The Redpath Family Murders
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John and Ada Redpath selected their Montreal mansion with privacy in mind.

Its layout allowed guests to remain isolated within the formal front rooms, separate from the more intimate spaces farther into the house. Servants had their own entrance and designated areas, keeping their work mostly hidden behind the scenes. The hallways and stairwells were built wide, making a surprise collision all but impossible. The design choices helped the Redpath family maintain the propriety they so desperately desired.

By controlling what guests, servants, and other family members could see, they could ensure respectability. They could control the narrative, no matter what. In June of 1901, two members of the Redpath family were found dead in the family mansion. The building's design, and the secrecy of the people living inside it, turned the crime into a headline whodunit.

A real-life version of the game Clue. It happened in the primary bedroom with a gun. But who pulled the trigger and why? Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at TheConspiracyPod. And we would love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts.

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Before we begin, of the many sources we used, we found the academic article, She Must Not Stir Out of a Darkened Room, The Red Path Mansion Mystery, by Anne-Marie Adams, Valerie Manette, Marianne Potnan, and David Theodore extremely helpful to our research. We couldn't have made this episode without it.

Okay, now, if you're familiar with American history, you can think of the Redpath family as the Canadian Vanderbilts. In the late 19th century, the family's patriarch, John Redpath, essentially created the city of Montreal from the ground up.

He owned the construction company that built a ton of city landmarks, like the theater and cathedral. Then he used the profits to purchase a giant swath of land on a mountain overlooking the city. The land he bought soon became Montreal's most sought-after neighborhood. Everyone who was anyone lived there. Among the many impressive homes in the area, one of the most remarkable belonged to John Redpath's daughter-in-law, Ada.

In 1901, Ada was a widow. Her husband, John James, passed away in 1884. Of her five children, only two still lived at home: the oldest and only daughter, Amy, and the youngest child, Clifford. On paper, Ada was a suitable head of their household. Her father was a former mayor of Montreal, and she came from money.

But her health had always been precarious. At 59 years old, she depended on Clifford and Amy to take care of her. It's unclear what exactly was wrong with Ada. Newspaper reports say she suffered from a nervous condition and melancholia, as well as insomnia. Her eyes, jaw, and joints also bothered her. At the time, it was natural and expected for Clifford and Amy to dedicate themselves to their mother's care.

Family letters and diary entries show that Ada felt guilty about the burden she placed on her kids. But even so, that didn't stop her from hanging on to her caretakers for dear life. Sometimes even when she had other children to rely on. Ada once planned to travel to a sanatorium with her second oldest child, Peter. But when Amy came to the train station to see them off, Ada basically forced Amy to come along.

Ada became overwrought, clutching Amy, saying she felt too ill to travel without her. Amy ended up on a spontaneous trip to the Adirondacks without any of her belongings. Ada was clingy with Clifford, too. A few days after that train incident, Ada wrote to him saying, quote, "I have become so dependent on you that I am lost without you. Nothing seems worthwhile without you."

Despite the pressure they likely felt, accounts suggest Clifford and Amy were devoted to their mother. Amy would sit by her mother's bedside at night when she couldn't sleep. Clifford would read her stories to distract her from the pain. The siblings also leaned on each other for support, taking walks and attending social functions together. They found time to build their own lives too.

Amy managed all the ins and outs of the Redpath household, from paying bills to hiring servants to handling repairs and renovations. For fun, she attended lectures, shopped, and occasionally traveled on her own. Clifford worked at a law firm and attended law school while managing the family finances. Friends described him as athletic. He apparently loved to canoe and go horseback riding.

As for Ada's other kids, there was Peter, who we already mentioned, as well as John Reginald and Harold. Peter came down with tuberculosis at some point, so he spent most of his time in sanatoriums. John Reginald lived out in present-day Alberta, and Harold lived in another city relatively close to Montreal. But all three were pretty much off the hook when it came to taking care of their mother.

The three Montreal Redpaths, Ada, Amy, and Clifford, put up a good front for the rest of elite society. But behind closed doors, life was a bit of a strain. So now let's talk about how two of them ended up dead. It's the summer of 1901. Ada's health keeps her confined to her bedroom most of the time, but she still socializes when she can.

Clifford, now 24, is studying hard for the bar exam. For Amy, age 33, it's more of the same. Keep the household and her mother running as best she can. But on June 13th, 1901, things seem like they're looking up. Two of the out-of-towners are back in Montreal. Peter is on a rare break between tuberculosis medical facilities, and Harold is in town visiting.

