Coroner’s Court

Canada
Province of Quebec
District of Montreal

Coroner’s Court

Present

Ed McMahon

Inquest held in Montreal on the fourteenth day of June, nineteen hundred & one, into the death of Ada Maria Milles, who died yesterday.

Sworn jurors,

John Dunds Jr.
H. Browning
Lansing Lewis
E.C.B Featherstonhaugh
George Hyde
Bartlett McLennan
Francis McLennan
John Walker
W. Morrice
John Savage
W.W. Watson
Charles Esdaile
Herbert Wallis

The Jurors viewed the Body.

The questioning of Peter Redpath, Thomas George Roddick, Hugh Patton, Rollo Campbell, Rosa Shallow, Charles James Fleet, taken under oath before me in Montreal on the fourteenth day of June, nineteen hundred & one, who declare respectively the following:

Peter Redpath

Yesterday evening I saw my brother the deceased arriving home at around six o’clock; he seemed ill and was tired, working hard to prepare for his bar exams. He went up to the room of my mother, Ada Maria Mills, age 62, and a few seconds later I heard a shot from a firearm, followed by two others. I ran up and broke down the door. I saw my mother lying on the floor and several feet from her my brother, also lying in a pool of blood, a revolver a foot away from him near his hand. My brother had been very nervous for some time.

Doctor Thomas George Roddick, M. D.

I was called upon to confirm the death. The witness explains to the Jurors the position in which he found the bodies and declares that in his mind the son must have killed his mother and then shot himself afterward. Has known the family for 20 years. The son is epileptic and not responsible for his acts before during and after his attacks. Knows that he had attacks a few [?] ago. Had advised him to go get some rest for a few days and was supposed to accompany him.

Doctor Hugh Patton

992 Sherbrooke

I arrived at the same time as Doctor Campbell. I found the two bodies in the position described by the first witnesses. I saw two revolvers. The young man’s wound was to his left temple. That of the deceased was to the back of her head. I was called at ten to six.

Rollo Campbell

58 MacKay

Corroborates Dr. Patton’s testimony and also adds that he noticed foam in the mouth of the deceased man, sign of a recent epileptic attack.

Rosa Shallow

Servant. I heard the shots went up right away after Mr. Peter Redpath and saw the two bodies a few feet from each other on the floor. I saw two revolvers near Mr. Clifford Redpath.

Have never seen a revolver in the deceased woman’s room.

Charles James Fleet

Doctor Campbell handed the two revolvers over to me, which I locked away and am now producing, two chambers in one and one in the other are empty. Had never seen those revolvers before.

The above depositions were taken under oath before me at Montreal on the fourteenth day of June nineteen hundred & one.

[signed]Ed McMahon
Coroner

Verdict

We the undersigned Jurors having heard the evidence declare: that Ada Maria Mills died at Montreal on the thirteenth day of June nineteen hundred & one, from a gunshot wound apparently inflicted by Clifford Jocelyn Redpath, while unconscious of what he was doing and temporarily insane, owing to an epileptic attack from which he was suffering at the time:

Montreal 14 June 1901.

[signed jurors]
Witness[signed] Ed McMahon
Coroner

Source: Archives Nationales du Quebec — Centre d’archives de Montréal, Ed McMahon, "Cour du Coroner — Ada Maria Mills Redpath," June 14, 1901

Return to parent page