You're listening to a morbid network podcast.

Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash.

And I'm Elena.

And this is morbid.

This is morbid. And I bit my lip.

She done bit her lip, but it's okay. Actually, it's bleeding.

But we all float on. Okay.

I tried to sound like the song.

But I just thought I'd cry. Cry. You sounded perfect.

We all float on. All right.

Oh, and I almost just knocked over Caesar dressing. This is just a mess.

I know. Sorry I didn't cover that. We did a thing today, and by we, Alina did it.

Yeah. Say it. Here's the thing. I wasn't ready to share this with the world, but I guess.

Oh, you don't have to.

You don't have to be a dick. What if we just don't say it? That's it. Okay, so very quickly, before we start this, don't worry.

We just have to start off with, like, a fun little thing.

We're eating mozzarella sticks. I fancy myself a connoisseur of mozzarella sticks. I love mozzarella sticks.

I like dipping mozzarella sticks, but not just in marinara.

In fact, I don't dip them in marinara.

You don't? Ever?

I would if it was the last dip on earth, but. What?

Yeah, I never knew this. I never noticed that.

Yeah. My favorite thing is dip it in blue cheese.

I judged you before, and I shouldn't have, so I won't judge you about that.

You shouldn't, because there's many good dips in the world, as we are all aware. I will dip a mozzarella stick in most of those dips, just not marinara. And I got Caesar dressing today, and I said, never done this before. So I just dip. Dip right in the Caesar dressing. And I said, that's delicious. And Ash said, I'm judging you a little bit. No, I actually didn't say it with her eyes. I did.

I said, I'm not judging you, but did you just dip that in Caesar dressing?

Which is where the judgment. I was going to say. And I know Ash, so I know when judgment is actually coming through her.

Words, but she said, do you want to try it?

Try it. She tried it. I said, okay. And then she said, can you pass me that dip again? And then she just scooped it like a fucking spoon. Yeah, I love Caesar dress. And you said, I judged you a little bit. Yeah, I admitted it after. And you were like, I know. You know, if you like two things, try them together. Who knows? Might be a great thing. Yeah.

Chocolate chip cookies were a.

That's.

There you go with ash and Alina.

That's weird snack food.

Well, I have a strange case today to just continue that.

Weird snack food. Yeah, exactly. Weird snack food.

Weird cases, all of it. Obviously, it's a tragic case because somebody loses their life, but the circumstances that lead up to that are very strange. And this is one that I've heard before. But I got to say, dave did a really good job helping me find some new shit that I didn't know before. So let's do it.

Let's go.

Today we're going to be talking about the mysterious death of Christina Kettlewell. And we're going to start at the very beginning, which is in 1925, when Christina Cecilia, I believe it's Moken, was born on August 7, 1925 in Toronto, Ontario. She was one of three girls born to parents Kazmir and Mary. According to her sister Helen, the girls had a relatively ordinary upbringing, and she described Christina as, quote, a very nice girl. Everybody liked her. When Christina completed high school in 1943, she found work as a teller at a bank in Toronto and just settled into a pretty normal routine, just living life. It was around that time that Christina met 23 year old Ronald Berry, a local professional ballroom dancer, casual, who lived in the same Toronto neighborhood as she and her family. He was formerly known as Ronnie Sufo, and he had immigrated to Canada from Italy years and years earlier, hoping to establish himself in the construction industry. But when that failed, he moved on to selling insurance until he actually started supporting himself as a professional dancer.

Wow. Which is really cool. That is cool.

So he and Christina, they knew of each know they lived in the same neighborhood. They hit it off and they started seeing each other out and about socially. But Ronald insisted there was never anything romantic between them. They were just friends.

Okay.

He told a jury. He would later tell a jury, in 1947, there was definitely no feelings between me and Christina. Everything was strictly on plain friendship basis.

That's nice.

Yeah. You know, guys and gals being friends.

No expectations, just friendship.

Yeah. Harry's wrong. Girls and guys can be friends.

Hell, yeah.

Have you ever seen that movie when Harry met Sally? Yeah, I just saw it for the first time this year.

Really? Yeah.

Loved it.

Wow.

Fucking loved it. But the platonic relationship between Ronald and Christina was likely due to her interest in his best friend and roommate, Jack Kettlewell. Although he had recently enlisted in the canadian armed forces. In May of 1943, Jack and Christina began dating, and Ronald kind of acted as a proxy companion while Jack was stationed elsewhere. During the war.

Okay.

Ronald said, I wrote to him steadily while overseas and definitely told him that as long as he was Christina's boyfriend, I took her to the OD dancing show. So he was like, I'll take care.

Of her while you're gone.

Holding down the fort back here. In July of 1946, while Jack was still stationed overseas, Christina went to Ronald and asked if she could borrow some money to buy something. She said, but she was very vague and very avoidant when he asked what exactly she wanted the money for. But he did trust her by that point, and he ended up giving her $2,000.

Wow. Which.

That's a lot of money. I didn't do the conversion I usually do, but they had an understanding that she was going to pay this money back. However, after a month had passed and she still hadn't returned the money, he pressed her for an explanation, was like, hey, where's my money? But according to Christina, quote, somebody was making it very hard for her to do some. Somebody was making it very hard for her due to some incident that had happened the previous april of 1946. Okay, so, still confused, Ronald pushed further and was like, well, what incident?

Like, what happened?

