Canadian True Crime - The Lake Family Murders [1]

Episode Date: March 26, 2023

A two-part series — One snowy night, a young family fell victim to a terrible accident…. or so it seemed. What really happened to this family - and why - would become fodder for national and international headlines that only got more curious as the investigation progressed.This two-part series covers a historical case that resulted in the first ever kidnapping trial in the province of New Brunswick and the last double hanging in Canada.*Additional content warning: this series includes the death of a young child. Please take care when listening.Canadian True Crime donates monthly to help those facing injustice.This month we have donated to the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime.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.

Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising. You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad-free and early on Amazon music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Supercast. The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening. Hi everyone. I hope you're well. Before we start, I wanted to give you a quick update about the Callie Favreau petition from the last episodes, asking the federal government to make change. in the application of publication bans when it comes to sexual assault survivors. Thanks to you, the petition gathered just shy of 5,000 signatures when it closed, which is more than double the number when we aired those episodes. So thank you so much to everyone who signed the petition

and I'll be sure to circle back with an update when the federal government gives their formal response in May. And just before we get started, I know many of you are interested in the ongoing investigation into the murders of Canadian pharmaceutical billionaires, Barry and Honey Sherman. And if you aren't aware, right now there are two separate long-form investigative podcasts being released, one from CBC podcasts and one from the Toronto Star. I do not know how this happened, but it is a bit of a treat for us as listeners, a great

opportunity to see what two prominent media outlets do with the same story at the same time. From CBC Podcasts and Lionsgate Sound is the podcast with the interesting title, The No Good, Terribly Kind, Wonderful Lives and Tragic Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman. It's hosted by veteran journalist and seasoned podcaster Kathleen Goldha, who you might remember from the excellent series Do You Know Mordecai? This eight-part series explores who the Sherman's really were and why too much money might have been what killed them in the end. and Kathleen and her team got some really interesting interviews for the story.

I'm not overly familiar with the Sherman case, but the first six parts are already out, and I've really enjoyed the engaging audio storytelling and the top-notch production values, and I'm looking forward to hearing where they take it in the last two parts. The other podcast is, of course, with the Toronto Star's chief investigative reporter, Kevin Donovan, who covered the Sherman case for five years, fighting all those court battles to access police documents under publication ban, and also wrote a book about it. The podcast is called Suspicion, The Billionaire Murders, The Hunt for the Killers of Honey and Barry Sherman. It's a must listen if you want to hear directly from Kevin Donovan and his sources,

including those who worked on the case and those who knew the Shermans. So far, the first two parts were released in February, but for some reason there's been a bit of a wait for part which is apparently coming in April. So again, from CBC Podcasts is the no good, terribly kind, wonderful lives and tragic deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman. And from the Toronto Star is Suspicion, The Billionaire Murders. Check them out and let me know what you think. You'll find links in the show notes.

And with that, it's on with the show. This is part one of a two-part series. An additional content warning. This series includes the death of a young child. Please take care when listening. The year was 1936 and the location was Pacific Junction, a remote railway junction in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick. It was a bitterly cold evening in early January

and Canadian National Railway's worker Omar Lutz was suddenly woken up by the sound of his dog barking incessantly outside. It was just after midnight. Omar went out to see what the disturbance was and found his dog running up and down the road, barking into the darkness as snow fell over the wooded area. Omar couldn't see anything going on, so quickly checked his fox pens to make sure no one was around

before taking his dog back inside. He went back to bed, thinking nothing more of the strange incident. The following day, Omar was back at the station at around noon when a man burst in saying he needed help. The man was a local trapper and logger named Otto Blackney and he said he'd just run straight from a horrific scene at a small settlement less than a mile away. Otto said he'd gone to the small shack belonging to another trapper named Philip Lake

who lived there with his young family. But he was instead confronted with a smoldering mess. Omar Lutz knew the Lake Family, in fact, he'd just seen them the day before. Whatever this was about didn't sound good. Otto paused to catch his breath. All that remained of the Lake Family Shack was the frame,

and a lone wood-burning stove that stood in the middle of what used to be the family's living area. The scene was starkly contrasted by the surrounding blanket of snow on the ground. Otto said that he gingerly approached the smoking ruins and just inside the doorframe he saw something he'll never forget. Quote, the hands and arms were burned off nearly to the elbows. The feet were burned off nearly to the knees. The flesh was practically all burned off. The body was unrecognisable but Otto immediately assumed it was likely Philip Lake. He couldn't see anyone else there and he knew he needed to get help.

