Transcript: 14. Monster of the Miramichi (Alan Legere) | Canada

This is The Evidence Locker.

Our cases have been researched using open source and archive materials. It deals with true crimes and real people. Each episode is produced with the utmost respect to the victims, their families and loved ones. 

Warning: this episode has details of brutal attacks and sexual assaults. Listener discretion is advised.

It was May 3rd, 1989. Peggy Olive was an out-patient at the Dr Georges L Dumont Hospital in New Brunswick, Canada. She was in her car, ready to go home, when a fierce, bearded man forced his way into her vehicle and pushed her into the passenger seat.

Keeping Peggy captive, the man held a sharp object to her neck. Peggy was petrified. The man had a sense of pure evil about him. She begged that he would let her go, but as he was speeding away from the hospital, there was no stopping him.

Peggy realised the man was very dangerous. One minute he would be threatening and aggressive. Then he would suddenly become nice and polite, almost charming. His unpredictability was unnerving. Peggy felt like she was trapped inside her car with a ticking time bomb.

To her surprise, the man stopped the car and told her to get out. She didn’t waste any time and jumped out as quickly as she could. Before he drove off, he said to her that he promised he wouldn’t damage her car.

Peggy Olive saw the man drive off in her car and was suddenly engulfed by a new wave of fear: if he used her vehicle registration details, he would be able to see her home address in Moncton, on the banks of the Miramichi River. Would he return to finish the nightmare he had started?

>>Intro Music

The Miramichi is the term that locals affectionately use when they talk about the area along the mighty Miramichi River in New Brunswick. It is a scenic area, popular with fishermen and people who love the outdoors.  

In the Miramichi there is a strong sense of community: locals are friendly and help each other out when needed. People wave hello to passers-by and there is always time for a chat.

In 1989, there was an element of innocence associated with The Miramichi. Kids cycled along the river, boarded a ferry to cross the water. On the Chatham side, they would go to Flam’s Grocery Store to buy sweets. People would leave their keys in their cars on the driveway. It was a safe and peaceful place to live.

This peace was shattered on June 21st 1986. 66-year-old John Glendenning and his wife, 64-year-old Mary, who owned and operated the local convenience store in Black Ridge, closed their store for the night. They lived in a house adjacent to the shop. That night, as they were ready to lock up for the night, the shop suddenly went dark. Before they could make their way to the power box, three masked men barged in. 

The robbers demanded the couple give them all their money. John told them where the safe was, but that wasn’t enough. The three men launched a violent attack on the couple, beating and slapping them. And raping a defenceless Mary. Once the trio were done, they left the couple for dead.

Mary was beaten unconscious, barely alive, but miraculously regained consciousness. She had made her way to John, he was not conscious. Determined to survive, Mary crawled to their home upstairs, above the shop, and called for help. Within minutes emergency services arrived. They managed to save Mary, but sadly John was already dead.  

Eyewitnesses gave valuable information to police after seeing three men with a safe and more money that they could possibly have earned honestly. The men were known to police as they were local petty criminals, but they had never murdered before. 

The robbers were 38-year old Allan Legere and two young men in their late teens: Todd Matchett and Scott Curtis. All three men were arrested and found guilty at their trial six months later.

Legere was seen as the leader of the wicked trio, as he was older and more experienced. Police knew that he was one of the most feared criminals in the area. Even other criminals were afraid of him. He had a violent streak, and nobody messed with him.

After receiving a life sentence for the murder of John Glendenning, Legere appealed his conviction, but the appeal was unsuccessful. It was deemed that the best place for someone like Allan Legere was behind bars. 

At the Atlantic Institution Maximum Security Penitentiary in Renous, Legere was kept in a segregation unit. He was a model prisoner who never gave the guards any trouble. He even built a rapport with some of the guards. 

Warden Don Wheaton was wary of Legere and felt that he had a “Jekyll and Hyde personality”. If he liked you, he was nice. If he didn’t, he was dangerous. But Legere learnt to keep his dark side under control in prison as good behaviour meant better treatment by the guards. 

