Canadian True Crime - Shell Lake Massacre

Episode Date: August 1, 2017

The story of Saskatchewan’s worst mass murder. 21-year-old Victor Hoffman suffered from paranoid schizophrenia which saw him descend into madness, leading to a collision with an unsuspecting family that would have tragic consequences.Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast. Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:See the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Christy, and welcome to Canadian True Crime, Episode 11, The Shell Lake Massacre. This podcast contains coarse language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised. This is a story from Saskatchewan. It's the tale of a young man's descent into madness in the 1960s, leading to a collision with an unsuspecting family that will have tragic consequences. The Hoffmans were a working-class family based in a farming village 70 kilometres north of Saskatoon, which is the largest city in the province of Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan is in the western half of Canada and is part of the Canadian prairie provinces, named because they're partially covered by prairie or grasslands. The province's economy is based on agriculture, mining and energy. It's a farming province. The Hoffmans were an ordinary farming family, devout Lutherans. Robert Hoffman was German and his wife Stella was Ukrainian. As with most other farmers in the district, the Hoffmans practiced mixed farming, growing hay and raising cattle.

With seven children, they were a hardworking, locally respected family who only took occasional holidays when the season would allow for it. As devout practicing Lutherans, they kept the Sunday as a holy day and attended church often. Their fifth child was Victor Ernest Hoffman, born in 1946. Growing up, Victor seemed like all the other children, meeting his milestones on time and seeming healthy, shy and able to amuse himself. At about age six, he started school.

He remained shy and a bit reclusive, although he did have one close friend. It was around this time that Victor would later say he first saw the devil. He recalled a pitch black creature about six feet tall, naked, with a long tail. He would sometimes hear tapping sounds and would wake up in the middle of the night to a drumming sound that seemed to go faster and faster. He said he felt like he was in the middle of a fight between God and the devil. As Victor's paranoid delusions increased, he obviously started having to be a fight. some trouble academically and had to repeat grade 3.

At about age 10, he began having strange experiences and frequently felt urges to kill, daily. When he met someone new, he would feel an immediate impulse to kill them. Victor never once told his parents about what he was experiencing and they didn't notice, either because he hid it well or more likely because they were busy with the farm than six other children. Victor began directing his impulses against animals, starting with a cat he caught by accident in a magpie trap. He started off by torturing and killing any cat he could hunt and then

progressed to dogs and other animals he could get his hands on. He once said he killed several hundred squirrels. One day he unleashed on a young boy in a vicious and violent attack, threatening the boy not to tell his parents what had happened. The boy didn't and Victor got away with it. Victor's father would later say, quote, he was just as smart as the rest of the boys. He used to work here and fix bicycles for our neighbours' boys and what they couldn't do, he could.

Victor's father went on to say that he was good at problem solving, especially when it came to the issues that a farmer would encounter when planting a crop. Victor was said to be a tremendous help around the farm. But mentally, things continued to slide downhill, although Victor successfully continued to hide it from his large busy family. His psychosis continued, seemingly fueled by the strict religious practices of his family. He would later describe having breakfast one day when he heard voices.

It was the devil calling for him. When he went outside, he saw a naked creature about six and a half feet tall, big and stocky with a pig-like appearance. According to Victor, the creature was the devil, and he told Victor he could make him very rich if he bowed before him. Victor didn't want to do this, but then decided to kneel on one knee thinking that he could get half the riches promised to him instead. Victor didn't get rich and decided that it was because he refused to bow

the way the devil he saw wanted him to. This is one of about 20 times that Victor said he saw the devil, and soon after this he also started seeing angels. He said they looked like human beings, often women, and that they would talk to him like the devil would. Victor's psychosis led him to believe he was constantly in a fight between the devil and the angels. He would often grab weapons and believe he was defending one off against the other.

Victor had to repeat grade 9 and he had some more trouble when he started not turning up to school. His parents weren't overly concerned. The principal called them in for a meeting where they were asked why Victor wasn't attending, although their recollection was that the principal said Victor had been no trouble until then. While he wasn't causing trouble at school, it was different outside school hours.

Victor was obsessed with guns and stealing them. At age 15, he broke into a store in nearby town Leask and stole firearms. He later said that after the burglary, the tapping sound he heard would start back up again and would last for weeks. He wasn't caught for this crime, but over a year later he broke into the same store and stole more firearms. The tapping sounds in his head started up again, like Morth Code from a supernatural dimension.