It was a remote unpopulated area but he knew there was a manned railway station nearby so he started running in that direction. Once he got to the road, he started to see drops of blood peppered along in the snow and then he came across a baby's bottle. Omar Lutz realized that Otto was describing the same stretch of road that he lived on and this was likely what his dog was barking at just after midnight the previous night. Otto continued, saying after he picked up the bottle, he saw some tracks in the snow and started to follow them. Quote,

They seemed to stop every few minutes and the person or persons appeared to have gathered up snow. I then came on the body of Jackie. He was face down in the snow, frozen, and I believed him dead, although I could. did not touch him. Jackie Lake was the eldest of the two Lake children, and he was only 20 months old. The toddler wasn't dressed for the freezing weather. The only thing he was wearing was a little pair of green and white pants, and heartbreakingly, his frozen arms were still outstretched. It was as though he was reaching for his mother. Otto said he followed the direction of those arms, and about 40 feet away he found the body of Bertha, who he knew to be the wife of Philip Lake and the mother

of the couple's two children. Quote, there was a cut in her head and she was lying in some blood. She had no clothes on except for a cloth around her hips. The snow where Bertha was lying was trampled down as though she had thrashed around. Railway worker Omar Lutz called for help. The remote location, combined with the snowy conditions and difficult terrain, made it difficult for emergency responders to arrive quickly. The nearest RCMP detachment was about 20 kilometres away in the town of Moncton, and constables had to travel to the scene by rail and then by foot. When they finally arrived at the ruined shack,

one constable would describe what he saw when he looked at the ground near the doorway. Quote, the remains were burned like a black stump. The legs had been burned off above the knees, but the skull was intact. They had told me Lake had two gold teeth and I found these in the skull. When I touched one tooth, it dropped out of place. Dental records would confirm the remains belonged to 30-year-old Philip Lake. The constables learned that the woman's body lying in the snow, about 180 metres away from the shack,

was his common law wife Bertha, 28 years old, her head surrounded by a pool of blood that extended by about six feet. And not too far away from that was the body of their son, Jackie. But the Lake family had another child that was still unaccounted for, a baby named Betty.

She was only about four months old. The police kept. searching and soon came across small skeletal remains that appeared to be all that was left of baby Betty. After first scanning the scene, it seemed likely to investigators that a fire broke out at the home, and Philip and Bertha perished while they were trying to rescue their children. It was incredibly heartbreaking. As the remains of the four members of the Lake family were taken to Moncton by freight car for autopsy, the argument. The argument of the army. RCMP finished searching inside the shack.

Most of the family's possessions were consumed by the fire, but the constables managed to recover an alarm clock, a cash box, two knives, and the charred barrel of a 22-caliber rifle owned by Philip Lake. During a ground search of the area around the home, they found something curious. There were two sets of footprints leading away from the shack, to the spot where the body of Bertha Lake was found,

and there was evidence of pounding of the snow, especially in the area where her feet were. It seemed like it was more than just an escape. It actually looked like she was chased out of the home. And there were more footprints leading away from Bertha's body and away from the home towards the railway tracks. An investigator followed the trail and soon came across a large leather glove that had a blue and white mitten inside it.

He picked it up and continued, noticing that there were depressions in the snow that looked as though someone had sat down between hurried footsteps. He also saw drag marks that looked to be from a stick. He continued to follow the trail, but it started getting harder and harder to find because of new snowdrifts, and then he lost it and had to turn back. Next step in the investigation was to speak to those who knew the Lake family. Philip Lake was originally from the neighbouring Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador, but he met Bertha in New Brunswick.