Legere was 38 years old and looking at a lifetime in prison. He had all the time in the world to reflect on his past and what went wrong along the way… 

Allan Legere was born on Friday the 13th of February 1948 in Chatham Head on the banks of the Miramichi river. It was a poor neighbourhood and locals knew it to be a rough place. 

Legere’s mother, Louise, was a single mother of three when she fell pregnant with him. She rented out rooms in the family home for extra money. That is how she met Legere’s father – he was one of her lodgers. But the father didn’t stay around and before long Louise was a single mother of four. 

The Legere kids grew up in a home with a lot of people moving in and out. Young Allan Legere shared a bedroom with his sisters and watched them dress and undress. He found it hard to resist his sexual urges and often masturbated as he watched them. 

At school the feelings about Legere were dubious: some felt he was bright with a promising future, despite his poor upbringing. Other teachers and peers didn’t like him and thought he was up to no good. 

When he was 15, his brother was run over as he was walking over a local bridge and died. His mother’s grief was intense and she turned on her remaining, troubled son, Allan, often telling him it should have been him who had died. 

Allan’s mother, Louise also brought many sexual partners home. She wasn’t very discreet and an adolescent Allan struggled to cope with the situation. At the age of 16 he had had enough and dropped out of school and left home.

The community was not supportive of Allan Legere – as a teenager with a troubled upbringing – in fact he was very much disliked. As time went on, he became somewhat of a drifter, committing minor crimes around the Miramichi area.

Legere was a scrawny young man and realised that – in order to survive in the tough neighbourhood of Chatham Head – he needed to buff up. He went to the gym obsessively, every day. He wanted to show that he was a strong and dangerous man. And his efforts paid off, he soon became muscular and the size of his body started to match the size of his attitude. Over time he transformed into a big, scary man.

His brushes with the law were deemed to be petty crimes. He broke into homes and stole items of minimal value. 

But the way he committed the break-ins was unsettling. People would wake up and saw him standing at the end of the bed, watching over them. If they didn’t wake up, he would leave something behind, on the bed, to let them know he was there. He even cut the underwear off from a sleeping female minister.

Stories of his terrifying crimes made the front page of the local newspapers. Legere loved the notoriety and the fact that people were afraid of him.

After a couple of shorts stints in prison for theft, he made his way to Ottawa, where he worked as a car salesman. He married and had two kids. When Legere’s wife found out about his infidelity with various other women, the marriage broke up. 

Legere hated the Catholic Church. He was quite outspoken about his feelings and made accusations of corruption and greed within the church. When his rants weren’t provoking the desired response from who-ever was listening, he would start quoting Satanic verses. He just loved to instil fear into people.

He knew that he was poor, and realised other people had more – he hated it. Legere’s feelings of inferiority made him want to show power and control. By being fierce he had something about him.

From a forensic psychology point of view, he targeted elderly victims like John and Mary Glendenning or sleeping victims, because they were vulnerable, completely at his mercy. They were weak targets which shadowed his own internal weakness.

Prison was the best place for someone with Legere’s lust for violence. But he wasn’t planning on sticking around. Legere had a plan - he had started gathering his own urine, which he poured into his ear. This caused an ear infection. He knew that an infection would mean that he had to see a specialist, which would grant him a pass to leave the prison and go to hospital in Moncton.

On May 3rd 1989 – three years into his incarceration, two guards escorted Allan Legere from the Atlantic Institution to the Georges L Dumont Regional Hospital. 

Legere was prepared. He had made a lock pick, which he hid in a cigarette. As they were driving to the hospital, he managed to unlock his handcuffs and shackles. He did it in such a way that they appeared to still be locked.

Once inside the hospital, as one guard was signing him in at reception, he convinced the other guard to let him use the toilet. Remember, up to this point, Legere had been a model prisoner. He played by the rules and always obeyed prison officials’ orders. 

The guard with Legere, allowed him to go to the toilet by himself while he waited outside the door. Once Legere was alone, he took off his handcuffs and shackles, then – as planned – retracted a TV antenna, which he had hidden in a body cavity. He called out to the guard and asked for toilet paper. Once the guard opened the door, he immediately saw Legere’s handcuffs and shackles in the basin. 

