Wilbert Coffin and the Gaspe Massacre of 1953: Part 1

Richard Lindsey, Eugene Lindsey and Fred Claar during a previous trip to Gaspe

 

Tomorrow marks the seventy-first anniversary of the day three men from Blair County embarked on a week-long hunting trip to the wilderness of Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula, only to meet their demise at the hands of one of the most famous murderers in Canadian history. While Wilbert Coffin's name has been made famous through movies, books and television crime documentaries, the names of his three victims are largely forgotten, even in Blair County. What follows is Part 1 of the astonishing true story of Eugene Lindsey, Richard Lindsey and Frederick Claar.

In June of 1953, a Blair County man rewarded his son for graduating from Hollidaysburg High School with a hunting trip to the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. Eugene Lindsey, along with his 17-year-old son Richard and 19-year-old neighbor Fred Claar had been looking forward to the bear hunting expedition for weeks, but little did they know at the time that they would become the hunted.

Eugene Lindsey, a 47-year-old railroad shop worker from Brookes Mills, had been to Gaspe on numerous occasions, but always with a guide. This time, however, Eugene decided that a guide wasn't necessary. Not only was he familiar with the terrain, but he was regarded as an expert marksman and stories of his hunting prowess were well known throughout the county. As the owner of a successful bus company and a veteran pipefitter with the Pennsylvania Railroad, Eugene was financially secure, and the wealth that he had accumulated allowed Eugene to own the best and most modern equipment. Blessed with this combination of skill, top-notch gear and financial security, the trip to Gaspe should've been a safe and pleasant experience. Yet, for Eugene, Richard and Fred, the consequences of their ill-fated trip would make newspaper headlines in two countries.

The three hunters left for a two-week expedition on June 5, the day of Richard's graduation, in a green half-ton Ford pickup truck loaded with supplies. Eugene waved to his wife Mary as they pulled away. They would not be stopping until they reached their destination, and a postcard received by Mary Lindsey indicated the hunters had arrived at their destination on June 8. Eugene had also reserved a cabin at Lake Dalhousie, and the entire family was to return to Canada for a week of fishing on the lake. When she didn't hear anything from Eugene, she assumed the men had decided to extend their hunting expedition. When they failed to return home, she contacted the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, who, in turn, notified the provincial police and a search was conducted by plane.

 

For Canadian authorities, this seemed to be an impossible task; at nearly 12,000 square miles, the Gaspe Peninsula is larger than the countries of Belgium, Lebanon, Israel and Rwanda, and covers only slightly less area than Switzerland. In terms of land area, it is larger than eight U.S. states, though it has a population density of just twelve persons per square mile, making as remote as South Dakota. The Gaspe Peninsula may not be home to many human beings, but it is home to dense forests, the rugged Chic-Choc Mountains, and plenty of moose, caribou and black bears.

On Saturday, July 10, their green 1947 Ford pickup truck was discovered in a remote region sixty miles from where they had been seen last. The truck contained two weeks worth of groceries, though their guns, camping equipment and cooking stove were missing. Clarence Claar and Ira Claar, Fred's father and uncle, left for Canada to join in the search, which focused on a one hundred square mile area near the abandoned truck. 

Meanwhile, Canadian authorities revealed to the public what information they had been able to obtain. According to Sergeant Henri Loyon of the Quebec provincial police, the three men had obtained a forest travel permit on June 9, on which they indicated they were planning to spend fifteen days in the peninsula's rugged interior. They had traveled about seventy-five miles up the St. Jean River on an old logging road before continuing west for another sixty-five miles before the truck suffered mechanical failure. Lumber camps were checked by an army of volunteer bushmen, but none showed signs of recent habitation, though empty tobacco pouches-- of a brand favored by Eugene Lindsey-- were discovered near the No. 24 logging camp. One of the bushmen told reporters that he doubted the three men would ever be found. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack in that wilderness," he said. "They may have met with some accident."