This time, his neighbours discovered it was Victor who had committed the crime and turned him in. 17-year-old Victor spent 24 hours in jail and was handed a two-year suspended sentence. As he approached his 20s, Victor's psychosis deepened. He started fainting and having fits. The visits from the devil started increasing. The figure would hound him to sell his soul, threatening that he would die a million times if he didn't. One time, Victor said he was asked by God and his angels to slay the devil, and if he did, he would be taken to heaven. He reported catching the devil,

and although he couldn't specify how, he did say the creature had such a foul odour that he had to release it straight away. Another time, he said he tried to shoot the devil with a gun, but was unsuccessful. Desperate to have the nightmare over and go to heaven as the angels promised, Victor recalled capturing the devil in a net, but reported being betrayed by the angels who promised,

promised him entry to heaven. This whole scenario ended up with Victor in a martial arts match with the devil, he recalled. It's not difficult to see that anyone battling this kind of psychosis so visceral in its presentation is unlikely to meet a happy ending before their world starts to spiral out of control. By now, Victor was 21 years old and his family had finally started to notice there was something very wrong with him. He would go from being quiet and withdrawn to exploding enrage, emotional outbursts and senseless laughter, and then back to being quiet again. On the morning of May 27, 1967, Victor suddenly walked into the hayfield and started firing his rifle into the air. As he continued to shoot wildly, his mother Stella bravely ran up to stop him,

asking him to give her the gun. Victor said to her, I shot the devil. Stella was able to commandeer the rifle off him and put it away. Victor announced that he was feeling sick from a chemical used on the grain crop, so he hopped in his car and drove off.

While he was gone, his concerned family gathered up all the guns in the house and hid them. Not long after that, Victor returned, looked for the guns and when he couldn't find them, demanded that his family give them up. His family stood strong.

Victor said, Nobody will get hurt, and he said he wanted to speak to his local church pastor who was called immediately. Victor's mom, Stella Hoffman, was trying to listen in on his conversation with the pastor,

but wasn't able to make anything out. However, as the pastor was about to leave, she heard Victor say, quote, I'd like to kill mum. Robert Hoffman, Victor's father, said, quote, That poor guy, I guess he called for help, I guess he didn't know which way to turn. Finally, Victor's family saw the full extent of what was happening to him

and made arrangements to have him committed to the Saskatchewan Hospital at North Battleford, a town about an hour's drive south-west of Leesk. A psychiatrist at the mental health clinic there assessed Victor and found him to be a, quote, Schizoid in the state of acute schizophrenic reaction. The recommendation was that Victor needed to be hospitalized. Likely relieved, Victor checked himself into hospital for an extended period. According to Victor's hospital records, when he was admitted he was sick both mentally and physically.

Alongside his psychosis, he was experiencing stomach cramps and burning sensations from being exposed to the harsh farming chemicals. Basically, Victor was a mess. Hospital records showed that Victor was fairly cooperative during examination, but appeared withdrawn, apathetic, seclusive, vague and indifferent. When asked questions, he gave short responses and needed prompting for more information. He eventually told the medical professionals about his hallucinations,

his interactions with the pig-faced devil creature, and the angels. He complained about not being able to get on with his brothers and sisters. He had mentioned to them about seeing the devil, he said, but they laughed. He said that he was now wondering whether he was male or female, because the devil had punished him by replacing his brain with that of a girl called Denise. He felt that Denise was trying to steal his body. The doctors tried to explain to Victor that his angel and devil stories were merely hallucinations, but Victor argued that his encounters were so visceral and so real that they couldn't have been anything but. His doctors noted that his daily life in the mental hospital

saw him preoccupied with sex and he, quote, masturbated daily, and despite being fatigued and weak, Victor wasn't able to sleep. He was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia, resulting in uncontrolled symptoms and severe social handicaps. The classic 1960s treatment plan he was given consisted of antipsychotic medication, therapy and a series of 12 electroshock therapy sessions. After the second ECT, Victor showed a marked improvement. He seemed more pleasant and less withdrawn, but he was still delusional and reportedly preoccupied with sex.

The fifth ECT brought with it more improvements. Victor became more cooperative and sociable and even admitted that the devil talk might have been in his head. However, he still insisted that he had magic powers. After the ninth ECT, not much change was noted, although his father said he was back to his usual self. After the 12th ECT, the final one, Victor said he doubted the devil and angel stories,

but still believed that at times the devil was with him. And he said that if he was discharged, he would still try to catch him and destroy him. But in the next few days, Victor changed his mind again, this time saying that he'd decided all his ideas about the devil weren't real. He was now more cooperative, pleasant and sociable, but still seemed a little withdrawn at times. Although he said he was free now from the devil, he still thought about killing.

