An 1883 crime led to a dubious conviction and botched execution. Twenty years later, would another suspected killer hang?

The Picton Gazette of May 9, 1884, called it “this Tragedy — one of the worst that has ever stained the criminal record of this law abiding county.”

The fateful events unfolded on Saturday, December 21, 1883. Gilbert Jones, who farmed near the village of Bloomfield, went to Bloomfield Station that afternoon to sell part of his hop harvest, for which he received the quite considerable sum of $555. Toward evening, he and his wife, Margaret, welcomed a visitor: Peter Lazier, a relative from Belleville, who would be staying overnight. Around 10 p.m., Margaret Jones answered a knock at the kitchen door. Two armed and masked men burst in. Her frightened screams catapulted Lazier out of the guest bedroom. In the ensuing tussle, one of the intruders struck Lazier on the head. The bandits fled when Jones emerged from his bedroom clutching a gun; on the way out, one of them “deliberately” fired at Lazier, “the shot,” according to the Gazette, “taking effect almost instantly, when he gradually sank to the floor and expired.”

A group of concerned neighbours, including the county constable, rushed to the Joneses’ farm. It had snowed earlier, but the sky was now clear. By lantern light, the posse was able to follow two sets of footprints heading away from the house. The trail seemed to lead toward the homes of Joseph Thomset and the Lowder family near West Lake, a distance of about five miles from the crime scene.

What followed was a classic case of how not to conduct an investigation.

 

Read the full article on the TVO website.