Legere used the antenna as a weapon to keep the guard at bay and made his escape. Both guards tried to stop him, but he managed to get away. He managed to make it out of the hospital and into the parking lot, where he came across out-patient Peggy Olive in her car, about to leave the hospital. 

After letting Peggy go a couple of miles down the road, Legere dumped her vehicle on the 

outskirts of Moncton. As he promised: her car was unharmed. Peggy was lucky to have escaped alive.

Authorities reacted in force. Helicopters, road blocks and sniffer dogs were used to look for the escaped convict. But they could not find Legere. The general feeling was that he had fled the area and gone to Montréal or Halifax. Allan Legere was well known in the Miramichi and if he stayed around the area, he would certainly be recognised. 

It was like Legere had vanished into thin air. There was a high alert around the greater Moncton area, but no sightings of Legere. But after a couple of days, something changed… An auspicious cloud pulled in over the Miramichi. There was an increase in reports of a prowler further north, in the areas on the banks of the Miramichi River. Was Legere so brazen that he returned home? Police suspected that it was indeed Legere stalking the area under the cover of night. 

Bizarre incident started to happen around the Miramichi. Residents would notice that someone had been inside their homes, but they could not see how the person broke in. Food and other random items were stolen. 

One night, a Chatham woman whose husband was working a night shift at a local factory was at home with her children. The kids were sleeping upstairs when she saw a man on her front porch, trying to break into her house. When the man realised that she had seen him, he ran away, breaking a window as he ran past it. Breaking the window was unnecessary, it was really just an act to invoke further terror.

With growing suspicion of the prowler indeed being Legere, police feared that Legere had returned to take revenge on the community as a whole. He hated the people of his hometown, he never felt that he fitted in.  

Four days after Legere’s escape, a Newcastle man was beaten, tied up and robbed by a masked intruder. His wallet and car were found a couple of days later, but there was no sign of the perpetrator. 

Three weeks later, another Chatham resident fell victim to a burglary – this time, the resident, Joe Irving was not held up. He noticed that meat to the value of $100 was stolen from his freezer, along with a duffle bag, probably to carry the meat in.

Around the corner from Joe’s house was Flam’s Grocery Store. The store had been run by Annie Flam for the past 50 years. She lived upstairs, next door to her sister-in-law, Nina Flam. 

Annie was well loved in the community and people would describe her as being ‘everybody’s grandmother’. Annie was kind and friendly and loved chatting to her customers. Her store was somewhat of a local landmark. It was open 7am till 11pm, seven days a week. 

Her sister-in-law, Nina, was married to Annie’s brother Bernie and they had five grown up daughters. After Bernie passed away in 1973, Nina lived alone, in the second apartment upstairs from Flam’s Grocery Store. When Nina was younger, she worked at the liquor store in Chatham. But in later years she would help out more often in Annie’s store. Annie was 75 years old and Nina a much younger 61. 

The sister’s in law had a good relationship and the living arrangement with their adjoining duplexes worked well for them. 

On Sunday, May 29th 1989, Nina was already upstairs when Annie locked the store at 11pm. Annie went into the hallway with the three connecting doors: one lead into the store, one went to Annie’s townhouse and the other to Nina’s townhouse.

Just before 4am, a passer-by saw smoke coming from the upstairs of Flam’s Grocery Store. Harry Preston from Newcastle ran to the house and pounded on the door. A passing police car also saw the flames and alerted the fire department. The officers broke down the back door and found Nina flam at the bottom of the stairs, party clothed and badly injured. Nina was barely conscious. Officer Dan Pugh wrapped his jacket around her and called for an ambulance.

As Nina was rushed to hospital, firefighters fought the blaze and looked for Annie Flam. With the fire under control, they found Annie’s body on her bed. The bed was completely burnt out, all that was left was the springs and the bed frame. The petite, 5ft (or 1.5 metre) Annie was burnt beyond recognition. 

From at Annie and Nina’s injuries, it was evident that they injuries weren’t only caused by fire. Both were severely beaten and whoever attacked them lit the fire to conceal evidence. There was a lot of structural damage to the property, with the centre of the roof burnt out.

