Roses for Gail

There has been substantial news coverage about DAVID MILGAARD, Canada’s ‘poster boy’ for the wrongfully convicted, who passed away suddenly in Calgary in May 2022. Seven years prior, there was also significant coverage surrounding the death of LARRY FISHER, the man who should’ve been convicted of murder.

 

With every news item, there was a brief mention of the victim, 20-year-old GAIL MILLER. Milgaard endured two and a half decades of wrongful incarceration, while the real killer — Fisher — wasted away from cancer. The killer and serial rapist died behind bars.

 

However, Gail Miller suffered the most. On January 31, 1969, she was raped and fatally stabbed on her way to work. The Laura, Saskatchewan, native was a nursing assistant at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon.

 

On an overcast August 31, 2023, I visited Gail Miller’s grave near Laura and decided to write a story about her. I wanted to share her story, her upbringing, and where she died — including details of the crime that cut her life short.

 

Here we go…

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A portion of this post is explicit. You may want to avoid two chapters. Your choice. See ‘CAUTION … reader discretion advised.’

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GAIL MILLER

Gail Olena Miller was born in 1948 in Laura, a village alongside Highway 7, about half an hour’s drive southwest of Saskatoon. Gail came from a large family … she was one of nine children of Jean and Milton Miller. Gail had five sisters and three brothers.

Her middle name was in memory of her grandmother, Olena, who passed in 1934.

Before the Great Depression, Laura was a bustling pioneer farming community. In 1954, the village was downgraded to hamlet status.

Farm life was not for Gail, and so in the fall of 1967, Canada’s Centennial Year, she enrolled in a nurses aide program at Kelsey Campus, a Saskatoon trade school [now called Saskatchewan Polytechnic]. Her grandmother put up the money for her post-secondary education.

Gail’s first job was at a hospital in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Her second job was in a children’s ward at City Hospital in Saskatoon’s west end.

The young woman had a room in a rooming house on the same side of town, perceived by some to be the ‘rough part’ of town.  Since Gail didn’t own a car, she either walked or relied on public transportation to get around.

A close friend of Gail [who wishes to remain anonymous] fondly recalls her long-lost friend. She points out that Gail always put others ahead of herself. “With her first paycheques,” she says, Gail bought gifts for her family.” That gave me chills. I did the very same thing with my first pay cheques.

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A CRIME BEYOND SENSELESS

On a frigid morning in Saskatoon on Friday, January 31st, 1969, a dense fog of ice hung in the air, with the temperature plummeting to a bone-chilling minus 41 Celsius. Gail, who had a one-room apartment, ventured out at 7 a.m., locking the door behind her.

Tragically, an hour and a half later, her battered body was discovered two blocks away, lying face down in the snow in a secluded back alley, only a couple of blocks away from her workplace and just a stone’s throw away from a funeral home.

 

Police rushed to the scene and found Gail’s lifeless body. She was wearing a white nurses’ uniform with a name tag that read Ms. G. Miller. They also found the murder weapon, a bloodied six-inch paring knife — minus its handle. The chaotic struggle had caused the handle to detach during the attack. Gail’s purse was also missing.

 

A few days later, a police dog discovered both the purse and the missing knife handle in a garbage can. Police revealed that Miller’s purse contained typical items a woman would carry, such as keys to her apartment, a comb, makeup, and surgical scissors.

 

No one witnessed the attack. There were no tire tracks, suggesting that the assailant had been on foot.

 

Some officers criticized the police investigation, particularly the Identification [ID] section, pointing out that Saskatoon Police did not block off the area, didn’t bring in a sniffer dog to track the perpetrator — and they did not take footprint impressions that could’ve determined the size of the footwear worn by the attacker.

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CAUTION: Reader discretion is advised …

Gail Miller met a gruesome end. An autopsy revealed a dozen deep stab wounds, including four to her chest, four in her back, three just below her collarbone, and one to her side. Two of the wounds were fatal. Her face and throat were cut and bruised. Her knees were also bruised. 

A pathologist concluded that Gail was attacked around 7:30 in the morning and had been dead for an hour before her body was discovered.

The perpetrator tore open his victim’s winter coat, pulled her uniform down to her waist, and yanked her panties and nylons down to her ankles. [End of explicit content.]

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CRITICAL EVIDENCE

After a trial, Gail’s underwear ended up in a cardboard box in the basement of the Federal Department of Justice building in Ottawa.

Gail’s panties contained semen from her attacker. It was like leaving behind a photo ID.

At the time, DNA testing technology had not been developed. Once a DNA test was done, in the 1990s, it was apparent the killer was none other than serial rapist Larry Fisher, who was then serving time in prison in British Columbia.

Fisher was behind bars for a similar sexual assault. In this case, the female victim — badly wounded — crawled to safety.

The DNA test sealed Fisher’s fate while exonerating drifter, petty thief, and pot-smoker David Milgaard who spent nearly 23 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. That’s not a typo; 23 years. Let that sink in.

Due to the nature of the crime, David was frequently attacked by other inmates. He also attempted suicide.

David Milgaard was finally exonerated in 1997, thanks to the new evidence. However, due to the Supreme Court’s intervention, he had been released years earlier, awaiting a new trial that never happened.

A young David Milgaard.

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LARRY FISHER’S DEMISE

Larry Fisher was finally convicted of Gail Miller’s murder in 1999 — three decades after the homicide. In June 2012, the body of the killer rapist left a B.C. prison on a gurney after cancer finished him off. Fisher never showed remorse for raping and murdering the young nursing assistant, nor did he apologize to David Milgaard for screwing up his life. Complete silence.

