Canadian True Crime - 53 The Murder of Joseph Rosenthal

Episode Date: October 15, 2019

TORONTO, ON - A late-night business meeting in a 1912 hydro yard ends in a serious crime. The case inspired an unprecedented public outcry at a time when hanging was still routinely applied for the most serious of offences.     To support my sponsors:See the list of my sponsors and discount codesFind out more about:Hot Docs Podcast Festival - Toronto, OntarioTrue Crime Podcast Festival - Kansas City, MissouriTrue Crime SwedenTrue Crime FinlandNate Hendley's books including: The Boy on the Bicycle, Stephen Truscott: Decades of InjusticeCredits: Research and writing: Nate HendleyEditing, narration: Kristi LeeConsulting on Jewish issues: Karen S.R.Audio editing: Erik KrosbyMusic composition:  SoularflairMusic arrangement, audio production: We Talk of DreamsDisclaimer voiced by the host of Beyond Bizarre True CrimeNewsapaper voiceover by the host of Beyond Bizarre True CrimeTheme Song: We Talk of DreamsAll sources and music credits are on the page for this episode on my website: www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, everyone. Before I get started, just a quick update on two things that I'll be attending soon. In November, I'll be at the Hot Docs podcast festival, which goes from November 6th to 11th at the Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto. This year, the live shows include a bunch of my favourites, Uncover with the Missing and Murder team, MC'd by the nationals Ian Hannah Mansing, a live show from Canada Land, and Anna Maria Tremonti Live, plus a bunch more. I'll be on a panel on the Wednesday morning as part of their creators forum. I'll be talking about how to turn a podcast idea into an actual podcast. Anyway, if you love podcasts and are in Toronto, Hot Docs podcast festival is the place to be. November 6th

to 11th. For the full lineup and to get tickets, go to HotDocsCinema.ca. Then I will go back into my little hidey hole for the winter. And next summer, I'll be attending the second annual True Crime podcast festival, July the 11th to 12th in Kansas City, Missouri. It's a festival where you'll have many opportunities to meet and interact with your favourite True Crime podcasters. The festival was a raging success this year and I cannot wait to go again. Next year, it'll be bigger and better. Most of the same podcasts are returning and I know there's some big names yet to be announced. Early Bird tickets are on sale now. For more information, visit TrueCrimePodcastFestival.com. This podcast contains course language, adult

themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised. This is a historic story that takes place in Toronto, Ontario, the largest city in Canada. Today, there are nearly six million residents in the wider area known as Greater Toronto, and the downtown core is filled with glittering condos, chic restaurants, diverse neighbourhoods, splashy nightclubs, and a booming financial district. But a century ago, things were very different. Residential areas competed for space with factories, warehouses, and industrial buildings. Adding to the squalor was the fact that the major fuel source at the time was coal. Toronto was known for being both very dull and very safe in terms of crime. In 1912, the annual

report of the chief constable of the City of Toronto, the yearly compendium of crime, reported that Toronto detectives dealt with a grand total of two murders. The reported number of murders and manslaughter cases was higher, but not all of these offences turned out to be legitimate. According to the 1911 census, Toronto had just over 376,000 residents. Most of them white, Christian, and descended from Britain. The city was barely recognisable as the huge multicultural metropolis it is today. The same census identified less than 20,000 Jewish people in Toronto, about 4.7% of the population. Jewish people would go on to be known for playing a key role in the development of the city, but at the time, they weren't treated very well at all.

According to the book The Jews of Toronto by Stephen A. Spiceman, a Jewish lecturer from Europe visited the city in 1912 and was struck by the anti-Semitism evident in Toronto. Anti-Semitism is, of course, hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Jewish people. The majority of the Toronto population didn't make its Jewish residents feel very welcome, with signs saying, no Jews allowed, or Gentiles only, Gentiles being anyone who's not Jewish. This discriminatory signage was common in places like restaurants and hotels, and even in nature-based areas like beaches and parks. Jewish people also faced discrimination when they were looking for jobs, with businesses declaring that they would only employ Gentiles.