The circumstances of their meeting are unknown other than the scandalous nature of it. Bertha was already married to a Moncton man named Marshall Ring. When Bertha met Philip Lake, she evidently saw a different. future for herself and ran off with him, leaving her estranged husband heartbroken. Philip Lake and Bertha Ring ended up at the Pacific Junction Railway region, an area so remote that it was known as the Backwoods. Only a few handfuls of settlers lived there at the time. The couple moved into one of the abandoned makeshift shacks. They were essentially squatters, but with some hard work in determination, they were able to build a sustainable life for themselves there.

Philip would set up traps to catch wild game for food and also cleared out some trees to plant crops like oats and potatoes. The couple weren't legally married, but they referred to each other as common law husband and wife, and it wasn't long before Bertha was pregnant with their first son, Jackie. A year after he was born, along came to be. baby Betty. Those who knew the family would tell the RCMP they were sociable, well-liked and showed a generous display of strong community spirit. 30-year-old Philip Lake was known as a friendly and jovial man who shared whatever he had with others who needed it. And many did. This was 1936, six years after the crash of Wall Street caused the world to plunge into the Great Depression.

The 1930s were a devastating time in history where goods no longer sold and businesses laid off workers at alarming rates, leaving them unable to provide for their families. In Canada, the unemployment rate climbed to an average of 30%. There were unprecedented levels of poverty, and one day, and five Canadians depended on government relief to survive, relief that was often insufficient. New Brunswick's primary industries were hit hard. Lumber mills closed, paper mills stopped producing, and fishermen were paid much less for the fish they were able to catch, according to the provincial archives of New Brunswick. Many people found themselves hungry and often homeless,

and the harsh winters made survival even more difficult. Local loggers and trappers reported that when they were hunting in the area, Philip Lake would generously invite them to stay in the outhouses near his shack, and Bertha would even cook them a hot meal. Otto Blackney, the man who first came across the horrific scene, told the police that the reason he went to the shack was to help Philip with firewood in exchange for a hot meal. But he said he hadn't seen the family for about a week before that.

The railway station worker he reported the discovery to Omar Lutz, told the RCMP that the Lake family were law-abiding folks, and when he saw them just the previous day, he didn't notice anything odd. Investigators spoke with Omar's nephew, who had been visiting the Pacific Junction Station House just the previous evening. He said he saw a young man walking towards Pacific Junction at about 5pm

and was carrying what he believed to be a 22-caliber rifle under his arm. He identified the man as a local 19-year-old named Arthur Bannister. And this wasn't the first sighting of the young man during that time frame. Investigators also spoke with a man named Leonard Carroll, who said that between 5 and 6 p.m. that same evening, he came across someone that matched Arthur Bannister's description walking along the railway tracks. Quote,

The man I met was carrying a small box under one arm and what I took to be a rifle under the other arm. It was a firearm of some sort, but I could not tell exactly what kind it was. Leonard Carroll said he spoke briefly with the young man he believed to be Arthur Bannister, who told him that he lived on the old right of way, which was a colloquial term for a particular residential area nearby. And investigators followed up with a Canadian National Railway trolley operator

who also saw a man who matched Arthur's description walking along the tracks in around the same time frame. So three separate men had reported seeing a person they either identified as Arthur's Arthur Bannister or matched his description, likely to have been carrying a rifle walking close to the train tracks. Two other men came forward to say they had seen fresh footprints in the snow that night, near the residential area known as the old right of way. RCMP investigators were sent to visit the home of the Bannister family. The head of the Bannister household was 40-year-old mother, May Bannister, and she lived there with her four children, 20-year-old Daniel and 19-year-old Arthur, both unemployed, and their two sisters, 15-year-old Francis and 13-year-old Marie.