Clifford is almost done with his preparations for the bar exam, and Ada is feeling well enough to have some friends over for dinner. Peter is already home when Clifford comes through the front door. Peter notices his brother seems tired and maybe a little pale. Clifford goes straight upstairs. And then Peter hears a gunshot, quickly followed by two more.

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On June 13th, 1901, three gunshots ring out in the Redpath family mansion. Peter, the oldest son, rushes upstairs to his mother Ada's room. The door is closed and for some reason Peter can't open it, so he breaks down the door. He finds Ada sprawled out on the carpet, bleeding from a gunshot wound to her head. Clifford lies a few feet away in a pool of blood, also from a bullet wound to his head.

There's a gun on the floor about a foot away from Clifford's hand. By various accounts, servants and another Redpath brother, Harold, eventually join Peter in Ada's bedroom and they call a doctor. Ada dies within minutes, but an unresponsive Clifford is rushed to a nearby hospital. The friends Ada invited over for dinner arrive, surprised to find the house in chaos. The servants turn them away, saying there's been an accident.

Later that evening, Clifford dies at the hospital. His side of the story dies with him. And now, the only two witnesses to the crime are dead. Unless, of course, someone else was there when the gun went off.

Word of the death spreads quickly. It's big news and papers all over the United States and Canada jump on it. Almost all of them speculate the same thing, that after years of illness, Ada might want to end her life. Clifford tried to intervene and ended up getting shot himself. But a local Montreal newspaper gets an exclusive interview with the Redpaths' family physician, Dr. Thomas Roddick.

He often made house calls to check in on Ada. Dr. Roddick believes that Clifford is the one behind the shooting and speculates that Clifford's intense preparation for the bar exam left him mentally unstable. In a moment of insanity, he killed Ada before turning the gun on himself. He tells the paper that Clifford was epileptic and also suffering from insomnia.

As tragic as the situation is, Dr. Roddick admits he's not surprised that Clifford was distressed from the pressure. The Montreal piece also includes another detail no other articles mention: that Clifford had two bullet wounds. The reporter notes that they're curious to learn how Clifford managed to shoot himself twice. That explanation is expected to come from the coroner,

An inquest is scheduled the day after the deaths on June 14th, 1901. In Montreal at the time, the coroner is responsible for conducting an investigation into any suspicious deaths and as needed, presenting that information to a jury at an inquest in order to determine a cause of death. In this case, that process is truncated.

The coroner and a jury composed of 13 prominent Montreal citizens hear testimony simultaneously that afternoon. Several people testify: Peter, a few local doctors, a household maid, and the Redpath family physician, Dr. Roddick. The entire proceedings take place in the Redpath mansion where Ada and Clifford died.

There are a couple of strange things about this inquest. It's been hard to track down the exact process Coroner's followed at the time, but today, Coroner's inquests in Canada are generally held in court. It seems pretty odd that the Redpaths hosted essentially a private inquest with limited, if any, investigation ahead of time. It also stands out that Harold does not participate.

because he tells a local newspaper that he was present when the murders took place. He basically confirms Peter's account. There were gunshots, then everyone ran upstairs and found Ada and Clifford bloody on the floor, a gun beside them. And then there's the conclusion that the doctors reach about what happened. The doctors established that Ada was shot in the back of the head and Clifford in his left temple.

They also point out that Clifford had foam in his mouth. Given the foam and Clifford's epilepsy, Dr. Roddick theorizes that Clifford must have shot Ada, and then himself, during a moment of extreme distress caused by a seizure. After the jury agrees, that becomes the official narrative. A seizure made Clifford shoot his mother, then himself. Sounds completely normal, right?

The surviving Redpaths apparently think so, because the next day, less than 48 hours after Ada and Clifford died under mysterious circumstances, their family puts a nail in both of their coffins. Literally. Funerals are held, Ada and Clifford are buried in their family plot, and the surviving Redpaths just kind of move on. They issue a concise statement requesting privacy,

and then never speak publicly about the tragedy again. Of course, that doesn't stop the rumor mill. People have a lot of questions. Like why was the investigation so rushed? After the shooting, the family never contacted law enforcement. According to the newspapers, local police only learned about the deaths, quote, "accidentally." It's not entirely clear what that means,

But it suggests that the Red Pass actively didn't want a police investigation into Ada and Clifford's deaths. Instead, they opted for an investigative process they could control: a coroner's inquest held inside their home. That speedy investigation also left people wondering about all the holes in the evidence. The brief coroner's report left out basic information.

Let's start with the biggest piece of missing evidence: the bullets and where they ended up. Peter's testimony establishes three gunshots, with two victims. Presumably one of them got shot twice. Remember, an early newspaper report out of Montreal said Clifford got hit two times. But the following day, after the inquest, other papers wrote that Ada was the one shot twice.