Police were desperate for answers. They had to talk to the only person who could help them. Nina Flam was fighting for her life in hospital. When she regained consciousness, she was able to tell police the dark and sordid details of what happened to her on that Sunday night.

She went upstairs around 9:30, made herself some coffee and a snack. Around 10:30, Annie came upstairs to Nina’s townhouse and they chatted for a while before Annie went downstairs to the shop to lock up for the night.

Nina went to bed around 11pm and snuggled in with a book to read. Her daughter called just as she got into bed and they had a short conversation. After she hung up, Nina continued reading and fell asleep. 

Later that night, as Nina was sleeping with her back to her bedroom door, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. A masked man entered, put his hand over her mouth and said:

“Don’t make a noise and I won’t hurt you.”

The man asked her where her pantyhose were and rummaged through her drawers to find a pair. He tied Nina’s feet up and also tied her hands behind her back. He placed a pillow over her face, so she couldn’t see him.

Nina was scared and complied with everything the intruder asked her to do. Her arm was in a cast from an injury she had sustained a couple of weeks prior. So, it was rather uncomfortable lying on top of her broken arm, but that was the least of her concerns. Who was this man? What did her want from her.

The masked man went around her townhouse, looking for valuables. He kept circling back to Nina, chatting to her. He said his name was Gerald and that he had had a drink of whiskey and Nina could smell it on him. He also asked her if she still worked at the liquor store. 

The man who called himself Gerald then asked Nina about her daughter, who lived in Halifax but had visited that weekend and left that morning. Gerald said that he had seen her with her high school boyfriend in Chatham on the weekend. It was clear that Nina’s captor was a local to the area and that he knew her family. Nina later said: he knew my family, but not that well, he knew a little.

The intruder then demanded to know where the Flam’s kept the cash from the grocery store, threatening Nina with a knife. Nina told him that there was no money in the house and the only cash she had was $60 in her purse. This was not what the man wanted to hear and he beat Nina in her face with his fist. He demanded to know where the money from the store was. 

Nina answered truthfully: Annie kept the money in the bank. She made regular deposits during the week and there wasn’t money on the premises. The man exploded: this was a Sunday; the banks were closed. Where was the money from today? Nina honestly did not know where Annie kept it.

The man continued to beat her violently. As a last resort he said: if you don’t tell me where the money is – I will rape you. Nina said again that there honestly was no money in the house, only the cash in her purse. 

So, he raped her. 

As he raped her, he yelled at her, blaming everyone who had ever done him wrong. 

“You rich people, you think you have everything your way.”

In a sordid conversation during the act of rape, he asked her about her husband, which he called by his name, Bernie. He also called her by her name or referred to her as Mrs Bernie. After the rape, the man was still adamant to know where Annie kept her money. Nina said that she really did not know, and besides, many of the customers paid by cheque – there was not a lot of cash in the store. 

The man was furious. So, he raped Nina a second time.

When the assault finally ended the man tucked her into her bed but cut the ties around her hands. He then put his hands on her neck and choked her. Nina pretended to be dead and he stepped away from her. Before he left, Nina’s attacker lit a fire in her cupboard and set her mattress on fire. He left the room and shut the door behind him. 

The fire spread rapidly and Nina had to get out of there. She managed to untie her feet and made her way down the stairs. The next thing she remembered was someone pounding on the door and then a police officer wrapping a jacket around her.

Nina Flam was in hospital from May to September of that year, recovering from her many injuries. 40% of her body had 3rd degree burns. Annie’s injuries and position on her bed showed that the intruder followed the same routine with her as he had done with Nina.

The community could not understand how something like this could happen in a peaceful town like Chatham. Who would do something like this?

Nina’s account of her assault revealed one telling detail: her attacker wore a chain around his waist, consistent with a prisoner’s belly chain. If someone had escaped from prison, it would be hard to remove without the right tools. 

From all the bizarre incidents in the weeks leading up to Annie’s murder, police were convinced that escaped convict, Allan Legere was behind the attack. But they had to keep an open mind and consider the fact that it could have been anyone. 

