The Voices Made Me Do It: The Blackman Family Murders

In the early morning hours of January 18, 1983, screams and gunshots bring RCMP to a home on Spuraway Avenue in Coquitlam. Inside, six members of the Blackman family are dead.

But what happened that morning began months earlier.

In this episode of Valley of Secrets, we look at the Blackman family murders, the warning signs leading up to them, and the complexities of severe mental illness as one young man became increasingly disconnected from reality.
Could this tragedy have been prevented?

Sources:
Booth, J. H. (2013). A voice out of nowhere: Inside the mind of a mass murderer. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/j...
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/01/...
https://web.archive.org/web/200707240...
https://www.bcrb.bc.ca/dec064.html
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/j...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/j...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/a...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/n...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/n...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/j...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/n...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/j...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/n...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/j...
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/n...
https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/do...
https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/do...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey TrueCom friends, welcome back to Valley of Secrets. I'm your host, Nikki Ruth. Thank you so much for joining me today. And if you haven't already, don't forget to hit subscribe or follow so you don't miss an episode. Today's story is one of the most devastating family tragedies in British Columbia history. It begins with a family trying to understand what is happening to someone they love. There are warning signs, there are moments that raise serious concern, and there are people around him who can clearly see that something is wrong, even if they don't yet understand just how dangerous things are becoming. But nothing prepares them for what happens inside a Coquitlam home on a dark rainy morning in January 1983. This case raises difficult questions about severe mental illness, missed opportunities for intervention, and whether any of this could have been prevented. Before we get into that, I do want to give you a quick warning. This episode includes detailed descriptions of violence and some very disturbing behavior. So please take care while listening. The majority of the information in this episode comes from Janice Hollybooth's book, A Voice Out of Nowhere, along with the regular newspaper reporting and court documents. So let's get into the story of the Blackman family. Ed Field is awakened by gunshots outside his home at Spurway Avenue in Coquitlam, BC. Ed looks across the street toward the Blackman home. The garage door is open, and the light from inside gives him a partial view of two people on the front lawn. One of them appears to be trying to get away, and the other is following closely behind, yelling for them to get back inside the house. Then Ed hears a man's voice calling for help before both figures disappear into the garage. At this point, Ed does not fully know what he is seeing. It is still dark and the rain is coming down hard. He is watching from across the street and everything seems to be happening very quickly. So for a moment, he tries to make sense of it in the most ordinary way possible. Maybe it was a family argument, maybe it's a private disagreement that has become louder than it should be. Something about what he has just seen though doesn't feel right. So he goes back to the window, and this time he sees one of the figures near a workbench inside the garage. The person picks up an object and carries it back into the house. Shortly after, he sees two more figures running through the yard. Again, one is chasing the other, but because both appear to have slender builds and longer hair, and because it is still dark and raining, Ed cannot tell who either person is. But then he hears a woman pleading, no, not me, not me. And then there are two more gunshots, and the person trying to escape falls to the ground. The shooter grabs the victim by the arms and drags them back into the garage. And now Ed knows this is not just an argument. He watches the garage door close and he checks the time. He calls the police. It is 5 48 a.m. Seven minutes later, RCP officers arrive at 2629 Spurraway Avenue. Spurroway Avenue is a quiet subdivision of Ranch Park. It's up a hill that has great views of Goldenears Provincial Park below. Police officers park a few houses down from the Blackman residence and almost immediately notice the Blackman house as it was lit up like a Christmas tree. As police walk closer, they see a young man walking near the home. He appears confused and he keeps changing direction, almost like he's not even sure of where he's going. He looks to be in his early twenties, and he's wearing a leather jacket, blue jeans, black boots, and a brown woven headband. As officers approach, the man puts both hands into his jacket pockets. They immediately order him to take them out, and he complies. Officers search his jacket, but they do not find any weapons on him. But when they ask him where he was coming from, the young man says he was at a nearby school. But that answer just doesn't make sense. Ranch Park Elementary School is about two blocks away and he is walking toward it, not away from it. Then officers ask if he knows anything about the reported gunshots, and he replies no. But they can see wet stains on his shirt and there is blood on his hands. The young man takes out his wallet and hands over his identification, and his name is Bruce Alfred Blackman. He is 22 years old. And the house that police are responding to belongs