Susan Clairmont: Gord Lewis of Teenage Head was allegedly killed by his own son. What is behind parricide, the act of a child killing a parent?
One son accused of killing his father has a criminal record for harassment and a history of mental health issues.
Another son convicted of killing his mother and step-father has no criminal record or history of mental health issues. He had a respectable job and was surrounded by loving family.
Two very different cases involving allegations of parricide have shaken our city recently and left many trying to understand a category of homicide - children killing parents - that defies one of society's most fundamental constructs: the family.
In June, a jury found Richard Taylor, 46, guilty of burning alive his mother and stepfather - Carla and Al Rutherford.
The elementary school teacher was deep in debt. Carla gave him thousands of dollars when he asked for money and he stood to inherit her estate.
The cold brutality of the crime paired with the outward normalcy of Taylor's life left many, including the judge, searching for answers.
You were a very unusual criminal ... How you turned out this way with your background is beyond me," said Justice Toni Skarica, after a jury found Taylor guilty.
This month, Jonathan Lewis, 41, was charged with second degree murder in the death of his father, Gord Lewis, founding guitarist of the punk rock band Teenage Head.
In the days between the homicide and the discovery by police of Gord's body in the apartment he shared with his son, an account with the name Jonathan Lewis sent 58 bizarre emails to a number of journalists - many at The Hamilton Spectator. The sender suggested his father was involved in a conspiracy against him and he'd been poisoned by anthrax.
One said people will make some noise knowing someone had all their rights taken away from them, was refused medical treatment, killed and it was all covered up by the media."
A Spectator staff member reported the emails to police.
Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, has spent more than three decades studying parricide. She spoke to The Spectator not about specific cases, but about her research, which has involved interviewing killers.
She says 85 per cent of parents killed by their children are killed by their sons or stepsons. Most of those killers are over 18.
Heide divides parricide into four categories.
The first is the abused parricide offender. They have been severely abused by their parent.
They tend to be under 18 or young adults who are living at home," says Heide. They kill because they're desperate, they're terrified and they see no other way out. Usually they've tried to get help and they've been unsuccessful."
The second category is the severely mentally ill parricide offender.
They are individuals with a long standing history of severe mental illness that can be documented," she says.
These offenders are typically delusional" and frequently have stopped taking their medication.
He may think their dad is a member of the KGB and God or Satan is telling him to kill the dad," she says.
These murders can happen after a parent takes in their ill adult child who cannot function in society" or get the help they need.
They can't pay bills, they can't work, they can't maintain a household," Heide says.
Even if that child has exhibited dangerous behaviour, a parent may believe they will never be hurt because of the loving bond they have.
Then there is the third category: the anti-social parricide offender.
There are individuals who kill parents for a selfish reason," says Heide. All the cases she has studied in this category involve male killers, usually in their 40s or 50s.
I've had several cases where they killed for money...In some of these cases the parents have been very generous and bailed them out, giving them money."
It is when the parent cuts off the flow of money that the killing may occur."
The anti-social parricide offender kills to remove an obstacle in the way of their personal goals. They have no frustration tolerance" and do not take responsibility for their actions.
When they don't get what they want, they lash out.
The fourth category is the enraged parricide offender.
This is the person who erupts" and may be fuelled by drugs or alcohol.
Families of homicide victims experience a unique grief. Those who have lost their loved one due to parricide are an even more exclusive group.
Parricide is cataclysmic" says Heide. Families are often in tremendous conflict because they very often have loving feelings toward the offender. And they don't know how to resolve it."
Parricide cases
Devon Ambrose
By the time her son was 10, Catharine Ambrose knew she had to lower her expectations. He had self-esteem issues and was struggling to grasp concepts.
I just want him to be literate and I want him to be happy," she told The Spectator in 2001.
On Nov. 13, 2020, Devon stabbed his mother to death and wounding his father at their West 31st Street home.
Catherine was 63, as was her husband, Peter.
Devon, 30 at the time, was found not criminally responsible. A forensic psychiatrist said he was psychotic at the time of the stabbings and his condition was brought on by undiagnosed multiple sclerosis, an uncommon phenomena.
Even months after the stabbings Devon didn't believe his mother was dead. He called her his best friend.
Devon's remaining family continued to support him.
Phuoc Hoa Vo
The confrontation began on April 26, 2021 in their George Street apartment with Hung Vo, 67, being stabbed.
Moments later his wife, Moui Khuu, 61, was repeatedly stabbed in the hallway while horrified neighbours watched.
Then their son Phuoc Hoa Vo cut himself.
Both parents died.
Phuoc, 34, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
Police said mental health may have been a factor.
Phuoc previously pleaded guilty to threatening his dad with a weapon after pointing a flare gun at the family's Jackson Square dress shop.
He was given a conditional discharge and was on probation when the murders happened.
His parents accepted him back into their home. His court ordered conditions included keeping the peace, especially with his father, and not to possess weapons.
