Copyright © Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Shayna Krishnasamy, 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Cover image: © Shayna Krishnasamy
Printer: Webcom
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Leslie, Mark, 1969-, author
Macabre Montreal : ghostly tales, ghastly events, and gruesome true stories
/ Mark Leslie, Shayna Krishnasamy.
Includes bibliographical references.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4597-4258-1 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-4597-4259-8 (PDF).--
ISBN 978-1-4597-4260-4 (EPUB)
1. Ghosts--Québec (Province)--Montréal. 2. Haunted places--Québec
(Province)--Montréal. I. Krishnasamy, Shayna, author II. Title.
| BF1472.C3L473 2018 | 133.109714’27 | C2018-904100-5 |
| C2018-904101-3 |
1 2 3 4 5 22 21 20 19 18
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country, and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Ontario, through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Government of Canada.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.
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— J. Kirk Howard, President
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Printed and bound in Canada.
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For all the ghosts who roam this city, and for those who run from them
Contents
Foreword by Donovan King: Montreal, a Haunted Researcher’s Paradise
Introduction by Shayna Krishnasamy: I Have Seen Things in the Dark
Mary Gallagher and Her Missing Head
The Tobogganing Ghost of Simon McTavish
Ghosts of the Old Royal Victoria Hospital
Sleeping Above a Cemetery: Ghosts of the Grey Nuns Convent
Arthur Ellis and an Accidental Beheading: Canada’s Most Famous Hangman
Mark Twain’s Montreal Telegraphy
Books, Blood, and a Ghostly Prankster: The Ghost of McLennan Library
Haunted Grounds: Ghosts of Duggan House
A Montrealer’s Experience with Slade the Spiritualist
The Slave Who Burned a City: The Trial of Marie-Joseph Angélique
The Heroic Death of John Easton Mills
The Pervasive Legend of the Flying Canoe: Honoré Beaugrand’s Tale of a Deal with the Devil
Now for a Dow Debacle: The Curse of the Old Dow Brewery
Unspeakable Torture and Mind Control: Project MK-ULTRA