Miramichi serial killer Allan Legere, who terrorized the Miramichi area for six months in 1989, has died at the age of 78.
Legere died on Monday while serving a life sentence at the Edmonton Institution in Alberta, Correctional Service Canada confirmed in a release.
The cause of his death has not been disclosed. The Correctional Service said it will review the circumstances of the death, and policy requires that police and the coroner be notified.
Legere has been called the “Monster of the Miramichi” for the crimes he committed in the area in the late 20th century, including rape, arson and murder.
WATCH | Serial killer who terrorized N.B. in 1980s dead:
‘Monster of the Miramichi’ dead in prison
Allan Legere, the man known as the ‘Monster of the Miramichi,’ has died in an Edmonton prison at 78. Legere killed five people over several years in the 1980s, terrorizing the Miramichi region while on the run for six months.
Legere’s 201 days as a fugitive began in May 1989, when he escaped from prison guards escorting him to a medical appointment in Moncton, about 120 kilometres south of the Miramichi region.
He had been in prison for the murder of shopkeeper John Glendenning and the beating of Glendenning’s wife, Mary.
While at large, he sneaked in and out of communities along the Miramichi River, brutally murdering four more people in three separate attacks.
Chatham storeowner Annie Flam, 75, was killed in her home 25 days after Legere’s escape.
Five months later, sisters Donna and Linda Daughney, 45 and 41, were murdered in their Newcastle home. Five weeks after that, Catholic priest Father James Smith, 69, was killed in his Chatham Head rectory.
Legere spent hours torturing the four before their deaths, according to an account of the crimes by New Brunswick Court of Appeal Justice Lewis Ayles.
Nine days after Smith’s murder, Legere was captured on Route 118.
Legere was arrested on Route 118 in what is now the city of Miramichi. In November 1991, he was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder. (CBC)
He was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder in November 1991 and subsequently declared a dangerous offender, a designation that allows for permanent incarceration.
Late last year, Legere, then 77, was denied a request for full parole. The decision by the Parole Board of Canada said Legere still presented an “undue risk to society” if released.
Legere spoke to journalist after capture
André Veniot was a journalist at the time and covered the Legere story while working for CBC News in Moncton.
“I had made a promise to myself a few years ago that I would never talk again about Allan Legere unless he died,” Veniot said. “And so he’s gone, and the world is better for it.”
Veniot said he remembers the day Legere escaped, May 3, 1989, from the Dr. Georges‑L. Dumont hospital, across from the CBC office.
“For the next seven months, I followed Allan Legere, or the story of Allan Legere,” Veniot said.
“Police could not find him in Moncton. We would later find out he took off to Truro, and then found out, he found his way up to the Miramichi. “
That’s where, on May 28, he killed Annie Flam, a “well-known and well-loved storekeeper,” said Veniot.
“And that just rocked Miramichi. Nobody knew who did it at the time.”
LISTEN | Remembering the terror caused by Allan Legere:
Information Morning – Moncton8:52“Monster of the Miramichi” dead at 78
André Veniot was a reporter with the CBC and covered the murders and Legere’s trial. He’s the co-author of the book Terror: Murder and Panic in New Brunswick.
More than 700 police personnel were looking for Legere at the time, Veniot said.
He co-wrote two books about Legere with Rick MacLean, then-editor of the Miramichi Leader.
Terrified while Legere was on the loose, Veniot said, he wouldn’t reveal where he lived while on the air.
Legere had stolen an AM FM radio, Veniot said, and a CBC television signal could be caught at the time on FM radio.
“I remember [Legere] telling me when, after he was caught, he says he didn’t like Rick MacLean … really, really didn’t like him, and he liked me less.”
Veniot said he thinks a lot of people who covered the Legere case were traumatized by it, and it was tough to be a reporter because of the nature of the crimes.
“I think the community of Miramichi, they, at one time, wanted to go before the parole board and state the whole of the Miramichi was the victim of Allan Legere’s, you know, and in large part that is true.”
For Frank McKenna, the premier of New Brunswick at the time and MLA for the area that encompassed Chatham Head, Legere’s death brought back a lot of tragic memories.
Having lived in Chatham, he knew Legere before the murders. As a criminal defence lawyer, he was even asked by Legere for representation a few times.
“We had always turned him down because he had a reputation, even then, for sociopathic behaviour, for extreme violence, and we didn’t want to have anything to do with him.”
Death will bring relief to Miramichi, former premier says
When Annie Flam was murdered and her sister Nina Flam was attacked by Legere, McKenna said he was called into the hospital in Fredericton to visit Nina.
“We’d known her so long, and it was one of the most emotional experiences I’ve had in my life meeting with somebody who had faced death and had suffered such extraordinary violence,” he said.
Like everyone in New Brunswick, particularly those in Miramichi, McKenna said he and his family lived in terror until Legere was caught.
At the time, McKenna was living in Fredericton but moved back to Miramichi to be with his constituents. He recalls the phone call from the solicitor general at around 5 or 6 a.m. saying that Legere was captured.
That capture brought relief to the community and McKenna believes Legere’s death will, too.
“I think I can say with some certainty that there’ll be a sigh of relief in the Miramichi and all across New Brunswick that this monster has finally left us.”