Mark Staples
When Bill Staples and his daughter Rhonda Borelli vanished from their Binbrook farm in 1998, neighbours began a desperate search.
Yet Mark Staples, who was going broke trying to keep his golf business afloat, insisted his father and sister were on vacation.
Six months later, their decomposed bodies were found in Bill's truck in Toronto.
Forensic pathology reports said Bill had extensive skull fractures and was beaten to death. It is believed Rhonda's throat was cut.
Mark inherited $1.4 million from his father's estate.
It would be 12 years before Mark would be arrested for two counts of first degree murder.
In 2014 a jury found him guilty.
Thomas Harpula
A Hamilton Spectator electrician was stabbed 98 times by the son who loved him.
Voices told Thomas Harpula to hurt his father, Janusz Harpula, 60. This was their way to eternal salvation, the voices said.
Janusz died on Dec. 20, 2017 in the doorway of his Highland Road West home on Stoney Creek Mountain.
Thomas, 29, called 911 and his mother to say he killed his father. He was charged with second-degree murder.
Afterward, he alternated between insisting his father was still alive and demanding to plead guilty to first-degree murder.
At least a dozen family members attended his first court appearance. Some wept while others shouted We love you Tom."
Spectator colleagues recalled Janusz loved to fish with Thomas, who studied commerce at McMaster University.
He had no criminal record, had never been violent and had not been hospitalized for mental illness, although he did exhibit strange behaviour. He thought traffic lights were sending him messages, he spent a winter night in a dumpster and tried to cut moles out of his body because he thought they were killing him. He was addicted to gambling and cannabis and stole money to feed both habits.
Thomas was found not criminally responsible. Psychiatrists said he likely has schizophrenia.
Timothy Brown
George Howson, 73, was allegedly beaten by his stepson at their Main Street West apartment building on March 14, 2021 and died in hospital.
Timothy Brown, 54, was charged with aggravated assault, later upgraded to second-degree murder. Brown had no previous criminal record.
Records show a woman called 911 to say her son beat her husband with a lamp. In the background Brown could allegedly be heard saying: There's a f--ing Nazi here. I killed him."
Ryan Cannon
Ryan Cannon, 27, and his girlfriend, Victoria Rolfe, 25, were charged with killing his father who came to check on him.
On Oct. 27, 2021 Jacob Ardagna, a 47-year-old grandfather, was found dead in the King Street East apartment belonging to Rolfe.
Police said there were signs of a disturbance."
Jacob struggled with mental illness and had lived in a residential mental-health program for a year before his death.
Dellen Millard
He is a serial killer convicted of murdering a lover, a stranger and his own father.
It began with the murder and incineration of Laura Babcock in 2012. Toronto Police failed to diligently investigate her disappearance, chalking it up to the transient ways of a young sex worker with mental health issues.
In November 2012, Dellen's millionaire father, Wayne Millard was shot in the eye while lying in bed. Toronto Police deemed it a suicide. Dellen inherited his estate.
Then on May 6, 2013, Ancaster's Tim Bosma went out with Millard and Mark Smich to test drive the truck he was selling and never came back. He was shot and incinerated.
It was only after the arrests of Millard and Smich in Bosma's murder that Toronto police reopened their earlier botched investigations.
Millard is serving life in prison for three first degree murders. Smich is serving life sentences for the murders of Bosma and Babcock.
Malcom MacNeil
Malcom Donald MacNeil of Brantford was 19 when he was stopped by OPP in Perth County on May 26, 2020 around midnight because of his driving.
It led the OPP to contact Brantford Police, who checked on a home on Wayne Drive.
They found Malcom's father, Donald John MacNeil, 54, dead. He had been stabbed multiple times.
Malcom was charged with first degree murder.
Adam Wiatrowski
Adam Wiatrowski, 26, of Stoney Creek tried to kill his father during a family argument.
On Thanksgiving Monday, 2018, Ted Wiatrowski, 57, was stabbed in his back, ribs, face, mouth and shoulder in the family's McNeilly Road home.
The attack stopped when Adam's mother intervened.
Adam was charged with attempted murder and pleaded guilty.
The judge said the stabbing appears to be the culmination of years of animus between father and son."
Adam has drug and alcohol addiction and mental-health issues. However his psychiatric condition was not found to be the cause of the attack.
Ted required five surgeries, lost the use of his right hand and has limited lung capacity.
Joey Tobin
Joey Tobin's mother begged doctors not to release her 21-year-old son from the hospital.
But they did and she took him home. Hours later he fatally stabbed his father, Ron Tobin, in the head with a screwdriver. That was 2002.
Joey had schizophrenia. Police had been to the family's Kensington Avenue North home often when he was off his medication.
A month before the murder, Joey moved into his own apartment, but he didn't like it and moved back home. Days before he was murdered, Ron, 43, told a relative he'd give his life for his son.
Joey was found not criminally responsible.
Before he was led out of the courtroom, Joey turned to his family, smiled and waved. Wiping tears from their eyes, his relatives smiled and waved back.
Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com