Legere was not the only escaped convict at the time. A week before the crime, brothers David and John Tanasichuk escaped from prison in Dorchester – just over a hundred miles or about 165 kilometres south from Chatham. Both became suspects in the Flam murder along with Allan Legere. 

Four days after Annie and Nina’s attack a Chatham man saw someone outside his house and set out to chase him. But the stalker managed to outrun him and got away. The next day a landscaper found smoke-grey men’s glasses close to where the chase had taken place. Police were able to determine that the glasses were prescription. In fact, they traced the prescription to a pair prescribed to Allan Legere while he was in prison.

At the Flam crime scene, forensic technicians found a hair that did not belong to Nina or Annie Flam. Because Nina was sexually assaulted, they were able to get a semen sample. But in 1989 DNA science was still in its infancy. In fact, a lab in Ottawa that would be capable of completing the testing, was still under construction. Despite this, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (or RCMP) were very thorough, obtaining hair and saliva samples from every person they interviewed. 

At the end of June the other pair of escaped convicts, the Tanasichuk, brothers were apprehended and ruled out. They were found in a hunting camp near the Harcourt area, south of Chatham. They were deemed to be too disorganised and incapable of committing the crime. After extensive questioning both of were eliminated as suspects in Nina’s rape and assault and also Annie’s murder, but they were charged with being unlawfully at large. 

By July leads were going cold. Perhaps the murder had moved on to another place. Perhaps it wasn’t Allan Legere and the person had been imprisoned for another crime? Whatever the reason – there were no more attacks. Reports of prowler sightings and strange incidents also became less and less. 

Once the lab was ready to start DNA testing, scientists were able to obtain a good DNA profile, matching hair and semen samples to blood from a knife Legere was attacked with in prison. The DNA tests were conclusive: Allan Legere was indeed the perpetrator police were looking for.

Later that year, in September, four months after Annie Flam’s murder, reports came in from Newcastle. 70-year old Morrissy Doran was shot in his back in his Newcastle home when he surprised an intruder. The next day, an armed assailant broke into another Newcastle home and assaulted elderly couple Edwin and Evangaline Russell. 

Residents of the area were on high alert. People immediately suspected Allan Legere. Was it him out lurking again, planning his next attack? 

It was Friday the 13th of October 1989, a full moon was illuminating the town of Newcastle. 

41-year-old Linda Daughney went to the local Tim Horton’s to meet a friend for coffee. Linda lived with her sister Donna in a quiet corner of Newcastle. They mostly kept to themselves but were well-known and much liked in their neighbourhood.

That Friday night, 45-year-old Donna stayed home, because she wanted to paint her windows. A neighbour saw her at the window, still painting at 10:15pm, waved to Donna and then went to bed. 

Around 11pm, Linda returned from her coffee date at Tim Hortons. Little did she know that Evil was waiting at her home. As she walked up her drive towards the front door, she was struck on her head and dragged inside. 

What happened in the early morning hours of October 14th at the Daughney sisters’ home, would be similar to the torture that Annie and Nina Flam had endured. Neighbours saw that their house was on fire and alerted the Fire Department.

But it was too late… Linda and Donna Daughney had been murdered. They found both sisters in an upstairs bedroom. The scene bore nauseatingly similar signs to the Flam sisters’ home. Both had been sexually assaulted, beaten and burnt. The victims had been beaten before the fire was started. It was a very bloody crime scene which told the story of a vicious attack. Down one wall, there were ten fingers trails, in blood, which showed how one of the victims tried to escape the attack but couldn’t.

Local funeral director, Brandt Adams, had known the Daughney sisters for years but could not tell them apart because they were so badly beaten. Eventually he identified them by their size as Donna Daughney was slightly larger than her younger sister. 

It was not the fire that had killed the sisters. The cause of death was blunt force trauma and strangulation. Linda had a broken jaw and died due to asphyxiation after choking on her own vomit, caused by pain.

When police learnt that the younger of the two sisters, Linda Daughney, had once had a relationship with Allan Legere, they were convinced that he was the man behind the attack. 

Police thought if it was indeed Legere, that somebody was helping him, and hiding him from the police. How else could he have survived in the six months since his escape. 