There had once been a husband and father, but that man left the family over a decade earlier, leaving May to raise and provide for their four children by herself. And the Great Depression of the 1930s was not a great time to be a single mother to four children in rural New Brunswick. The banisters were just one of many families who lived in poverty and struggled greatly during this time. Their tiny home was cold and damp and with five people living there crowded. They had shelter at least, but when it came to essentials like food and clothing, the family were not. known to rely heavily on neighbours, charitable organisations and the kindness of strangers. They were always looking out for odd jobs that could earn them some extra money and would find

a kind car owner who would drive them into Moncton where they would sell flowers and wreaths they'd made. The RCMP actually knew of the Bannister family. They had arrested at least one of the brothers in Moncton before for begging for money. There's a strong established link between poverty and crime. When we can't reliably access basic human necessities like food, clothing and shelter, and we've exhausted all our options, we become desperate. The RCMP arrived at the Bannister home with that blue and white mitten that was found along the snowy trail away from the lake home, inside a leather glove. That mitton would be their conversation starter for whoever answered the door. It was the oldest banister child, 20-year-old Daniel Bannister, and he immediately noticed the mitten.

Hey, that's mine. Where'd you get it? The investigator turned the tables, asking him when he last saw his mittens. Daniel replied that he'd loaned them to his younger brother Arthur the previous day. And Arthur was going trapping near Phillip Lakes shack. After investigators had spoken to Daniel Bannister about the missing mittens, they immediately located and arrested his 19-year-old brother, Arthur Bannister, and brought him into the Moncton RCMP detachment for questioning. Arthur confirmed that he had gone to the last. Lake Shack, and he knew a fire had broken out because he was inside the home when it happened,

but he denied any responsibility or blame for the incident. According to Arthur Bannister, when he arrived at the shack, he found three men there drinking, 30-year-old father Philip Lake, and two local men. He said he sat down to drink with them until a bit later when his brother Daniel and younger sister Francis showed up at the Shep. to take him home. And that's where things took a negative turn. Arthur alleged that Philip Lake made an improper advance towards 15-year-old Francis and a fight broke out. He said he saw Philip pick up a piece of firewood and lob it at him, but instead,

it hid his 28-year-old wife, Bertha. And then Daniel Bannister grabbed another piece of firewood and hit Philip on the head with it, knocking him to the ground. and in the commotion that followed, an oil lamp was knocked over. As the shack was quickly engulfed in flames, Arthur said he and his two siblings escaped and ran all the way home. The two local men Arthur named as being present that night were detained by police and questioned at length. They were incredulous. They both denied being present at the house at all that night, and they had solid alibis for the time which were corroborated by others. The two men were cleared.

The RCMP didn't quite know what happened that night, but what they did know was that everything seemed to lead back to Arthur Bannister. They charged the 19-year-old with the murder of Philip Lake and picked up his older brother Daniel for questioning. Arthur had placed his brother and sister at the scene that night. But Daniel told investigators he'd never been to the Lake family home ever. He'd never been inside it. In fact, he said he didn't even know where they lived.

A coroner's inquest was held three days after the discovery of the bodies to get to the bottom of what happened. At autopsy, Philip Lake's body had been too badly burned to confirm his cause of death, but there was evidence of blunt force trauma to his head, which was determined to be the likely cause. The skeletal remains originally thought to be baby Betty actually belonged to the Lake family's cat. They also had a dog, a Great Dane,

who was mercifully locked in a barn near the shack when the fire broke out, and had since been taken to Moncton to be rehomed. The coroner determined that the most likely explanation was that four-month-old Betty must have also perished. at the scene, her remains most likely completely consumed by the fire. Her mother, Bertha, had managed to escape the fire and had only superficial burns. Her cause of death was a fatal head wound, a large gash on the side of her head that caused

a skull fracture. The coroner determined that the injury could not have been caused by a fall unless that fall was from a great height. Investigators believed that for whatever reason, a fight broke out at the home and a fire started when an oil lamp was knocked over. From the evidence, they formed a theory that Bertha, who was almost naked, must have scooped up 20-month-old Jackie

to flee from the burning house, but as she approached the door, she was likely struck over the head with something and then chased out of the house. As she ran through the snow with Jackie in her arms, she may have been struck several more times before she dropped Jackie and collapsed in the snow, blood flowing from her head wound.

