie Burk, Robert Jr,

Margie Ree & Marcie Jack.

Lillie Mae describes the killings in her own words; "I kissed them all good night and sent them to bed and then got my gun out of my dresser".  She continued, "I went back into the kitchen and sat down with the gun across my lap. I waited to be sure that all were asleep. Then I went to the bed of T.O and shot him first. Then I killed the others according to their ages, leaving the baby until the last".  She went on to describe that although none of the children woke up before being shot, several of them struggled after they were shot, while the others died immediately without ever realizing what had occurred.

She was found alone in the woods about 400 yards from where the bodies of her children lay, all 6 dead of gunshot wounds, and was arrested. She readily admitted to the murders, "I have no money and they are better off dead", Lillie is quoted as having said to Sheriff Sample. "Last night I decided to kill them because we had no money and I was unable to support them. They were too young to support themselves and were better off dead".

Another photo of murderer Lillie Mae Curtis.

Surprisingly, this was not Lillie Mae's first murder.  Three years prior, in an eerily similar fashion, she had murdered her husband, 41 year old Robert Curtis, in 1935 by shooting him in the head while he slept. She was tried for the murder, and given a 5 year suspended sentence by a jury. Perhaps the jurors felt that, with 9 children depending on her, she should be given a break. One can't help but realize that if they had given her a stiffer sentence, Lillie Mae Curtis would not have had the opportunity to murder six of her children just three years later.  Then again, perhaps if she had not killed her husband to begin with, she might have been able to better cope financially and emotionally with raising her nine children. The entire family can be seen (minus the 2 youngest children, who were not yet born) below on the 1930 United States census, family #8:

1930 US census record courtesy of The National Archives.

As for what happened to Lillie Mae Curtis; she was tried for the murder of his six children in April of 1938, and apparently showed no emotion when the verdict was read, and she was found guilty on all counts. Newspaper accounts vary, some saying she received one total sentence of 99 years, some saying she was sentenced to 99 years per murder (for a total of 594 years). Either way, she served only 42 years of her sentence, and was released in October of 1970. She was 70 years old.  She was reportedly released early for good behaviour. She moved in with her eldest surviving child, her daughter Opal, living with her in East Texas until her death 10 years later.

The Grave of Robert R. & Lillie Mae Curtis.  Photo courtesy of Findagrave.com.

Lillie May Curtis died February 3rd, 1980 at the age of 80, and was buried with the husband that she had shot and killed 45 years earlier, in the same Cemetery as the graves of the six children she brutally murdered only three years later while they slept.

On This Day in Murder... March 14th, 1910

The Murder of Michael Redmond
  
On March 10th, 1910, Michael Redmond, a 32 year old "woodsman" (lumberjack) who was born in Ireland and had emigrated to Ontario, Canada, was savagely attacked and beaten by two men after returning to his rooming house in Fort William, Thunder Bay.

Photo of Fort William, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada in 1892.  Image Courtesy of the City of Thunder Bay Archives.

 According to a newspaper article appearing in Toronto's 'The Globe and Mail' on Tuesday, March 15th, 1910, on Thursday the 10th of March, Mike Redmond returned "from the bush to civilization", and went out for the night to celebrate intending to get drunk, which he successfully accomplished.  When he returned back to the rooming house, and stumbled into his room, he apparently "upset some water" before he made it to his bed.  The water then leaked through the floor of his room and through the ceiling of the Vancouver Restaurant below.  The proprietors of the restaurant, Lee Wing and Lop Lee Loy, the two men who were also responsible for running the rooming house, became very angry and went upstairs to confront the drunken man.


It is then that the altercation between the three men occurred.  It was alleged that one of the men, most likely Lop Lee Loy (based on their sentencing), held Mike Redmond while the other beat him over the head with a glass bottle.  To the credit of his attackers, a doctor was called to examine Redmond, but due to the fact that he was so severely intoxicated, the doctor concluded that his injuries were not very severe.  The doctor was apparently called out of the city before he could report the attack to the police.  Michael Redmond did not improve, and in fact took a turn for the worse.  He was taken to the hospital on 4 days later, where it was found that his skull was cracked, and a blood clot was removed.  Despite the effort of the hospital, on March 14th, 1910, Mike Redmond died as a result of a the injuries he sustained after the brutal attack by Wing and Loy.  

According to his death registration record, found below, Redmond died from a fractured skull and compression of the brain.  An interesting bit of information included; the doctor noted at the bottom that "This man went under several names".  This indicates that Redmond himself was not likely a very, shall we say, 'upstanding member of society'.  People do not have usually multiple aliases for law-abiding reasons.

Death Registration Record for Michael "Mike" Redmond, March 15th, 1910.  Courtesy of the Ontario Archives.

After his death, both Wing and Loy were arrested by police, and charged with his murder.  According to an article that appear in 'The Manitoba Free Press' on April 21st, 1910, when it came time for their trial, their defense lawyer offered for them to plead guilty to the lesser charge of assault, and their pleas were accepted.  Perhaps the fact that Mr. Redmond was likely not-so law abiding himself contributed to the decision to allow the two men to plead guilty to lesser charges, or the fact that they did call a doctor after they beat the drunken man up.  Either way, the judge sentenced the Lee Wing to one year, and Lop Lee Loy to three months in prison for their roles in the death of Mike Redmond.