I probably watch far too many television documentaries and forensic investigation programs. Anyone who knows me fairly well can tell you that.
A true crime paperback book is my first choice in beach reading, too, so you might say that I am just a little more than fascinated by the workings of the deviant mind and also by the amazing ways in which their deeds are uncovered by police work and science.
This crime in particular has been on my mind for some time now.
Certainly, I am no detective, but I am a little uneasy about some of the evidence put forward in the case of the last man hanged at the Barrie Jail in 1945. Possibly, the true culprit was found, fairly convicted and justly punished in keeping with the laws of the time.
Or he was young, intellectually challenged, racially discriminated against, poorly represented and in short, railroaded.
Lloyd Wellington Simcoe was two weeks shy of his 18th birthday when he was arrested for murder. He was taken into custody nine hours after the discovery of the body of the Vilas Enamel Products’ night watchman, Freeman Walker, who had been badly battered and stabbed to death.
Young Simcoe was described as rather shy. He preferred his own company a lot of the time and often took his dinner to the basement of the family home to eat in solitude.
He was apprehended in the woodshed behind his parents’ house at 205 Front St. S., another of his quiet spaces, where he often practised the art of knife throwing. This hobby seemed to the police to be a big red flag and it was widely reported in local papers.
On Sunday, March 18, 1945, Alex Hunt, the day watchman for the Orillia factory, rang the bell to summon Freeman Walker to let him in so that they could change shifts. No one answered.
After finding all entry doors locked, he walked to the other side of the Andrew Street building which housed Tudhope Metals and asked the watchman there to allow him to pass through the door that joined the two businesses.
Alex Hunt, along with Tudhope’s watchman, Les Godfrey, came upon the horrifying sight. On the floor lay Freeman Walker, very dead, terribly beaten and nearly unrecognizable, with blood everywhere and his false teeth strewn for many feet around him.
What manner of monster had done this?
While the Barrie newspapers barely covered the story, the Orillia papers were filled with many detailed reports of the atrocity.
Perhaps the facts are spelled out somewhere in old court transcripts or police records, but nowhere in any newspaper article does it state how the suspect was zeroed in on so quickly.
Walker was discovered around 8:30 a.m. and Simcoe was arrested by 6 p.m. that same day.
Sure, there were plenty of stories going around. Lloyd Simcoe had been employed at Vilas for a few months and had recently left.
Some versions of the circumstances say that he was too slow in picking up the work and had been fired, and other sources suggest he wasn’t keen on the work nor the racial slurs he allegedly received commonly from Walker.
Some co-workers reported that Lloyd Simcoe had neglected to take his jacket with him when he left his job for the last time and was adamant that he would go back and retrieve it. Had he quarrelled with Walker after being let in to pick up the jacket?
A witness reported seeing Lloyd on the Saturday evening, drunk and being refused entry into an Orillia restaurant. That rumour was soundly quashed by the testimony of other witnesses who said that Lloyd never touched liquor.
A former schoolmate had seen Lloyd combing his hair in the restroom of another local business and observed a red stain on his shirt sleeve.
Each week, the Barrie Historical Archive provides BarrieToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past. This unique column features photos and stories from years gone by and is sure to appeal to the historian in each of us.
