The Death of Donna Whalen

by Michael Winter

  It’s been eating away at her. She did not tell the police because she didnt want to get involved in to it. She went past Mabel Edicott’s and said hello. It had to be around suppertime. The way it was, they ate whenever they were hungry so she didnt have no time limit. No one had to go to work, no one had to do anything, they just ate when they were hungry so Ruth never paid no mind to the time.

  SHELDON TROKE

  Ruth is getting her information from going back and forth to her husband and to Mabel Edicott. You look at the Vivian family. Pat Vivian asks the police to come to his house. Charles Stamp goes down and takes a statement concerning a small grey foreign car. Then he’s watching the news and he’s talking to Gary Bemister and the whole description changes. Now the car he seen is this big brown Chev. What he first described was a motorboat. When he sees something on TV it’s a submarine, the next time it come on the news, Paul’s name is given and Sheldon’s name is given and Tom Vivian is charged and then the next day Ruth gives this new statement of Sheldon threatening her.

  BERTHA TROKE WIRETAP

  I dont give a fuck what anybody says, if she was brutally murdered she had to kick up a fight. When Donna and Sheldon fought he put holes in the wall. That Sunday Sheldon phoned and was talking to Pat Vivian. And I heard exactly the words Sheldon said to Pat. He said Mr Vivian look, you remembers lots of times youre after hearing me and Donna fighting and I was wondering did you hear something and you werent saying nothing because you thought it was me. Mr Vivian, whatever you heard, I’d like you to tell the police to help them out because Donna drove me home that night, I had nothing to do with this and anything that you can tell the police can help them.

  CHES HEDDERSON AND THE VIVIANS WIRETAP

  Ches: You can hear the cars go up the street. It’s not so quiet here is it.

  Pat: When youre in bed you can’t hear them. There could be a accident down the road and I be in bed asleep I dont know.

  You won’t see too many in uniform around here now. The officer upstairs is gone so if you hear anything.

  I can give you a call.

  How is Mrs Vivian?

  She’s not well. Gone to a psychiatrist.

  How’s Tom doing?

  Pretty good boy.

  Big loss.

  She used to ask Tom to go over to the supermarket in the car.

  Is that right.

  I suppose youre handy to it all clued up now.

  We’re at the final stages. We’re going through the statements and picking them out.

  It must be hard with the little girl.

  Brave soul of the lot, isnt she. She is not afraid to tell her story.

  They got charges laid against him.

  New charges laid—people charged for giving a false alibi.

  IRIS TROKE AND SHELDON TROKE WIRETAP

  Iris: Mom and Dad are locked up.

  Sheldon: What? At the lock-up?

  At the lock-up.

  Holy fucking Jesus Christ.

  But Sheldon you knows what theyre doing dont you.

  Iris they can’t fucking lock Mother up Iris.

  Theyre trying to pressure now Sheldon. I mean it’s not right.

  But they can’t apply pressure, we didnt do nothing.

  Sheldon dont go getting on like that boy. Take it easy because I mean this is just blown out of proportion.

  We’re talking about Mom, Iris. She can’t fucking handle being locked up.

  I know Sheldon, we’re going down.

  Well go down and get her the fuck out of there.

  We can’t get her out of there.

  Even if you get her out in the visiting room and talk to her. I’m going to get Jim Lythgoe on the go.

  I phoned down Sheldon. They took her from the holding cell. I went mad with Gary Bemister. I told him about locking her up, she got claustrophobic.

  They can’t do this. No one fucking never done nothing.

  I’m getting out of the bath. I’m going to phone down and ask the matron dont go putting her in the lock-up.

  Let her go in and sit in the fucking little office. Let her sit where the phone is at.

  That’s what theyre doing Sheldon. They won’t lock her up.

  Her nerves are gone. She hasnt been through nothing like this before.

  I know boy. I dont know what they can do. How can they charge someone to accessory after the fact—

  If no one is charged.