He thought of his brothers as being dead and of killing his parents, his sisters and his school friends. He would later tell psychiatrists that he didn't hate any of them and that he had no reason to kill them, but he just wanted to. Victor had now been hospitalized for a month and the hospital psychiatrist called his father in and told him that Victor was schizophrenic, but not too bad. Victor's father didn't know the actual meaning of schizophrenia, except that he assumed it meant a person had trouble controlling their mind. He asked the psychiatrist how long it would take for Victor to become well again.

Quote, maybe a year or two and he'll be as good as ever. Despite the statement, Victor was discharged to go home with his father who was armed with tranquilizers and a range of other medications to administer. The date was July 26, 1967. Victor's concerned parents tried to keep track of his medication. Victor was sleeping a lot, more than normal. His parents were happy about this, thinking the extra sleep would contribute to Victor being more rested up

and able to better control his mental illness. But Victor was not at all well. Inside, a storm was beginning to brew. As soon as he got home from the hospital, he had a foreboding feeling that something was wrong, something was going to happen to him. He was having a lot of visions, prophetic visions. He saw things happening before they happened.

He sometimes dreamed of killing people, dreams during the night when he was sleeping, and during the day when he was thinking. Although he was glad to be home, Victor had a hard time getting used to being back on the farm. He was needed for farm work, but he was weak. So on August the 8th, almost two weeks after coming home, Victor stopped taking his medication. He said he felt fine for the first two days, but on the third day, the foreboding feeling grew stronger.

Victor knew something was going to happen. He was going to either end up in jail or back in the mental hospital. His father said, quote, When he came out of hospital, he said he would sooner die than go back because he couldn't stand the shock treatments. It was too much. At first, he said the treatments didn't bother him because of the state he was in, but after he began to come out of it, he began to feel the effects more. Every day after that, Victor had fantasies about killing someone. He wanted to kill, anyone, his brother may be, his friend, their brother. He told another friend about his thoughts and

his friend said he didn't think Victor was the type. Victor was back working on the farm and would daydream about killing while he was driving the tractor. On Saturday, August the 12th, Victor had a sudden thought that killing someone would demonstrate his capabilities to the devil and that would bring him closer to the black beast. But meanwhile, he was still unable to sleep. Two days later, on August the 14th, 1967, the thoughts continued to intensify. He continued to work on the farm as usual, and that night he lay down on the couch exhausted and actually managed to fall asleep. Later on, his parents came to wake him and send him to his bed.

He tried to get back to sleep, but he couldn't. He tossed and turned all night. His mind started started running away from him, so he went to the garage. He saw a dog there and had the impulse to kill it, but didn't. He tinkered around the garage for an hour, and then started pacing up and down. Suddenly he felt a strange feeling on the right side of his head. He described it as feeling like his whole body had been cut in half, and something had left him. Suddenly, a very powerful impulse to kill came upon him. He put gas in his car, loaded up his rifle with ammunition, and drove off into the night.

40 miles drive northwest of Leesk is the tiny community of Shell Lake, which in 1967 had about 250 residents. It boasted one hotel, a cafe and a pub. The main street was an unpaved dirt road. Just outside this village lived the Peterson family. parents James Peterson, 47, and wife Evelyn Peterson, 42. The Peterson's were another ordinary church-going family and lived in a white five-room farmhouse. They had nine children raging in age from one to 19,

all still lived at home except their oldest, Kathy, who had recently married and moved with her new husband to a logging town in British Columbia. Another farming family, the Peter's family. Peterson's had 480 acres which they used for mixed use, grain crops and animal farming. James Peterson was a hardworking farmer. Their second eldest child, 17-year-old daughter Jean, was a promising athlete. She was hoping to go to a track and field camp in Dundurn, a small village south of Saskatoon.

James decided that to pay for it, he would need to transfer 50 bushels of wheat from the bins to his truck. which he would then drive to the grain elevator in Shell Lake to sell. He had a big day of work ahead of him, so much that he asked a neighbour for help. So, the morning of August 15, 1967, the family was starting to wake early to start their day. At this exact same moment, Victor Hoffman was driving in his car through country Saskatchewan, his 22 rifle by his side. He didn't know where he was going. He just knew that he had to kill something.

A hawk swooped down and landed on a pole, and Victor considered shooting it, but kept driving. He drove past farmhouse after farmhouse. His urge to kill grew with each house he passed. With dawn now well underway, Victor pulled into the driveway of a white farmhouse. Victor immediately thought he'd recognized the house he'd seen it before in one of his visions.