When it came to little Jackie, the coroner only found a few scratches on his legs. Whoever it was that chased them out of the house just left them both to die, Bertha from her head wound, and Jackie from exposure to the cold. But what was the motive for all this? It seemed that everything up until the fire may have been explained by an accident in the heat of the moment.

So why was there evidence of blunt forced trauma to the head? And why did someone chase a mother and toddler out of their own home? A local man decided to contact the RCMP with a curious story to tell, But he didn't know if it was even relevant because it happened three days before the murders. Earl O'Brien was a trapper who knew Philip Lake well. In fact, he'd been staying in one of the outhouses near the lake home in the days before the tragic murders. And he had made plans to go trapping with one Arthur Bannister. The night of January 2nd, three days before the murders, the two men were settling into that

outhouse for the night so they could get an early start the next morning. Earl said he heard voices outside calling for Arthur and watched as the 19-year-old grabbed his 22-caliber rifle and opened the door to find two people, a young man and what looked to be a teenage girl who seemed to be wearing men's trousers. Earl said he didn't know what this was all about or what these people wanted, but he hoped it would be helpful with the investigation. It certainly was. Investigators from Moncton R.CMP returned to the Bannister home, this time to speak with 15-year-old Francis Bannister for the first time. But the door was answered by her mother, May Bannister. Newspapers were described the 40-year-old

as a plump or portly woman, in contrast with the way her kids were described, malnourished and skinny. especially the boys. May Bannister flat out refused to let the RCMP into her home without a search warrant. The investigators weren't deterred. They had been focusing on learning about the Lake family, but their next task was to focus more on those who knew the Bannister family. They would be back with that search warrant. Investigators were informed that a man named Milton Trites frequently assisted the impoverished family through the Salvation Army. Milton was also very generous with the Bannister family on a personal level, often providing them with groceries, loaning May small amounts of money, and bringing them excess clothes from a second-hand store he owned in Moncton.

Milton Trites told the RCMP that May Bannister had also been working for him as a housekeeper up until recently, and she often stayed at his place overnight. It appeared that this was his way of saying they had a casual intimate relationship. In October or November of 1935, about two months before the Lake family murders, May suddenly told him that she would have to take leave from work, because she was pregnant with his baby and she would be leaving to give birth very soon. This was new. Investigators knew nothing of a baby, or that May had been pregnant with a fifth child. They asked Milton if the baby was ever born, and he said yes, but he didn't actually meet her until January 6, 1936. That was the same day the fire at the Lake Family Shack was discovered.

It was shortly after that that investigators visited the Bannister home for the first time, and spoke with Daniel about the mitten. There was no mention of a new baby, and they saw no evidence that a baby even lived there. Something wasn't adding up. On January the 10th, 1936, the remains of Philip Lake, his common-law wife Bertha and their toddler Jackie,

were buried. And at the same time, investigators returned to the Bannister home, this time armed with a search warrant. When May Bannister answered the door, she was immediately asked if there was a baby in the house. She casually confirmed that there was. She'd given birth a few months beforehand in a cabin outside Moncton. No big deal.

To the officers, it was though. They flashed the search warrant and entered the home to search for the baby and soon came across a black-haired, blue-eyed baby girl upstairs. When they told May they were taking her to the station for questioning, she responded, quote, You can take the damn baby, but I will not come while there is a drop of blood in me. May was extremely unhelpful, hostile even. The police had brought with them an employee known as a police matron, basically a woman to deal with other women and children who had been detained by police.

The matron would report that she told May that a doctor was going to be arranged who would confirmed she had recently given birth, that the baby belonged to her. And May reportedly replied, No damn doctor is going to touch me. Later, that matron would be asked if the doctor's story was just her way of trying to scare May into talking, and she said she could tell by the way May looked that the woman could not be scared. The RCMP took 40-year-old May Bannister to the station for questioning, along with her 15-year-old daughter, Frances. Both were detained from this point on as material witnesses. Because Arthur and Daniel were already in custody, the only family members that remained on the outside were 13-year-old Marie Bannister and the unidentified

baby girl. Initially, they were cared for by Milton Trites. At the station, investigators demanded May Bannister provide proof that the infant was really hers. May told them she had given birth to the baby unattended, so there was no doctor to confirm it. And after she gave birth, she said she stayed at a local hotel with the baby for three days. One of the investigators would later say, quote,

I checked up on this information and found it to be untrue. In fact, I could not find anything to back up any of her assertions. May was asked if anyone else could corroborate that the baby was hers, and she gave the names of two men and one woman in Moncton, who would be able to confirm they had either seen her or had spoken to her while she was holding the baby. And May challenged investigators to ask her daughter Frances directly who the baby belonged to. So they did.