  If they havent got the person who did it.

  It’s a trumped-up fucking charge.

  Well you’ll hear it all two oclock anyway Sheldon. Which I’ll be down to hear. Dont go worrying about it because—

  I’m not worried about it Iris. I knows we’re fucking innocent but I’m worried about Mom. She’s down in the fucking lock-up. She can’t fucking be down there.

  I’d say she’s out there now with the matron. Clayton was in the holding cell.

  I know Clayton can handle a couple of fucking hours or couple of weeks being locked up if they fucking want to push it that long. But Iris, fucking Mom, Iris. Because Mom is fucking taking a heart attack.

  I dont say she’s locked up Sheldon. Holiest to God boy. Wait now just hold on now. I told the matron if they brings her down, dont go putting her in the holding cells. She said no honest to God Iris I’ll do with her what I done with you that time and that was put her in the little hallway.

  She can’t fucking take too much more.

  But how can they be charged with accessory after the fact.

  Theyre charged with obstructing justice.

  By saying theyre lying and you left the house that night.

  How much more can Mom take.

  They got nothing and theyre going to come down heavy on everyone.

  I dont mind them coming down heavy I can handle that but fucking Mother can’t.

  I know Sheldon.

  She’s going to have a heart attack next. Cocksucking bastards.

  She’ll be all right.

  Are they ever going to leave us alone? Do they think we’re that fucking cruel that I went up and did something like this? And now my mother’s hiding it for me?

  I know.

  I’d like to go one on one with them. In a fucking fist fight. I hope theyre listening too the cocksuckers.

  I told Gary, give her another polygraph.

  If they wants bail for Mom, I dont give a fuck whatever everybody got in the family put it up.

  Mom won’t spend not one fucking night in that lock-up.

  BERTHA TROKE AND PAUL TROKE WIRETAP

  Bertha: When they charged me and Clayton they probably thought they were going to shake Sheldon up and say I can’t have Mom being charged and I got to come forward but I mean the young fellow can’t come forward and admit to something that he didnt do.

  Paul: Well this is all right, as soon as me and Sheldon gets in the clear it’ll be too fucking late then.

  They’ve been looking in the wrong direction ever since it started.

  Buddy’s out still on the fucking loose whoever the fuck it is. Some fucking nut.

  I guarantee you I tried to cooperate with them.

  I did too Mother.

  That morning I went out and took that polygraph test, me washing I dropped everything and I was out there all day and what do I get, fucking abuse.

  Same here.

  They want you to turn around and say what they got in their mind.

  I done everything I could to fucking help them. That’s all I got is fucking sand kicked in my face for it.

  Ches Hedderson flipped out. He went right off his head at me. He was trying to scare me. If they mind to get out and look around other places.

  CATHY FURNEAUX AND PAUL TROKE WIRETAP

  Cathy: I was over there for five hours. I took the polygraph test. I said I got nothing to fucking lie about. He came in and said Cathy it’s a few things on it you lied about. I said listen here, I can swear on my mother’s grave may she roll over a thousand times that I never lied
and I knows I never lied. He said they can get me and the youngsters away from all the fucking Trokes. Afraid of the Trokes. I said I’m not afraid of the Trokes. I got no reason to be afraid. They never done nothing to harm me.

  Paul: Fucking dirtbags.

  I told them the whole fucking truth and that’s all I can tell them.

  It’s gone too far now Cathy, arresting Mom and Dad.

  THE VIVIANS WIRETAP

  Tom: I just told them I’m getting poisoned with this. It’s harassment I say.

  Ruth: Theyre seeing what you’ll say. You said around three oclock they kicked in the door and I told them I heard it all at quarter after one.

  Tom: They thinks I’m lying. That I’m holding something back from them.