And Christina explained that in April, she had gone to a church dance in Toronto. And after the dance, she had been, quote unquote, criminally attacked by five men who she said were now blackmailing her.

What?

And Ronald was like, that's horrible. Why didn't you go to the police or ask your father for, why? Why is this the first I'm hearing of? Like, this is a big deal.

Yeah.

And when he started asking questions, she became very emotional and claimed that she would kill herself before telling her father.

Wow.

Now, Ronald was worried that Christina really was having thoughts of ending her life if put in that position. So he agreed to keep her secret, and he actually continued to lend her money, eventually advancing her more than $12,000.

Wow. That's quite an advance.

Now, he believed her story at first to some degree, but he definitely, at the same time, felt like some part of that seemed off and that she wasn't being entirely forthcoming. But still, he continued to keep the secret, particularly from her boyfriend, Jack, despite his growing concern internally. Now, things took an even stranger turn a year later, in April 1947, when Christina came to Ronald and Jack's apartment that they shared, and she asked Ronald to speak privately in a separate room and out of the apartment itself.

Like, they literally left with Jack there. Yeah.

And out of Jack's earshot, Christina handed Ronald an envelope that had $10,000 in cash inside of it and denominations of $50 and $100 bills. And when he was like, where did this come from? How did you find the money to pay me back? She got really evasive and vague with him. And according to him, she said only that, quote, the persons that had been blackmailing her had agreed to help her. That's strange, because why would five men attack you outside of a church event, steal money from you, and then blackmail.

You and then decide to help you?

To help you?

What was the point of the blackmailing?

I don't know. Now, Ronald thought the explanation, like us, seemed highly suspicious. But the moment he said that, Christina became very emotional. So he didn't press her any further, he said. And instead he asked that since she was going out already, would she mind depositing the money into his account because she worked at the bank.

Oh, okay.

She said she would. And later she returned with his bank book, which indicated that the money had.

Been deposited.

In the months following her death. Because Christina does eventually die, unfortunately, a lot would be made of her behavior and her emotional state during her relationship with Jack Kettlewell. Later, speaking to the jury during the coroner's inquest, one of the medical experts concisely and somewhat politely referred to her emotional stability as that of a, quote, child who takes tantrums.

Oh, yeah. You don't want to be described as that.

No. Christina's request to borrow money to pay off unnamed blackmailers for vague reasons were enough to give Ronald pause and even make him somewhat suspicious. But they were also part of a pattern of behavior that should have been more concerning to anybody who knew. Yeah, I know that was all clean.

In the end, but it's like, what happened there? I need to know what happened here. You can't just let it go.

That's the thing. Now, many of Christina's quote unquote tantrums, it seems, came from what sounds like a deep insecurity and fear that Jack would eventually leave her for somebody else.

Oh, that's just sad.

It's not entirely clear what made her feel that way, but she had this suspicion that things weren't going to end well between them and that he was going to leave her for some reason.

Sad because she was beautiful.

Gorgeous.

Like, look up a picture of her because I'm telling you, like, stunning.

Yeah, she was really pretty.

And Jack's a really handsome guy. Yeah. I immediately looked him up and I was like, okay. Yeah, that's okay.

You can say that.

I know. I was like, is he bad?

Your face was like, can I say.

That is he bad guy?

Please tell me.

No.

Now, the day after she secretly handed Ronald the envelope containing the $10,000, Christina showed up again at Ronald and Jack's apartment a little before 09:00 in the morning. She had a dozen eggs in hand, and she told them that she had taken the day off, and she wondered if they would mind her hanging out around the apartment for the day.

Nah, girl.

Now, Ronald left to run some errands, and when he came home around lunchtime, he came home around lunchtime, and then he left again and then returned about an hour later. So it sounds like he was going off to work, came back for lunch, and then ran a couple of errands. But then he came back, and when he came back, he told police later, I was back within an hour to find both of them unconscious. At first, I didn't know what happened, and I tried to arouse them, but to no avail. They were both definitely unconscious.

Like, not asleep? No, we're talking, like, unconscious for hours.

He could not wake them up.

This is a strange case already. I don't know what's happening.

One. It's so abrupt.

I'm very confused by what's happening.

She borrows this money, she gives it back. She comes over to hang out.

She's very worried that Jack is going.

To leave her all the time, but she's still hanging out at the apartment. He comes back and everything's good, and then he is only gone for an hour. And when he comes back the second time, they're unconscious.

The two of. Yeah. Huh.

So Ronald spent the next several hours instead of calling the police, trying to revive Jack and Christina. And while they were both still breathing, he was unsuccessful at getting either of them to come to. Like, he could tell that they were breathing, but they weren't waking up or responding. So on his way to the bathroom to get cold towels to see if maybe that would make them wake up, he noticed an envelope sitting on an end table with his full name written on the outside of it in Christina's handwriting.

This is weird, man.

In the envelope was what appeared to be a suicide note written by Christina that explained she had killed Jack and herself. In her words, quote, if Jack didn't marry her, she didn't want to live, and she couldn't be Mrs. Kettlewell. No one else was going to be if she couldn't be.

Wow. This is escalating very quickly.

Very quickly. So, fearing what their friends or family might think if they learned the truth of this situation, Ronald stuffed the letter in his pocket and spent the rest of the evening trying to bring them back from the brink of death.

Really? So, to be clear, they've been unconscious this whole time, and he's just milling.