They took the 15-year-old into a separate room. Francis simply replied that the baby belonged to her mother and refused to say anything else. Investigators noticed that the teenager was incredibly composed given the situation. After all, she was being questioned by police about the identity of her mother's baby, just days after her oldest brothers were arrested and charged with murder. Suddenly, May Bannister called investigators back and told investigators back and told them she'd had a change of heart. She confessed that the baby was not actually hers. She said Francis had rescued the baby from a house fire in the early morning hours of January

6th and brought her home. May gave the impression the family were just doing the good citizen thing by looking after an orphaned infant, and that's all she knew. It seemed highly likely that this baby may actually be Betty Lake. Investigators went back to 15-year-old Francis Bannister, who would back up her mother's latest story. She told them about what happened that night. She said her oldest brother Daniel had asked her to keep him company on a walk to the lake home so he could bring their other brother Arthur back with them. She agreed to go with him and said that they arrived at close to midnight, and waited outside for Arthur. And then, quote,

Arthur brought the child out and I turned and left, walking through the snow toward Pacific Junction Station. Francis said that as she carried the baby away, she didn't see or hear any evidence of a fire, but she did think she heard the sound of a woman screaming. She said her brothers caught up with her about halfway home. So Francis had basically confirmed. her mother's story, but the version of events she gave was not good news for her brothers. 20-year-old Daniel had denied being at the home, or even knowing where the Lake family lived, but both of his siblings had now placed him at the scene. And when it came to 19-year-old Arthur's account,

Francis didn't mention anything about being allegedly hit on by Philip Lake. There was no mention of a fight breaking out or an overturned lamp that caused a house fire. Arthur Bannister was already facing murder charges, but he was soon joined by his older brother, Daniel Bannister, and their mother, May Bannister, was charged with counts related to kidnapping and harboring a person who had been kidnapped. She was the first woman in Canadian history to be charged with the crime of kidnapping. But there were still so many unanswered questions, so the Crown made a decision to ex-ray the remains of Philip Lake. The first autopsy conducted on Philip Lake's remains hadn't been able to determine a cause of death,

but recent developments necessitated a second opinion. After his remains were exhumed, an x-ray revealed there was a 22-caliber bullet lodged in Philip's skull. His death was not an accident and it was not blunt force trauma that killed him. This was a murder. Police knew from witness accounts that Arthur Bannister had been seen walking near the train tracks with a 22-caliber rifle, but searches of the Bannister house had not produced the firearm. Figuring it had been dumped or discarded at some point, they asked any willing locals to assist them in a search of the snowdrifts along the tracks at Pacific Junction.

15-year-old Francis Bannister was also taken to the scene and asked if she knew anything about her brother Arthur having a gun. Eventually, she told investigators that Arthur did have a rifle and he smashed it on the way home. After she pointed out the general area where he threw it into the bushes along the railway, an investigator recovered the butt of a rifle that had been split. and splintered. And not long after this, about a quarter of a mile from the Lake's shack,

another member of the search party found the broken barrel of a 22-caliber rifle. The barrel, dirty with powder marks, was sent to a ballistics expert in Montreal to determine if there was any correlation with the bullet that had been recovered from Philip Lake's skull. Meanwhile, the police had been speaking to another man who worked with the Salvation Army to assist the impoverished Bannister family. His name was Albert Powell, and he was a busy man, a railway freight checker by day, a volunteer Sunday school teacher on Sundays, and his work with the Salvation Army.