It was 6 a.m. Inside the house, James and Evelyn Peterson was sitting on the edge of their bed, getting ready for the day ahead. Baby Larry was in his mother's arms, breastfeeding. Suddenly, they heard the screeching of tires coming to a stop on their driveway and the slamming of a car door. Who is it? James yelled. Suddenly, the front door busted open and 21-year-old Victor Hoffman was standing in the doorway,

carrying his 22-caliber pump-action rifle. James Peterson came out of the bedroom, saw Victor and the gun, and ran towards him trying to protect his family from the danger that had entered their house. Victor fired, shooting four bullets into James' stomach, sending him to the floor. Victor stepped into the farmhouse.

Suddenly, the once-quiet house woke up to screams coming from all rooms. In one room, six to six to... children huddled together. Mary, age 13, Pearl age 9, Jean age 17, William aged 5, Phyllis aged 4 and Colin, 2. Mother Evelyn remained in her room holding baby Larry tightly as her husband James lay dying on the kitchen floor. Victor fired three more times into James. He stepped over his lifeless body to where 11-year-old Dorothy was. She slept on a cot in the living room. Dorothy closed her eyes and screamed as Victor aimed his rifle at her head and pulled the trigger. Victor then cocked his head, saw the bedroom with the

five children huddled together and marched over. One of the children screamed, Don't shoot me, I don't want to die. Victor said they didn't look like people to him. They looked like pigs. And he'd already committed murder, so why would he stop now? He ignored their pleas for mercy and started firing into their faces at point-blank range. The children dropped like flies. Blood spattered the walls. He didn't see four-year-old Phyllis who was hiding under the bed sheets. Meanwhile, in the opposite bedroom, Evelyn Peterson was trying to escape out the window with baby Larry. She'd just made it out when Victor heard them.

He moved at a rapid pace slipping at the window behind them. He fired four times at Evelyn, causing her to drop to the ground, still holding her baby. Victor then turned and headed back into the house. He went back into the bedroom where the children were to make sure he'd finished the job. He fired a few extra shots. It was then that he saw four-year-old Phyllis cowering in between the lifeless bodies of two of her sisters. He thought she had the face of an angel, so decided to spare her. Storming back into the living room, Victor heard a baby cry.

He stormed outside and came across baby Larry, still in the arms of his deceased mother. Victor stood there and thought to himself, What will happen to that baby? He didn't want the baby to suffer, so although he said he hated himself for it, he shot Larry. At this point, Victor felt deja vu. He'd seen all of this in a dream before. He suddenly felt panicked and started looking for bullet casings from his rifle. He shook up blankets looking for them.

He picked up 17 of them and put them in his right pocket. He then went through all of the wallets he could find, taking a total of $7. He got in his car and drove the 40 minutes back to his home. What he left behind in that farmhouse was Saskatchewan's worst mass murder, and remained so to this day. On the drive home, Victor felt sick. He thought he might have to shoot himself, but he said he didn't know where to do it so that he would die quickly. He arrived home at about 7.30 a.m.

His parents were both up, and his father asked him where he'd been. Both parents chastised him for getting up so early and driving around. Victor felt confused. At the time of the shootings, he felt that what he was doing was right, but now he felt terrible and knew he was going to be in trouble. He didn't want to go to jail. His impulse to kill had been satiated,

and he would later say that he somehow knew that he could never kill again. Meanwhile, a neighbor of the Peterson family was on his way to the White Farmhouse. Will Drew Lang had agreed to help James Peterson processed the wheat he was going to sell to pay for his daughter Jean's athletic camp. Will Drew arrived at the Peterson farm and got to work while he waited for James to come out. At 9 a.m., there was still no sign of James, which was odd since Wildrew was there to assist him after

all. So Will Drew went over to the house to see if anyone was there. As he approached it, he noticed the usual noisy bustle of the house was gone, replaced by an eerie, quiet feeling. The family dog came out to see Wildrew, but he seemed subdued and not his friendly self. When the neighbour got to the front door, he saw the lifeless body of James Peterson just inside the entrance. He was covered only by shorts, and a lot of blood. That was enough for Will-Drew. Because the farmhouse didn't have a phone, he ran to the Peterson station wagon and floored it to the village of Shell Lake, where he phoned the RCMP. Corporal Barry Richards, alone, was first on the scene. What he saw was a scene of horror. First, James's bullet-ridden remains,

and then he saw 11-year-old Dorothy who lay dead on her cot in the living room. Moving into the bedroom, he saw 5-year-old William, 13-year-old Mary and 2-year-old Colin dead on a mattress. They'd been shot. He also saw 17-year-old Jean and 9-year-old Pearl also dead. But wedged between them was 4-year-old Phyllis, who remained physically unharmed but was suffering from shock. She had her head buried in the bed. The RCMP officer lifted the silent 4-year-old up and drove her to a neighbour's farmhouse for safety. After that, he drove to Shell Lake to request backup and then went back to the Peterson home.

