Maritime Murder by Steve Vernon Page A

in to testify as a witness at Angèle Poulin’s trial. To all reports he seemed strangely at a loss for words. His entire testimony consisted of him repeating the phrases “I don’t know” and “I can’t remember.”
    One wonders if the sight of his lover and the thought that she was still carrying his child did not stir his romantic Acadian heart. Judge Weldon dryly remarked that it appeared obvious to him that the woman’s influence over the man was still as strong as ever. Or perhaps Olivier merely felt guilty.
    It took the jury an hour to declare Angèle Poulin guilty of the murder of Francis Xavier Poulin. No recommendation of mercy was brought forward.

The Sentence Passed
    Two days later, Olivier and Angèle stood side by side in the Bathurst courthouse, awaiting the judge’s final sentence. Both were declared guilty as charged and both were sentenced to death.
    â€œOlivier Gallien,” Judge Weldon declared, “you will be hanged by the neck until dead at the Bathurst prison on October 29 , 1874 . Angèle Poulin, you will be hanged by the neck until dead on January 5 , 1875 . The court is granting this stay of execution due to your all-too-apparent pregnancy.”
    Neither prisoner flinched as they were led from the courtroom. It took several hours before it was realized that neither of the two murderers spoke English. A translator was sent to the jailhouse to deliver the verdicts to Poulin and Gallien later that day.
    Judge Weldon would later declare that he saw no reason to show Gallien any mercy. “The man is guilty of murder,” Weldon stated. “Sorry or not, he will have to pay. But I am still of the opinion that Angèle Poulin is the most guilty of the two.”
    Guilty or not, Olivier Gallien was hanged on October 2 9 , 1874 , in the concealment of a closed gallows outside the Bathurst prison. The day before the execution, the two lovers were permitted to speak with each other one last time.
    â€œDo you forgive me?” Angèle asked.
    â€œGod will take care of that,” Gallien replied.
    Afterwards, when they cut his body down and made it ready for burial, Angèle Poulin was reported to have broken into tears.
    Angèle Poulin gave birth to her child in the shadow of the gallows. Her death sentence was commuted on December 22 , 1874 , to life in the confines of Dorchester Penitentiary.
    In 1885 it was decided that female prisoners should be secured and segregated at the Kingston Penitentiary. Rather than merely move her, the warden at Dorchester took it upon himself to recommend Angèle for a pardon. Judge Weldon relented and eventually endorsed the recommendation.
    â€œAngèle Poulin is nothing more than a poor, half-witted woman,” Weldon decided. “Perhaps I might reconsider my original sentence.”
    On June 29 , 1885 , Angèle Poulin was pardoned into the care of one of her married daughters. She lived quietly for many years before passing away one cold winter night, clutching a crucifix tightly to her chest.

one hanging wasn’t enough
    George Dowey
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
1868

    T he hanging of George Dowey was the last public hanging in Prince Edward Island, although it was not originally intended to be so. Sometimes life—and death—can surprise you greatly.
    In the year 1868 , Charlottetown was one of the busiest harbours on this side of the Atlantic, which made the bustling little Prince Edward Island seaport a natural breeding ground for prostitution, gambling, alcoholism, and sudden bouts of unexpected violence.
    George Dowey was a natural-born sailor with a serious, diehard addiction to the fairer sex. “I likes them,” he would admit to any who asked him. “Blondes, brunettes, redheads—they’re the best thing the Creator ever thought up, and I prays to them and I praises them any chance I can get.”
    Dowey was born in Montreal, but he claimed to have