Allan Joseph LEGERE
AKA "The Monster of the Miramichi"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Rape - Robberies
Number of victims: 5
Date of murders: 1986 / 1989
Date of arrest: November 24, 1989
Date of birth: 1948
Victims profile: John Glendenning (shopkeeper) / Annie Flam, 75 / Sisters Donna and Linda Lou Daughney, 45 and 41 / Rev. James Smith, 69
Method of murder: Beating
Location: Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada
Status: Sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 18 years on January 22, 1987. Escapee May 3, 1989. Sentenced to life in prison on November 3, 1991
Allan Legere (1948 - ) is a Canadian serial killer, also known as the Monster of the Miramichi (not "of Miramichi": at the time this nickname was first applied to him, the City of Miramichi proper did not exist, and so it referred to the region along the Miramichi River).
He escaped custody in April of 1989 (while serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of a shopkeeper, John Glendenning) and remained free for seven months. During this time he committed four more murders, arson and multiple rapes, before he was recaptured. Rewards of $50,000 were collected for his capture.
His trial featured one of the first Canadian uses of DNA fingerprinting during which his lawyers argued that the relatively shallow gene pool of the Miramichi region could easily lead to false positives.
Legere was convicted for a second time in 1991, and is currently one of only 90 prisoners held in Canada's maximum security Special Handling Unit (SHU).
Legere's criminal history preserved online
April 20, 2006
The University of New Brunswick's law department is opening a special digital archive devoted to New Brunswick's worst serial killer.
It's been 17 years since escaped convict Allan Legere went on a killing spree in the Miramichi area. His name still sends chills up people's spines in New Brunswick.
During a seven-month period in 1989, Legere escaped from prison and four brutal murders were committed. RCMP launched the largest manhunt in the province's history and New Brunswickers were scared. Many were sleeping with loaded rifles and putting floodlights in their yards.
Law librarian Ann Crocker says it was a scary time for many, but also an important time in New Brunswick's legal history.
She has collected 60,000 pages of transcripts, including original court sketches, and will preserve the case for posterity in a special section of the university archives.
"This was really a socio-legal watershed in New Brunswick history," Crocker said. "His conviction for murder, even though there were no witnesses to his killings, was based largely on the use of DNA evidence, and that was the very first occasion in Canadian legal history."
The Legere collection goes online Friday afternoon during an event with invited guests that include Judge David Dickson. He's the man who sent Legere away for life back 1991, and he's submitted his reflections on the case to be part of the library.
Legere is now in a Quebec prison serving multiple life sentences for murder.
Canada's most dangerous cons
By Cory Cameron - Canoe News
Sunday, November 25, 2001
ALLAN LEGERE
Once a car salesman outside Ottawa, his name became synonymous with terror in New Brunswick.
A decade ago, Allan Legere, now 53, was found guilty of a mass killing spree that involved the torture, rape and killing of three women and the murder of an elderly Catholic priest. He became known as the "Monster of the Miramichi," the provincial region where he carried out his murderous rampage.
Now securely housed at the SHU, Legere is despised by other inmates who abhor those who have victimized women and children.
The grisly sex slayings of 75-year-old Annie Flam and sisters Donna and Linda Lou Daughney, 45 and 41, as well as the beating death of Rev. James Smith, 69, occurred between May and November 1989.
Legere was loose at the time after escaping prison guards during a visit to a Moncton hospital. He was already serving a life sentence for killing a Miramichi shopkeeper in 1986.
Legere worked as a car salesman in Winchester, south of Ottawa, in the late 1970s, living in a farmhouse in nearby Inkerman. He later returned to his native New Brunswick.
When a jury of six women and five men found him guilty on four counts of murder, Justice David Dickson told them: "I don't usually comment on verdicts ... but let me say this. Don't lose too much sleep over your verdict."
Legere's crime spree during his escape sparked a wave of fear in the area. People who lived alone moved in with family and friends for safety and gun sales increased. Few people went out after dark and Halloween trick-or-treating was cancelled that year.
He managed to escape when he was taken to hospital for treatment of an ear infection. Secured with handcuffs, a body chain and leg shackles, he emerged from a small, private washroom without restraints and waving a homemade knife. Legere was captured seven months later after one of the largest manhunts in Canadian history.
Timeline of Terror
The Daily Gleaner
November 4, 1996.
June 22, 1986 - Shopkeeper John Glendenning, 66, of Black River, is beaten to death and his wife is viciously beaten, sexually assaulted and then left to die.
January 22, 1987 - Legere is convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 18 years.
August 8, 1987 - Legere fails in a bid to reverse his murder conviction before the New Brunswick Court of Appeal.
February 20, 1989 - Prominent lawyer C. David Hughes represented Legere in a murder appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada.
May 3, 1989 - Legere escapes from the Dr. Georges L. Dumont Hospital in Moncton after being taken there from the Atlantic Institution at Renous for an ear infection. A country-wide manhunt begins.
May 29, 1989 - Chatham shopkeeper Annie Flam is beaten to death. Her sister Nina Flam is beaten and raped.
October 1, 1989 - Legere's appeal founders. The Supreme Court said it does not issue rulings in matters where the accused is unlawfully at large. Ironically, the SCOC later ruled on five other cases similar to Legere's.
October 13, 1989 - Sisters Donna and Linda Daughney are sexually assaulted and beaten to death in their home. The home is set ablaze.
November 24, 1989 - Roman Catholic priest James Smith is found beaten to death in the rectory of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Chatham Head.
November 24, 1989 - Legere is recaptured by RCMP near Nelson-Miramichi.
August 17, 1990 - Legere is sentenced to serve nine years for escaping custody, kidnapping and common assault relating to his May 3, 1989 escape.
November 20, 1990 - Legere is charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
December 6, 1990 - A preferred indictment containing the four murder charges is filed with the court of Queen's Bench in Newcastle (Miramichi) and the case is transferred to the Burton Courthouse.
May 24, 1991 - A book entitled "Terror: Murder and Panic in New Brunswick" was banned by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal. It felt the book tended to lead its readers to believe Legere was guilty.
June 7, 1991 - Voire dire hearings spanning 19 days conclude. The hearings determined the admissibility of DNA evidence.
August 26, 1991 - Jury selection begins with a panel of 500 being summoned to the Oromocto High School Auditorium. Of the 500 called 311 were exempted for various reasons while another 32 were excused from attending the selection ceremony.
August 28, 1991 - Legere's jury trial begins at the Burton Courthouse near Oromocto.
November 3, 1991 - Legere is convicted by a six-woman, five-man jury on the four murder charges and is sentenced to life in prison.
November 13, 1991 - Legere files notice of appeal with the New Brunswick Court of Appeal.
November 28, 1991 - Then Solicitor-General Bruce Smith said security costs charged to his department have climbed past $1.2 million. The province, he said, has to pay $850,000 of the amount.
December 13, 1991 - Unconfirmed reports surface that Legere is planning another escape and he is flown from the Miramichi Airport to Montreal where he is transferred to a special handling unit.
March 2, 1992 - The federal government announced costs of well over $110,000 were incurred by the RCMP in the Legere manhunt; another $314,000 for RCMP security measures at the Burton Courthouse and $63,000 for scientific analysis of DNA.