When a Jewish person was offered employment, they would often face discrimination in the workplace. Universities did it too, often asking that Jewish residents have much higher marks for entry into the same program as a non-Jewish person. Realtors and homeowners sometimes refused to sell them property. Jewish people faced discrimination at almost every corner, but they were tenacious and resilient and were driven to survive. This is Christy, and you're listening to Canadian True Crime, Episode 53. It was Friday night, April the 5th, 1912. It was a little warmer than usual for that time of year, around 10 degrees Celsius or 51 Fahrenheit. It was also Good Friday, the start of the Easter

weekend, although the night would prove to be anything but. At 8pm, two middle-aged men went for a stroll down Stron Avenue in downtown Toronto, near what is now known as King West Village. Their names were Eli Dunkelman and Joseph Rosenthal, and they were old friends. They'd known each other for around 25 years. They were also Jewish, bound by the tight-knit community thriving in a city that was insular, conservative, and narrow-minded. Eli and Joseph made their living dealing in second-hand goods, and that night they were walking to the hydro yards near the intersection of Stron Avenue and King Street West. The reason why they were meeting at night, at a muddy and desolate industrial spot, is that they had a

business appointment. They were there to meet a young man they only knew as Smith, who had told them he had scrap copper wire to sell. Copper wire is more valuable than iron. It's highly malleable and considered to be semi-precious. It also generally costs more than other metals, making it a hot commodity in the Toronto of the early 20th century. At the time, local newspapers were reporting that there were staggering amounts of copper wire and scrap iron being stolen from hydro plants. Typically, this metal and wire was then sold on the black market. In the days before Good Friday, the man called Smith had popped by a second-hand goods store at 181 York Street. He introduced himself and asked the store owner

if they might be interested in buying some copper wire. There was no interest, so Smith asked if Joseph Rosenthal was around. Joseph was known to deal in copper wire and could often be found at local second-hand goods stores. Joseph wasn't there at the time, but Smith was eager to talk to him. He came by several more times to ask if the older man had shown up yet. On one occasion, the wife of the store owner, a woman named Annie Kaplan, allowed Smith to use the phone at the store to try and call Joseph at his house, but there was no answer. But Smith wouldn't give up. Next, he tried the second-hand goods shop run by Joseph's friend Eli Dunkelman at 181 Richmond Street West. Smith gave the same spiel. He had copper wire to sell and was looking

for Joseph Rosenthal. Smith had more success here. Eli was able to get a hold of his old friend by phone, and the pair decided to see what Smith had to offer. They arranged to meet him at the hydro yards the day before Good Friday, but problems arose. Smith didn't have the copper wire with him, and he also wouldn't accept the check that Eli offered him. He insisted on cash only. The meeting was a bust. A second meeting was arranged for the following night, Good Friday. Smith would bring the goods, and Eli would bring the cash. The day of the meeting, Eli cashed his check for $60. He gave Joseph $15 and kept the rest of the money to take to their meeting. That $60 would be the equivalent of over $1,300 today. A decent

amount of money, although hardly life-changing. And certainly not enough to warrant the national attention, public outcry, and cabinet-level debate that would come over the next year. A few people saw Eli and Joseph as they were walking towards the hydro yards. A local reverend called Henry Singer was milling about at the southwest corner of King Street West and Stron Avenue when they walked by just before 8pm. The reverend spoke briefly with them, and then they continued on their way. As they got close to the yards, they saw that Smith was waiting for them out the front. He said he had the copper wire, but was inside the hydro yards and suggested that Joseph go with him first to have a look. Joseph was amenable to the idea,

and the pair disappeared while Eli waited on the bridge. 10 minutes went by, 20 minutes, and finally, after half an hour, Smith reappeared, but he was by himself. Smith saw the older man's puzzled look and offered Eli the explanation that Joseph was engrossed in checking out the copper wire. Smith invited Eli to join him and offer his opinion too. This seemed like a reasonable enough suggestion, so Eli followed Smith into the muddy hydro yard. Out of the blue, Smith announced he saw lightning in the sky. Eli glanced up and suddenly felt a sharp blow to his head by a blunt object. He fell to the ground. Then, as he looked up, he saw the object swinging towards him,

