Many New Brunswickers say they are feeling a sense of relief after the death of notorious Miramichi serial killer Allan Legere.
Correctional Service Canada confirmed Legere died Monday while serving a life sentence at the Edmonton Institution. He was 78.
Legere, widely known as the “Monster of the Miramichi,” was involved in a violent robbery with two co-accused in June 1986. An elderly couple was assaulted and robbed and the male victim, John Glendenning, died from his injuries.
Legere was on legislated mandatory release at the time of the offence and was sentenced to life minimum for second-degree murder in January 1987.
In May 1989, Legere escaped custody while at a Moncton hospital for medical treatment for roughly six months. During that time, Legere sexually assaulted and killed Annie Flam and sisters Donna and Linda Daughney.
He also beat Father James Smith, a Catholic priest, to death after breaking into a church rectory, and took three motorists hostage.
Legere was arrested in November 1989. He was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life minimum in 1991. He appealed those convictions, but they were dismissed.
Legere was also denied parole several times over the years.
Correctional Service Canada said its internal review will look into the circumstances of Legere’s death. Both the police and the coroner have been notified.
No cause of death has been released.
‘A difficult and terrifying time’
People in New Brunswick are reacting to Legere’s death, including Miramichi Mayor Adam Lordon, who said in a statement it “brings back memories of a difficult and terrifying time.”
“A dark chapter in the City of Miramichi has come to an end and we all are breathing a collective sigh of relief,” he wrote, adding his thoughts are with Legere’s victims and their families.
Vince MacDonald, who was a young boy when Legere was on the run, said hearing the news was like the “weight of a hometown just got lifted.”
MacDonald and his three siblings often ran free in a wooded area behind his family’s home, just up the road from the church where Smith was killed. He recalls the community of Chatham essentially shutting down – and the local school practising drills in case Legere appeared.
“We had to hide along the walls of the window, so if a guy looked into the window they couldn’t see anyone in the room,” he said. “It gives me relief for my hometown that they don’t have to suffer or be feared by the Monster of the Miramichi.”
Journalist Rick MacLean was the editor of the Miramichi Leader when Legere was on the loose. He co-wrote the book Terror: Murder and Panic in New Brunswick along with Andre Veniot.
MacLean wasn’t aware of any health issues Legere may have had and was surprised to hear the news.
“My immediate reflex was, now people in the community might be willing to talk about it because for all these years people have been saying no, Reporters have come and gone trying to get people to talk,” said MacLean.
“People were afraid to be singled out. They didn’t want him to know who they were, what their name was.”
MacLean painted a picture of what life was like in the Miramichi area after Legere had escaped custody.
“I remember driving a woman home one night from work. She told me, leave the car running, lock the car doors, here are my keys, go into my house, check every single room and the basement. Then I’ll go into my house,” said MacLean.
“We had no Halloween that year. Kids were not allowed outside. The clubs were empty because people were afraid. Everyone was hunkering down, terrified. People forget, this went on for months and months and it got worse and worse and then finally he slaughtered a priest basically in the middle of town.”
While in custody after he was captured, MacLean said Legere wrote to his wife.
“My wife received a threatening letter saying, ‘I drove by your house the last time I was out,’ which was when he murdered the priest, ‘and I hear you have a beautiful bouncing baby girl,’ I did, she was a year-old, ‘I hear you spend a lot of time alone and I’ll stop by the nest time I’m in town,’ So you can imagine she was extremely upset,” said MacLean.
MacLean reminded his wife that Legere was in a maximum-security prison.
“I was so focused on doing the story and covering the story that I never really got deeper into the fears of it than that,” he said.
Miramichi residents who lived through Legere’s terror were relieved to hear that the killer was dead.
“He was a bad guy,” said Ralph Lockerbie. “He’s dead now. A lot of people will be happy about that including myself.”
“I guess it’s a relief that he’s gone,” said Ron MacCallum. “It was tense. There was a lot of conversations about it. People were really tense and it was scary.”
Yvon Doiron was living in nearby Rogersville at the time.
“I just remember that, whereas people used to keep their doors unlocked all the time they all of a sudden they were all locking the doors and making sure that if they didn’t have guns, they were getting guns in case he showed up,” said Doiron.
Frank McKenna was premier at the time of the murders, and the area’s MLA.
But prior to political life, McKenna was a defence lawyer, and Legere, already embroiled with the law, asked McKenna to represent him.
“We had almost rule of thumb that we were not prepared to accept Allan Legere as a client. Even then, this was even before he went on his real killing spree, he was considered to be dangerous and sociopathic,” McKenna recalls.
McKenna says he knew all the victims. He was close to Father Smith and had represented the Flam family before.
He visited Nina Flam in hospital after her attack, calling it a moment he’ll never forget.
“It was one of the saddest things I’ve gone through in my life. She’d just been brutalized. She’d lost her sister, and she was terrified. She was half-dead and half-alive,” he said.
McKenna said he’s thinking of everyone in N.B. at this time.
“If there’s anything that I would take away from this, is just for people to understand that this evil has gone from our midst. And that it doesn’t define who we are,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lordon says anyone having difficulty with the news can reach out to 211, a free, confidential service that connects people with mental health supports.
With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Sean Mott and Derek Haggett.
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