The Niagara Murder: The Tragic Death of Frederick C. Benwell
Dark Poutine. Proudly and creepily Canadian
Monday, March 23, 2026 - 55 minutes
Episode 411: In February 1890, the body of 24-year-old Englishman Frederick Cornwallis Benwell was found in a shallow grave near Lundy’s Lane, just outside Niagara Falls, Ontario. Benwell had travelled to Canada after corresponding with John Reginald Birchall, aka Lord Frederick A. Somerset, a fellow Englishman who advertised opportunities for young men seeking work and advancement overseas. Within days of Benwell’s disappearance, suspicion fell on Birchall, who was arrested in Buffalo, New York, and returned to Canada to stand trial. What followed was one of the most closely watched murder cases in late 19th-century Ontario.
Sources:
The Swamp of death, or, The Benwell murder by Oliver Wendell Holmes | Canadiana.ca
Catalog Record: The Swamp of death, or, The Benwell murder | HathiTrust Digital Library
Newspapers.com | Search: John Reginald Birchall
https://www.themeister.co.uk/birchall/birchall_reginald.pdf
BIRCHALL, REGINALD (Lord Frederick A. Somerset) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Frederick Cornwallis Benwell (1865-1890) - Find a...
John Reginald Birchall (1866-1890)
Murder as a Fine Art by Alan Blytheway
The Trial of Reginald Birchall
John Reginald Birchall | The Canadian Encyclopedia
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