Thompson was thoroughly prepared to recreate the faces of the two dead boys. He is quick to credit the forensic techniques taught to him by two of his key instructors when he was learning his craft at “the Academy,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Quantico, Virginia. A fast learner, Thompson was fortunate enough to study under artists widely considered legends in the field of forensics: Betty Pat Gatliff and Karen T. Taylor. Gatliff, a retired medical illustrator, teaches forensic art workshops on facial reconstruction using actual human skulls, and operates her own studio, Skullpture Lab, in Norman, Oklahoma. Among her many credits, Gatliff did clay reconstructions of some of the decomposed victims of John Wayne Gacy, one of America’s most notorious serial killers. Her work allowed a number of families to give their dead sons proper burials.
Taylor’s background is no less impressive than that of her fellow instructor. Credited with coining the term “forensic art” in the 1980s, her qualifications include working as a portrait sculptor at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, and as an instructor at the FBI Academy for over twenty years. The classes Peter Thompson took with Taylor and Gatliff were his only formal art instruction, and he said his natural ability to draw came from his father.
(Master Corporal Peter Thompson, Canadian Forces National Investigation Service)
Forensic facial reconstructions of two young men who were recognized years later as Eric Jones (left) and Richard “Dickie” Hovey. The actual skulls are beneath the layers of clay.
The forensic reconstruction process, said Thompson, is a cooperative one between the police, the coroner’s office, and the artist. Meeting with the coroner in Toronto where the skeletal remains of both young men were housed, Thompson performed intensive assessments on the bodies. Although he had the training to identify bones as being male or female, an anthropologist measured the bones as they lay on a table, and compared the measurements to photos taken in the sixties.
Remaining true to his FBI training, Thompson avoided putting any “ego” into his work. He omitted any details or embellishments that could mislead anyone viewing the completed reconstructions, keeping them as simple as possible. Before applying any clay to the skulls he did a detailed preliminary examination, noticing both victims had an overbite of the bottom teeth. This detail was crucial, and the faces were deliberately created with the mouths slightly open, “So that people who would view the reconstructions would be able to see the teeth, and perhaps that would trigger some recognition.” Once the faces were completed the two victims looked like brothers, young men united in death.
(Master Corporal Peter Thompson, Canadian Forces National Investigation Service)
The skull of Richard “Dickie” Hovey with depth markers attached. His skeletal remains were found in an isolated area of Tecumseth Township near Schomberg, about twenty-five miles north of Toronto, on May 15, 1968.
After finishing his work, Thompson remembers hoping to God that someone would recognize the young men, and be able to give a name to the mysterious remains that sat shelved in boxes for almost forty years. His silent prayer was answered when a friend and a family member, independent of one another, viewed media coverage of the reconstructions and contacted the OPP. One of the clay-covered skull photographs seemed hauntingly familiar, resembling a long-lost relative and friend who left home for Toronto back in 1967. Members of the OPP travelled to New Brunswick and, after obtaining blood samples from family members, confirmed that one set of remains were those of Richard Hovey, the handsome young guitarist missing for almost forty years. A name could finally be placed to the “Schomberg” remains found in May 1968, just one day after what would have been Hovey’s eighteenth birthday.
Although the positive identification of the body provided some degree of consolation to Hovey’s family and the police, many questions remained unanswered. What was the identity of the other young male found in the desolate forest of Balsam Lake Provincial Park? How did these young men arrive at their final destinations? When were they killed, and how? What happened to Hovey and the other male during the last hours of their lives? Were there other known victims, living or dead? Most important of all: who killed them?
(Master Corporal Peter Thompson, Canadian Forces National Investigation Service)
A profile view of the skull of Richard “Dickie” Hovey with depth markers attached.
Although police will not confirm any specific suspect or suspects in the murders, it is known that young men were targeted by a serial sexual predator in the Church and Wellesley area of Toronto back in 1967. Just as Yorkville was a haven for musicians in the sixties, so was the downtown Church/Wellesley section the heart of the city’s growing gay village. Today, the area is an immensely popular tourist destination for gays, lesbians, the transgendered, drag queens, and the merely curious. Regarded as “the Gay Mecca of Canada,” the place was not nearly as open or friendly in the sixties. Back then, the area was frequented by young men who feared the police morality squad and gangs of gay bashing teenagers more than being picked up by an overly aggressive sexual partner. Yellowed, old newspapers of the time reveal articles about one man who frequented the area, and remains the most likely suspect in the murders.
Now in his early seventies, James Henry Greenidge fits the pattern of murders in an eerily perfect way. Presently behind bars in a British Columbia prison, Greenidge — who has since changed his name to James Gordon Henry — is by all accounts a model prisoner with a surprisingly high IQ. During his many years in prison, Greenidge hasn’t touched drugs or gotten himself into trouble. He has completed the Intensive Sexual Offender Program, and is known to be helpful and cooperative with staff. Reportedly, he has spent much of his time tutoring other inmates, yet it remains uncertain how many of them, if any, are aware of the staggering, unimaginable brutality he committed in the past.
The crimes perpetrated by Greenidge are not just disturbing, they are truly horrifying — rivalling those committed by the character Jame Gumb, better known as “Buffalo Bill,” in the book and film, The Silence of the Lambs. At least there is some solace to be had in the knowledge that Gumb is fictional; Greenidge is all too real, and considered to be Canada’s first serial killer. His early life — like that of many youngsters who grew up to become pattern killers — was rife with abuse, abandonment, neglect, and a barely contained temper that unexpectedly rose to a boil. At the age of five, Greenidge developed tuberculosis and was sent to a sanatorium, where he was forced to clean toilets. Soon after, he began a pattern of running away and stealing. At one point, he was raised by a strict aunt whose child rearing skills included physical and mental torment. The young Greenidge frequently fled his so-called home, and was sexually abused at reform school.
Over the years, Greenidge’s body grew, and so did his uncontrollable fury. By the age of sixteen he was working as a “hustler,” a male prostitute, and began to demonstrate incredibly violent sexual tendencies. In time, he would blame much of his behaviour on his aunt, who allegedly told him of the dangers of being a male Negro in society, and of the lynchings of young black men that took place in the American South. According to parole records, Greenidge viewed himself as a lonely and isolated individual, a victim of racism — or so he said — and someone who needed to protect himself at any cost. The biggest threats to his life, his aunt told him, came from associating with “white women or homosexuals.” Tragically, Greenidge took her words seriously. In his teens, he was exhibiting a high degree of narcissism and sexual sadism, which he inflicted on girls and boys alike, all of them white. Although still young, his violent, sadistic streak was far from satiated — it was just beginning.
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