Or maybe one of the three shots missed. If that was the case, the location of the bullet could maybe tell us where the shooter was standing. Seems like a coroner should be able to clear this up pretty easily. But for some reason, the doctor's inquest testimony just doesn't mention how many gunshot wounds Ada and Clifford had. Since the coroner's report is the only official record of the shooting...

It's impossible to know where that third bullet ended up, and that's a pretty important detail. If one of the victims shot the other, and then themselves, logically whoever got shot once probably pulled the trigger. The bullets weren't the only thing the coroner left out. The final report also doesn't account for the whereabouts of the Redpath family members and servants during the shooting.

There's no examination of possible suspects or alibis. Peter's testimony makes it sound like he was the only other member of the family home when the shots were fired. But remember, Harold gave a newspaper interview that suggests he might have been there too. If that's the case, why didn't the inquest include his perspective? A maid also testified, but none of the other live-in help did.

Even if other family members and servants didn't have anything significant to add, it seems prudent to at least list the people present when the shootings occurred. Moreover, it would be nice to know who wasn't present. There was no mention in the report of where Amy, and really anyone else, was at the time of the shootings.

A thorough investigation would have considered all the family members and servants as suspects and looked into their alibis. Instead, the inquest just latched onto the epilepsy narrative and stopped there. So let's take a closer look at that explanation. There are a couple things to consider here. What was happening in Clifford's life at the time, his methods for allegedly killing his mother and himself, and his epilepsy.

Let's look at his life first. The law firm employing Clifford was considering him for partnership. He'd been grinding hard studying for the bar, and just a few days before his death, he submitted a paid application to sit for the test. He'd also just made plans to stay at Harold's house to finish studying with fewer distractions. At the moment he allegedly ended his life, Clifford's prospects had, on the surface, never been better.

But there were also signs that Clifford was under a lot of pressure. Harold pointed out that Clifford seemed worn out from his studies, and Clifford's friends noticed that he didn't seem like himself the morning before the murder. Plus, witnessing Ada's decline and handling the logistics couldn't have been easy to deal with. Even though Clifford was riding high on paper, it's impossible to know how he really felt.

So now let's look at Clifford's alleged methods. If he wanted to die by suicide, why did he do it in his mother's bedroom? And why did he shoot her first? According to several newspapers and Herald's interview, Clifford was completely devoted to Ada and had no reason to want her dead. Sure, maybe his mother could be a little suffocating sometimes, but his circumstances were about to change.

Presumably, once Clifford became a full-blown lawyer, he'd be more independent. So why bother killing her? The coroner's report says the answer to everything is epilepsy. According to the Epilepsy Foundation, it is possible for someone to unknowingly commit a criminal act during a seizure, but that tends to be generalized disorderly behavior.

screaming and thrashing, grabbing onto someone, or picking up an object and walking away with it. Actions during a seizure are the result of a temporary brain malfunction. They're not goal-oriented. They're random. So the chances of a seizing person randomly shooting someone in the head and then themselves have to be inordinately low. But let's give it the benefit of the doubt.

If someone having a seizure could have committed a murder-suicide, do we really think Clifford had epilepsy? Here's the thing: there is no record anywhere of Clifford's epilepsy prior to his death. Now, it's possible that was by design. At the time, epilepsy was just beginning to be understood, and many people still believe the disorder was caused by evil spirits.

Maybe because epilepsy carried such a heavy stigma, the family chose to keep it under wraps. But Amy kept extensive private diaries that included the ins and outs of Ada's ailments. And there's no mention of Clifford's alleged epilepsy. In a family that fixated so much on health, it seems like such a significant impairment would have come up.

It's also worth noting that Dr. Roddick first mentions his epilepsy theory to a Montreal newspaper before the inquest took place. Dr. Roddick was not in town when the deaths occurred, so there's no way he could have heard about the foam in Clifford's mouth before speaking to the newspaper. Why would he jump to the epilepsy conclusion so quickly?

Plus, if the Redpaths were so committed to keeping Clifford's epilepsy private, it seems like a major faux pas for their trusted family doctor to spill the beans to a reporter. Unless that's what the family wanted, because they were desperate to cover up something else. After Ada Redpath and her son Clifford were shot in Ada's bedroom,

The rest of their family swiftly closed the case with minimal investigation and had both bodies buried in less than two days. The coroner's report determined that Clifford shot his mother and then himself during a moment of psychological distress caused by a seizure. But was that the real story? If the Redpaths went to all this trouble, whatever really happened must be even more shameful than the cover story.