The Gaspe wilderness

 

Badly Mangled Body Parts

Late on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 15, badly-mangled body parts were discovered just three miles away from the abandoned truck by a group of bushmen led by Wilfred Carter of the Game and Fisheries Department. It appeared that the missing hunters had been found. Though police refused to discuss the circumstances of their deaths, Solicitor General Antoine Rivard provided an ominous statement. "There is not enough available information yet for me to state that the hunters did not die naturally, but there are strange elements that warrant a full scale investigation," said Rivard.

Wilfred Carter, however, said that it appeared the victims had been badly mauled by bears, which may have occurred after the Pennsylvanians were already dead. "We fanned out again and found more parts of human bodies, but we could not identify a whole body," he stated. "We believe now we have found the three but we do not know for sure. The bodies had been scattered over a wide area."

Their clothing and personal equipment had also been scattered over a wide area; one of three sleeping bags was found atop a large raspberry bush, while two rifles and two pairs of binoculars were found a distance away. Two more rifles, along with Eugene's automatic pistol, were missing. Carter said that no money was found, though friends and family said that Eugene Lindsey always carried a large sum of cash in his wallet, and was known to have taken $600 along with him for the trip. Bert Herzog, a family friend, said that he had seen Eugene pull $1,000 in cash out of his pocket more than once.

The Gaspe coroner, Lionel Rioux, viewed the remains and declared the victims had been dead for nearly a month, indicating that the victim had probably died not long after leaving their truck. Medical examiner Dr. Jean-Marie Roussel traveled from Montreal to Gaspe to make a more detailed examination, and announced that the body parts were those of Eugene. Fred Claar and Richard Lindsey were still missing.

Clarence Claar returned from Canada convinced that the three hunters might've been the prey, not of a wild animal, but of a fellow human being. Eugene's rifle, a loaded 30.06 Winchester, had been found 400 yards from the spot where two severed arms and legs and a pelvic bone were discovered. The safety catch was still on, and the butt of the rifle was covered with gray hairs. Claar pointed out that Eugene was the only person in the group with gray hair. Clarence and Pearl Claar still held onto hope that their son would be found alive. 

"I did not worry too much when they said they found all three bodies," said Pearl Claar. "But now they say only one body has been found and it's a terrible feeling."

 

 

More Details Emerge

It was learned that the hunters had abandoned their truck sixty-two miles inland when the fuel pump went bad, and they walked along a logging road where they soon encountered a 42-year-old York Centre prospector named Wilbert Coffin. Coffin agreed to drive the two young men into town in exchange for $40. According to Coffin, Eugene stayed behind. Witnesses saw Coffin and Richard Lindsey in the village of York Centre purchasing a new fuel pump while Fred Claar waited outside in Coffin's truck. Since the new fuel pump was found on the Lindsey truck, it seems evident that all three hunters were still alive when Coffin returned. Authorities immediately began searching for the mysterious prospector to testify during the coroner's inquest. He didn't report to the police until several days later, stating that he hadn't learned of the subpoena until he arrived at La Tuque, five hundred miles from Gaspe.

On Tuesday, July 21, small tufts of black and light brown human hair and a single 10-inch-long leg bone were found near the camp, along with bloody underwear and a camera. The film was developed, but provided no additional clues. Residents of Murdochville, the nearest town, were questioned, but none had seen the missing hunters.

The Other Bodies Found

On the night of Thursday, July 23, two badly decomposed bodies were found under the floor boards of an abandoned logging camp in the Gaspe woods by Barney Donahue, a rugged 66-year-old woodsman who claimed to have once killed three wolves with his bare hands, and still had the fang scars to prove it. A sweatshirt with the words 'Hollidaysburg Tigers' was found near the bodies. The sweatshirt had been pierced with a bullet. "It is murder, cold-blooded and planned," declared a spokesman for the solicitor general's office in Quebec. The two bodies were found at Camp No. 26, four miles from the spot where Eugene's body parts were discovered by Wilfred Carter eight days earlier. Captain J. Alphonse Matte of the provincial police hinted that an arrest was imminent.

Of the three victims, only the skull of Fred Claar had been recovered. The absence of the other two skulls was explained by a Canadian medical expert: "When a body decomposes and the flesh is eaten away there are no muscles or ligaments to hold the skull to the spine. Bears would not only eat the body but also the brains."