to his parents, Richard and Irene Blackman. One officer stays with Bruce while others continue towards the home. And as Bruce is questioned, his behavior begins to shift. When asked whether he remembers what happened, he suddenly becomes animated. His speech speeds up, he starts talking about the devil, he claims he is the Antichrist and says the world will end on the 31st. Then just as quickly, he changes again. His expression goes blank, his voice becomes flat, and he says he is possessed, his family is possessed, and everyone is already dead. So now officers are trying to understand what they are dealing with. Is Bruce under the influence of something? Is he experiencing a psychiatric crisis? And more urgently, what has happened inside that house? Bruce is placed in the back of the police car and read his writes. A lot of what he says is difficult to follow. He talks about voices, the devil, and his twin brother needing to die. But when officers ask about the blood on his hands, Bruce gives a clear answer. He says there was a shooting and that he murdered his family. At 6.09 a.m., Bruce Blackman is formally arrested for murder. Meanwhile, the other officers have reached the Blackman home. It is a large brick and cedar two-story split-level home that looked well manicured and taken care of. In the driveway, the family's cream and green camper van sits along with a small pickup truck and a brown sedan. Before going inside, they look through a garage window and see a woman lying near the doorway leading into the house. She is later identified as 25-year-old Karen Dale Rhodes, one of the blackmen's daughters, and she has been shot twice. With their weapons drawn, officers enter through the front door, and right away they see blood. A lot of blood. There are bloody footprints and what appear to be drag marks across the carpet. And about 15 feet inside the home, they find a man lying partly in the hallway and partly inside the laundry room. He is identified as 39-year-old John Davies, the husband of the blackman's eldest daughter, Roberta. John has been shot six times and brutally beaten in the head and face with a hammer 11 times, to the point that he is unrecognizable. But remarkably, he is still alive, barely. He is struggling to breathe, so an officer immediately calls for paramedics around 6 10 a.m. But the search continues through the house, and there is a substantial amount of blood that is in the kitchen, but officers do not see any bodies there, so they follow the trail of the bloody drag marks leading toward the basement. Downstairs, near a pool table in the games room, they find two more bodies lying beside one another. One is 50-year-old Richard Blackie Blackman, the father of the family. He has been shot multiple times. Beside him is a 16-year-old son, Richard Blackman Jr., known as Rick. Rick has been killed by a single gunshot to the back of the head. Officers then head upstairs, and inside the master bedroom, they find 49-year-old Irene Blackman. She is lying on her back wearing only white underwear and white tennis socks. Both arms are raised with one resting across her face. Irene had been shot in the back, which punctured her lung, and then was shot in her head. In the garage, officers find another victim between two vehicles. The victim's arms are raised and a blue jacket has been pulled over her face and head. There was mud on her hands and the side of her face, and blades of grass near her chin. Her shoes were partially off of her feet as well. She had also sustained several skull and jaw fractures. This victim is 28-year-old Roberta Davies, the blackman's eldest daughter and John's wife. Roberta had been shot, and she has also suffered severe injuries to her head from a hammer. On a nearby workbench, officers find that hammer covered in blood. At approximately 6.20 a.m., paramedics arrive and are taken directly to John Davies, who is still alive and struggling to breathe. They give him oxygen, but his injuries are too severe and he dies within minutes. The suffering that John must have endured is unimaginable. By this point, six members of the Blackman family have been killed: Richard and Irene Blackman, their children Karen, Roberta, and Rick, and Roberta's husband John Davies. Bruce is taken to the Coquitlam RCMP detachment where he continues making disjointed statements about voices that he says have been tormenting him and telling him what to do. While Bruce is being questioned, the RCMP identification team arrives at the house to begin processing what is now an enormous and incredibly complicated crime scene. They find a 22-caliber rifle lying on the front lawn and another one sitting against the stairs in the family room. It does not take long for word to spread. Six people have been killed inside a home in a coquitlam, quiet neighborhood, and police already have a member of that family in custody. News crews begin gathering outside, and neighbors stand along the street watching as investigators move in and out of the home. One by one, six bodies are carried from the house under blue coverings and taken to the morgue. For the people who knew the Blackmans, the news is almost impossible to understand. This was a well-liked family. And now investigators have to determine not only what happened inside the house, but what led Bruce Blackman to turn against nearly everyone in his family, everyone he loved. And to understand that, we need to go back. Richard Blackman was 50 years old and had spent most of his adult life doing demanding hands-on work. He had served in the Canadian Navy and worked as a marine engineer, and had previously been employed by Pacific Towing Services. He'd also worked as a chief engineer with the BC Highways Department before joining the Vancouver Fire Department in 1978. There, Richard worked as an engineer aboard one of Vancouver's fireboats, and everything people said about Richard painted a similar picture. He was steady, practical, reliable, and the kind of person others trusted when something went wrong. And that makes what