Crime Story Analysis Assignment PDF

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1 The Monster of Miramichi

Crime Story Analysis – The Monster of Miramichi ******** SOC*2760 Tuesday, July 23, 2019

2 The Monster of Miramichi Introduction ‘The Monster of Miramichi’ documentary depicted the crimes of a Canadian serial killer in the Miramichi area of New Brunswick in the 1980s. His name is Allan Legere and he provoked one of the largest man hunts in Canadian history. Legere was known as a violent criminal even before he was convicted for the murder of John Glendenning and the beating of his wife Mary Glendenning. As outlined in the film, the break into the Glendenning home was his first murder and set a style for his proceeding murders. This consisted of breaking and entering, brutal beatings, sexual assault and arson. However, this first murder was perpetrated with two young accomplices in which Legere was the ringleader and went to prison. Legere managed to escape by gaining the trust of the guards and warden, which can be attributed to his various personality types as mentioned in the film, he could be charming, brutal, blunt, and articulate with a definite violent streak. This indicates Legere may have had some sort of personality disorder or other mental disorder not confirmed in the film. Legere’s next three murders followed the same style, he broke into the victims’ homes and beat, then sexually assaulted them, tucked them into bed and set the house on fire. Annie and Nina Flam were the first victims following his escape from prison, Nina survived the attack while Annie did not. After about five months he murdered the two Daughney sisters in the same way. His fourth murder was that of a Father Smith and he brutally beat him prior to mass, this time he did not set fire to the home, as if he were in some sort of rush. He was eventually apprehended trying to make his way back to the Miramichi, where he attempted to hijack three different vehicles. He was then convicted for the four additional murders (The Monster of Miramichi, 2004). As stated in this course, the public’s perception of homicide is largely based off of the media as opposed to scientific research. For this reason, people can be exposed to

3 The Monster of Miramichi misconceptions of homicide however, in the case of this documentary I feel that they have accurately portrayed homicide and the magnitude of Legere’s crimes. It is clear that in this instance the crimes were horrific enough that they did not need to be overdramatized. As portrayed in the documentary Legere aligns well with the research presented on serial killers in this course, and his actions, motives, sexual murder tendencies and lack of a conscience demonstrate this. Discussion Legere’s crimes fit the definitions and habits of a typical serial killer and this is shown well in the film. He is consistently referred to as a serial killer which is accurate as he killed five people which is above the three or four victims necessary to be considered a serial killer. His murders included periods of cooling off (Fox, Levin, Fridel, 2019). His first murder of John Glendenning occurred on June 21, 1986, his next murder of Annie Flam occurred on May 28, 1989, the Daughney sisters were killed on October 14, 1989 and his final murder of Father Smith occurred in November. The documentary mentioned between each murder that Legere would disappear right after and the town was fearful for his return, expressing that there was a cooling off period between murders. The victims were strangers and out of the seven people he attempted to kill five of those were adult females, which is consistent with the preferences of male serial killers (Fox et al., 2019). Legere had a particular style of murder which involved beating, sexually assaulting and then setting the home on fire, he did not use a firearm in any of the cases which was clearly stated in the documentary. Fire arms are less prevalent in serial murder cases than homicide and two thirds of serial killers killed their victims in the same way (Fox et al., 2019). The characteristics of his murders were portrayed consistently with the textbook research and showed factual information and trends on serial killers.

4 The Monster of Miramichi In the documentary Legere’s motives were demonstrated as to obtain power and fear from the community. One of the detectives mentioned that he would not be able to resist returning to the Miramichi to kill so that he could watch himself in the media again. It was clear he killed for thrill and he wanted to feel power and control over the Miramichi and it evident that he had. His style of killing which included using restraints, sexual assault, and brutal beatings were performed to make him feel powerful and in control over his victims. When he killed, the residents in the area were terrified that he would return, and they would be the next victims. The people began locking their doors and even cancelled Halloween in 1989 in fear that he was there waiting to commit his next crime. He was compelled to return to the city to continue his reign of terror. As mentioned in the film he could have escaped and gone anywhere but he could not help but return. It is stated that 2/3 of serial killers localize their murders within a particular city (Fox et al., 2019). It appears that Legere developed a degree of comfort and this particular area satisfied his urges and needs. It became very clear throughout the documentary that he was driven by his own thrill and growing power, he fed off of the fear of the residents. Legere also fits in with the description and facts of a sexual murderer which is also portrayed in the documentary. As we know, Legere has a violent criminal history as do around half of sexual murderers as identified in a study by Oliver, Beech, Fisher and Beckett (Beauregard et al., 2012). In the cases where he sexually assaulted an individual, they were an adult female and took place in the victims’ homes where he gained access by breaking and entering. In the case of the Daughney sisters’ he took one of them off of the street. He went for vulnerable, unsuspecting victims. The individuals were helpless, or it occurred in the night. In the case of the Flams’ he chose older ladies who would likely not be able to defend themselves, and he chose the Daughney sisters because they lived in an isolated dark corner of the street. As

5 The Monster of Miramichi described in Beauregard’s research the perpetrator would victimize a female adult, who was vulnerable in some way, it would likely occur in their residence which he would break into and a firearm would not be used in most cases. The FBI also conducted a study where they found in 40% of cases the murderer used restraints, which Legere used on both of the Flam sisters (Beauregard, 2012). They clearly portrayed the attributes of a sexual murderer and how it was consistent with Legere’s killing style. Lastly, we can examine the psychological explanations behind Legere’s murders. This can begin to be defined by Freud’s psychoanalytical approach aligning with his second proposed model that the offender possesses a weak conscience and the development of a conscience comes from socialization in childhood (Brookman, 2005). The documentary provides little insight into Legere’s childhood experiences so we cannot necessarily assume that he endured some sort of trauma or definitely possesses a mental illness. But it may be clear that he possesses a ‘defective conscious’ as studied by Guttmacher (Brookman, 2005). The documentary portrays a defective conscience by mentioning how Legere showed no remorse for his crimes throughout his trials leading us to believe he lacks a conscience or moral compass. It is possible that Legere deliberately chose to kill as a method to cope or resolve inner psychological conflicts. This would classify him as an ego syntonic murderer as identified by Tanay in 1976. His varying personality and violent actions may lead us to believe he has deep psychological issues, but this was not confirmed. Conclusion Based on an analysis of the facts provided in ‘The Monster of Miramichi’ and the theories and concepts demonstrated in this course, the documentary did well at portraying the various elements of a serial killer, sexual murderer and psychoanalytic explanations to homicide. This

6 The Monster of Miramichi documentary will give the public an accurate sense of what a serial killer and sexual murderer’s crimes may look like, their motives, victim preferences, and certain trends. In comparison to the course material it becomes clear that both Allan Legere and homicide itself are portrayed factually in the crime series.

7 The Monster of Miramichi References Beauregard, E., & Martineau, M. (2012). A Descriptive Study of Sexual Homicide in Canada. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology,57(12), 1454-1476. doi:10.1177/0306624x12456682 Brookman, F. (2005). Understanding Homicide. Chapter 4: Psychological Explanations of Homicide. http://dx.doi.org.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/10.4135/9781446216361.n4 Court TV (Producer). (2004). The Monster of Miramichi[Video file]. Retrieved from https://stream-mcintyre-ca.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/uofguelph/title/18992 Fox, J. A., Levin, J., & Fridel, E. E. (2019). Extreme killing: Understanding serial and mass murder. Los Angeles: SAGE....