The community was gripped in fear. People who lived alone, especially elderly citizens would stay with neighbours or family. Residents bought firearms and guard dogs. They requested more street lights and installed flood lights to illuminate their homes at night. In fact, so many lights were installed, they were called ‘Legere lights’.

Once buzzing with locals and holiday makers, the streets in The Miramichi were quiet. People were simply too scared to go out. They barricaded themselves into their homes. The quiet streets were dotted with police checkpoints. Black-suited members of the RCMP Emergency Response Team, patrolled the area with guns, large vans and helicopters. The area was under attack and their Bogeyman was Allan Legere. 

Halloween was coming up, a big celebration in the area. People go all out in decorating their homes. Some people offer tours of haunted houses and events are held around the area, offering prizes for best dressed and scariest costumes. 

But in October 1989 the Miramachi found itself in the middle of a real nightmare. People were afraid that during Halloween celebrations, Legere would be able to be amongst the people and their kids, wearing a mask, as they all went trick or treating. The thought was too much to bare. So a decision was made and Halloween was cancelled: there would be no official celebration. Some children’s parties were held in the daytime, but it wasn’t the same. 

At a town meeting, members of the community said that they would take the law in their own hands, frustrated at the police’s inability to catch the man who caused terror in their lives. One man stood up and said that if Legere came to his home, he would shoot him before he called law enforcement. This statement was greeted with a loud applause as residents agreed. 

On October 28th, two guns were stolen from a truck parked outside a motel in Chatham. Police were concerned that Allan Legere had armed himself and that the violence was about to escalate. 

Police followed up on a report of a sighting and followed Legere into the woods. An officer came close to catching Legere, running after him… It was clear Legere knew where he was going. The wooded areas around The Miramichi was where Legere grew up, he was on home ground. He shot at the officers, but fortunately nobody was injured. The shots seemed to come from all directions. They could not see Legere any longer, but it was clear that he could see them and tracked their every move. 

By Mid-November police were still actively working on the shooting and assault case of Morrissey Doran who was shot in the back, and the attack on the Russel couple in Newcastle that had taken place in September. A man called Allard Joseph Vienneau, from Newcastle, was arrested and charged with the attacks. There was a moment of relief and people wondered if there was a slight possibility that Vienneau could also have been responsible for the Flam and Daughney murders.

It was a stressful time for people of The Miramichi. The congregation of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Chatham Head flocked to church to find solace and wanted to be in a safe space. 

The church held a day of reflection. Father James Smith offered guidance and counselling to the community in a time of fear and anger. His calming words helped the community to keep their faith that the day would come that this terror would be over. 

Father Smith was a prominent figure in a predominantly Catholic community. He had been a priest for 44 years. Most people were baptised by him, married by him, he buried their loved ones. He was a part of their lives and he was well respected and liked.

On November 15th 1989, it was a daylike any other. Late in the afternoon, around 5:30pm, a local high school student dropped a letter off for Father Smith. He was eating an early dinner and everything seemed normal. At 9pm, a member of the congregation saw Father Smith on the porch of his house, looking around as though he had heard something. That was the last time anyone would see the priest alive.

Parishioners rolled into church for evening Mass on Sunday night the 16th of November, but there was no sign of Father Smith. This was very unusual, as he was a punctual man who would never be late for Mass. The congregation of around 30 members waited till 7:15 before two men volunteered to walk over to the rectory next door.

What they found, was an horrific scene of blood and torture. Father Smith was found dead lying next to a safe in the hall. 

When police arrived at the scene, they could see that Father Smith had suffered a prolonged attack. He was tortured to death: his neck was cut, he had cut marks on his chest and his jaw was broken. There were broken ribs on both sides of his body. It was broken so badly, the coroner concluded that somebody must have jumped onto his chest and shattered his chest bone and broken his ribs. 

The attacks were getting more violent every time. It was as if Legere’s years of intense hatred towards the Catholic church was taken out on Father Smith.

In the day after the attack the killer ate, washed his boots, put plastic bread bags on his feet to keep them dry, changed clothes putting the bloody ones in another bag, and didn’t notice one bloody foot print on a church magazine. He answered the phone saying, “wrong number”, and later that day hotwired the priest’s car, a 1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88 and drove off. 