happened even harder to process. Because Richard had spent years responding to emergencies and helping other people through their own crises. When he was not working, Richard took pride in the family home. He kept the lawn maintained, worked in the garden, and liked the property looking cared for. The Blackmans were also an outdoorsy family. They reportedly took camping trips to places like Harrison Hot Springs and their beloved camper van. And Richard was also known to go hunting with his boys. He reportedly had many hunting rifles inside the home, but they were locked up. Richard worked hard, but he also made time for his home, his family, and the life that they were building together. His wife, Irene Catherine, was 49 years old. She had worked for almost three years as a patterns clerk in the promotions department at the province newspaper. One of the newspapers that I look into for these sort of cases. Irene seems to have been one of those people who made a workplace feel warmer. She remembered birthdays, she checked in on people, she made a point of acknowledging her co-workers before she left at the end of every shift. Younger employees reportedly saw her almost like a mother figure because she was approachable and supportive. Irene was also featured in promotional photographs used on Pacific Press delivery trucks. Richard and Irene had raised six children together. Their eldest daughter was 28-year-old Roberta Lynn Davies, known to everyone as Bobby. Bobby had married 39-year-old John Davies the previous summer, and the two were living together in North Vancouver and were still in the early months of their married life. People described them as easygoing and friendly, a couple who were well liked by the people around them. John worked for a Vancouver record company and reportedly had two young children from a previous relationship. Bobby and John had also started talking about having children of their own together. Next in line was 26-year-old Kathy Wiley. She lived in Quinnell with her husband and was nowhere near the Blackman residence at the time of the murders. The third child was 25-year-old Karen Dale Rhodes. Karen had recently separated from her husband Curtis and was staying with her sister Bobby and John. Neighbors remember Karen as a good-looking woman with a personality to go with it. She was nice and always had a smile on her face, much like her mother. The youngest child in the family was 16-year-old Richard Joseph Jr., known as Rick. Rick was a twin, but his brother Raymond was born a stillborn. Rick attended Sir Frederick Banting Jr. secondary school and was heavily involved in sports. He loved hockey, followed the Vancouver Canucks, and enjoyed being outdoors. He was energetic, funny, and known as a bit of a goofball, the kind of teenager who could fit in with almost anyone. Rick had also been dating his girlfriend Carolyn, off and on, I believe, for about 10 months. By all accounts, he was social, popular, and almost always surrounded by people. And then there were the twins, Bruce and Barry Blackman. They were 22 years old. Before everything changed, Bruce was remembered as friendly and outgoing. He liked being active. He loved frisbee, hunting, and soccer, and he was also good with his hands. He enjoyed working on cars and had a natural mechanical ability. When the twins were around 13 years old, Richard and Irene started to see the difference in the boys. Bruce's grades started to drop to F's while Barry was getting A's. Bruce had trouble seeing letters and numbers correctly, and he struggled with reading. Barry was viewed as organized and logical. He dressed well and kept his hair trimmed nicely. Bruce, on the other hand, was sometimes described as erratic and impulsive. He would wear the same clothes for a week and kept his hair longer. And for Richard and Irene, it seems like there was confusion and maybe even frustration around why Bruce seemed to struggle in ways that Barry did not. So they took Bruce to be assessed for a learning disability. The specialist diagnosed Bruce with dyslexia, which helped explain some of the challenges he had been having with reading in school. The psychologist also made reference to Bruce being a mirror twin. Now, mirror twin is not a psychiatric diagnosis. It is a term sometimes used when identical twins have opposite physical traits, like one is right-handed and the other one is left-handed. It does not explain mental illness or any sort of violence or delusions. But for Bruce, that term would eventually take on a much darker meaning. Because as his mental state began to change, Bruce did not just see mirror twin as a descriptive and small difference between him and Barry. He began to believe that things around him needed to be understood in reverse, like words, numbers, messages, even ordinary events. And that is when the concern around Bruce starts to shift from a young man who struggled in school to a young man whose understanding of reality was beginning to unravel. Shortly after this revelation, Bruce began smoking marijuana regularly. Around October 1982, just three months before the murders, signs of mental illness started to show. Bruce was living on Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver with a roommate named Terry. He was working as a swamper on a garbage truck, which is the person that gets off the truck, grabs the bands, and puts the garbage into the truck. By now, Bruce was known to be a heavy marijuana user and had been for the past eight years. It was something that he and Terry had in common. Terry was one of the first people to notice Bruce's mental health declining. He would later testify that Bruce repeatedly warned him the world was about to end. At this time, he also started wearing a headband that he called his Crown of Thorns and had a Bible with him everywhere he went. Sometimes Bruce would point to the television and insist a message was being sent directly to him. They could be watching something ordinary, like an episode of All in the Family, and Bruce would interpret the