About trying to wake them up. And then he finds this letter and he reads it, and he's like, I don't know what her family is going to think or what his family will think. I'm going to hold on to this, but in the meantime, I got to try to wake them up.

This is so weird. It is like, what's going on here? What's going on? I'm dying to know. Why are they unconscious? Are they going to wake up? What's going to happen?

They wake, okay.

In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and seemed unwell. She insisted on driving him to the local hospital to get treatment. While he waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit, but would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott from wondery. Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle, in theory, walking through the forensic evidence and interviewing those close to the case to try to discover what happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation y podcast on the wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to generation y ad free right now by joining wondery. Plus.

What would you do if you thought you had met the love of your life? But as things began to slowly unravel, it went beyond your capacity to help, ending with his untimely death. What would you do? I'm Whit Miseldine, the creator of this is actually happening, a podcast that brings you extraordinary true stories of life changing events told by the people who live them. And I'm excited to share that we have hit 300 episodes. In honor of this, we've decided to revisit the first ever episode of the show entitled what if your boyfriend lit himself on fire? It's been about twelve years since I started the show with this interview, and both the storyteller and the show have evolved so much in that time. Our 300th episode is a deeper dive into the story and everything that has happened since then. To hear this story and so many more follow, this is actually happening on the wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts and you can listen to this is actually happening ad free on wondery plus.

So he spent nearly all night moving Jack and Christina's limbs for them to keep their blood moving and applying cold.

Towels to them, never calling an ambulance. Okay. No.

The next morning, they were both still unconscious. So Ronald called a local pharmacy to ask their advice. He later told police, quote, they got too nosy. And I hung up. The second one told me to give mustard and warm water to induce vomiting. I gave some to Christina, but all she vomited was the mustard and the water.

I wish I had adequate questions right now, but I'm so confused by what is happening right now. They've been unconscious since yesterday. Is anyone going through active brain death right now? Like, what is going on?

Hope not.

He's just like, well, they're breathing, I guess. What?

Couldn't tell you.

Why is it this man calling someone?

You'll find out later why he doesn't call.

At least.

There are explanations for why he doesn't call someone. I guess you could say, okay, you don't find out definitively.

I am confusion. I bet.

But I was, too, this whole time. And then I got to the end and I was like, oh, good, you.

Didn'T end up confusion. So that's it.

I ended up with some confusion.

Damn it.

But there are a couple of things that made me figure it out. Yeah.

All right. At least I won't end up completely confusion.

Yeah, you never.

Promises.

Now, Jack and Christina did finally regain consciousness by noon the next day, but they both remained very groggy and very violently ill for the remainder of the day. Later, in his statement to the police, Ronald recalled that several times throughout the day, the phone and the door buzzer rang, but he ignored it, worried that he wouldn't be able to explain the scene in the apartment. Now, by the time Jack was finally alert enough to understand what was going on, his immediate concern was Christina's reputation and what he assumed would be her family's concern, that she hadn't returned the previous evening. Because, remember, she doesn't live there. She was just hanging out for the day, and now she's been gone for, like, a whole day, a whole night, and into noon the next day.

Yeah.

Now, Ronald later said, quote, jack seemed to think maybe if we sent a telegram saying that they were married, it would keep her people from worrying too much.

This is so extra. Like, what? The escalation that is happening here. It's like, what? Yeah, okay. Yes, they got married.

According to Ronald, they didn't get married?

They didn't get married. Let's tell everybody we did, though. Yep.

According to Ronald, the telegram was only intended to buy them all some time until Christina regained her faculties and could decide for herself what she wanted to do, know, explain things to her family.

Yeah. I mean, it would be awesome if she explained things to me as well because I don't have any idea what the fuck is going on right now.

However, when she did regain full consciousness, Christina could not be more pleased with the plan.

Of course.

And rather than explain herself, she convinced Ronald to call her sister Helen and tell her that she and Jack had gone up to his cottage. Ronald's cottage.

Okay.

Ronald felt that the telegram had been enough notice, but he was worried that Christina might become hysterical or try to self harm if he didn't do what she wanted. So he reluctantly agreed to make the call.

There seems like there is just so much.

There's. Everything is happening.

Wow.

Now, by the next morning, it had sunk in. It had started to sink in for the both of them that in trying to avoid a scandalous situation, they had actually created a potentially larger problem for themselves by telling Christina's family that she and Jack had gotten married.

Yeah.

Ronald said he really, I suppose, intended to get married someday, but he said he wasn't rushing into anything unprepared.

I mean, that's smart. It is.

And by all accounts, Jack cared really deeply for Christina. But when it came to the subject of marriage, he always seemed to have an excuse for not wanting to fully commit.

Okay.

But now he had not only informed Christina's family of their supposed wedding, but had also given Christina every reason to believe that he intended to realize the scheme by getting married.

Yeah. When you're suggesting instead of just saying, we fell asleep. I'm sorry. Oh, man. Crazy us. When your first thought is, let's just tell your parents we got married, that would give me the idea that you wanted to get married.

Yeah, 100%, I think because of the time period. Yeah, I know the we fell asleep thing. Everybody would start calling her names and.

Saying that, no, that does make shit out of wedlock. But I can definitely understand why she. But, yeah, I don't take that as, like, a hint of, like, maybe he came up with that idea. Yeah, he must be thinking about it. I can understand that. And especially when you really, really like someone. Yeah.

And she really.

