4min chapter

Wicked Words - A True Crime Talk Show with Kate Winkler Dawson cover image

Wicked Words - John Little: The Donnellys

Wicked Words - A True Crime Talk Show with Kate Winkler Dawson

CHAPTER

The Donnerley's One Fall Swoop

James Donnerley fell first he was the oldest they beat Johanna to death right in between the kitchen and the main room Bridget shrieked and fled up to the loft upstairs to try and get away Johnny O'Connor dove under the bed. Tom is Donnerley with handcuffs on was trying to defend himself as best he could but when he went outside there's a group of vigilance committee members waiting for him out there. William Donnerley they hated the most because he was the brains of the family basically right and he was a firm believer in the golden rule you know you do unto others so if you were good to William he was good to you if you wanted to insult him

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Speaker 1
the Donnerley men there but you're in the lion's den right now and this guy seems so confident and suddenly the door bursted open and in came 25 people armed with clubs and pitchforks axes and just started wailing on the Donnerley family James Donnerley fell first he was the oldest they beat Johanna to death right in between the kitchen and the main room Bridget shrieked and fled up to the loft upstairs to try and get away Johnny O'Connor dove under the bed and Tom is Donnerley with handcuffs on was trying to defend himself as best he could he cracked this one vigilance member in the face which knocked him down and that created an opening so he ran toward the front door which went on to the main road put his shoulder into it almost knocked it off his hinges but when he went outside there's a group of vigilance committee members waiting for him out there so they they essentially beat him to death out there dragged the body inside Johnny O'Connor was still hiding under the bed and he heard them say where's the girl and then a group went upstairs and then came down shortly after and said she's fine meaning that they killed her as well then they enacted phase two which was the act of god component they sent fire to the place so they poured coal oil on the bed under which Johnny was hiding they put coal oil on Tom Donnerley's bed which was just off the kitchen so they had fires going on both sides of the house and then they fled Johnny O'Connor came out you know he stayed there as long as he couldn't to make sure the coast was clear and came out could barely see because of the smoke and the fire and was able to find his way to the kitchen and go outside it was bare feet and this is February in Ontario so it's cold and ran to a neighbor's place and you know they didn't believe the story that he was telling until they went back and then the whole house was engulfed but in the meantime the vigilance committee marched north toward William Donnerley's home because they wanted to get rid of all the Donnerley's one fell swoop and this is three miles away right three miles away and William Donnerley they hated the most because he was the brains of the family basically right and he was a firm believer in the golden rule you know you do unto others so if you were good to William he was good to you if you wanted to insult him in the newspaper he would insult you in the newspaper if you burned down his barn your barn was getting burned down that's the way he operated he was very very sharp he was essentially their lawyer when they were charges wrought against him in court and he always got them on even against better lettered lawyers so they wanted him out of the picture and so they went up to his place and they started to yell fire and William had a prized stallion he was in the horse trade he was breeding the stallion in the back and they said oh you know the stallions hurt fire fire and so he he kind of woke up and his brother John was in the house as well who'd come up to get the cutter and decided to stay overnight and John got up first and said what's that racket you know when was that I don't know and then John went into the kitchen opened the door to find out who it was and was met with a shotgun blast and a on a rifle shot which lifted him off his feet and threw him back against the door jam and then William and his wife basically hit the dirt they didn't know what was going on they suspected probably it was the vigilance committee and when he looked out the window he recognized three members of what were the vigilance committee he didn't know what had happened to his parents at this point he just knew suddenly they were under attack so when daylight broke he went outside to check on his stallion found it was okay and you know his brother was dead at that point John Donnelly and then he asked neighbor if he heard and seen anybody and the neighbor didn't want any part of it of course but he said I did see a glow south here and William suspected right away that was his parents place so he knew he wasn't up to going over to explore it so he asked a friend to go over and see if his parents were okay and if they were to tell them that their son John had been killed and he came back and said sorry you know your family's wiped out and that's when the trials began at that point tell me
Speaker 2
what

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