dialogue, the audience's laughter, or even a specific scene as confirmation that some kind of global catastrophe was coming. But Terry did not recognize this as a serious psychiatric crisis. Then one evening, Terry came home with a friend and found five coffee mugs arranged on the table. Bruce explained that the mugs were for the three of them and two friends. According to him, everyone needed to be together by eight o'clock that night because that was when the world was going to end. The others laughed it off and they left. But Bruce was not joking. He went to the house where the group had gathered and begged them to come back with him. He believed it was his responsibility to make sure everyone was together when the end of the world came. When they continued dismissing him, he became very upset, and he left. But as he was leaving, he suddenly drops to his knees and begins crying hysterically. He believes he had just seen a terrifying beast waiting outside. But in reality, it was the neighbor's dog standing nearby and wagging his tail. But Bruce was not seeing a dog. He believed he was looking at a monstrous creature with blood-covered teeth. Something he thought had arrived as part of the end of the world. And this is where it becomes clear that Bruce was no longer simply anxious or fixated on a strange idea. He was experiencing delusions and hallucinations that felt completely real to him. He was not violent at that point, but his condition was clearly getting worse. And the people around him still did not understand how serious it had become. Religion also began playing a major role in Bruce's delusions. Even though the Blackman family was not known to be particularly religious themselves. While Bruce was living on Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver, Jehovah's Witness literature was sometimes left at the building, so he began reading the publications such as Awake and The Watchtower. At this time, the Bible, especially the Book of Revelations, became his obsession, which he studied while searching for signs, instructions, and hidden messages. He was especially focused on warnings about the end of the world and the belief that only a limited number of people would be saved. Bruce desperately wanted to understand how he could be one of them. Then comes December 3rd. Barry is living in Ottawa at the Canadian Forces Base, Rockcliffe, where he works as a finance clerk. That morning, he wakes up with a strange feeling that something is wrong with his twin brother Bruce, so he calls him. When Bruce answers, he tells Barry that he hasn't slept or ate anything for the last two days. He says he is receiving messages from the television from a white woman who is telling him that he is connected to chapter 11 of the Book of Revelations and that the world is coming to an end. Barry is immediately concerned as anyone would be, because Bruce sounds fearful and very confused. He tells Bruce to call their father and explain what is happening to him, but neither Bruce or Barry ever does. Instead, later that day, Bruce sits down to watch The Magic Christian, which is a dark comedy. As he watches, Bruce becomes convinced that the things he has already been thinking and hearing are now appearing on the screen in front of him. The film includes images and themes that Bruce connects to the Devil, destruction, and worlds colliding. Those ideas are already part of his delusions, but seeing similar imagery in the movie seems to confirm everything for him. To Bruce, this isn't just a movie anymore. It feels like proof. Bruce would later describe December 3rd as the day that he believes he became possessed. He said, quote, I felt the devil enter my body and snatch my breath away. When I opened my eyes, I felt nothing. Everything was quiet except for the television. I knew then what I had to do. The fear was gone. End quote. By mid-December, Bruce's delusions are no longer staying in his head. They are starting to affect the people around him. His roommate Terry has reached the point where he can't deal with Bruce's behavior anymore, so he asks him to stay somewhere else for a while. Bruce ends up going to stay with his sister Karen and her husband Curtis in North Vancouver. At first, Curtis is fine with it. He and Bruce get along well and he tells him he can stay as long as he needs to. But almost immediately, Bruce starts bringing those beliefs into their home. By this point, he's fixated on the number seven. He believes each of his siblings represents one of the seven stars and candlesticks spoken about in the book of Revelations. He even includes Rick's stillborn twin in his account. But the numbers still don't work. Bruce believes there should be seven, but there's only six siblings. So what he thinks is one of his sisters must be pregnant. He calls Bobby and asks her, and she says no. Then he asks Curtis if Karen is pregnant, and again the answer is no. But Bruce doesn't let go of the idea. At the same time, he is becoming focused on what he calls the tree of knowledge, and this belief that each person has to, quote unquote, eat their own book in order to see God. And to Bruce, that phrase has a very specific meaning. For men, he believes it means consuming their own semen. And for women, he believes it means menstrual blood. Bruce learns that Karen is menstruating, and now is the time to act. After Karen leaves for work, Bruce goes into the bathroom, takes blood from a used menstrual pad, and mixes it in a blender with orange juice, chicken soup, and pieces of the Bible. When Karen comes home, Bruce convinces her to taste the drink without telling her what exactly is in it. She takes a small sip before feeling sick and spitting it out. But to Bruce, that's enough. He believes he has done what he was supposed to do with her and that somehow he has helped Karen see God. Curtis later finds out what Bruce put in the drink, but Curtis cannot bring himself to tell Karen exactly what was in it and can't say up blame him for that one. Karen, meanwhile, is already becoming increasingly