The Case of Victor Hoffman in the Shell Lake Massacre

Victor Hoffman was diagnosed as suffering from a qute, very serious form of paranoid scit phrenia over a minimum of ten years. The conclusion from doctor hoffer and the other psychiatrists who examined victor was that, from a legal and psychiatric standpoint, victor was not sane at the time of the shell lake massacre. As of december 19 66, the december before the massacre, capital punishment in canada was strictly reserved for those who had murdered police officers or prison guards on duty. So victor's charges were changed to two counts of non capital murder for the deaths of james and evelyn peterson. In his final report, doctor hoffer reported that in