This time he was joined by a doctor from a nearby medical clinic. At the back of the house, they saw the bodies of Evelyn Peterson and baby Larry under an open window. Each of the victims had powder burns on their flesh that indicated they'd been shot at close range. RCMP backup arrived and commenced the processing of the crime scene. Nine people lay dead, in different locations in the house, and they had no idea who did it or why.

This would take some time to figure out. They did find several clues. Several distinctive bloody footprints were found on the linoleum floor. There was a diamond on the sole and a V-shape on the heel. They also found several used 22-caliber bullet. casings. In his haste to leave, Victor had neglected to pick them all up. In the meantime, as news spread around the community of Shell Lake and Surounds, there was widespread panic. An unknown killer was on the loose. A killer that shot an entire family, including a baby. Everyone was on edge with fear

that their family might be next. That night, concerned citizens slept with their lights on and weapons at the ready should the deadly killer choose their house next. The media would later name that night as the Night of Fear. Obviously, the RCMP felt enormous pressure to find this killer, so they didn't waste any time in launching into the investigation. With the aid of 75 police dogs, they thoroughly searched the area surrounding the Peterson Farmhouse, put up roadblocks, and encouraged the locals to report anything they saw as suspicious. The sole prints found at the scene

was sent for forensic processing in Regina, the capital city of Saskatchewan. The bullet casings were also analysed and found to be belonging to one of three potential gun models. The community couldn't believe that a single person could have executed the massacre without any of the family escaping and speculated that there must have been more than one gunmen.

But local investigators Brian Sawyer and Staff Sergeant Ronald Sondergaard didn't agree. They weren't professional profilers, but they noticed that the Peterson's were an ordinary farm family with no real enemies to speak of. There appeared to be no motive for the massacre. There was nothing there to suggest that either robbery or sexual assault were motives. The only conclusion they could come to was that the murderer must have been a local man with a history of mental illness.

On August the 17th, two days after the massacre, a farmer walked into the Shelbrook RCMP saying, quote, My neighbour's son just got out of the mental hospital and he likes guns and is a good hunter. He gave a name, Victor Ernest Hoffman. The RCMP immediately drove out to the Hoffman residence at Leask to interview Victor. As they were walking up to the front door of the house, they noticed the exact same pair of boots worn by the killer on the stoop. They were seized for evidence. They asked Robert Hoffman, Victor's father,

if the family had a 22-caliber rifle, which he confirmed. The officers retrieved the gun and sent it to forensics to match with the bullet casings they'd found. Within 24 hours, they got the news that Victor Hoffman was the Shell Lake murderer. They also sent the boots, which were determined to have human blood on them. The RCMP searched the grounds of the Hoffman property and found two empty wallets, both belonging to the Peterson family. Victor Hoffman was arrested on August the 19th, four days after the massacre, while he was mowing his field. He was taken to the station for interrogation.

It didn't take much for him to crack, and after 15 minutes he confessed to all of the murders. He expressed remorse for not burning down the house, saying that then maybe the police wouldn't have found the bullet casings. The police interviewer asked him if he'd ever wanted to do anything like this before. Victor replied, quote, No, just those few minutes there, it just popped into my mind just like that. Do you think I could get rid of it? No, sir, I just went and done it anyway. The police asked him if there was anything else he wanted to say.

Quote, Just that I know I'm sick in the head, but I can never kill again. I know that. The same day Victor was arrested, the funeral was held for the nine murdered members of the Peterson family. 1,500 people from the Shell Lake area and neighbouring communities gathered at God's Acre Cemetery in Shell Lake to watch as they were lowered into a mass grave. Two family members had survived, 19-year-old Kathy, who lived in British Columbia with her husband,

and of course four-year-old Phyllis, who survived the massacre. After Phyllis was orphaned, Kathy and her husband Lee picked Phyllis up from Shell Lake and brought her back to BC to raise her as their own. For the many residents of Shell Lake, while the sadness of losing the entire Peterson family this way lingered, they were content to know that the killer had been apprehended. They could go back to their normal lives. But the story was not over for the professionals working the case. On August the 21st, 1967, two weeks after the massacre, Victor Ernest Hoffman was charged with the capital slaying of James Peterson. He was sent to the University Psychiatric Hospital in Saskatoon to be assessed,