uncomfortable around her brother. She tells Curtis that if Bruce is going to continue staying in the house, she's out. She's leaving. And so she does. And this is an important point in the timeline because now the family is seeing that Bruce's behavior is changing. He isn't just saying bizarre things anymore. He is taking those beliefs and turning them into actions. Karen contacts Bobby and tells her what has been happening. Bobby is alarmed enough that she reaches out to Bruce's psychiatrist, Dr. Harvey Breen, because she wants Bruce to be assessed right away. Dr. Breen does come and assess him. He believes that Bruce has paranoid schizophrenia with delusions of grandeur. Dr. Breen tells the family that Bruce should be committed to Riverview Hospital for mental health treatment, but the family declines, and this is where what happens next could have been prevented. Bruce is given a long-acting tranquilizer injection that is expected to last anywhere from a couple weeks to a month. He is also supposed to take oral medication every day and return for follow-up. The psychiatrist is trying to treat him outside of the hospital the best that he can, but the intervention does not hold. He is convinced someone is missing from his calculations, so when he learns that Kathy is pregnant, he takes that as confirmation that the system he created is real. Later that morning, Bruce offers to make Kathy an omelet. He is known to be a good cook in the family, so Kathy doesn't think anything of it. But after one bite, she immediately notices that something is wrong, and she gives the rest to her dog. Later, the dog falls into a deep sleep and Kathy starts to feel really sick. At first, she wonders if it could be pregnancy related, but this feels different. So she asks Bruce, what's going on? That's when he tells her the dog wasn't supposed to eat the pills. She was. You see, Bruce had crushed seven of his antipsychotic pills into the omelet because, in his mind, the medication has something to do with Kathy's unborn baby and the role that child is supposed to play in his delusions. Kathy ends up spending eight days in the hospital, and the pregnancy is put at risk. She nearly loses the baby. After that, Kathy and her husband tell Bruce he has to leave and he catches the next bus home. And for those that are wondering about the dog, I could not find any information on it. And now we have to look at where things stand. Bruce is no longer just talking about hidden messages or the end of the world. He is acting on those beliefs, and other people are getting hurt because of them, and each incident is becoming more and more serious. Christmas comes and goes without any major incident, but the family is still dealing with everything that has happened up until this point. Karen and Curtis recently separate, and Karen is now staying with Bobby and John. In early January 1983, Bruce receives an acceptance letter from Selkirk College in Nelson, BC. He has been accepted into a Millwright program. On paper, this probably looks like something positive for him. Bruce likes mechanical work, and now he has a program to focus on and a possible career ahead of him. But the timing is terrible. The acceptance comes at the last minute, so Bruce has only a day or two to quit his job, pack up, and move hundreds of kilometers away. And his psychiatrist reportedly warns the family that this is not a good idea. Bruce is already unstable, he isn't consistently taking his medication, and now he is about to leave his doctors, his routine, and the people who know how badly his behavior has been deteriorating. But Bruce goes anyways. During the trip to Nelson, he later says the voices became overwhelming. And then something happens on the bus that Bruce takes as another sign. A woman sits beside him and begins talking about spiritual ideas, death, and people coming back to life. At one point, she taps him near the temple and asks whether he has heard about the quote-unquote bug and the star. Now, to anyone else, that probably sounds a little strange and it's a random comment, but Bruce doesn't hear it that way at all. He has already been obsessing over stars, numbers, hidden messages, and the end of the world. So to him, this woman is not just making conversation. She is giving him another message. I'm unsure if this woman actually existed or if she was one of the hallucinations, but nonetheless, she contributed to Bruce's downward spiral. When Bruce finally arrives at Selkirk College and checks into his residence, he is handed the key to his room. And again, Bruce gives an ordinary object a completely different meaning. He believes that this literally is the key to saving the world. That is when the rest of the plan comes together in his mind. Bruce decides that he needs to go back to Coquitlam and kill his family. He believes that once they die, their spirits will rise to heaven and take their places on the Star of David. By doing that, they will hold the star in place and prevent the satanic star from colliding with it and ending the world. The Bing Bang Fury in his mind. And this is important when we look at Bruce's state of mind. He doesn't believe he is planning this because he hates his family. He actually believes he is saving them. So once Bruce thinks he finally understands what the voices want him to do, he reportedly becomes calmer. The confusion that has been building for months now has an answer, at least in his mind. He spends one night in the dorm and then makes his way back to Coquitlam the following day. When Bruce arrives at his parents' house, no one is expecting him. Irene is in the kitchen preparing dinner for Richard and Rick when they suddenly hear Bruce's voice. Everyone is startled. He is supposed to be in Nelson, so why is he back already? It's only been a couple days. Richard immediately calls Bruce's psychiatrist, Dr. Breen, and his response is clear. Take Bruce directly to Royal Columbian Hospital. He says he will call ahead so the emergency department knows that Bruce is coming. The hospital is only