The Castleton Massacre, Sharon Anne Cook
The Castleton Massacre, Sharon Anne Cook
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Castleton Massacre
Survivors’ Stories of the Killins Femicide

Author: Sharon Anne Cook, Margaret Carson

Narrator: Rachel Perry

Unabridged: 8 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/23/2022


Synopsis

A former United Church minister massacres his family. What led to this act of femicide, and why were his victims forgotten?

On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She (and her brother) lived to tell the story of what motivated a talented man who had been widely admired, a scholar and graduate from Queen's University, to stalk and terrorize the women in his family for almost twenty years and then murder them.

Through extensive oral histories, Cook and Carson painstakingly trace the causes of a femicide in which four women and two unborn babies were murdered over the course of one bloody evening. While they situate this murderous rampage in the literature on domestic abuse and mass murders, they also explore how the two traumatized child survivors found their way back to health and happiness. Told through vivid first-person accounts, this family memoir explains how a murderer was created.

About Sharon Anne Cook

Sharon Anne Cook is distinguished university professor emerita at the University of Ottawa. She is the author and editor of twelve books in Canadian women's history. The recipient of many teaching awards, she teaches graduate courses in the history of education. She lives in Ottawa.


Reviews

2.5 stars “Families are complex structures: they have an internal history that is understood only by its members, and often understood differently by each individual member.” This book shares a pieced together timeline leading up to and after the 1963 femicide in Castleton, Ontario by Robert Killins.......more

Goodreads review by Pooja

In 1963, a former minister, long separated from his wife, went on a rampage and murdered four people, two of whom were pregnant. Now one of the survivors of the massacre and her cousin have put together the story of what happened. I have never heard of this case before, but picked up this book becaus......more

What are the odds of a family murderer being named Killins? This is a well written look at the story of a rural Canadian mass murderer. A chilling true crime read. He tormented and murdered his long-estranged wife Florence and his daughter Pearl, who were both pregnant at the time. Pearl was his onl......more

The Castleton Massacreis a true crime novel, but seems to read more like a family memoir. First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Dundurn Press and of course the authors, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. My Synopsis: On May 2, 19......more