You can tell she seems like she loved him.

Yeah. I mean, to the point that she didn't want anybody else to be Mrs. Kettlewell because.

Was that real? I didn't know if that was real or not. I didn't know what the.

It's hard to.

Even if it is very fever dreamish.

I think it all does. That's the perfect way to describe it, I think.

Yes.

But you don't really know for sure because Christina ends up dying at some point. She's not around to confirm. To confirm or deny.

All right, interesting. Okay. Either way, we know she really loved him and was. She did invested desperately in this relationship. So hearing him say, let's just pretend we got married, she's like, that's like the dream. Yeah.

Now, later that afternoon, after Jack and Christina appeared to be recovering from the previous day's events, Ronald finally felt comfortable leaving them alone in the apartment while he ran out to run some errands.

To be clear, Ronald has not asked them what the fuck happened.

No, first that question would be, I don't really know if he asked them any questions. It sounds like, from what I read, is that he read the suicide of the suicide note or what was intended to be a suicide note, and that answered his questions. And then, to be clear here.

Yeah, to be clear, he read that, a note which says, we're dying together. I made him do this. I killed him and then myself. He read that he found them in that state, and then when they woke up, he didn't think to say, like, hey, about that attempted murder. Do you want to talk about it?

He might have.

Should we have a conversation about what I read? If we want to all live together or not? I'd be like, I would like to move out. I don't want to live here anymore. This is also non fucking chalant. It's like.

It's true.

Very much stressing me out. No, it's very stressful because I keep having to be like, am I hearing this correctly? I kept having to reread things.

I don't know if there was any kind of discussion once they woke up or if it was like, we don't want to make her upset, so we're just going to let this be what it is, because now Jack wants to marry her. So, like, okay.

Yeah. It just seems like so much is happening and not enough questions are being asked.

That's actually what's happening. I'm pretty sure what I don't agree with is that once they woke up from this failed murder suicide attempt, allegedly, he was just like, I have errands to run. Are you guys like, okay. You just left the. But I mean, hey, I guess he's not responsible for either of them? I don't know.

Yeah.

But as Ronald was leaving, Christina asked him where he was going, and he told her he was on his way to the bank, and she immediately broke down crying.

Oh.

And when he was like, why are you like, what's the problem? She explained that she had said that she deposited that money into his account a few days earlier, but she had, in fact, lied and never truly put the money in the $10,000 that she returned to him or the additional 15 or the additional $5,000 he gave her to deposit into the account.

But she was able to produce the book thing that she did, right.

She worked at the bank.

Wow. It's a lot of power.

Yeah, she messed things up.

Oh, man.

So as the current ledger keeper at the local branch of the bank of Nova Scotia, Christina had fraudulently entered the deposit into Ronald's bank book as having been deposited, but then kept the money for herself.

Yikes.

So she made a note looking like.

Oh, yeah. Looking like it had gone in, but it hadn't. Oh, no.

He recalled later, Ronald, I had never been so stunned in all my life. I had done everything under the sun to help her, had placed myself heavily in debt to come to her assistance. And here I found out that I had been living in a fool's paradise, thinking the money was in my account.

Oh, damn.

So he started pressing her for an explanation, like, why the fuck did you do that?

Yeah.

Because not only she owed him $10,000 and then gave him an envelope full of $10,000, and he was like, oh, do you mind running that to the bank for me, since you work there? And can you take this, too?

Yeah.

So he gave her more of his own money, not as, like a favor, but as a. Hey, can you also put this in my account, since you're putting.

And she took it all.

She took all of it.

Oh, damn.

So he was like, why the fuck did you do that? But she just started crying hysterically and begging him not to tell anybody. So he dropped the matter a few minutes later when Jack came into the room, because, remember, Jack knows nothing about this whole money situation.

Damn.

Now, after learning that Christina had once again manipulated him and taken his money, Ronald had every intention of getting an explanation for this behavior and this screwing him over. But given everything that had happened that last week of April, the murder suicide plot, the alleged murder, he decided to wait for, quote unquote, more favorable circumstances before raising the issue.

This man has a lot of patience.

Ronald is patient, potentially kind.

He seems kind. Yeah. I hope he is. He feels like he is. I'm like, damn for you not to be losing your mind right now the.

Way that I would lose my.

And, like, not telling Jack he's thinking of everybody here.

That's a pretty impressive self.

Really. Yeah, exactly. Everybody else.

Now, by May 3, 1947, the tension in the drama had subsided, and somehow things returned normal between Christina, Jack, and Ronald. That morning, May 3, Jack and Ronald had planned to leave for a weekend trip to go to Ronald's cottage on the Severin river, I think it is. But first, Christina and Jack were going to go get their marriage license in order to make everything official, because they.

Were really doing it.

But by the time they got everything together for the trip, the licensing bureau had closed for the weekend. So they decided to wait until after the weekend, like, go on Monday, and Ronald and Jack were going to make their way to the cabin, but now Christina was coming along, so they had planned to go, just the two of them, but then she ended up going, oh, okay. Yeah. So the trio spent four days by the river, and during that time, Jack and Christina got along well and seemed to be having a good time. They know, put that wildness behind them.

Yeah.

And although he hadn't exactly planned on getting married, Jack told Ronald he was willing to make a go of things if she was.

Wow.

And for her part, Christina was elated with his decision to go ahead with the marriage. She was insisting that that was what she wanted all along.