smashing into his head again. Eli collapsed unconscious on the dark, muddy ground. He groggily came to just as the sun was rising. He looked around and realised that he was still in the hydro yard and that there was a hammer lying next to him. Eli couldn't see his friend Joseph anywhere. He also couldn't see any sign of Smith. He deduced that his money was also likely gone. He was right. Struggling to his feet, the dazed man stumbled out of the hydro yard. He tried to board a streetcar, but was refused entry because he was covered in blood. Other witnesses saw him stumbling around and thought he was drunk, so they kept their distance. Despite his severe injuries, Eli somehow summoned the strength to make it back to his home.

He staggered inside, blurted out a story to his horrified family about being attacked, and was then rushed to General Hospital. By now, he was in very bad shape. Doctors determined that he had a fractured skull among other injuries. He would likely recover, but it would be a long process. Back at the hydro yards, a couple of workers were having an equally unsettling morning. At around 7.15am, hydro employees made a gruesome discovery. It was the body of a man. It was sunken into the mud, and there was a piece of concrete lying on the side of his head. The blood on the ground was evidence of a struggle. The first responder to the scene was a police officer called P.C. Bolton. He located a bloody

hammer and observed the 10lb block of concrete resting on the man's head. But he also noticed that the man had a rope tied tightly around his neck. It didn't take a master detective to see that a vicious attack had taken place. The man was, of course, Joseph Rosenthal. As police investigated the crime, he was buried in the cemetery of the McCall Street synagogue, which was the colloquial name for what is now part of the Beth Cedric congregation. Joseph left behind a grieving wife and two adult sons. It didn't take police long to find out that there'd been a young man asking around about Joseph Rosenthal in the week beforehand. Star from the various second-hand good stores he visited gave

descriptions of the man to police. The Toronto Daily Star newspaper, as it was called at the time, reported that police were searching for a tall, thin man of about 25 years old in connection to the attack. The newspaper described victim Joseph Rosenthal as a Hebrew junk dealer. Hebrew was a derogatory name that English Canadians called Jewish people in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century. The paper also labelled the seriously injured Eli Dunkelman in equally condescending terms. But despite the anti-Semitism in Toronto, the city's police force investigated the murder of Joseph Rosenthal as they would any other murder. An article in the Globe and Mail noted that the entire detective headquarters staff

became involved in solving the crime, chasing down almost 100 clues. Authorities put together a $500 reward for information on the case, about $11,000 in today's currency. In the meantime, Eli Dunkelman was still in hospital, fading in and out of consciousness. Police desperately needed to speak with him to find out if the man they were looking for was in fact the same man responsible for the attack, but they needed to wait until he was coherent enough to question. On April the 11th, six days after the bloody attack that left one man dead and another seriously injured, Detective Cronin of Toronto Police was out in the community checking out leads. He showed up at another hydro substation. This one was located on Jarvis Street,

a few kilometres away from where the attack took place. He knocked on the door and a hydro worker called Reginald Langmaid opened it. Reginald seemed somewhat excited, which made the detective suspicious. He questioned Reginald, but the hydro worker was vague and avoided answering the questions directly. So Detective Cronin decided to take a look around the station. He checked rooms, looked in cupboards and then pushed open a door to a compartment containing sheet metal where he found a man hiding. The man matched the description of Smith, tall and thin and about 25 years old. Detective Cronin took both men to the police station, one on suspicion of murder and the other on suspicion of being a material witness.

