Award winning Canadian historian Charlottte Gray's The Massey
Murder. A Maid, Her Master And the Trial That Shocked Country is
a true Toronto crime story that rolls the curtain back on one of the
city's most important families and examines - street address by street
address - a city that was growing out of its Toronto-the-Good Victorian
roots, into a modern urban centre where women were beginning to get
rights and a role in politics and law.
His wife away in the US, Charles “Bert” Massey—of the
Masseys, they of Massey Hall and Massey College—walked towards his
Annex home. As he approached the
front door, his young English servant, Carrie Davies, burst out,
brandishing a revolver. She is reported to have yelled “You ruined my life,” before she pointed the handgun and fired. The first shot missed, the next found his heart. He
was dead within seconds. Davies was arrested, confessed and taken to
the Don Jail.
As one reviewer has written, "the irresistible storyline of a poor but virtuous maiden defending
herself from disgrace made the ensuing trial a sensational affair,
attracting reams of newspaper coverage and packing the courtroom with
blue-collar workers and society mavens alike".
Gray
tells the story of Carries Davies and the legal team that saved her
from the gallows. We learn about the real Massey Family. Yes they were
good corporate citizens (Massey Hall, Fred Victor Mission etc) but they
were less kind to their own. The Massey Family attempted to have the
murder charges thrown out of court and the house-maid sent to a mental
institution rather than have the family's dirty laundry aired in the
papers. Massey was a disenfranchised Massey - a "vain ne’er-do-well, a
respectable cad". A man who “took much
enjoyment out of life,” according to one newspaper, Massey was “quite a
popular figure among the younger society set,” said another. Put less
charitably, Massey liked sports cars and fast women even though he was
married with child.
The
case was fodder for a raging newspaper war in the city. In Gray's book
we meet John Ross Roberts and Black Jack Robinson (The Toronto
Telegram), Joseph Atikinson (Toronto Star) and Toronto's ace female
reporter Helen Ball (Evening News). Despite the horror stories coming
from Europe (World War 1), these papers kept the murder story, the
arrest, the inquest, the Supreme court trial and the Massey family on
the front pages throughout the month of February.
The
house-maid was from England, sent to Canada to raise money for her
impoverished UK family. She was little more than an indentured slave.
She shot her master after he made lurid passes at her while his wife was
away.
The
plight of women like Carrie, both in terms of living/working conditions
and treatment by the courts was of concern to Florence Gooderham
Hamilton Huestis (Toronto Local Council of
Women) and suffragette Nellie McLung. The two women are featured in
this book.
Newspapers debated the merits of the case, and Davies’ character, in
extended coverage of the trial and the verdict. The editor of Women’s Century
argued: “She was as justified in killing the man for her honour as a
soldier is in shooting the enemy for the honour of his country.”
Spoiler
Alert - Davies' lawyer Herbert Dewart, brings in medical experts who
testify that the house-maid is a virgin. Supreme Court Judge Sir
William Mulock and the jury find Davies not guilty and on February 27th
she walks out of court a free woman!
Journalists - if you would like to know more about the book, the author and /or the RBC Taylor Prize (formerly the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction) contact Stephen Weir at stephen@stephenweir.com.