Perhaps he had to leave in a hurry, but he didn’t go down his usual path of setting a fire before he left. This meant that there was a lot of evidence left at the scene, however forensic technicians couldn’t find anything that would give DNA evidence. 

Father Smith’s car was found within hours at a nearby motel in Bathurst, about 55 miles or 90 kilometres away. It was parked near a train station. Police also found the priest’s jacket and a pair of boots that matched the imprints left at the crime scene. At this point, authorities were certain the man they were looking for was Allan Legere.

Police followed the trail to the train station. A VIA rail agent said that he had sold a ticket for a day-nighter to Montréal on the 8:28pm train to a man fitting Legere’s description. He remembered because the man stood to one side, trying to hide his face while buying the ticket. 

At 4:45am, police stopped the train and searched it, looking for a dark-haired man with a tattoo of an eagle head and star on his right forearm. Passenger #30 resembled Legere, but he was much lighter than the 200-pound Legere. The man’s name was Fernand Savoie of Boutouche. He was asked to roll up his right sleeve to his elbow, there was no tattoo, so they concluded that the man was not their fugitive. Unfortunately, the description given to police was wrong: Allan Legere’s tattoo was in fact, on his left forearm, not his right. 

Legere, posing as Fernand Savoie made it to Montréal and checked into the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, close to Montréal train station. He rarely left his room, but he checked out each day and checked in again. During his stay in Montréal, he visited a pawn shop and sold jewellery that belonged to the Daughney sisters for $450.

He had money in his pocket and he was free. But instead of revelling in his freedom, he had an inexplicable need to return to the Miramichi. 

Back in Chatham, panic escalated after Father Smith’s murder – nobody would dare go outside at night. The man who calmed them and told them that – by the grace of God – the time of terror would pass, was dead. Killed by the man they all feared. It felt like God had forsaken The Miramichi and the residents were left to face the devil alone.

All resources were made available to police in what became the largest manhunt in Canadian history. Residents felt like they were under siege, that Legere could strike at any moment. He had already stolen their Halloween, was he going to take away Christmas too?

On November 23rd Ron Gomke was driving his taxi and picked up a passenger in Saint John. Then the man pulled out a weapon and instructed him to take him 110 miles (that’s 177 kilometres) to Moncton. Ron called the dispatcher, who said the fare was $100. When Ron looked at his passenger, he stared down the sawed-off barrel of a 308 rifle. 

“Tell them you have the fare. I’m the one they’re looking for… I’m Allan Legere.” 

Ron did as he was told and started to drive towards Moncton. He thought about crashing the car intentionally, but before he could do so, a struggle between him and Legere broke out and on the icy road, the car ended up in a ditch. 

Legere kept Ron as his hostage and flagged down another car. The diver of the car that pulled over was off-duty police officer, Michelle Mercer. Legere ordered Michelle to continue the journey to Moncton. 

He smoked a joint and would not stop talking, fluctuating between being nice and being threatening. When they came into Sussex, a small town half-way between Moncton and Saint John, Michelle said that they were out of gas. They stopped at the Four Corners Irving Gas Station and Convenience. Legere took the keys and money from Michelle Mercer, hid his gun in a plastic bag and got out to pump gas. 

But Michelle has a spare key for her car in her purse. Thinking on her feet as soon as Legere was done pumping the gas and went inside to pay, she started the car and drove off to the nearest phone to call police.

Legere was not about to give up, he was adamant to make his way back to the Miramichi. He saw a truck at the gas station and got into the cab with driver Brian Golding who was making his way to Montréal from Halifax.

“Come on” he said, “I’m Alan Legere and we’re leaving”. 

It didn’t take long for law enforcement to catch up with the truck. Inside, Legere demanded Brian continued driving, but after a 30-minute chase, police managed to force the truck to a halt. Brian opened his door and jumped out, shouting:

“It’s him, it’s him, he has a gun!”

Legere got of the truck and surrendered without a fight. Legere was almost unrecognisable. He was hiding out in the woods for months since his escape and had lost about 40 pounds. He set up camp, living up in the trees.

