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The Bernice Connors' Murder
Sometime between 11:30pm of Friday, June 5, 1942 and 1:00am of Saturday, June 6, 1942, Bernice Connors, daughter of Edwin Connors and granddaughter of Lewis Connors, was murdered.
She attended a dance that Friday evening at the community hall in Blacks Harbour (once located beside the present tennis court). She left the dance during the intermission with Thomas Roland Hutchings, a Royal Air Force Sgt., 21 years of age. She never returned. Ms. Connors was reported missing on Sunday evening when Blacks Harbour Police chief Denis P. Guptill took the call at 6:45pm. Guptill was a carrier man with the R.C.M.P. and a former chief of police for the city of Saint John (He had earlier won the respect of every policeman in Eastern Canada for his great police work). He, along with Duncan Dunn for the St. George detachment of the R.C.M.P., found the body under a mossy heap along the Deadman's Harbour Road. Eight hours and forty-five minutes later, R.C.M.P.'s "J" Division Detective Sgt. Frank Davis interviewed the man who would later be convicted of the crime.
 Deadmans Harbour Road, Crime Scene Photo (Charlotte County Archives P225-3) Thomas Roland Hutchings was arrested on Thursday, July 11, 1942. He pleaded "Not Guilty" and was remanded to jail at St. Andrews by police Magistrate Ellis Nason. The preliminary hearing opened before Nason on the morning of July 2. Sheriff Charles Mallory led him to court at the start of his trial on September 29. With the last of 35 witnesses being heard on October 5, the Crown announced that its case was complete. Mr. Justice C. D. Richards informed the jury that Hutchings was on trail for murder and rape. The 12 man jury's foreman, W. W. Quartermain of St. Stephen, announced that Hutchings was "Guilty... and that mercy be shown to the accused". The court ignored the jury's recommendation and sentenced him to hang at St. Andrews on Wednesday, December 16, 1942. This was the last hanging in Charlotte County. Even after 65 years, many residents of Charlotte County know the story about "The Connors Murder". Perhaps people still remember because it was the last murder conviction in the county that ended with a death sentence. Perhaps the murder and its trial remain engraved in the county because some people had problems with their conscience. Perhaps the wrong man was convicted and hung from the gallows in St. Andrews. Perhaps the real murder(s) went free... · Thomas R. Hutchings Information on the convicted murder.
· Bernice Connors
· The Trial
· "The Connors Girl" Song
· "Lights Out"
· "Occupation: Murder"
· "The Murder That Prompted A Hanging"
HutchingsHanging.pdf
· Futher Research
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