Eve Lazarus's Blog: Every Place has a Story, page 18

S2 E23 Murder by Milkshake Part 2

In 1965, Rene Castellani, a 40-year-old radio personality decided to murder his wife Esther with arsenic-laced milkshakes so could marry Lolly, CKNW’s 25-year-old receptionist. The couple had an 11-year-old daughter called Jeannine, who became the collateral damage in one of the most sensational murder cases of the 20th century.

This podcast episode is based on my book Murder by Milkshake: an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic and a charismatic killer

Rene Castellani was known for his outrageous stunts.

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S2 E22 Murder by Milkshake Part 1

In 1965, Rene Castellani, a 40-year-old radio personality murdered his wife Esther with arsenic-laced milkshakes so that he could marry Lolly, CKNW’s 25-year-old receptionist. The Castellani’s had an 11-year-old daughter called Jeannine who became the collateral damage in one of the most sensational murder cases of the 20th century. 

This podcast episode is based on my book Murder by Milkshake: an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic and a charismatic killer

I’ve had a fascination with the Castellani murder case ever since I first saw the true-crime exhibit at the Vancouver Police Museum in the 1990s.

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Remembering TCA Flight 3

A couple of Sundays ago, my friend Virginia and I went for a walk around North Vancouver’s Rice Lake. We stopped to pay our respects at the two boulders near the entrance that serve as a memorial for Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 3. TCA—which eventually morphed into Air Canada—took off from Lethbridge, Alberta on April 28, 1947 on a routine flight to Vancouver.

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S2 E21 Murder of a Poet

When Pat Lowther, 40 was beaten to death with a hammer in her East Vancouver home, she had just signed a contract with a major publisher. The mother of four was carving out a new voice in the Canadian literary scene and being recognized for her strong, often violent, feminist poetry.

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It’s The PNE: Party Like it’s 1957!

For more stories like this one check out Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the city’s hidden history

In 1957, things were a lot less complicated. People went out to movies and drank Nescafe in the kitchen. The prize home, at 1,444 square feet, was one and a half times the size of a normal house.

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S2 E20 Murder in Mole Hill

In the months leading up to her murder, Muriel Lindsay had been targeted and harassed. Her cat was stolen, she’d received bizarre anonymous letters, and someone had used her credit card to take out subscriptions and make a donation to the United Way in her name. Who was stalking Muriel and why was this 40-year-old postal worker found beaten to death in her West End apartment?

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Ten Things You Won’t See at the PNE This Year

The first PNE was in 1910, and, not surprising, a lot of things have changed since then. Some things will be missed and others not so much. Here are 10 things you won’t be seeing this year.

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

1. A brill trolley bus

Unless it’s taken out of a transit museum, you won’t be taking a brill trolley bus to the fair.

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S2 E19 The Night Club Murders

On February 22, 1975 country and western singer Debbie Roe, 22 finished her shift at the OK Corral, stopped to get gas and something to eat. Her body was found the next day on an isolated stretch of highway in Langley, BC. Just two months earlier, the body of Barbara LaRoque, 22 had been found nearby.

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The Man who Blew up the Courthouse Lion

It’s been nearly 75 years, but I’m confident that the mystery of who blew up one of the courthouse lions in 1942 has now been solved. No one will be charged for this crime of course, but thanks to a reader—we’ll call him Dave—it was his grandfather who made a bang loud enough that Vancouverites thought the Japanese were invading the city.

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S2 E18 On the Edge of Chinatown

At the start of 1985, things looked good for Jimmy and Lily Ming. They had two small children, owned their own home and worked in the family’s thriving Robson Street restaurant. But by the end of January, Jimmy and Lily had been kidnapped from their Vancouver house, the restaurant was closed and the rest of the Ming family lived in fear of their lives.

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