Torso Murder: The Untold Story of Evelyn Dick

Peter Martin, of Peter Martin & Associates, is the founding publisher of
the Canadian Book Review Annual.

In 1946, some youngsters made a gruesome discovery on Hamilton Mountain,
the eponymous ridge above the Ontario city: a recently dismembered male
torso. Police soon identified the victim—a streetcar driver named John
Dick—and promptly thereafter arrested his estranged wife, Evelyn. When
Dick had gone missing Evelyn had told various stories to explain his
absence; once detectives had her in custody, the stories became even
more bizarre.

So far, so squalid. But Mrs. Dick was not your ordinary husband killer.
She was young and beautiful and always chic, and she drove a flashy
convertible even though she had no visible means of support. Money her
father had stolen from the streetcar company where he worked had paid
for Evelyn’s schooling, but she lived beyond even his means. Her
income—and the $150,000 she paid lawyer J.J. Robinette to save her
from the noose—may have come from the never-identified father of the
baby she bore, strangled, encased in concrete, and stored in the attic.

Or did she? And did she kill Mr. Dick? Or were others involved? The
questions have never been answered, which is why the murders and the
trials that followed are perennial topics for books, films, TV
documentaries, and (in Hamilton) radio talk shows. Brian Vallée’s
retelling includes some useful survivor interviews but is for the most
part a brisk reworking of newspaper stories and trial transcripts—fun
to read but not a groundbreaker. A minor irritant is the American
spelling (theater, labor, etc.) that is used throughout.