Oh, boy.

And when they returned to Toronto on Wednesday, May 7, she immediately began making plans for her and Jack's wedding. Now, for reasons still unknown, because everything is unknown, she asked Ronald if he would go to the parish priest, Father Markle, and explain the circumstances on their behalf. He agreed, and a few hours later returned to the apartment with the news that the priest would like to see them immediately. Like to figure out this whole marriage thing.

Yeah.

Now, although he was hesitant to bring up the matter of the missing $15,000 now, and he was hesitant to risk ruining the good mood and triggering another suicidal homicidal episode, Ronald claimed he did eventually get the nerve to bring it up, but they were either, quote, interrupted or she got hysterical, and I dropped it. Finally, on the morning of May 11, he raised the issue again, now determined to get an answer. And after more than a little insistence, Christina claimed she had, quote, given it back to those fellows that had been blackmailing her.

But I thought the fellows that, okay.

They gave it to her. She said she gave it back to.

She, so they blackmailed her for money. She borrowed the money from Ronald. She gave it to the blackmailers.

They gave it to her.

They had a change of heart, gave it back to her. She gave it back to, quote unquote, gave it back to Ronald but actually took it and then didn't actually just take it. She gave it back to the blackmailers. Yeah. Okay. I got it.

Yeah, you do?

Yep. Good for you. Thank you. Honestly, thank you. Lots of. Just making sure this all doesn't make sense.

Lots of red yarn all over the fucking.

I feel like I'm serpentining through.

We all are. So she said she gave it back to them and he was like, okay, why? But she seemed deeply upset and spent the rest of the day sulking. So he didn't really know what he was to do about all of this. Now, the next morning, may twelveth, Christina woke up early and left the apartment without saying a word to Ronald or Jack about where she was going. She literally just dipped. So Ronald stuck his head out the window and called after her. And he was like, hey, where are you going? And she was like, I'm going for a walk. I'll be back soon. After several hours had passed, both of know became concerned that Christina hadn't returned, and their landlady, Mrs. Barger, reluctantly informed them that over the weekend, Christina had asked her to borrow a large sum of money from the landlady, oh, shit. Quote, to go to Hamilton, Ontario, where some boyfriend of hers lived.

What?

Yes. Now she comes back, though later when she returned to the apartment, the only explanation she offered was that she had gone to see her parents where she, quote, had a sort of favorable reception of telling them about the wedding.

Okay.

Among other things, which she said she had a sort of favorable reception. But then she explains it, and it doesn't sound favorable at all because the family was disturbed by her behavior and the unexpected announcement that she was marrying Jack. All of a sudden, Kazmir and Mary, her parents didn't fully object to her relationship with Jack, but they were flatly opposed to the idea that she was going to marry him because he was not Roman Catholic like they were. So that was out of the question. That they get married, they could date and have a good time, but they could not get married.

This is the problem. It was the four much going on. All right.

Now, there was also the matter of his relationship with his roommate and best friend, Ronald Berry. It's unclear whether Christine's family had actually met Ronald by this point, but she must have at least told them something about him because they, quote, couldn't understand the relationship between he and Jack. They thought it was strange. Yeah. Christina'sister Helen said, when Jack and Christina got married, we thought it was very strange that Barry went along on the honeymoon. Ronald's Barry. That's what made us wonder if Ronnie was also in love with.

That. Yeah, absolutely. I am.

So later that evening, when Jack, Christina and Ronald had joined some friends for dinner, like, after she tells them about how everything went with her parents, they had some friends over for dinner. The group was surprised when their meal was interrupted by Christina's two sisters showing up unannounced to the apartment. And their names were Helen and Sophie. And they were, quote, quite mad and antagonistic. So who knows?

This is so chaotic.

It's the most chaotic story that I've ever heard.

Just real quick, before we get into the next mayhem that's, I'm sure about to unfold.

No, this is good that we have to keep explaining it along the way.

So the landlord story, just moving on past that.

It sort of comes back later.

Okay. I was just wondering. I was like, okay, so the landlord is like, hate to break it, but she borrowed her money so she could go see a boyfriend in Ontario. And she comes home and is. No, no, I saw my parents and they're okay.

Yeah.

Like, what does Mrs. Berger or Berger have to do with any of, like, she's not lying for any reason, I would assume. I don't think she's. Maybe not. Who knows? Okay.

I think.

And now her sisters show up out of nowhere. They're fucking pissed.

They're fucking pissed.

They're pissed.

Yes, they were quite mad and antagonistic.

So mad.

But reports of this encounter vary widely depending on who's telling the tale, of course. But Ronald insisted. He tried to talk to Christina's sister to find out what they were so upset about. But they, quote, kept shouting something about giving Christina opium and trying to force her to marry Jack.

This can't get more bizarre.

No, it does. Every paragraph gets more and more crazy. So confused and rather frustrated by the situation, Ronald turned to Christina and was like, listen, make up your mind. Do you want to be with Jack or not? Like, what's going on here? And Jack was. Yeah, like, what's going on? He was equally confused. Now, in Christina'sister Helen's version of events, christina, quote, was nervous and she wouldn't listen to anyone. You couldn't get any sense out of her. But what both versions agree on is that Christina clearly stated she did want to marry Jack. And at that point, they called a cab. So that they could leave the tent situation. Okay, Ronald said Sophie tried to stop them and kept crying that Christina was being kidnapped, which was ridiculous. As Christina was walking ahead of Jack. What now? Once they had left the scene at their own apartment, tensions escalated as Helen and Sophie continued to accuse Ronald and Jack of drugging and manipulating their sister. When it was clear that there was nothing more they could do, Helen left the barger apartment house and went to the police station to enlist the help of the authorities to stop the marriage.