He told police that after he was introduced to the banisters, he visited with the family frequently, bringing them small amounts of money and groceries and making sure they had their basic needs met. He even stopped by on Sundays to conduct private Sunday school classes for 13-year-old Marie Bannister. He told investigators that in October of 1935, three months before the Lake family murders, May Bannister summoned him to her home as she had something urgent to tell him. When Albert arrived, May gestured to her youngest daughter, 13-year-old Marie, and stated, quote, if that child is going to have a baby, you are going to be responsible for it. Albert was shocked. He adamantly denied having any sexual contact with the young girl

and told May he was surprised she would say something like that when she herself would know it wasn't true. It appears that they managed to smooth things over after that, and Albert continued to visit with the family for the next few weeks. But for some reason, he started to get the feeling that he wasn't needed so much anymore, or perhaps the relationship had run its course, and the visits tapered off. Such was the interest in the strange case of the Lake family murders and its connection to the Bannister family, that hundreds of people had gathered outside the courthouse for the first court hearing,

and every time after that, traffic backed up along the street outside the courthouse. Early on, there was a dramatic scuffle between two defence lawyers who each insisted they had the right to defend the Bannister family. One had been appointed by the court, and the other claimed he'd been retained privately to represent the family. but there was some mystery around who was actually paying. The court-appointed lawyer told the judge that he'd heard rumors that the person paying for the retainer was also likely to be a crown witness in this case,

and this person was apparently not related to the banisters. The judge shut the conversation down, determining that for whatever reason, someone had retained a lawyer to represent the banisters and that's what will happen. The court-appointed lawyer was dismissed, and the defence lawyer for the banisters moving forward would be a man named Murray Lambert. As part of the pretrial hearings, Logger Otto Blackney tearfully answered questions about visiting the Lake Family Shack that day to help Philip with fireworks. He told the court that instead he came across his burnt body and those of his wife and toddler. Otto Blackney was also the person who would identify the baby found in the Bannister home as being Betty Lake.

He told the court that he knew very little about babies, but he had seen the Lake Baby Girl a number of times and recalled Bertha showing him a strawberry birthmark on the baby's scalp just under her thick black hair. He said that when she cried, the birthmark would bulge. With that, the doors burst open and the bewildered baby was carried into the packed courtroom to be identified by Otto Blackney. Almost on cue, she began to cry, and her black hair was swept aside so that Otto could point out the bulging birthmark, just as he described it. There was no doubt that the baby was Betty Lake. Otto was asked about Philip Lake and Bertha Ring's relationship, and he said he didn't know whether they were legally married or not, but to him they always seemed relatively happy and content.

He did have one strange tale to tell. The previous fall, when Bertha was pregnant with Betty, Philip Lake recounted a strange encounter he'd had with one of the Bannister boys and his sister. Apparently, they showed up to the Lake family shack and asked Philip outright if they could have his baby when it was born. Otto told the court about Philip's reaction, quote, Philip just laughed about it and gave me to understand that he was not going to let them have the child. During the pretrial court hearings, defense counsel Murray Lambert worked hard to represent the Bannister family, filing motions and asking for delays for various reasons, including bail requests.

40-year-old May Bannister and her 15-year-old daughter, Frances, were being detained at the Moncton police jail as material witnesses. Bail had been denied for them both. Lambert argued that Francis was a minor, and it was extremely unfair that the RCMP required her to be in custody at their beck and call, just in case they needed her to testify, but there she stayed. Through Lambert, the Bannister family would level several other accusations at the RCMP, including using unlawful interrogation tactics to coerce certain statements and confessions. One of the issues was that in the early stages of the preliminary hearings,

Daniel requested to speak with an investigator so he could give a new statement. and commented, quote, The police cannot hang an innocent man. That's the reason I sent for you. I am going to tell it all. Defense counsel Lambert complained that this comment indicated that the statement that followed may have been motivated by Daniel's fear of going to the gallows,

rather than a desire to tell the truth. And also, Daniel didn't realize that in trying to clear himself through his statement, he inadvertently implicated his brother Arthur. The RCMP constable who took the statement described Daniel Bannister as being not too bright, and the judge did not allow his statement to be admitted into evidence, so the details given never came to light. But newspapers reported the basic gist. In his new statement, Daniel admitted that he was outside the Lake family home that night, but he maintained he never actually went inside it.