  Pat: Son this is what he’ll do. He’ll hook up a few wires. And he got a thing there on the phone like that. Then he’ll deal up a deck of cards and ask you to pick a card. It’s only fifteen cards. You look at one and he’ll ask you was it a five? and if you says no he’ll say was it nine? and you says no. You says no to everything first time. Then the second time he asks was it five, you got to say no to all of them again. And say you picked out number three like I did. I picked up number three again, second time. He knew it he said you picked card number three.

  CHES HEDDERSON AND THE VIVIANS WIRETAP

  Pat: You know what happened there. Sheldon might have been there and killed her and left and got Paul to come back and give him a hand with it.

  Ches: We know two people came and went in there that night and there’s cars used. If you know anything about it, who came and went.

  Pat: He was seen in the back hall the night before it happened. I was moving furniture with her and it happened one oclock in the morning. Trying to look around her window. So his alibi didnt hold up for him. His mother caught lying.

  Just because youre caught lying, doesnt mean the person you lied about committed the offence.

  That’s true there.

  Do you know what you did see?

  I could have told you I saw him up there, him and his brother. No boy I can’t put a man in jail until I have something to say for sure right. If I had to see him up there I would have told you. Different from taking off and turning your back away on what he done.

  Well that’s it, you would like to prevent it from happening again.

  They left in a car. He had the dark shirt right. Down there, you cannot see a car from here.

  You were talking to Mrs Edicott yesterday.

  She heard a bit of the news. I told her it showed Donna’s picture on TV and that Sharon saw whoever killed Donna.

  They never said it that way, Pat.

  The old woman is having a hard time of it. Ruth was saying to me I wish it was all over and settled. The words come out of her mouth, she told me that he did it. That’s what Ruth told me.

  She told you.

  She told me not to talk to no one about it.

  Not to talk to us about it?

  Not you.

  That would be obstruction.

  Yes that’s all I need.

  I suppose if Sheldon was arrested things might get a little more relaxed too.

  Yes it would.

  Once the charge is laid.

  Hope no one bothers me is all.

  Would you feel more comfortable if you knew he was already charged with it?

  I dont know.

  Would that help your memory a little bit?

  JIM LYTHGOE

  Here’s a police officer telling witnesses that Bertha Troke is lying about her alibi. Just look at what is settling in the minds of these people. The police are fully aware that the Vivians and the Edicotts are conversing back and forth. Between Tom, his mother Ruth, his father Pat, all prospective witnesses, and theyre talking about what the police had to say to them. Pat Vivian is gaining an awful lot of information somewhere along the way. The tapes show as to where it’s coming from—directly from the police.

  THE VIVIANS WIRETAP

  Ruth: Those bastards theyre trying to get me to say that I seen Sheldon with her the night I never seen him. I dont know if she was coming home or if she was going out or what she was doing. All I know is she was on the step and she do walk heavy in those pumps.

  Pat: Did you hear, he said would I be comfortable if I knew what Sheldon was charged with? It’s only a couple of more and they’ll have the whole family down there.

  Tom: She’s getting away with it. She might have said he was in bed and he sneaked out through the door in that hall. It could have happened couldnt it Dad.

  Well how would you prove it?

  Tom: I can’t see how she’d get hooked for that.

  Pat: She took the lie detector and failed it. I bet you the fuck he went home that night and came back out. Sure enough they got her for obstruction.

  Ruth: She put the icing right on the cake for him.

  Tom: Saying he was home when he wasnt.

  Pat: She’ll get everything though out of court, he’ll make a deal for her.

  Tom: If she’s still alive. Sheldon make a deal, ha ha. They got all the evidence they wants on him anyway.

  Pat: Like he said Bertha’s after turning state’s evidence. She dont want to go to jail for a long time.

  Tom: She’s turned state’s evidence?

  Ruth: Oh yes, she’s testifying against him.

  Dont repeat that for Jesus sake, dont.

  No, no, I dont tell no one.

  That’s how they got him right. She got herself a lawyer and her lawyer advised her to come clean if not she’s going to jail for a long time.