a few miles away. But it is already after 10 o'clock that night, and Richard believes that he can manage Bruce at home till morning. So they don't go. And that decision leaves Bruce inside the blackman home overnight, off his medication, deeply caught up in his delusions, and now convinced that killing his family is how he is going to save them. While the family is finishing dinner, Bruce goes downstairs to his father's hunting rifle case. He takes out two 22 caliber rifles, loads them, and leaves one near the bottom of the basement stairs. At around 9 that night, Bruce goes up into Rick's bedroom and sits down on the bed. Bruce starts talking to him about the Book of Revelations, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the End of the World. He tells Rick that certain members of the family have special roles to play, including Rick, Bruce himself, Barry, and their stillborn brother Raymond. He says Raymond represents Jesus Christ, and that the Black Man family is somehow connected to God. Rick does not take him seriously. He has heard versions of this before and he pushes back, even mocking some of what Bruce is saying. But Bruce keeps going. He then starts talking again about the tree of knowledge and his belief that people can somehow gain special understanding or become godlike after death. And while Rick is listening, he notices something in the mirror. Bruce reaches down and hides something under Rick's bed. Bruce continues talking about revelations and the end of the world until Rick finally tells him to get out of his room. Once Bruce is gone and Rick hears him back downstairs with their parents, Rick reaches under the bed to see what Bruce had left there. It is a hunting knife, and it scares him. Up to this point, Rick may have found Bruce's behavior bizarre or annoying, but now there's a weapon hidden underneath his bed and that changes things. Rick takes the knife out and hides it in his closet, and then he goes downstairs and tells his father what Bruce has done. He explains that Bruce has been talking about the end of the world again and that he is frightened by the fact that Bruce put a knife under his bed. Richard takes it seriously, and he tells Rick that he is going to stay awake with Bruce the entire night to keep watch. And Rick decides that if dad's gonna do it, then he's gonna stay up with him too. He does not want to sleep in his room and doesn't want to be alone with Bruce wandering through the house. So that night, Richard and Rick stay awake with Bruce while Irene eventually goes to bed. And now there are two things happening at the same time. Bruce is becoming more convinced that he has a mission to carry out, and at least one person in the house is beginning to realize that Bruce may actually be dangerous. Then at around 4 45 in the morning, Bruce calls his sister Bobby. He tells her that something is about to happen and he has a knife and that she and Karen need to come over right away. But there is one specific instruction that he gives. Dr. Breen tells her to call the police, but Bobby doesn't. Instead, she goes to Spurraway Avenue with Karen and John comes with them. Meanwhile, inside the Blackman home, Bruce believes the moment he has been preparing for has arrived. He is wearing headphones and he keeps hearing the words do it, do it, do it. To anyone else, they are just words in a song, but to Bruce, they are instruction. He picks up the rifle and goes into the kitchen where his father is. Richard sees his son standing there with a gun pointed at him and tells him not to do it. But Bruce fires three times. Rick hears the shots from the living room and runs towards the kitchen. And now think about what Rick is walking into here. He sees his father on the floor bleeding out, and Bruce is standing there with the rifle. Rick immediately runs. He makes it into the family room, but Bruce follows him and shoots him once in the back of the head. Upstairs, Irene wakes to the sound of what is happening below. Bruce hears movement and runs upstairs. Irene sees Bruce with the rifle and tries to get away toward the bathroom, but Bruce shoots her in the back. She falls still alive, trying to mouth words to him, but Bruce stands over her and shoots her again in the head. Bruce then goes back downstairs and sees how much blood is in the kitchen. His father is bleeding out. And for a brief moment, he starts crying and questions what has he done? But that clarity doesn't last long. Bruce later says another voice tells him that people are coming and that he needs to clean everything up. So he tries. He grabs towels and begins wiping out the blood, but there was far too much. So then he drags his dad into the basement. And because he doesn't want to leave him there alone, he goes back for Rick and brings him downstairs too. He places them beside each other near the pool table with their heads and shoulders close together. Why, you might ask? Because in Bruce's mind, they are supposed to go to heaven together, and that was the way that they could do so. Then he reloads the rifle and waits for Bobby and Karen to arrive. Short time later, he hears them coming in through the garage, but then he hears John's voice, and Bruce immediately realizes Bobby has not followed his instructions. John was not supposed to be there. Bruce approaches Karen from behind in the garage, and when she turns to see him, Bruce shoots her in the head. John sees what has happened and tries to talk Bruce down, and for a moment it seems to work. Bruce lowers the rifle, John runs. He gets out of the garage and onto the front lawn, which brings us back to what Edfield is watching from across the street. John is trying to escape. Bruce follows him and shoots him in the shoulder and the knee, then orders him back into the house. John is injured, but he manages to make it back inside. Near the laundry room, Bruce shoots him several more times. In total, John is actually hit six times by the gun. But he is still alive. So Bruce then goes back into the garage, takes a hammer from the workbench, and