The actual killer was indeed young, although his name wasn't Smith. His real name was Charles Gibson and he was a former hydro worker, which was likely why he chose to meet at the Stron Avenue hydro plant. Charles was 23 and lived with his parents in an apartment on Ontario Street. The police discovered that the day after Joseph Rosenthal and Eli Dunkleman were viciously attacked, Charles Gibson took a room at a boarding house at 288 Church Street, paying two weeks rent in advance. Reginald Langmade, the man who was harboring the supposed fugitive, told police that Charles was actually his work friend and the young man had showed up at his workplace asking if he could use the phone. Reginald agreed and let his friend inside. Shortly afterwards, there was, of course,

a knock at the door. It was Detective Cronin. As Reginald went to answer the door, he said that Charles muttered something about needing to use the toilet and disappeared. Instead of using the toilet, though, he evidently hid in the compartment and that's how he was found. It's not publicly known if Reginald knew anything about Charles' crimes or his fugitive status. In custody, Charles proved to be quite cooperative, but only to a point. He admitted to police that yes, he had set up a deal with Joseph Rosenthal and Eli Dunkleman and yes, he had met them on two occasions, April 4th and April 5th, near the Strone Avenue hydro plant. But he firmly denied having anything to do with the attacks on both men. Instead, he offered the following story.

On that good Friday, he met Joseph and Eli, but he said he wasn't alone. He was actually with two other hydro employees he used to work with. According to Charles, the five men chatted for a while and then Charles stepped away and went home, leaving his two friends to complete the copper wire sale. Next morning, he said he met up with his pals again and they gave him his cut from the copper wire deal, $40. Strangely, he said the two friends didn't mention anything about attacking Joseph Rosenthal and Eli Dunkleman at the hydro yard. The implication was, of course, that his two friends were the actual culprits, but Charles couldn't offer any details on them other than their first names, Wilson and Alec. Charles went on to tell police that he used

some of the $40 to buy new clothes. Meanwhile, the police searched Charles Gibson's new digs in the Church Street boarding house as well as the apartment he'd lived with his family before that on Ontario Street. They found a few interesting items. There was a pair of pants with blood spatter on them. On top of this, authorities discovered that Charles had sent a letter to his stepmother right after the killing. He wrote that he was abruptly leaving Toronto to go to Sudbury, Ontario, a town about 380 kilometres north to take a job in the mines. In the letter, Charles told his stepmom that he'd come in to some cash and implied that it was an advanced payment from his new employer. Police might have been skeptical of Charles's alibi,

but it didn't stop them from checking whether there were any other suspects connected to the hydro plant murder. Their investigation went nowhere. The press, meanwhile, were running stories about the underground scrap metal market in Toronto. It was hinted that Joseph Rosenthal and Eli Dunkelman might have been involved in the solicit trade. On April 13, eight days after the murder, the Globe wrote about a junk dealer who declared he'd recently obtained about $1,500 worth of scrap iron and copper wire directly from hydro employees. The article went on to report that police said they had evidence to show that this dealer had been doing business with Eli and Joseph. Shortly after Joseph Rosenthal's murder, hydro authorities conducted an audit of their facilities.

In May, it was revealed that the city's hydro system was short some 30,000 pounds of copper wire worth around $3,000, the equivalent of roughly $68,000 today. This wire was almost certainly sold on the black market. Back at General Hospital, Eli Dunkelman had recovered sufficiently enough to speak with police. Constables brought their prime suspect, Charles Gibson, into Eli's hospital room for identification. Still a bit weak and woozy, Eli confirmed that Charles Gibson was in fact Smith, the man who attacked him at the hydro yards. In contradicting Charles' own story, Eli said there were no other assailants, no pals tagging along for the transaction. Police had already come to the same conclusion, so the search for other suspects was called off.

Later that month, a coroner's inquest was called, a public hearing designed to get to the bottom of why someone died. A number of people were questioned. PC Bolton was asked about discovering the body of Joseph Rosenthal and the rope he saw around his neck. Another man called William Britt, a close neighbour of Charles Gibson's family at their apartment on Ontario Street, gave some pretty damning testimony about Charles' return to the residence at around 10.30pm on Good Friday night. William noted that a 10-foot rope that had been serving as a clothes line vanished right around the same time as the murder. And a segment of this rope left behind at the residence was found to be very similar to the cord used to strangle Joseph Rosenthal.

