749 October/November 1940 THE TIMES TRAVELLER by BARNEY MOORHOUSE
Murder Charge to be Heard at Hastings County Fall Assizes
Frederick Thain, Rawdon township farmer, faces two charges of murder, being accused of murdering Mr. and Mrs. Wellman at their home, Rawdon, last February. He will be defended by Robert McCulloch, Belleville barrister.
- /Nov. 1940 THE TIMES TRAVELLER
THAIN TO DIE ON GALLOWS ON JANUARY 14
Frederick Thain, 46-year-old Rawdon farmer, will pay with his life for the murder of Arnold Wellman, aged Rawdon township resident, whose shotgun-blasted body was found with that of his wife, Nancy Wellman, in their farm buildings, 25 miles north of this city on January 31.
Thain was found guilty by the Supreme Court jury on Thursday afternoon after 2 ½ hours deliberation. The verdict culminated one of the shortest murder trials in the history of Ontario. The convicted man was sentenced to death by Mr. Justice Keiller MacKay immediately following the verdict. He will be hanged in Belleville on Tuesday, January 14, 1941.
- January 1941 THE TIMES TRAVELLER
THAIN HANGS on January 14 – UNLESS PETITION in CIRCULATION STOPS IT
At Belleville two weeks from Tuesday – January 14, 1941 – unless something happens in the meantime to interfere, Fred. Thain, Rawdon farmer, will be hanged for the brutal murder of his aged neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Wellman.
Thain was tried and found guilty at the Fall Assizes in Belleville and was sentenced to death by Mr. Justice Mackay. Even though he had admitted over his own signature to the police that he had killed the aged couple with a shotgun, he stood up in court and protested his innocence. Since the trial and sentence Thain had been under guard in the County Jail at Belleville and it is said he is standing up well.
The stark brutality of the Wellman killing was on par with the crime committed by Harold Vermilyea who killed his mother with a hatchet in Belleville a few short years ago. At the time Vermilyea came all the way from California to commit the foul deed and when this was done returned west by plane. He was in due time arrested, brought to Belleville, tried and hanged.
Thain is a married man and has a fine family. No reason for taking the lives of the Wellmans has ever been made public. – Trenton Courier Advocate.
FURTHER INFORMATION
NOTES ON THE THAIN MURDER CASE
On Saturday, February 20, 2010, I visited with Layne Moore and his dad Gerald. Layne mentioned that his mother used to talk about the Thain case as she grew up in the area where it happened. The Wellman’s were an older couple who put both a son and daughter through medical school. They had also lent some money to Thain. Apparently, Thain had picked up a load of grain from Mr. Wellman and later murdered him while he was in the wood shed. After, he dragged Mr. Wellman into the barn. Then he murdered Mrs. Wellman in her bed.
“It looked like he was planning on burning the place to hide the crime but circumstances interfered and he never had the chance,” said Moore.
Circumstances had prevented him from carrying out his plan.
Neighbours know what neighbours do. For example, Mrs. Wellman always lowered the shade in her upstairs bedroom at night and raised it first thing in the morning. Being early risers her neighbour knew this. After the murder of course the shade was still down in the morning. Following breakfast, the shade still being down, the neighbour sent her husband to see if all was OK. Of course it wasn’t, he discovered the grisly murder and called the police.
Thain apparently was assisting the police when they noticed blood – from the victims – on his overalls and soon he was arrested.
Layne said his mother’s family had a good idea that Thain was the culprit. Naturally, it was the talk of the day for a few weeks.
According to Layne, an eye witness at the trial said Thain’s body language pleaded guilty. “He was fidgety; he couldn’t sit still. He had a hat in his hand. I thought he was going to twist it in half.”
JANUARY 16 EDITION OF THE TIMES
Thain Hanged Early Tuesday
Frederick Thain, 46, of Rawdon district, was hanged early Tuesday morning at Belleville for the murder of his 77 year-old neighbour, Arnold Wellman, in the latter’s barn Jan. 31, 1939.
Thain had been charged also with killing Wellman’s bed-ridden wife the same day but when he was convicted of the murder of Wellman the second charge was dropped.
In sub-zero weather Thain walked to the scaffold. He was cheerful and made no remonstrance’s when his guards told him that the hour was at hand. With the same smile that characterized him throughout his brief trial, Thain walked to the gallows without any outward show of emotion. At 1:10 a.m. the trap was sprung and the Rawdon farmer paid with his life for his crime. This was the second hanging in Belleville within the last six years.