Roads to the North: Wilbert Coffin, the Gaspe Murders, and Injustice in the Canadian Wilds

JULY 1953. The remains of three American hunters were found in the remote northern bush lands of Gaspé, Québec, Canada. Despite the bodies being torn by bears, the evidence pointed to man as the culprit. In this bucolic land typically left to its own devices, top investigators from Québec City arrived, taking control from local police officials and setting off one of the most ruthless murder investigations in memory. Meanwhile, six Toronto Daily Star journalists worked tirelessly to unravel the truth. Soon, at the center of this investigation was a prospector and jack-of-all-trades, Wilbert Coffin, the man believed to have had last contact with the hunters before their disappearance. With an alarmingly narrow focus on Coffin, provincial police Captains J. Alphonse Matte and Raoul Sirois arrested him and, along with Prosecutor Noel Dorion, charged Coffin with murder. Wilbert Coffin was tried in one of the most infamous, controversial, and widely followed trials in Canadian criminal history. Drawing from a wide range of sources – including court transcripts, official government and police reports, newspaper articles, diplomatic cables, personal histories, telegrams, and his own interviews – Michael Rooney has crafted a story of murder, greed, deceit, and injustice within a flawed system. Enthralling, powerful, and relentlessly suspenseful, Roads to the Northcaptures the terror of The Gaspé Murders and the Wilbert Coffin saga, revealing the true story behind the three murders that ultimately led him to the gallows.