with the end goal of determining whether or not he was fit to stand trial. For two days, Victor was interviewed by Dr. Donald McEhrushar. In one conversation, he blamed James Peterson, saying that if his reaction had of been different when he first saw Victor into the house, then so would have the outcome. Quote, if he had talked quiet and told me I was wrong, it would have been all right. He could have helped me and I wouldn't have killed him, but he tried to stop me. Victor said he was a little scared when he shot James, but he wasn't sorry. He then blamed the mental

hospital that discharged him three weeks before the massacre. Quote, if I had someone to talk to, I wouldn't have committed murder. I knew when I left that I would commit murder. I feel guilty. I am scared that I'll spend the rest of my life in prison. I will never see the outside world again. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how I started to do it. My mind was blank. It was kill, kill, kill. Victor then blamed the devil, saying the creature of his visions had tricked him, but he couldn't offer a rational explanation as to why he had been specifically targeted. He said he wished to die now. The end result of the analysis? Victor was diagnosed as schizophrenic, but was deemed to stand trial. He was transferred. He was transferred

back to the Prince Albert Jail. The court appointed G.E. Noble to Actors' Defence Council for Victor Hoffman. With 18 years' practice experience under his belt, Mr. Noble went about formulating a strategy. Because he didn't know much about psychiatry, he conducted a lot of research, including asking for all of Victor's medical records. It soon became obvious to him that Victor was seriously mentally ill at the time of the shooting, but he decided his main problem in formulating a defense would be to try and overcome what he thought to be the danger,

which was the jury saying they were fed up with people being released from hospital and killing people and convicting just on that basis. He had to make them see that there was more to the story. In 1967, the foundation of this attitude was years of conflicting and unproven theories that thoroughly confused the public about what exactly schizophrenic. is. It was frequently thought to be split personality or an illness of weak people who are

unable to control their own minds. The public and professionals alike viewed it as an incurable condition. Mr Noble had many questions that he needed to address in this strategy. The word wrong was subject to interpretation. Does it mean legally or morally wrong? Was Victor mentally ill? and was it possible to say how long he had been mentally ill for? Was he insane at the time of the commission of the offence? Was he capable of appreciating the nature and quality of his act and knowing what he did was wrong? And was he, at the time of the examination, fit to stand trial?

The lawyer decided that there was no point in having Victor examined by the same hospital psychiatrist who discharged him three weeks before the massacre. If they admitted they made a mistake in letting him out so early, early, then they were in effect saying they were responsible for what had happened to the Peterson family. So he set about finding other mental health professionals who had experience with schizophrenia, and he managed to find some highly qualified professionals in Saskatoon. One of them, Dr. Abram Hoffa, was on the forefront of schizophrenia research. He was the co-inventer of the H-O-D test or Hoffa-Ozman Diagnostic test, which was a series of questions used to differentiate

patients with schizophrenia. The patients are asked to answer questions about their perception of their environment. Most patients without mental illness score less than 20 on the HOD test, and the average score for a patient with schizophrenia is around 65. Victor's medical records indicated he was a 65, when he was released from the mental hospital three weeks before the massacre, meaning he was definitely mentally unwell. And when Dr. Hoffer tested him in preparation for the trial, he had a score of 99. During interviews, Victor told Dr. Hoffer that he didn't feel guilty

because he was only doing what the devil told him to do. He also said he was certain that God wasn't angry with him. He actually felt more remorse for the gun burglaries he had committed. in his teens, than the obliteration of the entire Peterson family at his own hand. He added he hadn't seen the devil recently, but he said he expected him to visit the following February, and something would happen to him then. In his final report, Dr. Hoffa reported that in his experience he had, quote, not run across any patient that had quite as many different perceptual changes as Victor had demonstrated. He was diagnosed, he was diagnosed

as suffering from a, quote, very serious form of paranoid schizophrenia over a minimum of 10 years. The conclusion from Dr. Hoffa and the other psychiatrists who examined Victor was that, from a legal and psychiatric standpoint, Victor was not sane at the time of the Shell Lake massacre. The judge, however, decided that there was sufficient evidence

to put Victor on trial, so scheduled it for the following January. What kind of punishment was Victor facing? As of December 1966, the December before the massacre, capital punishment in Canada was strictly reserved for those who had murdered police officers or prison guards on duty, so Victor's charges were changed to two counts of non-capital murder for the deaths of James and Evelyn Peterson. The trial of Victor Hoffman opened on January 8, 1960. and the Court of Queen's Bench in North Battleford

presided over by Justice M. A. McPherson. The 60-year-old courthouse was packed, and despite a snowstorm and temperature of minus 10, Celsius, more people waited outside. The prosecution presented its evidence, which included Victor's taped confession where he described the murders in vivid detail. The blood-stained boots were presented,