And at the time, suicide was considered shameful. We didn't know nearly as much about mental health or suicidal ideation then as we do now. The family flexed their social and political influence to manage that as best they could. They negotiated a full-blown funeral for Clifford, even though Anglican tradition bars funeral rites for anyone who has committed suicide or homicide.

They also kept the circumstances of Clifford's death off the public record. There aren't any suicides in Montreal archives for June 1901. The Red Paths were also strategic with the media. A lot of the newspaper coverage emphasized Clifford's academic and professional achievements, his dedication to his mother, and just generally what a good person he was. So, if this version of events...

which was still considered quite scandalous, was the least damaging to the family's reputation, whatever actually happened must have been even more dramatic. We'll take a look at three different theories that have come up over the years. First, that Ada and Clifford were killed by an outside shooter. Second, that Ada killed Clifford before turning the gun on herself.

And finally, we'll discuss another Redpath suspect. It is old as child and devoted caretaker. Let's start with an outside intruder. It would have been easy for someone to break in. The house had a separate back entrance. And like I mentioned earlier, the mansion had wide hallways and a floor plan that separated different activities.

This design served the purpose of keeping servants, guests, and family members in their designated areas with minimal overlap. But it also would have made it easier for an uninvited stranger to move through the house undetected. So if a troublemaker broke in and murdered two people, why wouldn't the Redpath family want that information going public? The method of these murders, gunshots to the head in a private bedroom,

doesn't suggest random violence. If someone outside the family committed them, they were carefully planned. That indicates a strong motive, like revenge or jealousy. Maybe the family didn't want the truth about the real perpetrator getting out because they didn't want anyone to know what drove them to murder.

The murderer could have been a wronged employee, a jilted lover, a disgruntled business partner. As one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in town, the Redpaths were sure to leave someone resentful. But that's about as far as speculation on this theory goes. We haven't come across any evidence that Clifford or any other Redpath had enemies in Montreal. None of the coverage indicates that any outsiders were in the house.

And although it might have been easy for an intruder to get in, it would have been a lot harder to get out. As soon as those gunshots were fired, everyone in the house came running. So it would make sense that the shooter was someone already inside the house. And the only two people in the room that we know of were Clifford and Ada. Ada's debilitating health issues made early newspaper reports speculate that she was the one who died by suicide.

She'd confided in friends that daily life was difficult and wondered how much longer it would be worth living. Amy also wrote in her journal that life was a strain on her mother. Multiple newspapers went so far as to theorize the circumstances of the shooting, writing that Clifford could have interrupted Ada when she was about to end her life. Maybe in a struggle to get the weapon away from her, Ada shot him accidentally and then herself.

It could have been even darker. Ada depended on Clifford and even told him that she felt lost without him. He'd just graduated from law school and was days away from taking the bar, which would launch his professional career. Ada could have been fretting over the possibility that her youngest son would move away, abandoning her like her older sons did. Perhaps Ada killed Clifford so he couldn't leave her.

After the inquest findings went public, the newspapers who speculated Ada was behind the shooting fell in line, reporting that Clifford was responsible. A Vancouver paper clarified further, reporting that the Redpath family was behind that initial misinformation that Ada pulled the trigger. Apparently, the family claimed that in the hours immediately following the shooting, they assumed Ada did it because she died first.

We couldn't corroborate that statement in any other publications, so it's possible it's just a bit of hearsay. But if the family did take responsibility for the rumor that Ada pulled the trigger, it's a clever and subtle way of downplaying the theory. It was just a mistake made by a shocked and grieving family in the chaotic hours after two of its members suddenly died.

If Ada did pull the trigger, it might make sense for the Redpaths to pin the blame on Clifford instead. As the youngest son, unmarried and not yet a consequential member of society, his suicide left less of a black mark on the family. Plus, they had that convenient epilepsy to blame it on. Ada was the head of the family.

And even though she was mostly housebound, she was still considered a notable member of Montreal society. Newspaper coverage mentions both deaths, but it's Ada's passing that was really newsworthy. Ada's prominence gave her a much more significant reach than Clifford. Her reputation affected her in-laws, children, and even ancestors. There's a lot about this theory that makes sense.

But there are a few problems with it too. If Ada wanted to die by suicide that night, why invite guests over for dinner? That seems like an odd choice for a family that prized privacy. The other question is, how did Ada get access to a gun? The maid testified that she had never seen a gun in Ada's room before, so there wasn't one just lying around.