attacks John with it. This is the object police later find covered in blood in the garage. Bobby sees what has happened to her husband and runs outside. Bruce follows her into the yard and shoots her twice. He tries a third time, but the gun is empty, so he drops it onto the lawn. He then grabs Bobby by the arms and drags her back into the garage. Again, this is exactly what Ed is witnessing from the window. The woman running, the gunshots, and then her body being dragged back inside. Bruce leaves Bobby between the two cars. Then he looks at Karen and believes that she actually is still breathing. So he retrieves the second rifle from inside the house that he previously had loaded and shoots her again behind the ear. After that, Bruce places the rifle against the steps between the family room and the kitchen. The butt of the gun sits in Rick's blood with a muzzle pointing up towards heaven. And later police notice that placement because it doesn't look accidental. Bruce is still inside the home at this time and listening for any signs of life. He can still hear John breathing, so he attacks him again with the hammer. Then Bruce hears Bobby gasp from the garage. So he actually goes and hits her with the same hammer three times. By the time Bruce leaves the house, six people are dead or dying. His father Richard, his mother Irene, his brother Rick, his sisters Karen and Bobby, and Bobby's husband John. And outside, Edfield has already called police. When Barry hears what has happened, he flies home from Ottawa and Kathy returns from Connell. And there is really no way to overstate what they are coming home to. In one morning, they have lost both of their parents, two sisters, their youngest brother, and a brother-in-law. And their other brother, Bruce, is in police custody, admitting that he was the one who did it. But almost immediately, the legal case starts moving toward a very different question. Because no one is really asking, did Bruce kill them? Police have his statements, they have the blood on him, and they have the rifles, the hammer, and the entire crime scene. The question becomes, is Bruce mentally well enough to even face the charges? And in February of 1983, the answer is no. I mean, look at what Bruce is saying at this point. He believes he is the Antichrist, he says the devil is inside him, he believes the world is about to end, he says his family is possessed, everyone is already dead, and his twin brother has to die. He is still completely wrapped up in the same belief system that surrounds the killings. So before a court case can even decide whether Bruce is legally responsible for what happened, they first have to determine whether he understands what is happening now. Bruce ends up being found unfit to stand trial and is sent to Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam for assessment and treatment. After several weeks of psychiatric care, antipsychotic medication, and detoxing off of drugs, Bruce begins to stabilize, and by late April, he is found fit to proceed. And I want to be clear about what that actually means. It does not mean doctors now believe Bruce was mentally well when he killed his family. It only means he is now stable enough to understand the charges, follow the court process, and work with his lawyer. Those are two completely different questions. The preliminary hearing is eventually waived and the case goes directly to Supreme Court of British Columbia. Bruce's trial begins in November 1983. He pleads not guilty to all six counts of murder. But this is not a typical murder trial. The Crown and Defense are not arguing about who fired the gun or whether Bruce was at the house. That part is essentially settled. The entire case comes down to one issue. What was happening in Bruce Blackman's mind on January 18, 1983? Did he understand what he was doing? And did he understand that it was wrong? Most of the important testimony comes from different psychiatrists. They describe Bruce as suffering from a severe psychotic illness and being completely consumed by delusions involving God, the devil, hidden messages, and the end of the world. He thinks members of his family need to die so that their spirits can rise to heaven, take their positions on the Star of David, and prevent a satanic star from colliding with it, making the Big Bang and ending the world. A psychiatrist who treats Bruce after the killings tells the court that Bruce is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. And he is unable to appreciate the true nature of what he has done. Although most schizophrenics do not spiral so quickly and violently, in fact, many are not violent at all. The psychiatrist stated that Bruce had no history of mental illness up until about four months before the killing, and that his sudden disorder was probably quote unquote multifactorial, meaning his frequent drug use, stress, social issues, or biological predisposition may have played a part. But the psychiatric evidence is so strong that this becomes one of the most unusual trials where the crown and the defense are essentially reaching the same conclusion. Bruce was profoundly mentally ill when he killed his family. The case goes to the jury and they deliberate for about 40 minutes. On November 4th, 1983, Bruce Alfred Blackman is found not guilty by reason of insanity on all six counts. Today, we would call this not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder, or NCRMD. But Bruce does not walk out of the courtroom. He goes back to Riverview Hospital under strict custody. Bruce isn't given a normal prison sentence with a set release date. Instead, what happens to him depends on his mental health, his treatment, and whether the people overseeing his case believe he still poses a danger. And in 1984, there is every reason to believe Bruce could remain under psychiatric custody for the rest of his life, or until the lieutenant governor determines that his condition has improved enough for that to change. Then in 1991, something important is changing in Canada, when