Episode 13: Blood of the Black Donnelly's

There's no justice, like frontier mob justice.

In this episode, author Keith Leckie joins host Russell Hillier to talk about his book, Cursed: Blood of the Donnelly's, a novel about the most infamous family in Canadian history.

The Historical Background

For years, every barn-burning, horse theft and murder in the pioneer town of Lucan, was blamed on the Donnelly clan. 

Then on the night of February 3, 1880, a vigilante mob of local citizens converged on the Donnelly farmstead, armed with clubs, guns and pitchforks. They massacred every family member they could find, then made their way to a second farmstead and shot-dead another Donnelly brother as he opened the door.

There were witnesses to the killings, yet not a single man was convicted of the crime.

Were the Donnelly's lambs at the slaughter, or did they have it coming?