A story made all the more shocking because it’s true. In 1880, an organized mob of the Donnellys’ enemies murder four family members and burn their house to the ground. Another sibling is shot to death in a house a short distance away. William Donnelly and a teenage boy are the only witnesses to the murders. The surviving family members seek justice through the local courts but quickly learn that their enemies control the jury and the press. Two sensational trials follow that make national and international headlines as the Donnellys continue to pursue justice for their murdered parents, siblings and cousin. Behind the scenes, political factors are at play, as Oliver Mowat, the Premier/Attorney General of the province of Ontario, fearing the backlash a conviction would render, gradually withdraws support from the prosecution of the killers. After the trials, the Donnelly’s enemies continue their crusade against the family, paying off potential witnesses to the murders and fabricating one last set of charges that they hope will put the remaining Donnellys away forever.

An in-depth, well-researched, and comprehensive account of the vigilante mob that murdered five of the Donnelly family and burned the family farm to the ground, and the feuds and religious tensions that led to it exploding into the headline-inducing massacre that it was.

The massacre of the Donnellys by their fellow church members has fascinated the public in the English-speaking world for well over a hundred years. Contained in this book are intriguing new photographs never before published and significant new information, which will pique the interest even of those who have been familiar for years with this bit of North American folk history with Irish roots.

In the midst of the feuds and famine of Tipperary, Ireland in 1845, Jim Donnelly and Johannah McGee fall passionately in love. She is the beautiful daughter of an affluent estate manager, he the rebellious son of dispossessed peasants. With her father’s men in pursuit and a sizable price on Jim’s head, they board a ship set for Canada to start a new life and put the troubles of the old country behind them. Thousands of miles away in rural Ontario, they find the feuds and vendettas of Ireland are very much alive. Jim must make a place for his young family not just with his back, but with his fists. Fifteen years later, the Donnelly family have become one of the most powerful in Lucan Township, loved by some and hated by others. Jim and Johannah’s sons are notorious as both fighters and lovers and torment the townspeople, swinging shillelaghs, burning barns and seducing daughters. But certain citizens of Lucan have had enough. At midnight on February 3, 1880, a mob of thirty armed men in women’s clothing and carnival masks ride out for the Donnelly farm. Sustained by whisky and the blessings of the local priest, their goal is to wipe the Donnelly family from the face of the earth. Yet there is an eye witness and during the trial that follows, it becomes clear that in small town Ontario of the late 1800s, order is valued above truth. Eventful and conveyed with cinematic detail, Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys is an engaging and historically enlightening read.

History.

Based on a true story, these three plays explore the saga of a secret society and massacre that stunned the Canadian public in 1880.

Juvenile Delinquency in a Diverse Society, Second Edition presents students with a fresh, critical examination of juvenile delinquency in the context of real communities and social policies—integrating many social factors that shape juvenile delinquency and its control, including race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. Authors Kristin A. Bates and Richelle S. Swan use true stories and contemporary examples to link theories of delinquency not just to current public policies, but to existing community programs—encouraging readers to consider how theories of delinquency can be used to create new policies and programs in their own communities. Readers will gain a foundational understanding of the social diversity that contextualizes varying experiences and behavior of juvenile delinquency, as well as a deeper appreciation for the policies, social justice, and community programs that make up the juvenile system.

The terrible Donnelly feud, by far the most notorious and violent in the history of Canada, began in the spring of 1847 only a few hours after James Donnelly, an Irish immigrant, first arrived in the town of Lucan, Ontario. The feud lasted nearly 33 years and was marked by murders, gang wars, highway robbery, mass arson, derailed trains, mutilations, and barbarisms paralleling the Dark Ages.

Tom Thomson was Canada's Vincent van Gogh. He painted for a period of five years before meeting his untimely death in a remote wilderness lake in July 1917. He was buried in an unofficial grave close to the lake where his body was found. About eight hours after he was buried, the coroner arrived but never examined the body and ruled his death accidental due to drowning. A day and a half later, Thomson's family hired an undertaker to exhume the body and move it to the family plot about 100 miles away. This undertaker refused all help, and only worked at night. In 1956, John Little's father and three other men, influenced by the story of an old park ranger who never believed Thomson's body was moved by the undertaker, dug up what was supposed to be the original, empty grave. To their surprise, the grave still contained a body, and the skull revealed a head wound that matched the same location noted by the men who pulled his corpse from the water in 1917. The finding sent shockwaves across the nation and began a mystery that continues to this day. In Who Killed Tom Thomson? John Little continues the sixty-year relationship his family has had with Tom Thomson and his fate by teaming up with two high-ranking Ontario provincial police homicide detectives. For the first time, they provide a forensic scientific opinion as to how Thomson met his death, and where his body is buried. Little draws upon his father's research, plus recently released archival material, as well as his own thirty-year investigation. He and his colleagues prove that Thomson was murdered, and set forth two persons of interest who may have killed Tom Thomson.

The Donnelly Album By now everyone in Canada knows at least one version of the brutal slaying of members of the Donnelly family on the night of February 3, 1880. The Donnelly Album tells in compelling detail the story of the Donnellys-James and Johannah and their seven sons and one daughter. Arriving in Canada from Tipperary, Ireland, in the 1840s, the family settled in the boisterous Irish pioneer community in Biddulph Township near London, Ontario. For the next thirty years, their activities gained wide notoriety in the surrounding district. The father was once convicted of murder but escaped the gallows. The sons grew up to be handsome, reckless, enterprising in business, and dangerous in combat. Largely because of their presence, Lucan, the village nearest their farm home, became known as the widest town in Canada. What is it about the Donnellys that have fascinated so many people for many years? Were they really as wicked as their enemies have portrayed them? Why was no one ever convicted of the murders? What happened to the surviving Donnellys? Why do local people today still fell so strongly, both pro and con, about the family? After fifteen years of exhaustive research, Ray Fazakas has produced the definitive account of the famous feud and its tragic consequences. He has also collected an astonishing treasure trove of old photographs, contemporary drawings, maps, and documents of the Donnellys, their murderers, and the sites and people involved in the events. This unique combination of narrative and illustration recreates not just an epic tragedy but an entire segment of Canadian frontier life. Ray Fazakas is a well-known Hamilton lawyer.