The Boogeyman Next Door
/In the year of 1989, the streets of Miramichi were deserted on Halloween night; not one kid was out trick or treating. It would be the scariest Halloween to remember. The boogeyman lay in wait for any wayward children to pass him by as he lured in the shadows.
“It was like we were chasing a ghost. It was like he could see us, but we couldn’t see him,” Sgt. Bob Bruce reported. This boogeyman moved with grace and ease for more than six months in the town of Miramichi terrorizing the people, and he was their very own neighbor, Allen Legere.
Three years prior, Legere was convicted of the first-degree murder of John Glendening. Legere and two young associates broke into the man’s home beat him to death, sexually assaulted his wife and beat her within an inch of her life. A man known for violence transformed in prison instantly — he became the man of manners, a gentleman and the model of morality.
People thought he had changed but in May of 1989, Legere came down with an ear infection that had him sent away to a Monkton hospital to see a specialist. When they arrived Legere asked his guards to use the washroom. The guards never saw it coming when, ten seconds later, Legere leaped out of the bathroom with a TV antenna in his hands and waving it around like a weapon. He bolted out of the hospital just in time to catch Peggy Olive and take her hostage, pushing the antenna to her throat and using her car as a getaway.
“This is the end of my life,” Olive had thought. Legere had told her he was a convicted murdered and threatened her, playing the bad guy, but just as quickly he would switch tactics and become the good guy. “Oh, and I won’t harm your car either,” he told Olive when he dropped her off in the middle of nowhere.
The police soon found out that Legere had poured his own urine into his ear to cause the infection. He then proceed to place the TV antenna in a cavity of his body. This man had a plan to get out and he did it.
When Legere was reported to have escaped people of Miramichi were afraid he would come back seeking revenge. The police thought, why would a man who was well known in the community go back home where he would be recognized? They would quickly discover they were very wrong.
Not too soon after his escape Legere went about his first mission: Annie and Nina Flam. Two pillars of the community beloved by all came to know Legere within a few hours. Legere put on a mask and robbed the women before taking them to their rooms and tying them to their beds. Nina was strangled and beaten; faking death was the only way she stayed alive. Annie was not so lucky. Legere had tucked her into bed unwillingly, brutally beat and sexually assaulted her before she died. They found out that Annie had been suffocated by her own vomit from the trauma she endured.
The first time the police collected solid evidence that proved Legere was in town was when a man caught Legere running out from behind his house. The man tried but fail to peruse him. The next morning, they found glasses left on the lawn, the same glasses Legere had been prescribed in prison.
Legere taunted the police; he prided himself on breaking into people’s homes. Stories emerged of people waking up to find him standing at the end of their bed watching them sleep. If they were lucky enough not to wake up, they would find their clothes laid out on top of them. It was Legere’s way of letting them know he had been there.
In October of 1989, in New Castle, Legere struck again. Once again, his victims were elderly women, pillars of the community who had no connection to Legere whatsoever. Linda and Dona Donnie were sisters living alone in their home when Legere broke in beat them, sexually assaulted them and strangled them to death. By now the police realized no one was safe, anyone in Miramichi was a target.
Legere’s last victim hit home. One day in November Father Smith had missed a prayer meeting and his parishioners went looking for him at his rectory. They looked in through the windows and found the Father laying on the floor beaten to death. Legere had tortured the pour man, slicing his throat and cutting up his chest. The postmortem later showed that Legere had leaped onto the priest and separated his ribs from the sternum.
This fourth and final murder didn’t faze Legere, he was as unnaturally calm as usual as he boarded a train to Quebec where he would pond the Donnie sister’s jewelry in the capital. The police were very much aware he was going to Montreal, the Quebec police had been told to search for a man with an eagle tattoo on his arm. And when they got to Legere they checked. And when Legere lifted his sleeve, there was no tattoo. They had checked the wrong arm. Free as he was Legere conducted his business, but instead of fleeing he turned around and headed back for Miramichi. The police only discovered his when Legere took hostage a truck driver. Police created a barricade on the road, and unexpectedly Legere didn’t use the truck driver as a hostage. He raised his hands and surrendered. Mason Johnson, RCMP officer who worked on the case said that coward wouldn’t put up a fight.
When all was said and done Johnson go a message from Legere. He asked for his TV back. Johnson asked his people, have you searched the TV properly? They thought so, but Johnson had them do one more search because there was a reason Legere wanted his TV back. They found handcuff keys.
If there’s a will there’s a way. Allen Legere is not done with Miramichi just yet.
Kitty Snapp:
As a person who loves the arts, she especially loves the art of writing horror. Being able to make people jump with just the written word, is a truly great writer. That's what she aspire to be.