it comes to people who have not been found guilty by reason of insanity. The old system, where someone like Bruce could essentially remain in custody indefinitely until the lieutenant governor decided otherwise, is being challenged. New laws soon establish as a review board system where a person's mental condition and the risk they pose to the public have to be reviewed annually. And for Bruce, that matters. By August 1991, after almost eight years in Riverview, doctors believe he has made enough progress that a conditional discharge is recommended. Reporting at the time describes this as a level one discharge. So what does that actually mean? Bruce can begin spending time out in the community during the day, but he still has to return to the hospital at night. He is not completely free, and he still is being closely supervised. And when some of Bruce's old friends and surviving family members hear this, that he is being allowed back in the community, they are scared. Because think about this from their perspective. Bruce believed in 1983 that members of his family had to die. And so now, eight years later, some of the people who survived are wondering: could his beliefs ever come back? Could he try to finish what he started? Doctors treating Bruce, though, believe something very different. One of his doctors tells reporters that Bruce has been through years of treatment and that he is remorseful about what happened, and that in his opinion, Bruce has recovered. Then in August 1992, Bruce is given what is described as level two discharge. Now, this is another major step up. Now Bruce is allowed to live outside of the hospital. He moves to Victoria on Vancouver Island, where he lives in a halfway house and he begins working. But there are still strict conditions that he has to follow. Bruce remains under psychiatric supervision and he has to continue treatment and take his medication as prescribed. He cannot possess firearms or other weapons, he is not allowed to use alcohol or unprescribed drugs, and he has to keep the peace, remain of good behavior, and appear before the review board whenever required, which was annually. So even though Bruce is now living in the community, there are still safeguards all around him. Then comes 1995. A five-member BC review board considers Bruce's case and unanimously decides that he no longer poses a significant risk to the public. And this is when Bruce is finally granted his freedom. One of the psychiatrists from Riverview tells the Vancouver Sun that he does not believe Bruce is schizophrenic. He also says Bruce has not required medication since 1986 and believes the psychotic episode surrounding the murders is connected instead to Bruce's heavy drug use at the time, including marijuana, hallucinogens, and LSD. By this point, Bruce is living in Victoria with a cousin and the cousin's family and working at a computer store. He speaks with reporters the day he's freed and says the support of his cousin and his twin brother Barry has helped him keep going. He talks about enjoying pretty ordinary things, like boating, fishing, waterskiing and camping. And really, that seems to be what Bruce wants at this point: a normal life. He also says that his relationship with his sister Kathy is beginning to rebuild. At some point, Bruce also changes his name to Richard, the same name as his father and his younger brother. And from what I can tell, after receiving his freedom, Bruce largely disappears from public view. There don't appear to be any further high-profile incidents connected to him. He seems to do exactly what he told reporters he wanted to do. Live quietly, stay out of the public eye, and try to build a life after something that changed his family forever. And just as a side note, Riverview Hospital itself eventually closes in July 2012, with the remaining patients transferred into services operated by BC's regional health authorities, or they ended up on the street. And I know that there is a much bigger conversation to be had here about Riverview, deinstitutionalization, but if I tried to get into all of that, guys, we would be here forever, and it really deserves an episode all on its own. For this story, though, I want to bring it back to the Blackman family, because as much as we've talked about Bruce's illness, his treatment, and what eventually happens to him, six people are still at the center of this case. Richard and Irene lose the retirement and future they should have had together. Rick never gets to finish growing up, get married, or have children of his own. Karen never gets the chance to rebuild her life after her separation or get back together with Curtis. Bobby and John never get the future they were planning together, and John's two children lose their father. And Barry and Kathy are left behind to somehow process the fact that almost their entire immediate family is gone and that their own brother is responsible. The legal system ultimately determines that Bruce is so mentally ill at the time of the killings that he cannot be criminally responsible in the ordinary sense. That explains the verdict, but it does not erase what has happened. And it certainly doesn't lessen what Richard, Irene, Rick, Karen, Bobby, and John lost. I'm really curious what you guys think about this part of the case. Bruce being found guilty by reason of insanity, spending years in psychiatric care, and gradually earning more freedom, and eventually being allowed to live independently in a community. Do you think that that was the right outcome? Or do you feel that regardless of his mental state at the time, the magnitude of what happened should have meant he remained in secure psychiatric care for life? I think this is one of those cases where there probably isn't going to be an easy answer or necessarily a right or wrong answer. But I do really want to hear what you think, so please provide it in the comments below. That's it for me today, guys. I'll be back in two weeks with a brand new episode. Until then, stay safe, stay aware, stay curious. Bye.