The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 129

EEKENDSPAS ratic and extravagant busi ness schemes often ended in a ANA DA HAS HAD ITS failure. He had had many girlfriends to whom he was attentive and generous. His share of weird and macabre eight-year marriage had been on the skids for two 1 years, although he worshipped his daughter Lise. On September 15, only six days after the fatal flight, reporter Edmond Chasse broke a story in a Montreal morning newspaper, Le Canada. He told of a mysterious package and an unknown woman who was supposed to have delivered it to the airport.

When Guay I Prisoner of love: Guay kept Marie Kobitaille locked up. murders. The slaughter of the Beothuk Indians in Newfoundland in the 18th century now seems incomprehensible. The Darcy McGee assassination may never be resolved and the massacre of the black Don-nellys will never be forgotten. More recently, as George Orwell noted in his essay "Decline of the English Murder" standards seem to have slipped.

Murder has become sloppier and more casual. The murder of Rita Guay in September 1949, however, satisfied the most rigorous critical requirements. The case wasn't closed until January 1953, and the trial attracted more than 60 reporters from all over Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain. Weekend staff writer Jacqueline Moore, 3 read that police were looking Bar avion: Albert Guay blew up an airliner to kill his wife, I through the walls of the plane.

Four months earlier a Philippines Airlines craft had exploded en route, to Manila, and six persons had been indicted on charges of blowing up the plane in an alleged plot to eliminate the husband in a love triangle. Had the Philippine explosion served as a model, investigators wondered? Were the motives the same? for the woman, he visited Marguerite Pitre and advised her to commit suicide by taking some yellow pills he had bought for her, suggesting she leave a death note for police. She took he pills but they were ineffective. When she was released from hospital Marguerite Pitre went to the police. Guay had told her, she explained, that the dynamite was intended for clearing land and that he would cancel her debts to him if she bought the -dynamite and delivered the parcel to the airport.

She had agreed. Inspector Rene Belec of the RCMP told reporters after the preliminary hearing that Albert Guay had lost a good gamble. The plane was five minutes late leaving the Quebec airport: if it had been on time it probably would have dropped into the St. Lawrence River, and no one would ever have discovered the truth. "It was five minutes off the perfect crime" said Belec.

The trial opened on Thursday, February 23, 1950. It took 24 hours and 108 interviews to find 12 unprejudiced jurists. Near the end of the trial the crown brought 18-year-old Marie-Ange Robitaille to the stand. Her testimony lasted a whole day. She described a protracted and bizarre love affair.

She had been kept in a locked room for which Guay had the only key. She had no money and was virtually at his mercy. She had been trying since January of the previous year to discontinue the relationship. Guay, however would have none of it; he only grew more desperate to keep her. On March 14, after only 17 minutes of deliberationr J.

Albert Guay was found guilty. Fearful that he would be the only one to pay for the crime, he sent a 40-page declaration to then premier Maurice Duplessis explaining the events leading up to the murder. In the trials that followed the declaration it was discovered that Genereux Ruest had NSURANCE POLICIES asked her to pick up a parcel containing some jewels in Baie Comeau. Although not keen on making the trip, she was anxious to preserve her failing marriage. Among the other passengers were a pregnant woman from Baie Trinite, two engineers from, the Ontario Pulp and Paper Co.

and three senior executives of the Kennecott Copper Co. of New York. The DC-3 was scheduled to leave Ancienne Lorette, Quebec's airport, at 10:20 a.m. but was delayed until 10:25. At 10:45 the plane was about 40 miles northeast of Quebec, near the fishing village of Sault-au-Cochon.

A fisherman heard a sharp explosion and saw a burst of white flame come from the plane. It banked sharply to the left, straightened out briefly, and then plunged into the side of desolate Cap Tourmente. All 19 adults and four children aboard the plane were killed. Canadian Pacific Airlines, the department of transport and the RCMP investigated the crash. The experts found no obvious technical defects, but at the inquest they stated that a blast-probably caused by dynamite-had smashed through the front left-hand luggage compartment as well as Till death do us part: Rita and Albert on their wedding day.

who followed the case from the beginning, wrote a four-part series of articles in March 1953, in which she were checked. J. Albert Guav was named as the beneficiary of a $10,000 flight insurance policy taken for his wife, Rita. Further investigation disclosed that Marguerite Pitre-a friend of Guay's and the sister of Genereux Ruest, Guay's employee-had delivered to Ancienne Lorette a large brown box that may have contained the dynamite. Guay himself was not unknown to the police.

He had once offered $500 to a young factory worker to poison his wife, Rita, and he had threatened his girlfriend, Marie-Ange Robitaille, with a revolver. At 32, he was a moody, jealous man with a passion for money; his er attempted to unravel the confusing details. manufactured the bomb and that Marguerite Pitre Thetragedv began rriday, had known what her parcel contained. This revenge was Guay's only consolation. On September 9, 1949.

Quebec Airways Flight 108, en route from Montreal to Baie Co-meau, had touched down in Quebec City to take on more passengers. Among those who boarded the plane was Rita Guav, 28. Her husband, January 1951, he was sent to the gallows. On July zo, lysz, he was followed bv Accomplice: Marguerite Pitre handed the dynamite to Rita. Genereux Ruest, and oh January 9, 1953, by Marguerite Pitre.

enH a Quebec City jeweller, had -17- WEEKEND MAGAZINE, MARCH A B7.