Survivor Eli Dunkelman proved to be the star witness at the inquest. Heavily bandaged but determined, he walked the coroner's jury through the events of April the 5th. According to Eli, both he and Joseph assumed that the scrap copper wire offered for sale had been legitimately acquired. He denied knowing about the petty thieving of scrap wire that was going on in Toronto at the time. Despite Eli's physical condition being a bit shaky still, his testimony was solid. And combined with the items found at Charles Gibson's residences before and after the murder, the evidence against him was damning. The jury at the coroner's inquest decided that everything pointed to Charles Gibson being guilty.

On May 9th, 1912, the Toronto Daily Star ran a huge headline, jury names Gibson as the man who killed Joseph Rosenthal. The next step would be a criminal trial. Charles Gibson pleaded not guilty and his defense lawyer Aubrey Bond asked the judge to postpone the trial until November. The reason for this was so that the defense would have more time to try and track down the mystery pals, Wilson and Alec, who his client insisted were the actual killers. This was despite Eli Dunkleman's testimony that there were no additional people. The judge might have been dubious, but for the sake of a fair trial,

he agreed to postpone things until the fall. Do you have a passion project that you're ready to take to the next level? Square Space makes it easy for anyone to create an engaging web presence, grow a brand and sell anything from your products to the content you create and even your time. When I launched this passion project six years ago, I needed some kind of online hub to manage all the non-podcasting tasks that come with podcasting. I chose Square Space because it's an all-in-one platform that seamlessly helps me achieve multiple goals. It's important to have a website that looks good and I was inspired by Square Space's wide selection of clean and modern templates. They can be easily

customized with pre-built layouts and flexible design tools to fit your needs and you can even browse the category of your business to see examples of what others have done. I used the built-in blogging tools to create a new page for each episode and there are so many intuitive options from embedding an audio player so listeners can stream episodes to scheduling posts to be published on a certain date, an easily moderated comment section and automatically displaying recent episodes on the homepage. Every Square Space website and online store includes SEO tools to help you maximize your visibility in search engines and I love the powerful insights I can get from the analytics tools helping me better understand who's visiting the site, where they

came from and how they're interacting with it. Do you have a passion project or business idea or something to sell? Go to squarespace.com slash ctc for a free trial and when you're ready to launch use offer code CTC to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain that's squarespace.com slash ctc with offer code CTC and get your passion project off the ground today. Meantime, McLean's magazine wrote a feature which went to print in May of 1912 called The Jews in Canada. It was positioned as an educational piece with part of it encouraging people to check out a Jewish neighborhood but in reality it was quite the opposite. There is a remarkable colony of them north of Queen Street in Toronto in the district

bounded on the east by Yonge and on the west by University Avenue. 25 years ago there were no Jews there at all. Now there is nothing but Jews. It is worthwhile walking through this district some summer evening if you have any curiosity to learn how the other half lives. In the evening this part of the other half lives on the sidewalks or leaning out of windows. The streets swarm with old Jews and young flashily dressed Jews in the latest Queen Street styles and patriarchal old Jews in Gabardine and Skullcap. Strange noises and smells rise on the air and blend with a babel of tongues. You might imagine you were strolling through a bazaar in Damascus. You feel that if you had a stronger stomach you would linger a while inviting adventure. When you get

home you probably wonder what the medical health officer is about that he permits it. Although this was supposed to be a positive report on the Toronto Jewish community, which was in the public eye thanks to the Joseph Rosenthal case, the anti-Semitism dripped off every word. Charles Gibson's trial opened in late November of 1912 before Chief Justice Sir William Mulock. Eli Dunkelman testified again along with 30 other witnesses for the crown. Store owner Annie Kaplan testified about encountering Charles Gibson on multiple occasions at the York Street shop she managed with her husband. She told how Charles entered the store calling

himself Smith, seemingly on a mission to find Joseph Rosenthal. Other items submitted into evidence included Charles's pants with the blood spatter, the bit of rope found at his family residence that was similar to that found around Joseph's neck, and of course the letter he wrote talking about how he was suddenly leaving for a job in Sudbury with a large sum of money. The defence introduced 15 witnesses including Charles Gibson himself. Defence Council Aubrey Bond admitted that he had failed to track down the two mystery men called Wilson and Alec, but said he did have witnesses who could put his client in the clear. These witnesses consisted of three soldiers from Stanley Barracks,