But she was informed that because Christina was an adult, there was nothing that the police could do to intervene. Now, the other sister, Sophie, meanwhile, continued escalating in her emotional accusations until Ronald actually had to call the police to have her escorted out of the apartment.

This is a fever dream.

No, truly. Okay, so given the fact that Jack Kettlewell never made a formal public statement about his marriage or the death of his wife.

He didn't?

No, never. The only accounts of this altercation on record come from Ronald Berry, who gave his statement to the police, and Helen, the sister, who told the story to a jury during the coroner's inquest and during subsequent interviews with press. So it's difficult to establish what exactly happened at the apartment that night. But it sounds like during her visit to her parents'house to inform them of the marriage, Christina may have given an inaccurate account of the suicide homicide attempt, maybe presenting herself as the victim and Jack and Ronald as the villains. And that's where they were talking about drugging and opium and all that.

So she went to her parents'house to be, hey, let's talk about me marrying Jack. And they were like, yeah, that sucks. We're not cool with the fact that he is not Roman Catholic. And she was like, well, this is really going to blow your fucking top, because he also drugged me with opium. That's what some people, Helen and Sophie, were like, wait a second.

Like, a day later or later that.

Night, they were all of a sudden just like, wait a fucking second. And they just showed up at the house and were like, we just realized what you said.

Maybe they were at home. And then the parents told them. I don't know.

Why would she just go and tell her parents that she was drugged with opium?

Couldn't tell you.

But that she's marrying one of them.

I don't know.

I'm confused. Maybe I'm missing a giant part of this puzzle, but, like, this.

No, we all are. No, we literally all are missing, like.

The biggest part of this.

So we'll never really know which version of the events is true, but it seems like Christina was trying to hedge her bets, weaving a story that would absolve her of her responsibility for the murder suicide attempt if her family found out about it without her compromising her impending marriage to Jack, but feels like.

It would compromise it a little bit.

Feels like that to me, too. I'm going to go out on a.

Limb here and say, if my child told me that their future husband drugged them unwillingly with opium, that's going to compromise the marriage in my mind and in my heart.

I wonder, though, if she said it was Ronald and not Jack, but it.

Seems like she was saying Jack and Ronald are, like, the villains of this story here. Yeah, I don't know. It's very confusing. Damn.

Okay, so that happened.

Hedge those bets, I guess.

But after satisfactorily explaining himself to the police, Ronald returned to the apartment. Because the police were like, yeah, I think this is all a big mess, but did you drug anybody with opium? And he was like, no way.

The police were like, we don't know what's going on either.

He went back to the apartment where Christina and Jack had returned and told him that they didn't want to wait any longer to get married because they didn't want to risk further interference of her family.

The ones you told that he drugged you with opium? Yep. Okay.

Or Ronald, who knows? And they decided they wanted to get married that very evening.

Wow. Okay.

So Ronald was like, okay, should I call the. Like, this is for realsies.

Ronald, you can have an opinion at some point. You can step in and be like, friend to friend. Can I just like both of, like, I don't think this is the time.

I would say that.

I know you're trying to not ruffle feathers here, but ruffle time to ruffle some fucking feathers. Ruffle a few feathers. He didn't.

He called Father Markle, who agreed to see them all that evening, and they all were like, oh, my God, let's go get married. So they all left to go to the priesthouse that evening in Markle's living room. Father Markle there, Jack and Christina were married before a wedding party that included, of course, Ronald Barry, of course, the landlady, Emma Barger.

I'm obsessed with that.

The couple's friends, the Thomases, and they used Emma Barger's wedding ring as proxy for the ring that Jack had yet to buy, and Christina was wearing a borrowed dress. They did the damn thing.

They got married, okay? They did it. If that's how they wanted to do it. Then they did it. Yeah. This is very chaotic. But, like, most bizarre. You guys see, you of all know, tend your own garden. Yes. That's all on you.

She says that she eats a mozzarella stick dipped in Caesar.

Exactly.

She just keeps moving away from the microphone.

I don't want you guys to hear it.

That's, like, so thoughtful. But it's funny to watch you crowd.

You're just, like.

In Ronald Berry's version of events. The three of them decided as a group that it would be best for Ronald to join them at the cabin on their honeymoon because, quote, they had so much stuff to take along.

Okay.

Drew and I had a lot to bring on our honeymoon. Like, we each had a suitcase that we had to check and to carry on. That's four bags right there.

And you didn't need me to come with you? No. I love you so much.

I'm not inviting you. I'm not inviting my best friend. What?

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.

Different strokes for different.

Yeah, I don't know.

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U.

So on the morning of May 16, 1947, all three of them drove down to the cabin in a car that they borrowed from a friend.

Okay, have fun, you guys.

Yeah, have the best time. The first few days of the trip were casual and uneventful. But on the morning of Sunday, May 18, Ronald entered the kitchen to find Christina sitting at the table, crying. And he was like, what's wrong? Why are you so upset? And Christina said she, quote, didn't know whether Jack had married her because he loved her or on account, know, the murder suicide attempt.