Ada might have been a powerful force in Montreal society, but she was chronically ill, incapable of leaving the house on her own. If Ada did pull the trigger, someone had to give her the gun. Someone who ultimately wanted her dead. Who might that have been? Well, the people who most benefited from Ada's death were her children, who presumably stood to inherit her wealth,

When Ada died, she was personally worth over $7 million in today's money. But one of Ada's children stood to gain a whole lot more than money. The only female child, Amy. Remember, Amy's life revolved around caring for her mother and keeping the household running.

As the only daughter, Amy was expected to forego marriage or any other independent pursuits to care for ailing family members or siblings still living at home. So as long as Ada was alive and Clifford was unmarried, Amy had to serve them. By all accounts, Amy took on these obligations with pride and dedication. But even the most dutiful daughter might get a little tired of putting her own life on hold.

Plus, it can't be easy having a front row seat to your mother's slow and painful decline. There are a couple ways Amy could have been involved in her brother and mother's deaths. Maybe Ada appealed to Amy to help end her life, and Amy complied by getting her mother a gun. In that case, Clifford could have just been tragic collateral damage. Maybe he walked in accidentally while Ada was preparing to take her own life, or maybe

Clifford knew what he was walking into. It seems notable that Ada and Clifford died when Harold and Peter both happened to be in town. From what we can tell, this didn't happen often. Peter basically lived in sanitariums to manage his tuberculosis. Harold didn't live very far away, but it doesn't seem like he was very involved in Ada, Clifford, and Amy's daily lives.

For both Harold and Peter to be in town and able to field media requests and testify in the inquest feels pretty lucky. Unless it wasn't lucky, but planned. Maybe all the siblings had the same plan for June 13th, 1901. To kill their ailing mother. And perhaps Clifford, reportedly very close to his sick mother, got cold feet.

He came up to Ada's room to disrupt her murder and ended up becoming a target himself. But there's one piece of evidence that suggests Clifford's death was planned, not accidental. His epilepsy, or lack thereof.

Remember, the family physician, Dr. Thomas Roddick, offered the epilepsy theory to reporters the day after the murders took place, before the inquest showed evidence of a seizure. Dr. Roddick wasn't in town when the murder or murders took place. If the epilepsy was a lie, it needed to be planned ahead of time. In that case, there was a scheme to kill Clifford and Ada, and Dr. Roddick...

was in on it. Now, there are plenty of reasons why Dr. Roddick might agree to take part in this plot, but the very best reason comes out of the Society pages five years after the murders, when Amy and Dr. Thomas Roddick get married. Perhaps Amy and Thomas were in love and tired of waiting for Amy to be freed up for marriage.

Or maybe love was a side effect of taking part in a cloak-and-dagger murder scheme together. Either way, the couple spent 16 years as husband and wife in the Redpath mansion, the same one where Ada and or Clifford were murdered. Amy chose never to leave the house. She stayed there after Thomas passed away in 1923, until her own death over 30 years later.

Like I said, none of the Redpaths ever spoke about the murders. Amy certainly never did. But she did do something interesting with her will. Amy left a generous gift to the local university library, one that came with a condition. She required that a custom memorial bookplate be installed for Peter and Clifford. Singling out these two of her four brothers for a memorial is a curious choice.

It could be that these are the two brothers she felt closest to, or maybe it's about Amy's proximity to both their deaths. Amy was with Peter when he passed away from tuberculosis in 1902. But it's impossible to ignore that these two brothers were the ones most involved in the murder. Peter as the official family witness and Clifford as the official perpetrator. The memorial is simple and respectful.

The way you want to remember someone you loved, not someone who killed your mother. Maybe Amy was trying to preserve Clifford's dignity in spite of the temporary insanity that defined his final moments. Or maybe she was trying to say thank you to a brother who died to free her from familial obligation. A few years after Amy's death, the Redpath Mansion was demolished

Along with any hope of ever finding out what really happened to the people who died inside it, just as Amy and her family would have wanted. But losing access to evidence didn't dampen interest in Ada and Clifford's deaths. It may have actually increased it. Without access to real answers, speculation has more room to grow.

That's a pretty ironic outcome considering how hard the Redpaths worked to cultivate exactly the story they wanted. Their efforts backfired. Instead of quashing the scandal, they created one. Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday.

Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Or email us at conspiracystories at spotify.com. Among the many sources we used, we found academic writing by Anne-Marie Adams, Valerie Manette, Mary Ann Potnan, and David Theodore extremely helpful to our research. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story.

And the official story isn't always the truth. This episode was written and researched by Hannah McIntosh, edited by Connor Sampson and Mickey Taylor, fact-checked by Laurie Siegel, and sound designed by Kelly Geary. Our head of programming is Julian Boisreau. Our head of production is Nick Johnson, and Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor. I'm your host, Carter Roy.