Canada's Greatest Murder Case

Were Harry and Dallas Hyams criminal masterminds who orchestrated one of Toronto’s most bizarre murders? Or were they nincompoops whose bungling attempts to repair a rickety elevator created a perfect storm of circumstances leading to the accidental death of their employee?

Everyone can agree that the Hyams brothers were scoundrels, but did their treachery extend to murder? Did a botched investigation doom a legitimate prosecution? Did malicious prosecutors victimize innocent fall guys? Or did the unlimited funds of the brothers’ wealthy relatives buy a not guilty verdict?

Whatever else is true about the case, it is true that the case was the most massive, most complex, most hotly contested murder trial in the history of Victorian Era Canada.

This book will attempt to answer the question of the Hyams brothers’ guilt or innocence as it describes how Willie Wells was killed, how the brothers profited from his death, and how the Crown decided to pursue charges two years after the death. It will describe the defense’s pretrial jockeying for position, the Crown’s presentation of the case, and the defense tactics which eventually got the brothers acquitted. It will discuss what the lawyers did right, what they did wrong, and how the actions and attitudes of the presiding judges influenced the eventual verdict. And finally, it will discuss whether justice was served in the case of Queen v. Dallas and Harry Hyams.

Erle Stanley Gardner, with his immortal character Perry Mason, created the mystery subgenre known as the “courtroom procedural.” Canada’s Greatest Murder Case is a courtroom procedural in the genre of true crime.