a military base located on the shoreline of Lake Ontario. One of them started by testifying that he saw two Hebrews. There's that snide religious reference again which was common in the media coverage of the trial. He positively identified one of them as Eli Dunkelman, but said the two were talking to a third man with a gray overcoat on the Stron Avenue Bridge on Thursday night, the night of the first meeting that was abast. The soldier went on to say that the next night, Good Friday, he saw them again, this time talking with two other men on the bridge, and neither of the other two men was Charles Gibson, he said. Charles Gibson took to the stand in his own defence, proclaiming his innocence and saying that

everyone accusing him of murder were liars. His stepmother Julia Gibson offered a unique explanation as to how his pants came to be spattered with blood. She testified that she had a younger son called Willie, and on Good Friday morning, the little boy came running into the house crying. He'd fallen off his bicycle on the street and had a cut on his head which had blood flowing out of it. According to Julia, 23-year-old Charles took the little boy and bathed his injury, and this is how he got the blood spatter on his pants. With this alternative theory lingering in the air, Charles's lawyer Aubrey Bond told the jury that the prosecution's case rested almost entirely on the testimony of Eli Dunkelman.

He then suggested that Eli was more villain than victim, implying that's how he sustained his injuries. Quote, how do we know Dunkelman didn't do the killing? He went on to say that Joseph Rosenthal was so badly smashed up that it seemed doubtful that Charles Gibson, a frail 20-year-old boy, could have inflicted so much harm. He added that if Eli Dunkelman didn't do it, then maybe the mysterious duo Wilson and Alec performed the deed. Shame the pair were unknown to everyone but Charles, and of course were nowhere to be found. The trial lasted for five and a half days. After just two hours, the jury returned with a verdict. They found Charles Gibson guilty of murder. The Globe reported on his reaction, quote, there was a slight blanching

of the youthful prisoner's face as he heard the ominous pronouncement, but the change was scarcely perceptive. Gibson had maintained a cool, confident attitude throughout the trial. Jurors had clearly discounted both the testimony of the soldiers and the touching story from Charles' stepmom. The jury also seemed to reject the idea that Eli Dunkelman killed his friend, and all the physical evidence, the pants, the letter and the rope, pointed to Charles. He did get a slight reprieve, though. Chief Justice Mulock postponed the sentencing and agreed to allow an appeal regarding Eli Dunkelman's testimony and whether or not it was admissible. The case made its way to the Court of Appeal in May of 1913. The appeal was dismissed and Eli's

testimony was admitted. So it was time for sentencing. Judge Mulock sentenced Charles Gibson to hang. The star ran the headline No Hope for Mercy that day. The subhead read, Chief Justice Sir William Mulock told Gibson not to hope for compassion, and he had good reason not to hope. Capital punishment was still in effect at the time. That year there were a total of nine hangings that were carried out in Canada. Charles Gibson still insisted that he was innocent of the crime, though. The May 5th, 1913 edition of The Star, quoted him as saying, I think it is an injustice to inflict punishment on me for a crime I did not commit.

His lawyer certainly agreed with these sentiments, telling reporters that it would be a gross miscarriage of justice if his client was hanged. As it turned out, many people agreed with Aubrey Bond, though not necessarily because they thought his client was innocent. In early October, both the Minister of Justice and the Federal Cabinet turned down an appeal and upheld the sentence. Charles Gibson was scheduled to hang about a week later on October 9th, 1913. Toronto law firm Lennox and Lennox had other ideas, however. The firm organised a campaign to get Charles Gibson's sentence commuted to life in prison. Partner Keith Lennox told The Star that their actions were caused partly because Charles Gibson

