Allan Legere

Allan Joseph Legere (February 13, 1948 – March 9, 2026), known as the Monster of the Miramichi, was a Canadian rapist, arsonist, and serial killer. In 1986, he participated in a home invasion against an elderly couple that ended with the death of the husband and the sexual assault of the wife, for which he was sentenced to prison. In 1989, he escaped custody while receiving medical treatment and attacked people over the course of months, killing four of them. He was recaptured and convicted of the subsequent murders; he died in custody in 2026.

Early life

Allan Legere was born on February 13, 1948, in Chatham, New Brunswick.

First murder

On the evening of June 21, 1986, Legere and two accomplices, Todd Matchett and Scott Curtis, robbed a home in Black River Bridge, New Brunswick. After cutting the power, the trio broke into the building where they were met by the owners, an elderly couple, John and Mary Glendenning. The couple was severely beaten and Mary was sexually assaulted. The trio then fled the scene. Mary Glendenning regained consciousness and discovered that her husband had been beaten to death; she crawled up the stairs to the phone and dialled 911. The dispatcher spoke with her on the phone until police arrived. Police tracked down the perpetrators and arrested them. Matchett pleaded guilty to murdering John Glendenning and beating his wife; Curtis and Legere were convicted at trial.

Escape from hospital

Legere was serving his murder sentence at the Atlantic Institution maximum security penitentiary in Renous-Quarryville, under the responsibility of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). On May 3, 1989, he was transported by CSC personnel from the penitentiary to the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont Regional Hospital in Moncton, New Brunswick, for the treatment of an ear infection. Legere managed to convince the CSC personnel to let him use a washroom at the hospital alone, and there he picked the lock on his handcuffs. He had concealed a sharpened piece of metal in his rectum, and was able to pick the lock on his handcuffs and hold the officers at bay before fleeing the building. Legere escaped the hospital property and through a combination of carjacking and motor vehicle theft, was able to evade recapture.

More murders and eventual capture

Legere was at large from May 3, 1989, until November 24, 1989. During this period, four murders occurred in the Miramichi area.

Trial and conviction

thumb|Legere was held in York County Jail in downtown Fredericton during his 1990–91 trial. In 1999, the 157-year-old jail was repurposed as [[Science East, a local science museum.]]In August 1990, Legere was convicted on charges pertaining to his escape, and sentenced to an additional nine years. His trial for the murders began with an indictment in November of that year. Legere's trial featured the first Canadian uses of DNA profiling to convict rather than exonerate; in November 1991, Legere was convicted of the four murders committed while he had been at large.

Imprisonment and death

In 1996, the provincial jail in Fredericton was shut down, and in 1999 the building was repurposed into a science museum; the cell in which Legere was held during his 1991 trial was used for an exhibit on DNA profiling.

In 2015, Legere was transferred from the super-maximum security penitentiary (the "SHU", in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec) to the Edmonton Institution in Alberta.

In August 2020, Legere applied for day parole. Although the parole board notice did not guarantee he would be granted day parole, the request raised concerns in the Miramichi community. Legere was scheduled for a parole hearing on January 13, 2021, where he was denied. Legere was once again denied parole on December 12, 2025.

Legere died on March 9, 2026, at the age of 78, while in custody at Edmonton Institution.

References

External links

NFB film, Allan Legere: The Monster of Miramichi