Fisher came across as a psycho with a deep emotional hate-on for women. If the man had any remorse for how his crimes had hurt people, he took it to his grave.

Oh. This is important. Long before the DNA evidence became public, Larry Fisher had confessed to a fellow con he killed “that nurse.” If I can get wind of that explosive confession while on a prison beat, where the hell were the authorities? Didn’t they have connections?

And yes, I did share that information with David Milgaard, but he dismissed it because the inmate who heard Fisher’s confession was, in his words, a “skinner.” That’s prison jargon for rapist.  David would have nothing to do with them.

David Milgaard, a 17-year-old, was wrongfully convicted by a jury of raping and murdering Gail Miller. One memory he shared with me was glancing at his father, Lorne, in the gallery and seeing tears streaming down his face. “I had never seen Dad cry before,” he recounted.

David’s mother, Joyce, relentlessly fought for her son’s release and never lost hope in his innocence. When I asked her what convinced her of his innocence, she simply replied, “I know my son, and he would never commit such a heinous act.”

David privately expressed his intense anger and vowed to kill Fisher if he ever got the chance. I can empathize with his overwhelming emotions.

The tragic events surrounding Gail Miller’s death led to a series of heinous crimes. First, there was the brutal knifepoint rape and murder. Then, a wrongful conviction that imprisoned an innocent man for more than two decades. Next, there was the incompetence and dishonesty of Saskatoon detectives who pressured frightened teenagers, acquaintances of David, to change their testimony and betray their friend. Finally, there was the sleazy behaviour of a heavy-drinking Crown Prosecutor, who, when informed by a lawyer in his office that it seemed unlikely that Milgard was guilty, remarked, “Fuck him.” This remark exemplified the incompetence and dishonesty that plague our judicial system.

As a result of these events, the system worked against David Milgaard, including some politically appointed members of Canada’s Parole Board. When an early Board reminded Milgaard of his murder conviction, he responded with a defiant “fuck you!” The man known as “Shuffles” also complained about the poor quality of the marijuana he smoked in the joint.

None of these individuals who committed crimes in the name of justice ate prison food. They all managed to escape. It’s worth noting that this was the same police force that abandoned troublemakers on the outskirts of town in minus-40-degree weather, knowing full well that they could freeze to death. Some did.

David Milgaard eventually received a substantial financial settlement — courtesy of Saskatchewan taxpayers. He used the money to support his parents and siblings, pay his lawyer, invest in the stock market, travel to Australia and Europe, purchase a house in Calgary, and live off the interest of the remaining funds (approximately one million dollars).

Towards the end of his life, David volunteered to help those he believed had been wrongfully accused. He often got in touch with information about wrongfully-convicted prisoners, encouraging me to write stories about them.

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TIME MOVES ON …

They’re all gone now … David Milgaard died suddenly in Calgary in 2022 [his health began to fail after taking his third COVID ‘vaccine’].

David was cremated. His ashes were scattered in a private ceremony in his favourite hangout, the Canadian Rockies.

David’s lawyer, Hersh Wolch, passed away in 2017 due to a heart attack at the age of 77. Lorne and Joyce Milgaard, both of whom have since passed away, were 78 and 89 years old, respectively. Killer Larry Fisher succumbed to cancer at the age of 65.

The first victim of this tragic incident, Gail Miller, was only 20 when she was murdered by a stranger in a back alley.

As per the sign, Gail is now “at rest” in a small rural cemetery located several miles from her childhood home.

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A MOSS-COVERED TOMBSTONE

Gail Miller’s name is almost obscured owing to the moss on her headstone.

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David Milgaard said he could never visit Gail Miller’s grave due to  lingering doubts about his innocence. 

David’s passing has brought a sense of closure, and now, half of the white flowers in the photo represent his memory as well.

Gail and David were both victims of Larry Fisher and a broken criminal justice system.

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LAURA TODAY

Once a charming hamlet, Laura has fallen into disrepair and is now on the brink of becoming another ghost town. Saskatchewan is home to many such abandoned towns.

Only a handful of people still call Laura home. Today, it’s an eyesore with scattered buildings, many of which are deserted and boarded up. Once, these homes had manicured lawns, but now they’re littered with discarded appliances, bicycles, and knee-high grass.

The hamlet is depressing. However, I did find a tidy yard at the edge of town, which belonged to 65-year-old Larry Adams. He proudly pointed out that Laura once had lovely homes and roads, a church, stores, a school, and a grain elevator.

He also shared that Gail’s brother, Jim, had left Laura a few years ago and now resides in Northern Saskatchewan.

It was Larry who kindly provided me with precise directions to the Laura Cemetery.

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GAIL’S GRAVESTONE …

Gail Miller is buried in a moss-covered grave in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Can that moss be removed? Apparently so. I watched a YouTube video that showed how a plastic scraper and a water sprayer can significantly restore a tombstone. It’s as simple as that.

I should try it out next time I’m around with flowers and a new solar light. Gail Miller deserves a proper tombstone.

As I stood over Gail’s grave, I couldn’t help but think about the life the young woman never had. She would have no marriage, no home of her own, no children, grandchildren, a vehicle, travels, or retirement. All because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong man — and living in a city with a broken criminal justice system.

When it started to rain, I bid farewell to Gail Olena Miller and hurried to my car parked outside the cemetery gate. It had been a sobering visit, and I left teary-eyed, but not because of the downpour. To clear my mind, I played some music from my iPhone and headed towards a paved highway to Humboldt, Saskatchewan, for another story.

[A hat-tip to the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, True Crime Canada, Toronto Star, Canadian Press, reporter Lisa Joy, and Larry Adams.]

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DAVID MILGAARD

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THE AUTHOR

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Christopher

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