Notorious Miramichi serial killer Allan Legere dead at 78

Miramichi serial killer Allan Legere, who terrorized the Miramichi area for seven 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.

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.

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

Andre 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. And on May 21, he killed Annie Flam, well-known and well-loved storekeeper there.

“And that just rocked Miramichi. Nobody knew who did it at the time.”

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.”