Albert Guay

Albert Guay
Born	Joseph-Albert Guay (1917-09-23)September 23, 1917 Quebec
Died	Quebec
Cause of death	Execution (hanging)
Nationality	Canadian
Spouse(s)	Rita Morel
Motive	Avoid divorce, Life insurance money
Partner(s)	Généreux Ruest, Marguerite Ruest-Pitre (both executed)
Killings
Date	September 9, 1949
Location(s)	Cap Tourmente, Quebec
Target(s)	Wife and passengers
Killed	23
Weapons	Dynamite bomb

Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 108

Bombing summary
Date	9 September 1949
Summary	In-flight bombing
Site	over Cap Tourmente near Sault-au-Cochon Quebec, Canada
Passengers	19
Crew	4
Fatalities	23 (all)
Aircraft type	Douglas DC-3
Operator	Canadian Pacific Air Lines
Registration	CF-CUA
Flight origin	Montreal, Quebec
Last stopover	L'Ancienne-Lorette Quebec City, Quebec
Destination	Baie-Comeau, Quebec

Joseph-Albert Guay (most commonly known as Albert Guay) (23 September 1917 – 12 January 1951), a resident of Quebec City, Canada, was responsible for the in-flight bombing of a passenger flight on 9 September 1949, killing all aboard, including his wife Rita, the intended victim.

Within 16 months of the explosion, Guay was tried, convicted and executed for the crime. Within another two years, Guay's two accomplices were also executed.

The flight

The airplane was a Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 aircraft (registry CF-CUA S/N: 4518) flying from Montreal to Baie-Comeau with a stopover at Quebec City. It was there that Rita Morel (Mme Guay) boarded the plane, unknowingly bringing along the bomb.

The bomb was made of dynamite attached to an alarm clock and secreted in the baggage of Rita Guay. It exploded over Cap Tourmente near a small locality named Sault-au-Cochon (sometimes incorrectly given as "Sault-aux-Cochons"), near Saint-Joachim in the Charlevoix region, causing the plane to crash and killing all four crew members and nineteen passengers. The flight was delayed five minutes at takeoff; this apparently thwarted Guay's original intent to have the explosion take place over the Saint Lawrence River, which would have made forensic examination of the crash impossible with the technology then available to forensic scientists.

Apart from Rita Morel Guay, the victims included four children and three American executives from the Kennecott Copper Corporation including the retiring President E.T. Stannard; his designated successor, Arthur D. Storke; and Russell Johnston Parker, a Vice-president and father of typographer and type designer Mike Parker.

The airline involved is sometimes stated as "Quebec Airways", but this was simply a name used for some Canadian Pacific Airlines flights in Quebec. The Flight Number was 108 departing L'Ancienne-Lorette airport on a stopover flight onward to Baie-Comeau. While the bombing was not the first proven instance of sabotaging a passenger flight for criminal purposes, it was the first to be solved and, as such, received wide news media coverage both locally and abroad.

Plot and aftermath

Albert Guay described himself as a jeweller and watchmaker, although at his trial it was suggested that he was actually a watch and jewellery salesman. During his marriage to Rita (née Morel), he became enamoured of 19-year-old waitress Marie-Ange Robitaille. Guay and Robitaille began a clandestine affair, as in those days, Quebec was strictly Catholic and a divorce would have been almost impossible to obtain. Guay first considered poison, but later decided on the airplane bombing. The day of the flight, he purchased a $CAD10,000 insurance policy (roughly equivalent to $104,000 in 2021) on his wife, which he attempted to collect three days later. There was also a prior $5,000 policy (roughly $52,000) dating from 1942.

Guay asked clockmaker Généreux Ruest to manufacture a bomb using dynamite, batteries and an alarm clock. The dynamite had been purchased at a hardware store by Ruest's sister, Marguerite Pitre (also known as Ruest-Pitre, wife of Arthur Pitre), ostensibly to be used in clearing a field. At the time sales of explosives to civilians in Canada were recorded but not strictly regulated. Pitre also delivered the package containing the bomb to the plane, for mail delivery. She had also helped arrange liaisons between Guay and Robitaille. In the aftermath of the bombing, Mme Pitre made a failed suicide attempt.

Ruest and Pitre both later maintained their innocence. Pitre claimed that Guay had told her that the package she was transporting contained a statue. Ruest also claimed that he thought the bomb was to be used to clear tree stumps from a field.

Guay was arrested two weeks after the crash and put on trial in February 1950; on being convicted he was sentenced to death by hanging, and was executed on 12 January 1951, at the age of 32. His last words were Au moins, je meurs célèbre (At least I die famous).

A later copycat incident, the bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 on 1 November 1955 by Jack Gilbert Graham (the motive was his mother's alleged mistreatment of him as a small child although he purchased life insurance on her prior to the flight), was apparently inspired by the Guay affair.

Trials of Ruest and Pitre

After his conviction, Guay issued a statement, claiming that Ruest and Pitre had knowingly abetted his plans. As a result, Ruest was arrested on 6 June 1950, tried and convicted in November of that year, and sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out on 25 July 1952; at his death, he was aged 54. Suffering from osseous tuberculosis, he had to be transported to the gallows in a wheelchair. Marguerite Pitre was arrested on 14 June 1950, and tried separately, beginning 6 March 1951; following a guilty verdict, she was hanged on 9 January 1953, the thirteenth and last woman to be hanged in Canada. All three executions took place in Montreal.

Dollard Dansereau, author of Causes célèbres du Québec, studied the case and concluded that Ruest may not have known of Guay's intentions when the latter asked him to make the bomb; he also concluded that Pitre may have been innocent. It has been speculated that Guay's motive in denouncing his accomplices was to buy time to delay his own execution, believing that he would be called to testify at their trials. In any event, he testified at Ruest's trial, but was hanged soon after, thus could not testify at Pitre's trial.

The incident in fiction

The incident, subsequent trials and execution of Guay and his accomplices was notorious in Quebec and served as the inspiration for the fictional Le Crime d'Ovide Plouffe, a 1982 novel by Roger Lemelin and 1984 film of the same name by Denys Arcand. In 1949, Lemelin had been a friend and neighbour of Guay, as well as being the Quebec correspondent for Time magazine. A novel, Cape Torment by Richard Donovan, is based on the case.

See also

• Air safety
• Capital punishment in Canada
• Jack Gilbert Graham
• Madame le Corbeau

References

• Causes célèbres du Québec, Dollard Dansereau, Editions Leméac, Montréal, 1974
• Jeffrey David Simon The terrorist trap: America's experience with terrorism, Indiana University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-253-21477-7, pages 47–49

External links

• Timeline of the bombing
• Biography of Albert Guay
• Description of accident
• Aviation Safety Network data on accident
• List of sabotage bombing incidents on airplanes
• A 1947 photo of the airplane involved
• [1] MULTIPLY Group of discussion in French & English. Many rare pictures.
• [2] Link to information about Cape Torment, a novel based on the case.