On the morning of August 11, 1938, the family of John Ritchie was up early. Mary Ritchie, John’s wife, had already made breakfast when one her sons, Norman, and her nephew, Gordon Fisher, came into the kitchen at 6:30 a.m. The two young men ate and left to work in the fields, leaving Mary, John and their houseguest, May Richardson, at the table.
The couple had farmed at their homestead, four miles north of the Regina Jail, for 27 years. Mary was 53 and John was 57. They’d married in Regina in 1905 and had six children together, the youngest of which (their daughter, Frances) was 21-years-old and still living at home. The farmstead was one of the best in the Victoria Plains district, with a large, substantial house that was well furnished, good buildings, splendid trees and a wonderful garden. Aside from farming, they also had some fine livestock that what was described as in excellent condition.
That morning, Ritchie was sitting at the end of the table, with Mary at the opposite end and May in between. Ritchie got up suddenly and left the room, coming back with a shotgun in his hands. He approached his wife, and according to May, said something along the lines of “You have asked for this” or “You have driven me to it.” Mary in turn pleaded with her husband, saying “don’t, Jack.”
He responded, “Now, Mary, you are going to get your turn,” and fired the gun. The blast tore through Mary just below her left shoulder, penetrating her left lung. Ritchie turned and left, going into the adjoining sewing room. May heard another discharge of the shotgun and ran outside. She found their daughter, Frances, and the two ran to a nearby harvest field where they told the couple’s two sons, Norman and William. The group rushed back to the house.
When they got there, Ritchie, surprisingly still alive, came out of the sewing room. Blood gushed from the side of his face, where it had been torn apart by shotgun pellets.
“Mother’s alright”, he mumbled and was taken upstairs by Norman. Ritchie then gave Norman a purse containing some cash and a cheque for about $50, telling him that his mother had driven him to it. When Norman brought his father back downstairs, Ritchie told his nephew, Gordon, that “I’ve wanted to shoot her for 30 years.”
Dr. J. T. Waddell was called and arrived shortly after. Ritchie was taken in an ambulance to Regina General Hospital, and Mary was pronounced dead. She’d bled out within approximately five minutes of being shot.
The Coroner, Dr. S. E. Moore, was also contacted and he quickly empaneled a jury to view the crime scene so that Mary’s remains could be transferred to a Regina funeral home. Dr. Frances McGill, provincial pathologist, was sent for to perform the autopsy.
A Coroner’s Inquest laid the blame for Mary’s death firmly on her husband and on September 17, 1938, John Ritchie was charged with murder. His preliminary hearing took place three days later, on September 20th and he was committed to stand trial.
Having survived his suicide attempt, Ritchie was badly disfigured and while waiting to stand trial, the jailhouse physician, Dr. E. K. Sauer attempted to restore his face with skin grafts. There’s not much written on whether or not his face was much improved, but they were described as successful.
On January 23, 1939, John Ritchie’s trial opened in Regina before Justice P. M. Anderson. Representing the prosecution was H. E. Sampson K.C. and for the defense was F. W. Turnbull K.C.
Obviously, there was no question as to whether or not John Ritchie had murdered his wife. The matter for the jury was why. His son, Norman, took the stand and told the court that his father “worried about everything in general.” The farm had only had one good crop in the past ten years and his family believed the murder was the result of a fit of despondency over the poor yields. Norman testified that his parents often had small quarrels about matters relating to the farm, and that his father had a bad temper, but he’d never made threats of violence prior to the shooting. He told the court that his parents “never did get along” but they’d never come to blows.
Most members of the family and their houseguest, May Richardson, agreed that John had seemed perfectly normal that morning and the day before. Only Frances could point to anything even slightly out of the ordinary, revealing that she’d helped her father with the milking that morning and he’d seemed grouchy, especially after Frances had mentioned that the cows weren’t giving much milk. Another daughter, Evelyn Davidson, told the court that she’d left home as soon as she was able (some thirteen years previous) because she couldn’t get along with her father and his bad temper, but agreed with her siblings that when she’d visited earlier that week, he’d seemed normal.
Dr. Waddell took the stand and testified to a suicide attempt made by John in August of 1921, when he’d taken poison and ended up spending five days in the hospital. He told the court that Ritchie was subject to low periods of depression and it was revealed by John’s son, Norman, that his father had once hit his head on the pavement in an accident in Regina.
In preparation for trial, Ritchie had been examined multiple times by Dr. H. G. Cameron, the clinical director at the Weyburn Mental Hospital. Dr. Cameron testified to his belief that Ritchie didn’t know he was doing anything wrong at the time of the shooting, and that he couldn’t comprehend the consequences. He also pointed out that according to his assessment, Ritchie was most dangerous to the people he was closest to, such as his family.
It was time for the jury to decide. Was John Ritchie insane? Had he murdered his wife without provocation because his grasp of reality had slipped? Or was he a bad tempered man who’d finally lost his temper and picked up a shotgun, doing, as he told his nephew, what he’d wanted to do for 30 years?
On January 24, 1939, the jury came to a verdict, siding with the assessment of his doctors. Not guilty due to insanity. John Ritchie was ordered to be detained at the Regina Jail until he could be moved to a mental hospital, although the newspapers never published which one.
And that is the story of the unbalanced John Ritchie and his brutal murder of his wife, Mary Ritchie.
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Information for this post came from the following editions of the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix: Aug 11, 1938, Aug 12, 1938, Aug 16, 1938, Aug 19, 1938, Sep 2, 1938, Sep 17, 1938, Sep 20, 1938, Nov 22, 1938, Jan 21, 1938, Jan 23, 1938, Jan 24, 1938, Jan 25, 1938
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