User:Zanimum/William Walter MacWherrell

William Walter MacWherrell was a man convicted of murder.

Well behaved St Thomas gets Brampton's noose

Widow McWhirrell
He is buried at Hamilton Cemetery under the name "William W. McWhirnell".

Gertrude was born in Scotland, around 1850. She died 26 April 1913 at the Hamilton City Hospital, from "fatty degeneration of [the] heart."

Hamilton Police Chief Smith stated that he believed that William was the son of Gertrude, not the husband.

His alleged widow became known as "Widow McWhirrell".

She refused to press assault and wilful damage charges against a man named George Gassett, in April 1901. Truman herself was arrested in August 1901, after smashing a bottle over the head of Mary Allen, who had allegedly stole her monthly allowance. The Crown dropped the assault charges against her. By 1905, Truman was identifying herself in court as "Mrs. William Thompson"; she was ordered to vacate 149 Mary Street, having allegedly not paid rent for ten months.

The Merchantile Trust Co. tried to "trace the parentage... She left about $200, of which the company is trustee, but it has been said that she was entitled to a share in a Scotch estate valued at $100,000, and that she was the daughter of a Scottish Lord or Earl. It is believed that this latter claim is untrue, whatever may have been her right to a share of a big estate."

Legacy
MacWherrell and Walker's case was dramatized in 1963 on the Montreal CBC affiliate CBM, as part of the series Famous Canadian Trials. The episode, "The Shadow of Doubt", was written by Len Peterson. A microfilmed copy of the script is available in the "Canadian Broadcasting Corporation collection" at the McMaster University Library.