I feel bad. Yeah. Of that's. I think the realization is hitting her. Yeah. That this is all the gone about in the wrong way.

It's very like twisted, er, Romeo and Juliet kind of, you know what I mean? Like that whole story where I know.

Of that one, you were just blank for so long. I don't know. I don't even see it like that. I kind of just see it like she kind of forced this to happen. I think it's hitting her that she kind of forced this whole situation and now she's like, well, I thought what's sad about it is she thought she was going by getting what she wanted. It wouldn't matter how she got it.

She got it.

She got Jack, she got to marry him. But I think all of a sudden she woke up in the morning and it's like, okay, but it still bothers me. I got what I wanted, but now I'm really thinking about it and I would rather have the love attached to this and have it be his decision or her decision at that. But get it, girl.

That nobody pressured anybody.

Yeah. That you two were just so in love that you wanted to get married and not because something had pushed you to having to do this. Yes. And it's just really sad that she did come to that realization because that's a hard realization, I imagine, to hit. It's sad, which is you've got exactly what you wanted, but you still didn't get exactly what you wanted.

Like a careful what you wish for.

Yeah.

But Ronald said he reassured her that Jack did indeed love her, and she seemed to accept that fact. But there were several points throughout that day where Christina seemed to be just lost in her thoughts, and Ronald became concerned that she might try to hurt herself. Know somebody else is not.

There's no way you're going to trick yourself into believing that everything is hunky dory.

No, it's just simply not.

Yeah.

So the following morning, Ronald left the couple alone and went out for a long walk. I think he was like, I need to remove myself from this situation for a minute and things seem okay ish right now. And when he returned, he found Christina at the table writing a letter. And Jack seemed like he was sleeping on the couch. Now, he tried to talk to them. He was like, oh, hey, how are you guys? But Christina ignored him and Jack was deeply asleep. So rather than repeat himself, he just went to the couch to make Jack more comfortable, he said. Not wanting to intrude any further, he left again and told Christina that he was going to go lay out in the sun for a bit and that he'd be back in a few hours, but that he would come back and check on them periodically throughout the afternoon to see if they needed anything.

Okay.

When he returned later that afternoon, he found Christina still sitting in the kitchen and Jack still on the couch where he had last seen him several hours earlier, still asleep. But this time, Ronald noticed that the pillow under Jack's head was covered in blood.

Oh.

So assuming he had a nosebleed, Ronald took a closer look and realized that the blood was actually coming from Jack's head.

What the fuck?

So, concerned, he started cleaning his friend's head and face, looking for a cut. He told police, I asked Christina what happened, but she just looked up at me and didn't say a word.

What the fuck?

So he's wiping Jack's face and head, and he begins to notice the faint smell of coal oil. And fearing that there might be a leak somewhere, he said he lifted Jack off the couch and carried him outside to get fresh air.

Wow. This is a good friend.

I know. Honestly. After getting Jack situated on the ground by the river and when he turned to start back towards the cabin, know figure out what Christina was doing, he saw smoke billowing from the exterior door leading to the kitchen.

What?

So he ran back into the cabin, yelling out for Christina. But by the time he made his way back into the front part of the cabin, he could barely see anything through all the smoke. But still, he was yelling, making his way to the front room, calling out for Christina. But he wasn't getting any response. So he was like, is she not in here anymore? Because he had to get out of there. He couldn't tolerate the smoke filling the cabin, so he made his way back out the front door leading outside, and he grabbed a couple small items on the way, including one of Jack and Christina's small suitcases.

Man, he's a good friend.

I know.

Damn.

Now, he'd only reached the shore where Jack sat when he looked back and saw that the cabin was now engulfed in flames. And mind you, this is his cabin.

Yeah, this is his.

So he later claimed that he dragged Jack further from the house to a safer location and then went in the direction of the woods, calling up for Christina. But he didn't see her and he didn't hear her anywhere. So after about 30 minutes of searching for Christina, Ronald returned back to Jack's. Location and managed to flag down a passing boat. He explained to the men in the boat what had happened and that he still hadn't been able to find Christina anywhere. So one of the men volunteered to stay behind and look for Christina while the other men took Jack and Ronald to meet the nearest car to go get them to the hospital. So after checking Jack in at the hospital, Ronald went straight to the provincial police to report what had happened. And that was when he learned that Christina's body had been discovered near the shore of the river, about 200 yards from the cabin.

What the fuck is going on?

So she made it out of the house before the fire started, but she's dead.

Holy shit.

So authorities were able to locate Christina's body lying face down in a nine inch pool of water adjacent to the riverbank.

What?

Still dressed in the floral print pajamas that she'd been wearing the night before. There were no burns on her body, no evidence to suggest that she had been in the fire. There were no signs of violence or indications of what had caused her death. Jack remained hospitalized, where he claimed to have no memory of the fire or the events leading up to it.

What?

So he was of little help to the investigators now, given the wildly mysterious circumstances.

You need to make up a new.

Word for mysterious, truly, under which Christina had died. Authorities opened an investigation to determine whether or not she'd been murdered.

What the fuck?

Because this is all so bizarre. They're like, was she murdered?

What happened?

This makes no fucking sense. On the morning of May 22, 1947, an autopsy was conducted by the chief coroner, Dr. Smurl Lawson. Following his examination, he confirmed there were no signs to indicate that Christina had been in a fire. There was no smoke in her lungs, she wasn't burned, nothing to indicate that she'd been in the fire. And he deemed that her cause of death had, in fact, been drowning. She drowned in a nine inch pool.