footprints and what appeared to be blood, vials containing lead bullets taken from the bodies of the slain family, a gun cleaner, and 14 used 22 bullet casings found during the processing of the crime scene. It was clear to all that Victor had pulled a trigger, so the defence's strategy, of course, focused on his sanity or lack thereof. Dr. Hoffer was called to the witness stand to speak in what Victor's lawyer dubbed a little seminar on this illness. His goal was to get the jury to understand the headspace of a person with paranoid schizophrenia. Dr. Hoffer described in layman's terms the severe sensory and cognitive effects that a person with schizophrenia would experience. He explained that Victor was, quote, doing what he had to do in terms of those delusions he was

suffering at the time. Though Hoffman might have had a legal awareness of his acts, he was working for a higher injunction which set him above and apart from the ordinary man. One of the other consulting psychiatrists, Dr Donald McHerer, agreed that Victor did not fully appreciate what he was doing. Quote, he would not have it in his mind to know it was wrong to do what he was doing at precisely the time he was doing it. The thought of wrongness just would not have crossed his mind. In closing, Mr Noble said the Crown had presented a good case to prove that Victor Hoffman shot the Peterson family, but a search for a motive would be a search in vain. Crown prosecutor S. Kajawa argued that although Victor had been a mental patient until three

weeks before the murder, he was legally sane at the time of the crime. His argument hinged on whether Victor knew what he was doing was wrong, saying he must have known what he was doing since he was able to describe it in vivid detail later on. Before the jury deliberated, Justice McPherson told them that the defense of insanity must be applied only to Victor's state of mind when the acts were committed, and that the criminal code said that no person can be convicted of an offense committed when insane. The jury deliberated for three and a half hours, and then reported that they found Victor Hoffman not guilty by reason of insanity for the non-capital murder of James and Evelyn Peterson.

Victor showed no emotion as he was told he would immediately be committed to a facility in the city of Prince Albert. Some time after that, he was transferred to Penetanguishing Mental Health Centre in Simcoe County, Ontario, where he would stay for over 30 years. In 1992, journalist Peter Tadman wrote a book about the murders and interviewed Victor Hoffman a few times for it. Victor said that he continued to be haunted by his nemesis, the devil. Despite this, in 2001, he was granted supervised access to nearby towns, a decision that was controversial because the hospital was only required to tell the local police of his release. Victor Ernest Hoffman, the perpetrator of Saskatchewan's worst mass murder,

died of cancer on May the 21st, 2004, at age 56. He remained hospitalized from his capture until his death. So what happened to Little Phyllis, the sole survivor of the massacre who ended up living with her sister Kathy in B.C.? Journalist Peter Tadman also interviewed her in the 90s, and asked her about the time after the killings. Phyllis said that the months afterward was somewhat of an empty time. She missed her family terribly.

Her brothers and sisters were her closest playmates. She also said she had no memory of what really happened. Quote, There is very little that I remember of that night. I remember there being policemen around and that kind of thing, but as a child I didn't realize what was happening. Later on, her sister Kathy would say that although they didn't hide the facts about what had happened, Phyllis didn't want to talk about it.

Quote, I think she had a bit of a memory of it, but there was never a time when we actually sat her down and told her. It was always something she knew it happened. It was always part of her life growing up. Kathy went on to say that Phyllis kept mostly to herself back then and took things day to day. Kathy, her husband Lee and Phyllis, ended up moving back to Shell Lake so they could be closer to friends and other relatives. And over the years, the couple had four more children.

Phyllis ended up growing up in a large bustling family with more siblings to play with. Phyllis told the journalist that her childhood was happy and she was often spoiled by the community because they felt sorry for her. They would give her expensive gifts, which she said made her fill. guilty, so she would try and overcompensate her siblings for it because she was being spoiled and they weren't. Her older sister Kathy would also say that despite the benefits of moving back to Shell Lake to be closer to friends and family, it had a difficult aspect too. Quote, rather than being left to get on with our lives, people always reminded us of it. But she said that it actually made both women stronger as adults. Quote, it makes it

you appreciate what you still have a lot more, and makes you take advantage of every chance you get to let your family know you care about them. After Victor Hoffman's death of cancer, Phyllis spoke with the Toronto Star saying she welcomed the news. She stressed that she had stopped letting Victor have power over her years ago. Quote, I had to make a choice. Was I going to live my life or let Victor win? He took my family's lives. He's not going to take my mine. Phyllis and Kathy still live in Shell Lake with their families. Phyllis, now 54, is married with a son.

