The Bizarre Case of the Murder of Edward MacGregor

Edward MacGregor Goes Missing

Edward Alexander MacGregor was a crusty Scot who lived alone on the outskirts of Digby, and had not been seen since 18^th Oct 1910.

Authorities did not act promptly and it was two weeks before his house was unlocked and an investigation was started. Edward MacGregor was last seen alive, as far as anyone knew, on his front step about 5:30PM on 18^th Oct. He had just left his work at Edgar Warner’s, a nearby farm. He lived alone in a house on the Bay Road near the Dominion Atlantic Railway, in an area known as Kean’s Ridge.

MacGregor was known by many to have carried large sums of money on his person, sometimes as much as $400.00 or $500.00. His brothers and other intimates said he always carried all his money on him and never used the services of the banks.

The Search

 A search was at once begun, at first on a small scale, then with an increased intensity as the days passed. By 06 Nov the belief was gaining credence that he had been murdered and the body discarded. Meanwhile, hundreds of searchers had been combing through the woods on both sides of the railway track between Jordantown Station and Digby.

The four were searching the old Oakes road when the dogs scented the body which was lying on its right side, face downwards, situated about thirty or forty feet from the old road between the two Cradle hills in a young growth of birches some 200 yards from the railway track and about 50 yards from an old mill.

The Body

No money was found on MacGregor’s body and his left trouser pocket where he often carried a large wad of bills was turned inside out. In his right trouser pocket was a house key. In his vest pocket was a small notebook and a lead pencil. His watch and chain were on him, the watch stopped at 04:13, probably on the morning of the tragedy.

MacGregor’s skull had received a severe blow, breaking in a large portion of the bone. His cap was off and gashed in at the top in a way to correspond to the wound. When Chief Bowles turned the body over, an opened jack knife was found. The body was very decomposed for the time that he had been missing. The body was easily identified by the working clothes and the fingers which had been injured when Edward MacGregor was a boy.

Dr. Jones, who was asked to perform an autopsy on the body, asked for an assistant physician which was granted him. Dr. Jones stated he wanted the examination to be as thorough as probably the life of someone would be at stake. The body had meanwhile been removed to the Rice undertaking parlour. David Sproule was foreman of the Coroner’s jury.

Coroner Daley was assisted at the inquest on Nov 20 by Crown Prosecutor H. L. Dennison K.C., who objected to the proceedings being carried out at the Digby County jail. After it had become clear that MacGregor had disappeared, the services of Detective Hanrahan of the Halifax Police Department were requested. The Attorney General of Nova Scotia was appealed to and he assigned Hanrahan to the case. A few years later, Hanrahan climaxed his career by becoming Chief of Police of Halifax. Working in conjunction with Bowels, he gathered a considerable amount of evidence.

A reward of $100.00 was offered and this aided the investigation materially as many people came forward with information.

The Mysterious Rail Trolley

It became clear that on the night of 18 October or in the early AM of the 19^th, a trolley car was heard to pass by Kean’s Bridge and returned about 4:00 AM. This trolley was heard at various places on the rail line and its wanderings were traced to Burton’s Lake, about 12 miles from the MacGregor homestead.

It was thought probable that MacGregor’s body had been put in the lake as the trolley had returned to Digby at a rapid pace, passing the Jordantown Station at a tremendous speed.

The police requested the public and the DAR for any assistance possible to locate the trolley which had made such a strange run on the presumably fatal night, and for the men who pumped it up the grades and allowed it to run wild on the downgrades. But the link between the strange trolley ride and the MacGregor murder was never proven and remained a subject of speculation for years.

Deeply intriguing and mysterious, nothing like the MacGregor case had happened in the area for 25 years, but it was an interesting forerunner to the Perry case of 1921. Both victims were known to carry large sums of money on their person. Also in the MacGregor case, clairvoyants had a field day in their attempts to locate the body.

John Tebo

It was testified that Tebo had shown a large roll of bills to his companions while shooting in the woods on Oct 19^th.  He said it was his month's wages paid to him by Mr. Abramson, his employer,  The police alleged that on Oct 18^th, John Tebo had no money on his person. Tebo, had been questioned on that earlier occasion, but after a careful examination was released. But now that the body had been discovered, he was arrested again, and held in the Digby County Jail.

Some of Tebo’s acquaintances came forward and testified he had bought a gold watch and some jewellery for a young girl, and also a complete outfit of clothing for himself. He was also reported to have gone to Saint John with a male companion.

Preliminary Examination

Tebo maintained that a man had come to the Digby jail and had talked to him through the barred windows. The man had allegedly said that he and another man had gone out to MacGregor’s house on the 18^th Oct to get a drink of liquor. When they arrived, there were three other men in the house with MacGregor. The two new arrivals stood outside and listened to the conversation within.

Regarding the roll of money Tebo displayed in the woods, Mr Abramson had balanced his books and found he only owed Tebo 5 cents.

The story the prisoner told the woman with whom, he boarded, describing the murder where the axe was thrown, the cabbage and carrots surrounding the body, the old wood road and pond all of which he described two days before the body was found, and which he said had been told to him at the rear window of the Digby Jail, by a man who had promised he would come forward and clear him, should he at any time in the future be arrested for the murder of Edward MacGregor.

One of the strongest weapons in the Crown's arsenal was the testimony of Frank Calder, a fisherman from Yarmouth, who had boarded at Mrs. Haight's that previous summer, and had shared a room with Tebo.  Calder's testimony went as follows:

"The first night back from the Exhibition in Saint John, Mr. Tebo came into the room \we shared and he said he knew how he could make a good night's profit.  He said that Edward MacGregor , who lived out of town always carried from five to eight hundred dollars,  Tebo said he would do the dirty work if I would assist him and he said he had a dandy little axe to do the job.

I said "What do you mean by thinking such a thing?"  Tebo replied, “Frank, I need money. I have no clothes, owe for my board, and if I cannot pay, I‘ll go to jail."  Calder responded, “You are a young man to throw your life away. I would not do it for five hundred dollars or for five million. Before I tried, I would go out on the streets and starve.” This completed the case for the Crown.

The Trial

When court reopened at 2 o’clock, F. W. Nichols counsel for the prisoner, put up a brilliant defence, considering the points of evidence which were available and the fact that he had been assigned by the Court only the previous day to make an attempt to defend the prisoner and consequently had very little time to prepare a case.

The efforts of the defence required less than an hour and Chief Justice Townsend stated he had been pleased with the smoothness with which the trial has been conducted both by the Crown and the Defence and the prompt manner in which the witnesses had been examined in so short a time. The Chief Justice very professionally showed no signs of breaking down nor of losing his composure.

A Mother’s Plea For The Truth

Tebo replied that he had killed MacGregor. He calmly told how he had happened to do the deed, which he had done alone. He had started out and gone to MacGregor’s who had instructed him to go with him to the cabbage patch and gather some cabbages. Tebo took along a hatchet in order to cut the leaves and in cutting through the root of one cabbage, had accidentally hit MacGregor with the axe.

Tebo was hanged promptly at 5 o’clock on the morning of 24^th July. Before the noose and cap were adjusted, Tebo said, “Gentlemen, I want to bid you all goodbye.”

Sheriff Smith, from a room above, slipped the bolt, and the weight fell, suddenly lifting Tebo high in the air.  It was calculated by the jail physician, Dr. Jones, that Tebo was dead in four minutes. The mother had specifically requested that the body be turned over to her. This was agreeable to the authorities and the remains were taken away and interred on his father’s property.

End

Thanks to Arthur Thurston, The Middleton Mirror, July 27, 1977.