Canada’s youngest serial killer
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Image courtesy of Daily news
WARNING: This blog post involves the topic of child sexual assault and abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
Some Background
Canada has no shortage of the demented and twisted, serial killers especially. While the killers of the great white north may not be the most notable names (like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, or Jack the Ripper), what they lack in notoriety, they make up in sheer terror. One such horror went about terrorizing the people of Toronto from 1956 through 1957, killing and molesting children.
His Upbringing
David Michael Krueger, more commonly known by his birth name Peter Woodcock. Born in Peterborough, Ontario, on March 5th, 1939. Despite the monster that Woodcock grew into, he had a troubled upbringing. He was born to a 17-year-old factory worker, Waita Woodcock, who had put him up for adoption after a month. He went through foster homes like scientists go through coffee filters, with an inability to find connections with any of his foster parents. A two-year-old Woodcock had to be given medical treatment after at least one of his foster parents abused him. After some time, Woodcock had found a stable home, although things were still far from perfect.
His foster parents were worried about their child’s mental state and regularly brought Woodcock to the Hospital for Sick Children. He was also sent to a private school, where the boy had little success in making friends, and remained isolated. There were signs of the unhinged violence brewing within him that were being shown. One such sign was when a social worker heard him mutter “I wish a bomb would fall on the Exhibition and kill all the children”. As a result, he was sent to a school for emotionally disturbed children.
At that school, Woodcock started to act on his sexual urges, and he was schooled with the perfect prey. He stated that at that school he had consensual intercourse with a 12-year-old girl when he was 13. He was discharged from school when he was 15.
His Killings
Woodcock started his killings at the age of 17. On Sept. 15, 1956, he found a seven-year-old Wayne Malette. After luring the boy away, he began to strangle him to death. Police discovered Malette’s body the next day. Their clothes were taken off and then put back on, alongside two bite marks on his body and no evidence of rape. Pennies were scattered around the body.
His next murder was on Oct. 6, 1956, when he picked up a nine-year-old Garry Morris on his prized red and white Schwinn bicycle and drove him to Cherry Beach. He beat and strangled Morris to death. His corpse was discovered ten days later with a bite mark on their throat. Similarly to the murder of Malette, the clothing was taken off the victim and then put back on, and paper clips were spread around the body. The pattern was quite clear.
It would be a longer while until their next murder. On Jan. 19, 1957, Woodcock approached a four-year-old Carol Voyce and drove her under the Bloor Viaduct. He partially continued his pattern by strangling the victim and pulling off her clothes. She was sexually molested, and her death was caused by a tree branch being forcibly inserted into her vagina. Thankfully, this was the crime that would put a stop to his crimes.
His Arrest, Trial, and Imprisonment
Woodcock was arrested after witnesses described a teenager cycling away from the crime scene, and a composite sketch was made from those descriptions. It led to Woodcock’s arrest on Jan. 21, 1957. After a four-day trial, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre.
While imprisoned, he underwent numerous different treatments and psychiatric therapies, but none were efficient in curing his psychopathy. Woodcock was far from a model prisoner; he would often coerce and exploit fellow inmates into performing sexual acts. He was eventually transferred to the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital.
One Last Kill and His Death
Image courtesy of toronto star
During this time, Woodcock had coerced Bruce Hamill, an Ottawa killer, who was rehabilitated and now working as a security guard for the Ottawa courthouse to kill again. Their target? Denis Kerr. On July 13, 1991, Hamill signed out the now 52-year-old Woodcock and arranged to meet Kerr in the forest. Once Kerr had arrived, the two attacked him and beat him until death, then proceeded to mutilate the body and sodomize it. Once his fourth murder and final murder was done, he walked to a police station two miles away and turned himself in.
He spent the rest of his life imprisoned. Then, on Woodcock’s 71st birthday, he died of natural causes.
Roch Graham is a 19-year-old student at Algonquin College, currently studying in its Professional Writing Program. Hailing from the small town of Embrun, Ontario, Roch strives to become the best writer he can be. While he may not look like it, he is a secret fan of horror and the disturbing world of true crime, and he is excited to tell you all about it... or get a little silly about it. Roch enjoys writing, playing video games, and reading in his free time.