was young, at just 23 years of age, but also because they felt there was a pronounced feeling that he was not guilty. Torontonians were asked to sign petitions requesting that Charles Gibson be spared the noose. These petitions were placed in stores, restaurants, churches, and other public places around Toronto. According to the Globe, there were over 700 petitions circulating around the city. The work was carried out on an organised basis. A large part of it under the direction of a mission worker who, along with an Anglican clergyman, visited Charles Gibson at the jail in the week before he was condemned to die. Several prominent figures also signed on, including Toronto Mayor Horatio Hocken

and members of Provincial Parliament, or MPPs. Also to sign on was Sir Henry Pallett, the wealthy financier who was in the midst of constructing his famous imitation castle, Casa Loma, in a wealthy Toronto neighbourhood. People signed the Gibson petitions for a wide variety of reasons. Some felt that Charles Gibson had indeed been wrongly convicted. Others simply opposed the death penalty. The campaign also received strong support from the Jewish community. Despite the lack of compassion and respect that they had been given, they showed immense compassion to Charles Gibson, who was not Jewish. The Globe noted that the petition contained the names of 1700 Jewish people and even included Joseph Rosenthal's son,

Harry Rosenthal. In a letter to the Acting Federal Minister of Justice W.T. White, Harry Rosenthal explained why he wanted to spare the life of the man who brutally killed his father. The quote has been edited for clarity, but it says, As the son of the late Joseph Rosenthal, I request that you show clemency to Charles Gibson. Firmly, as I am convinced that he is guilty, I, in accordance and following the teachings of the Hebrew religion to show mercy to others, sincerely request that you use your power to commute his sentence to that of life imprisonment. Toronto Mayor Hawken also sent off a note to the Justice Minister, requesting clemency. He said, The people of Toronto are deeply concerned

over the fate of Charles Gibson. They are practically unanimous in the desire that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment. The Toronto Star reported that, Never before in the history of Ontario has such vigorous efforts been taken to save a man from the gallows. In the end, over 60,000 people signed petitions to commute Charles Gibson's sentence. Politician and lawyer Thomas Herbert Lennox, who represented North York and the Ontario Legislature, took the petitions to Ottawa and presented them to the Federal Cabinet on October the 6th, pleading Charles Gibson's case. He was accompanied by several senior figures for support, Sir Henry Pallett from Casa Loma, two reverends including one from Bloor Street Presbyterian

Church, Charles Gibson's spiritual advisor, and a rabbi from Holy Blossom Temple on Bathurst Street. For over two hours, Mr Lennox made an impassioned plea for the life of Charles Gibson, arguing that he had no proper defence, that he didn't have enough money to find more witnesses, and that the evidence submitted at the trial was not consistent. According to the Star, he further contended that the evidence of a certain material witness was not trustworthy as the man had, no reputation for truthfulness among his own people. The Star didn't specify whether or not Lennox was referring to the testimony of Eli Dunkleman, who of course had already had his testimony appealed and then declared admissible.

So if Eli was the material witness Lennox was talking about, the lawyer's comments were condescending at best and anti-Semitic at worst. More pleading was conducted the following day. The message carried by all of these impassioned pleas and the huge number of signatures was successful. On October the 7th, 1913, the Canadian cabinet agreed to commute Charles Gibson's life. He would not be hanged but would be kept in jail for the rest of his life. The Globe reported on the reaction from Charles Gibson, saying, There was no outward demonstration on the part of the young man when the news was conveyed to him, as he is very unemotional. He made no remark of note. There is no doubt that he was greatly

relieved. A decision was made to transfer Charles Gibson to the Kingston Penitentiary to serve out his sentence. He was taken there in mid-October of 1913. Charles Gibson, however, did not escape death for long. While in Kingston Penitentiary, he developed tuberculosis and when he reached the final stages of the disease, he was released on parole into his family's care. Charles Gibson died age 31 at his stepmother's Toronto home on July 22, 1920, still proclaiming his innocence to the very end. While he was almost certainly guilty, his case underlined an amazing capacity for forgiveness on the part of an oppressed religious community, including, of course, the son of Joseph Rosenthal himself.

