On a fall day in Toronto, nine-year-old Gary Morris was convinced to go for a bicycle ride, an invitation that led to a devastating end. It was October 6, 1956, when the young boy from the Cabbagetown neighborhood accompanied a teenager to Cherry Beach, a then-industrial area on the city's waterfront. There, in a secluded spot, Gary was brutally attacked and killed.
His death would become part of a series of child murders that terrorized the city and exposed a deeply troubled young killer.
Gary was the second of three children to be murdered in Toronto over a terrifying five-month span. His body was discovered at Cherry Beach, showing signs of a vicious assault; he had been strangled and beaten so severely that his liver was ruptured. The scene was marked by strange, ritualistic elements that baffled investigators. Paper clips were found sprinkled near his body, and a bite mark was on his throat. His clothes had been removed and then put back on him, a disturbing signature that was also present at another recent crime scene.
The perpetrator was Peter Woodcock, a 17-year-old who appeared to be just another teenager who enjoyed riding his bicycle around the city. In reality, he was a deeply disturbed individual with a traumatic childhood, having been given up for adoption at birth and suffering abuse in foster care. Woodcock had already killed before. Less than a month earlier, on September 15, he had lured seven-year-old Wayne Mallette from the Canadian National Exhibition grounds and strangled him, leaving pennies scattered near the body.
The investigation into the child murders intensified, creating a climate of fear across Toronto. Woodcock's spree continued into the new year. On January 19, 1957, he abducted four-year-old Carole Voyce, murdering her under the Bloor Viaduct. This time, however, there were witnesses who saw a teenager on a bicycle with the little girl. Their descriptions led to a police sketch that was published on the front page of the Toronto Star. The sketch was recognized, and two days later, on January 21, 1957, Peter Woodcock was arrested.
Upon his arrest, Woodcock confessed to the murders of Gary Morris, Wayne Mallette, and Carole Voyce. His primary fear, he stated, was his foster mother finding out. During his trial in April 1957, he was tried only for the murder of Carole Voyce. After four days of testimony that delved into his traumatic past, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The court committed him to the Oak Ridge division of the maximum-security Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre.
Woodcock would spend the rest of his life in psychiatric institutions. In 1982, he legally changed his name to David Michael Krueger. Despite decades of experimental treatments for psychopathy, the underlying violence remained. In 1991, during his first-ever unsupervised weekend pass from a medium-security facility in Brockville, he murdered a fellow patient, Dennis Kerr, with a hatchet and knives. He immediately turned himself in to the police and was returned to a maximum-security facility.
Peter Woodcock, later known as David Michael Krueger, died in custody on his 71st birthday, March 5, 2010. He was described as "the serial killer they couldn't cure." For the family of Gary Morris, and the families of the other victims, his life of institutionalization was the only justice the law could provide. The case was officially closed with the death of the primary suspect, leaving behind the tragic memory of a nine-year-old boy whose life was cut short on a bicycle ride to the beach.
