“I am not afraid to die,” William MacWherrell told the courtroom. The farm labourer was found guilty of a double murder, in a trial 125 years ago at Brampton's Peel County Courthouse. He was sentenced to hang.

Insistent that he was innocent, MacWherrell remained calm as he waited in the Peel County Jail for his sentence to be carried out. “He talks and jokes freely with his guards,” one newspaper reported. MacWherrell told a reporter that “they have been very good to me here, everybody has, and I wish you would say so.” This behaviour seemed to be in stark contrast to the “wantonness of brutality” in supposedly killing two Cooksville seniors at their farmhouse.

By late March 1894, news of the verdict had travelled at least as far as Bozeman, Mont. A man burst into a law office one night, calling himself “Robert Dutton.” He told a young attorney, who was working alone in his office that MacWherrell “is entirely innocent of the crime, for I killed that old man and woman myself.” After the junior employee had finished writing down the statement, the man fled out of the building and disappeared.

By the time that the local officers and deputies were rounded up, “Dutton” had a 15-minute head start. Theories suggested that he reached the nearby mountains, which were surrounded by thick timber.

On April 1, 1894, Toronto Police sent a detective to Montana to follow the lead. A week later, newspapers reported the officer left town — skeptical that Dutton even existed.

Coincidently, the young attorney Dutton supposedly confessed to was originally from Ontario. The lawyer was rarely ever alone in his office except for that night, and “on one or two other occasions, they say, he has figured prominently in sensational affairs.” The incident was dismissed as a hoax.

There are two strange footnotes to an already odd story. Shortly after the murder, in December 1893, Toronto police received a taunting postcard from someone claiming to be the murderer. The card was sent from Dutton, Ont. The same day that the investigation ended in Bozeman, it was reported the young attorney's mother died in Stratford, Ont.

MacWherrell was scheduled to be hanged in May 1894. Look for the next instalment of this story this May.

The Peel County Jail is now part of the museum at the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives. If you're curious about his accommodations, tours are offered on Thursday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays with admission to PAMA. PAMA is located at 9 Wellington Street East, Brampton, and online at pama.peelregion.ca

Throwback Thursday is provided by Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives. PAMA is a place to explore, learn and make connections about Peel Region’s culture and heritage. PAMA is located at 9 Wellington Street East, Brampton, and online at pama.peelregion.ca.