The case inspired an unprecedented public outcry at a time when hanging was still routinely applied for the most serious of offences. Capital punishment would not be formally abolished in Canada until 1976. What was clear, though, was that a large segment of the public already had misgivings about the death penalty, as evidence by the large-scale effort to spare the life of a man who murdered a merchant in a hydroyard in Toronto on Good Friday 1912. Antisemitism has a long history in Canada and despite some improvement in the last century, it still affects Jewish people today. According to the 2018 Hate Crime Statistical Report by the Toronto Police Service, Jewish people remained the single most targeted victim group,

followed by Black, Muslim and LGBTQ communities. In fact, Jewish people have been the single most targeted group in Toronto since at least 2006. While hate crimes can take on several different forms including physical assault, verbal threats and online hate propaganda, according to the report, the Jewish community was the most frequently victimized group in the category of mischief, involving property damage through graffiti and other forms of vandalism. Also in 2018, a major study was conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research in partnership with the U of T and York University. The 2018 survey of Jews in Canada found that almost 4 in 10 Canadian Jewish people reported having experienced discrimination in

the past five years. Almost 4 in 10 reported that they've downplayed being Jewish in certain types of situations, like in the workplace and when travelling outside the country. And 1 in 10 reported being called offensive names or snubbed in a social setting over the previous year, just because they're Jewish. Thanks for listening and a huge thank you to Toronto True Crime author Nate Henley for suggesting this unpublicised case and also for researching and writing it. Nate has researched and written several episodes for me now. Episode 24 was based on his book Stephen Truscott Decades of Injustice and Episode 31 was based on his new book The Boy on the Bicycle, both Canadian wrongful conviction stories.

And I have another one from Nate coming up in February of next year, another historic case, one that is perhaps the most well-known crime story in Canada. Stay tuned. I've listed links to all of Nate Henley's books in the show notes. I also wanted to give a huge shout out to Karen, one of my Facebook group moderators for helping me out with the parts of this story relating to Jewish people. And lastly, thanks also to the host of the Beyond Bazaar True Crime podcast who provided the voiceover for this episode. I have two podcast recommendations today. They are both wonderful women that I very much enjoyed meeting at the True Crime podcast festival last year. May I present True Crime Finland

and True Crime Sweden. Hi, I'm Penilla, the host and creator of True Crime Sweden, a podcast that brings you crazy, scary and unbelievable crime stories from the peaceful country of Sweden. By listening to True Crime Sweden, you get to hear cases that you haven't ever heard about before. And at the same time, you learn something about how the legal system works in another part of the world. All the stories are told with great respect for the victims and their families. It's a one woman show, no banter, just me telling you a scary bedtime story. And I end each episode with a little fun fact about Sweden, something that is highly appreciated by my listeners. If this sounds interesting, head over to your podcast provider of choice

and search for True Crime Sweden. I hope to see you. Bye. Or as we say in Sweden. Hej då! Hi, this is Mina from True Crime Finland. Ah, Finland. So peaceful and quiet. There isn't even any crime there, right? Wrong. Join me every two weeks in discovering the dark side of the land of a thousand lakes. From the legendary and infamous to the lesser known and forgotten cases, find True Crime Finland wherever you get your podcasts. It's time for the Patreon shoutouts. And this will be the last one for a while, if not period. In the early days, shouting out listeners and episodes seemed like an easy benefit to provide. But as more and more time has gone on, I found myself with a bit of a backlog and it got a bit overwhelming to sort it all out. So quite a few

months back, I removed that benefit for new patrons moving forward and then buckled down to make sure I still shout out all the patrons who signed up before that. If you are one of them, I am sorry that it's taken me so long. So for the last time, thank you to Pagan C, Sarah T, Justin L, Jerry O, Neil A, Guilleme H, William M, Rosemary H, Philip D, Torcal, Bonnie G, Christian D, Ashley W, Emma, and Nicole B. Thank you all so much. This episode of Canadian True Crime was researched and written by Nate Henley, edited by me and audio production was by Eric Crosby. Music was by Aussie music producer Solar Flare. The host of the Beyond Bazaar True Crime podcast voiced the disclaimer and the Canadian True Crime theme song was written by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back soon with

another Canadian True Crime story. See you then.