May Bannister had an accusation of her own, and it was about when she suddenly changed her mind and admitted the baby didn't belong to her, and that Frances had rescued the baby from a house fire and brought her home. Through Defence Council Lambert, May argued that the only reason she changed her story was because one of the RCMP officers had threatened her, that if she didn't, she would face life in prison and would also see her sons get hanged. The family made other claims that they'd been browbeaten by the RCMP. They alleged that constables had incentivised Arthur and Daniels jail cellmates with getting a confession out of them, and they had also given 15-year-old Francis food, candy and a radio to get her to talk.

The RCMP Constable did admit that he had purchased peanuts and apples for Francis when she was first in custody, but denied using it as an inducement and also denied threatening May Bannister to get her to confess. The judge cleared the RCMP constable in question and Defence Council Lambert ended up admitting to the judge that, that he had been wrong in advising me to press charges on that matter. At one of the preliminary hearings, 13-year-old Marie Bannister was questioned, but it wasn't very successful and she didn't answer most of them. Defense counsel Lambert asked for the questioning to stop,

claiming the teenager had also been intimidated by RCMP officers. Marie was the only family member who wasn't in police custody, Her father, May Bannister's estranged husband, had abandoned the family shortly after Marie was born, but upon learning what had happened, he returned to look after her. At 75 years old, William Bannister was more than 30 years older than his estranged wife, and was described by those in the courtroom as a frail, elderly man. The bizarre murder-kidnapping case of the Bannisters ended up going before a grand jury. jury to decide if there was enough evidence to go to trial, as was customary at the time.

The grand jury determined that Philip Lake and Bertha Ring had been murdered, and there was enough evidence for both Arthur and Daniel Bannister to go to trial on murder charges, where they would face a mandatory death sentence if found guilty. When it came to Little Jackie Lake, the grand jury decided murder charges were not appropriate, because the toddler's primary cause of death was exposure. In addition to murder charges, Arthur and Daniel Bannister were each charged with one count of kidnapping baby Betty. But because the stories they gave to police had been completely different, they would need to be tried separately. As for their mother, Mae Bannister, the grand jury found that a straight kidnapping charge wasn't appropriate,

and instead ordered a trial on charges that amounted to. to procuring, counseling and harboring a kidnapped child. By this point, local rumors were swirling that the murders of Philip Lake, Bertha Ring and Little Jackie Lake might actually be the secondary crime here, that the reason behind it all was the kidnapping of the baby. But even if the Lake family hadn't perished that night, they had no money to pay a ransom. It seemed that the Bannister family was desperate for certain people to believe they had a new baby. But what purpose could having a baby possibly serve? The family already lived in poverty, relying on the generosity of others for their survival. They certainly did not need any extra mouths to feed. So why were they so

intent on acquiring a baby that they were willing to terrorise and kill a young family to get one? That's where we'll leave it for part one. All the answers will be revealed in part two, which will be available in a week. If you're a premium feed subscriber on Amazon Music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast, look out for the ad-free version, which will be released at least 24 hours early. Thanks for listening and special thanks to Eileen McFarlane from Crime Lapse for her work on researching and writing this case. For the full list of resources we relied on to write this episode and anything else you want to know about the podcast, visit the page for each episode at canadian truecrime.ca. Canadian True Crime donates monthly to charitable organizations that help those facing injustice.

This month we have donated to the Canadian Resource Center for Victims of Crime, who offer support, research and education to survivors, victims and their families. You can learn more at CRCVC.ca or see a link in the show notes. Thank you so much as always for your kind ratings, reviews, messages and support. I wish I had time to reply to them all, but please know I am so grateful. Audio editing and production was by We Talk of Dreams who also composed the theme songs. Production assistance was by Jesse Hawke with script consulting by Carol Weinberg. Writing, narration, sound design and additional research was by me, and the disclaimer was voiced by Eric Crosby.

I'll be back soon with Part 2. See you then.