 

A Possible Connection

The hunt for the killer intensified the following day when Edgar Audet, a storekeeper from New Richmond, was clubbed to death inside his shop, about sixty miles south of the spot where the Blair County victims were found. The murder was witnessed by Audet's 11-year-old son, Jean Francois, after two men walked into the store and ordered the Audets to open the cash register. "We have killed three men in Gaspe and if you don't hurry up and give us the money, we'll do the same thing to you," one of the men had said to the boy in French, before beating Edgar with an iron-capped wooden club and stealing $30 from the register. Authorities believed the crimes were not related, and teenager Tracy Boudreau later confessed to killing Audet.

Eugene Jokes About His Own Death

Not long before leaving for the wilderness of the Gaspe Peninsula, friends had tried warning Eugene Lindsey about flashing his cash-filled wallet. "If anyone ever gets my wallet away from me, it will be over my dead body," the powerfully-built railroad shop worker had replied with a laugh. Eugene not only believed that he could take care of himself, but that his son would have his back if he ever encountered trouble. Richard was an athletic child, and had been a member of the Hollidaysburg High School football team. Fred Claar was also a strong and husky fellow. Yet, two months after the warning by his friends, all three men would be found dead in the bear-infested wilderness of Quebec.

 "It would be a relief to know that they didn't suffer," said Mrs. Lindsey. "It was horrible all those weeks thinking they might be alive somewhere and suffering."

The inquest into the deaths of Richard Lindsey and Fred Claar opened in Gaspe on July 27. Wilbert Coffin offered testimony. In attendance were Fred's parents and sister. Because of Mary's health, a brother, J. Clyde Sell, represented the Lindsey family. They had been summoned by Canadian authorities, who told them they had uncovered new information about the murders, along with a key piece of evidence-- Eugene's automatic pistol, which experts believed had fired the fatal shots. The Luger pistol was recovered from a home in Montreal, along with a pair of binoculars and a hunting knife that had been owned by Lindsey. Other equipment belonging to the three hunters had been located as far away as the Abitibi region of western Quebec. The killer had apparently sold the gear after slaughtering the hunters.

  
Victims Return Home

Clarence Claar returned to Blair County on July 31 with the skeletal remains of the three victims. A private funeral for Eugene and Richard Lindsey was held the following day at Dry Run Cemetery in Duncansville. Fred Claar was laid to rest on August 3.

 

Clarence Claar and brother, Ira, tracing their route on a map.

 

Arrest Made 

Meanwhile, Canadian authorities were closing in on the killer. On August 9, provincial police captains J. Alphonse Matte and Raoul Sirous flew to Gaspe to interrogate their leading suspect-- prospector Wilbert Coffin, who was the last man to see the three hunters alive. Coffin had been in police custody since August 11 and held as a material witness. On August 28, following the conclusion of the coroner's inquest, Crown Prosecutor Noel Dorion announced that Coffin would be charged with the murders of Eugene and Richard Lindsey and Fred Claar.

During the inquest, Harold Petrie had testified that Coffin (who was romantically involved with Harold's sister, Marion) had sold him the pistol for $15 on June 18. Petrie, in turn, sold the pistol to a man from Montreal, believing that Coffin had acquired the weapon overseas while serving in the Canadian army during WW2. Marion Petrie testified that she had moved to Montreal in March, and that Coffin had visited her on June 14. While in Montreal, Coffin gave Marion's five-year-old soon a pair of binoculars as a present. These binoculars were later identified by Clarence Claar as the same binoculars he had loaned to his son for the hunting trip. A suitcase recovered from the home of Coffin's sister in York Centre was identified by the Claars as the one Fred had borrowed from his sister.

After a twelve-hour preliminary hearing on August 28, Magistrate Joseph Duguay committed Wilbert Coffin to jail at Quebec City. Though Duguay had not found the crown's evidence strong enough to uphold the charges against Coffin for the deaths of Eugene Lindsey and Fred Claar, he upheld the murder charge in the case of 17-year-old Richard Lindsey, whose sweatshirt had been found pierced by a bullet. The murder trial was slated for fall, though it was later postponed until summer to allow the prosecution ample time to build its case. 

Be sure to check back tomorrow for Part 2 of this story.