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The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson:
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Theory #5: Murder with a Gun

In spite of his deserved reputation as a rugged outdoorsman Tom Thomson was certainly interested in the ladies (p 99, 103, 105).

Charles F. Plewman, ‘Reflections on The Passing of Tom Thomson’, Canadian Camping Magazine, 1972.

‘When the body was found Miss Winnie Trainor, Tom’s girl friend from Huntsville, whose parents had a cottage on Canoe Lake in front of the Lodge, appeared on the scene and demanded the right to see the remains, saying that there must have been foul play as she was certain that Tom didn’t drown by accident in a small lake like Canoe Lake. This, Mark Robinson stoutly refused to grant. (The body had been in the lake about eight days and was not very presentable).’

Dr Noble Sharpe, ‘The Canoe Lake Mystery’, Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal, June 1970, 34-40.

‘Tom was socially inclined, and he was said to be interested in a local lady [Winnifred Trainor]. (I had a telephone conversation with this charming person in 1956, and she told me she was engaged to him.) It was also said Tom had a rival [Martin Blecher?] and they had quarrelled. Their altercations reached a climax when Tom accused the other man of being a deserter from the American Army. Tom, incidentally, had been rejected on account of flat feet. Rumours relating to his rival’s implication were rife. It was stated that on the night before Tom Thomson disappeared that a man threatened him. Still later it was rumoured a shot had been heard coming from the direction Tom had taken when he was last seen.’

Engraving of Thomson being dragged

William Little was supervisor of the reformatory in Brampton, Ontario, during the 1950s and 60s during which time he also pursued an avid interest in the Tom Thomson tragedy. In the late 1960s, Little became a Judge. He also worked with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1969 to produce a television documentary about Thomson’s death. In 1970, he published The Tom Thomson Mystery, a summary of his research regarding Thomson’s death in which he described how he had excavated (in 1956) Thomson’s original grave at Canoe lake with three of his friends, one of whom was Harry Ebbs. They found remains—including a skull with a hole in it—which they naturally assumed must have belonged to Thomson but Dr Noble Sharpe ultimately concluded that the remains exhumed by Little belonged to an unidentified Indigenous man, and that the hole in the skull had been caused by surgical inter vention, and not a bullet.

It would, of course, be fascinating to do some digging at the Thomson family plot at Leith, but the family has never sanctioned any such intervention, and the plot at Leith lies within consecrated ground (whereas the Mowat Cemetery was not so designated).

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This Study Guide is available as a free download in Pdf format to anyone interested in using it as an aid to teaching George A. Walker's The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson (2012). The Guide may not be copied and offered for sale by any third party. This Study Guide is produced with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation and the Ontario Ministry of Education.

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The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) is also gratefully acknowledged.

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