Richard
Oland, once co-owner of Moosehead Breweries, was brutally murdered in
his office in downtown Saint John, New Brunswick in the early evening of
July 6th, 2011. His killer sprayed blood everywhere as he smashed
Richard Oland’s head with dozens of blows. It had all the
characteristics of an organized crime hit, designed to kill one and warn
others.
His murder remains unsolved and unexplained. The
Saint John city police have no suspects. Individuals who could explain
the murder have disappeared, pleaded bad memories or gone silent.
Saint
John, and the rest of Canada, were witnesses to two murder trials where
Dennis Oland, Richard’s son, stood accused of the murder. In this book,
Janice Middleton sets out the obvious and clear evidence that Dennis
could not have been the murderer. Even so, Dennis was convicted by a
jury in his first trial, likely because everyone in the city knew of a
motive that was never mentioned in court: Richard had had an affair with
his son's wife.
The Oland family got Dennis acquitted,
but his acquittal left questions unanswered: who killed Richard Oland?
And why was he targeted?
Janice
Middleton pieces together the tangled story of Saint John’s most
dysfunctional citizens. She points to people who might have wanted
Richard Oland dead, shadowy investors who arrived in Saint John to
finance the re-opening of the local sugar refinery. The deal went sour,
the investors lost millions, and they disappeared from sight.
This is a compelling account of how someone got away with murdering a rich, powerful, sleazy leading citizen of Saint John.
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