August the 15th, 2017, just two weeks from the release date of this episode, will be the 50th anniversary of the Shell Lake Massacre. The mass grave of the Peterson family is still there in the cemetery and is often visited by strangers wishing to pay their respects. The victims were James aged 47, Evelyn aged 42, Jean, age 17, Mary, age 13, Dorothy aged 11, Pearl, aged 9, William, aged 5, Colin, age 2, and baby Larry, aged 1. Canada handles patients with paranoid schizophrenia much differently these days.

A fairly recent comparison case is the 2008 murder of Tim McLean on a greyhound bus in the province of Manitoba. Vincent Lee, a patient with paranoid schizophrenia, who, like Victor Hoffman, was experiencing escalating religious psychosis, randomly attacked his sleeping victim on a bus with a knife. Vincent Lee said he heard God's voice telling him that Tim McLean was a force of evil and was about to execute him. It was a grisly shocking murder that left an innocent man dead and dismembered on a greyhound bus with lasting psychological effects on those who witnessed and responded to the attack. Vincent Lee was found not criminally responsible for the killing and was reminded to a mental health centre. but this is where the similarities to Victor Hoffman end.

Canada's focus on rehabilitation saw the man being slowly given more and more privileges. In 2015, he was granted unsupervised day passes to visit the city of Winnipeg as long as he was carrying a working cell phone. In 2016, he changed his name, and this past February, 2000. nine years after the murder, he was completely discharged from the system. This controversial decision came with no legal obligations or restrictions placed on his being able to live independently in the community. If you wanted to learn more about this case, two excellent podcasts have covered it. The first is The Minds of Madness, Episode 3, called Vincent Lee, and the second is Dark

Topic, Episode 7, called The Greyhound Bus Beheading. And if you wanted further reading, I recommend a book called Rampage Canadian Mass Murder and Spree Killing by Lee Mellor. This book tells 25 stories of Canada's most lethal mass and spree killers, detailing their grisly crimes, delving into their twisted psyches and dissecting their motivations to answer the question of why. You now know one of these stories, so there are 24 more for you to explore. It's called Rampage and you can buy it wherever books are sold.

I've also included a link in the show notes. Thanks for listening. If you liked the show and wanted to support it, there's a couple of ways you could help. You could tell a friend to listen or recommend my podcast in a Facebook group like Podcasts We Listen to or True Crime Podcasts, two excellent groups. You could leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Big thanks to everyone who has left me such lovely reviews the last few weeks.

I'm honestly blown away by what some of you've written. You can follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And exciting news, I've just started up a discussion group on Facebook. Come and join me and save me from the tumbleweeds and the sound of crickets. We can discuss what's going on in the world of Canadian True Crime, other podcasts you're listening to and more. To find me on social media, just search for Canadian True Crime. And lastly, you could pledge one or two dollars a month at my Patreon site,

and in return, you'll receive rewards like the early release of ad-free episodes. You'll know all about the episodes I have planned coming up, and I'm also about to do a video AMA as soon as I overcome my shyness. So a massive thanks to my latest patrons. Gary D. Ashley M. Lisa S. Sarah G. Michelle A. Kelly M. Michelle C. Tracy K. Amanda H. Danielle D. Leslie K. and Jeff Z. The first of my podcast recommendations is Insight, hosted by Charlie from the US and Ellie from Australia. They tend to focus on mysterious cases and while they're known for their research,

I also love hearing their personal insights when it comes to discussing theories. Hi guys, this is Charlie from The Insight Podcast. And this is Ali, two hosts from Two Contents. Every week we cover a new case from Unsolved Mysteries to Forgotten History to crimes that changed or challenged our legal system in some way. To get to know us and our podcast better, we recommend our episodes on Gene Spangler, Nicholas Barkley, the missing kid at the center of the documentary, The Imposter, and Alison Baden Clay.

New episodes go up every Monday. You can find us on iTunes and pretty much every other podcast app. And second is court junkie. You might remember me recommending this podcast a few episodes back when I discovered we both covered the Cody Ledger-Boccoff case. But now I have a teaser from Gillian and I wanted you to hear it.

This is another one of my absolute favorite podcasts. Imagine being accused of a horrible crime that you know you didn't commit. That's in episode one. Imagine your child's killer is still in the loose, but the authorities keep saying they don't suspect foul play. That's in episode four. Or imagine that you've spent 17 years in prison,

only to then be fully exonerated due to advances in science. That's episode 10. My name is Jillian and my podcast is court junkie, where I cover criminal trials and court cases and conduct interviews with those close to the case. Check out court junkie, available now, everywhere you listen to podcasts. The Canadian True Crime Podcast is researched, written, and narrated by me,

with audio production and scoring by Eric Crosby. I'll be back soon with another Canadian true crime story. See you then.