The Castleton Massacre - Dundurn

The Castleton Massacre

Survivors’ Stories of the Killins Femicide

Published July 2022

Description

A GLOBE AND MAIL TOP 100 BEST BOOKS OF 2022 • WINNER — ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY ALISON PRENTICE AWARD • BRASS KNUCKLES AWARD FOR BEST NONFICTION CRIME BOOK 2023 FINALIST

A former United Church minister massacres his family. What led to this act of femicide, and why were his victims forgotten?


On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She (and her brother) lived to tell the story of what motivated a talented man who had been widely admired, a scholar and graduate from Queen’s University, to stalk and terrorize the women in his family for almost twenty years and then murder them.

Through extensive oral histories, Cook and Carson painstakingly trace the causes of a femicide in which four women and two unborn babies were murdered over the course of one bloody evening. While they situate this murderous rampage in the literature on domestic abuse and mass murders, they also explore how the two traumatized child survivors found their way back to health and happiness. Told through vivid first-person accounts, this family memoir explores how a murderer was created.

Reviews

Contributors

Sharon Anne Cook

Sharon Anne Cook is a distinguished professor emerita at the University of Ottawa. She is the author and editor of twelve books on Canadian women’s history. The recipient of many teaching awards, she teaches graduate courses in the history of education. She lives in Ottawa.

Margaret Carson

Margaret Carson is the eldest of two children who survived the Castleton massacre. A retired college instructor, she is accomplished in creating and adapting workplace programs as well as classroom delivery. She lives in Mississippi Mills, Ontario.

Book Details

Paperback
July 2022
6x9 in
304 pp
9781459749863
PDF
July 2022
-
304 pp
9781459749870
ePub
July 2022
-
304 pp
9781459749887