When he was caught, Legere blurted: 

"I could have done this, I could have done that - I am Allan Legere."

But he wasn’t almighty after all. He was a coward to the end. He never targeted people stronger than him, he only preyed on people who were defenceless against him. The gentle nature of the victims contrasted sharply with the viciousness of Legere's attacks. When faced with arrest, overpowered by police, he simply gave up. Knowing that Legere loved the notoriety, the media made sure he was portrayed as a weakling. To which Legere responded:

"If I am so chicken and dumb, why couldn't over 100 of Canada's finest, with dogs and SWAT teams find little ol' moi?" 

After Legere’s arrest, huge relief swept across the region. Church bells were ringing and people felt safe to go outside again. But things would never be the same, they had seen the dark side and would always remain cautious.

As Legere awaited trial he was kept in York County jail. Paul Wayne Stewart, a prison guard, described Legere’s time there and how imperative it was to prevent Legere from escaping again.

“We had him down in segregation in the basement with two cameras in his cell. Two officers sat outside that particular area and monitored the cameras and him 24 hours a day the whole time he was there. The cell door was never opened unless there were two sheriffs, two correctional officers and two to three RCMP present, and he was always handcuffed and shackled because the word was if he escaped then don't come to work on Monday because you won't have a job." 

In August 1990, Legere was convicted on charges related to his escape. 

He stood trial on four counts of murder one year later, in August 1991. The trial was held outside of Miramichi, as a jury of locals would not have taken any mercy on Legere and the fear was the outcome of the trial would not be fair. 

Prosecution had critical DNA evidence against Legere. But DNA evidence had never been used in court in Canada before this trial. It was new science and in order to convict Legere, they could not rely on DNA alone. They started with more concrete, trusted forensic evidence: a foot-cast of Legere’s feet were made and it proved that Legere wore the boots that had left imprints in the Church rectory and had Father Smith’s blood on. 

Nina Flam testified and told the story of her attack. She was honest and brave and although she wasn’t sure who her attacker was, it was clear that he was a local man who knew her family. The trauma of her attack horrified everyone in the courtroom. Legere showed little emotion.

Then the time came to present DNA evidence. Experts were brought in to explain the science of what was then commonly referred to as ‘DNA fingerprinting’.

DNA found in semen and hair samples at the crime scenes of Annie Flam and the Daughney sisters, matched DNA taken from Allan Legere. Testing concluded that only 1 in 310 Million of the Caucasian population would match the profile found at the crime scenes.

Legere’s defence argued that the shallow gene pool of The Miramichi could have given false results. But this argument was soon laid to rest. In 1991, the whole of Canada’s population was only just over 28 Million. The DNA match was 1 in 310 Million. The chances of the assailant being anyone, but Allan Legere were next to none. 

On November 3, 1991, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all four counts of murder. Allan Legere was given a life sentence with 25 years without the possibility of parole.

Justice David Dickson told the jury:

“I don’t usually comment of verdicts… But let me say this: don’t lose too much sleep over your verdict.”

The jail where Legere was kept during his trial was shut down in 1996 and repurposed into a science museum. The cell once occupied by Legere is now used for an exhibit on DNA fingerprinting.  

Legere is currently in a Special-Handling Unit at the maximum-security prison in Ste Anne-des-Plaines, near Montréal. He spends 23 hours out of 24 in his cell and is despised by other inmates who don’t condone actions of criminals who have victimised women or children.

Those who know him, know they have to keep a close eye on him. There is always a fear that he might escape again.

Prison officials called retired RCMP officer Mason Johnson when Legere’s TV was confiscated and he wanted it back. Johnson asked prison guards if they had searched the TV. They said that they did, but that they had and found nothing inside. Johnson insisted: if Legere wanted the TV back, there had to be something in that TV. And he was right on the money: inside prison officials found a set of handcuff keys. 

Legere will never stop plotting another escape. Until then, the residents of The Miramichi can sleep at night, hoping and praying that their Bogeyman never finds his way out of prison again.

If you’d like to read more about this case, have a look at the resources used for this episode in the show notes. You would enjoy Dateline’s episode covering the case. 

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