SYMHC Classics: Redpath Murders

On June 13, 1901, Ada Maria Redpath, 59, and her son Jocelyn Clifford Redpath, 26, were found dead in their Montreal home—the Redpath Mansion—shot in what was officially ruled a murder-suicide. Despite the official verdict that Clifford killed his mother in a fit of temporary insanity due to an epileptic seizure and then took his own life, the truth remains shrouded in mystery. No police investigation was conducted, the coroner’s jury was composed of wealthy peers from the same insular community, and the family, particularly Ada’s daughter Amy, systematically erased public discourse. Amy, who had been deeply devoted to both her mother and brother, destroyed letters, controlled the narrative, and even secured a high Anglican funeral for Clifford—despite suicide being grounds for exclusion. The official account is riddled with inconsistencies: conflicting reports on the number of shots fired, the position of the bodies, and the timeline. Remarkably, Clifford had paid his bar exam fee just days before and was on the verge of becoming a law firm partner—hardly the profile of a suicidal man. Meanwhile, Ada had been described in private letters as emotionally fragile and burdened by life. The episode reveals how a powerful family used influence to shape history, turning a tragedy into a carefully curated myth. What happened in that bedroom remains unknown—not because of lack of evidence, but because someone chose to bury it.