Episode 13: Blood of the Black Donnelly’s

2020-05-25

There's no justice, like frontier mob justice. In this episode, author Keith Leckie joins host Russell Hillier to talk about his book, Cursed: Blood of the Donnelly's, a novel about the most infamous family in Canadian history. The Historical Background For years, every barn-burning, horse theft and murder in the pioneer town of Lucan, was blamed on the Donnelly clan. Then on the night of February 3, 1880, a vigilante mob of local citizens converged on the Donnelly farmstead, ...

There's no justice, like frontier mob justice.

In this episode, author Keith Leckie joins host Russell Hillier to talk about his book, Cursed: Blood of the Donnelly's, a novel about the most infamous family in Canadian history.

The Historical Background

For years, every barn-burning, horse theft and murder in the pioneer town of Lucan, was blamed on the Donnelly clan.

Then on the night of February 3, 1880, a vigilante mob of local citizens converged on the Donnelly farmstead, armed with clubs, guns and pitchforks. They massacred every family member they could find, then made their way to a second farmstead and shot-dead another Donnelly brother as he opened the door.

There were witnesses to the killings, yet not a single man was convicted of the crime.

Were the Donnelly's lambs at the slaughter, or did they have it coming?

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