  JIM LYTHGOE

  It’s obvious that the police knew as there was a wiretap in the Vivian home and the Edicotts were frequent visitors there. We have Ruth Vivian coming in and she gave a whole series of statements. Every few weeks she had something new to add about Sheldon. You will recall her evidence that she did not talk about this with anyone. To put it mildly I seriously doubt that because the words are right here.

  Look at the effect of this information coming out about Bertha Troke and Clayton Troke being charged, look at the way these witnesses dealt with it.

  HOWARD STRONG

  Ruth Vivian saw things that other people couldnt see. She saw scorpions on the wall and her skin was infected with scorpions. She heard voices and she visited heaven from time to time. She saw the holy water in a vase change colour. That meant she was a saint. She displayed a lack of interest in her usual activities. She had been neglecting her personal care. She was communicating on a regular basis with angels. She had been seeing her dead parents and having conversations with them. She was going to be in heaven again on Christmas and would see her parents again.

  Mrs Vivian is a pleasant lady older than her stated age. She was admitted for pain control—she has a very bad arthritic condition. She has a dementing illness in the front of her brain and the cause of it Dr Strong doesnt know. She was very ladylike and proper when he first saw her. But then her personality coarsened, she became disinhibited. She swore on occasion. She has a grade ten formal education. She had difficulty with school work and had to repeat grade nine. After leaving school, she worked as a cleaner. She married Patrick Vivian at age nineteen and was not employed outside of the home thereafter.

  A number of doctors, including her family doctor, have no explanation why all the pain that she had been suffering—which was close to a crippling pain—suddenly disappeared. She felt that this was a miracle. She had been taking ten to fifteen Atasol 30s a day for fifteen years.

  Chloral hydrate is an old sleeping medication. It is the first sleeping preparation ever discovered and it is not used frequently except for older people. She has, in Dr Strong’s opinion, a frontal lobe dementia. The difference between delirium and dementia, if you have a TV set and the screen goes fuzzy, either a tube is gone or the fine tuning is off. A dementia is when some of the material is missing. A delirium is when the brain is not functioning properly as a result of some tuning problem
. For example, medication or a small stroke.

  The medication that Ruth was taking produced an acute confusional episode. There was an underlying dementing process starting. So her brain was vulnerable to begin with. This frontal lobe dementia was building up then reached a stage where people noticed it. It could take years or it could take weeks or months.

  The holy water turning colour, the colour was blue.

  THE

  JAIL HOUSE

  INFORMANT

  LEANDER DOLLYMONT

  Leander was sent to Her Majesty’s Penitentiary on a parole suspension—he had a sign of alcohol on him. This was where he met Sheldon Troke, they were in custody together. They got along on the unit at HMP. There’s anywhere from twenty-five to thirty inmates housed in a unit and there’s a common recreation area and some people have their own cell, some are double bunked. A unit is a cell block.

  One evening there was a letter addressed on CBC by a reporter. The letter was from Sheldon’s attorney, Jim Lythgoe. Lythgoe was not impressed with a remark that Ches Hedderson had made concerning his client’s involvement in the Donna Whalen homicide.

  This report upset Sheldon and he asked Leander that night would he write a letter to Mr Lythgoe for him. The letter said that Lythgoe’s report would force Ches Hedderson into laying a charge. They were more or less backed against the wall and this would force them. Leander didnt have much problem in doing anything for Sheldon. It was not unusual for one prisoner to write a letter for another. They went to Sheldon’s cell that night and Sheldon placed a towel over the door. Sheldon was sitting on the bed, Leander was on a bucket by the desk. Sheldon explained what he wanted on the letter and Leander wrote it down in point form. Sheldon was quite emotional. He had done some valium that had come into the penitentiary that day. Sheldon asked Leander to pass him the picture he had of Donna Whalen on the wall with a verse of the Our Father written under it. As he passed him the picture, Sheldon grabbed Leander by the wrist—Sheldon referred to him by a nickname known as Dolly. Dolly, do you think I murdered Donna?