Of water with no smoke in her lungs. Like, she wasn't really affected by the fire.

She got out in.

Like. And right before that, according to Ronald.

Jack has, like, a head injury.

He found Jack lying unconscious with a head injury and said it to Christina and was like, what happened to his head? And she just looked at him and didn't answer him. Like, what was happening here?

All I can say, Lawson told reporters, that's the coroner, is that Mrs. Kettlewell was definitely drowned. To make sure that she wasn't drugged or poisoned. Specimens of her body are being examined while the contents of her stomach and other material have been sent for chemical analysis. A short time later, when the lab results came back, Lawson learned that there was codeine in Christina's stomach at the.

Time of her death. Oh, okay.

On its face, Christina's death and the circumstances leading up to it were the most suspicious thing anybody had ever heard of in their entire fucking life. Why had she been so quick to marry Jack? Why had they done it so secretly? What the fuck was going on? Why was Ronald Berry always around? Yeah, why would a newlywed couple bring a third party with them on their honeymoon?

Exactly.

And how does somebody ostensibly escape a roaring house fire without a scratch, only to drown in what was more or less a puddle of water?

This is the most bizarre thing I think I have ever heard.

Me as well. So those unanswered questions led investigators to suspect foul play, and what they learned next did little but make them more suspicious.

Oh, no.

The statement given by Ronald to the police was suss, but it only got more so when he got to the subject of money. There was, of course, the $15,000 he claimed Christina had stolen from him over the course of the previous year and refused to return. But there was also the matter of insurance money. Between having bought the cottage the previous year and the fire, he had procured insurance on the home for $3,000. Now, that wouldn't have been unusual in and of itself, but in his statement to the police, he mentioned that he had become, quote unquote, financially embarrassed due to the large sums of money that he'd lent Christina, and he was unable to pay many of his bills as a result. Okay, so they were like, are you trying to cash in on the $3,000 to make up for some of your bills?

That feels like it would be, but.

It'S, like, a lot. It's only $3,000 and you're out. What are you going to. Yeah, and I'm not saying only 3000. Obviously, that's a lot of money.

But if you're out 15,000, is that really worth all of that?

Right, exactly. That's what I'm saying. Now, given that he had become financially embarrassed and needed money, it did seem plausible to investigators that the fire could have been set intentionally in order to collect on the insurance.

Yeah.

And also, Ronald had sent to and received a telegram from an unknown person in the United States, which just added to the mysterious facts of the Kettlewall case. And given all the talk of large sums of money, led the investigators to wonder whether there was some kind of illegal business being operated by Ronald, Christina, and Jack. So in a statement given to the police, Ronald Barry flatly rejected the possibility that he had burned down his own cottage for insurance money. He said, we lost everything. When a thing like this happens, one does not think of insurance. It is something that cannot be replaced. It is like a life lost. We had planned on staying here all summer away from everybody. The flowers were beautiful. We were going to plant so many more. But I guess I shouldn't say anything else. I've said too much. What? Investigators found his statement to be, quote unquote, fantastic. Fantastic.

Whoa.

Not like fantastic, like amazing, like fantastic.

Like, a little hard to. I mean, with. The thing is, he's saying everything that you want to hear from somebody.

But they either doubted or at the very least, were very suspicious of many of his claims. But just a few days later, Chief Inspector Albert Ward formally announced that there were no signs of foul play and no suspects, but emphasized that the case would remain open.

Okay.

Ronald talked to reporters after Ward's statement, and he doubled down, saying there was no foul play. On that, I would stake my.

I. I'm not saying Ronald has anything to do with it because, honestly, nothing up to this point would lead me to believe that he would hurt her.

No.

But this play looks pretty foul.

It's just wild.

It just looks strange. Like, what happened?

I have no idea. It's like a Riley Sager novel.

It literally is. You were explaining that one to me the other day, and it sounds like this.

It does.

I'm just so confused. I'm so confused. I'm so confused how this woman. How she was sitting there and Ronnie's asking her, like, hey, Jack's got a massive head injury and is bleeding all over the pillow and has been out for several hours. And she's just like, you know what happened here?

And she's just like.

And then just a fire starts, and he carries Jack out, and she somehow makes her way out, and then toots along 200 yards or so and drowns in tiny puddles.

Water. Yeah, it's wild. I've never heard anything like it.

I can't come up with. I'm going to have to think on this one so hard.

Well, we're not done yet. Curly. Meanwhile, shocked. It is shocking. Meanwhile, reporters were attempting to get their own statements from Jack and Ronald, with the latter having promised to make one in the days immediately following the fire. But the statement, however, was never given. And Ronald did seem to be avoiding the press at that point. So they turned to their next best contact, his brother Mario. Ronald's brother Mario. And Mario told the press. Ronnie has always been a secretive fellow. According to his brother, the family had always found his closeness with Jack somewhat unusual. He said, we often remarked on the close friendship between Ronnie and Jack. It seemed they were always together. Both worked for a box factory, and when one was discharged, the other quit.

So he was like.

They were just very close.

Yeah.

Now, as far as Jack Kettlewell was concerned, investigators were very clear that he was never a suspect, and at no time was he detained for questioning. An inspector told the press, he is not under arrest nor in any kind of custody. As far as I'm concerned, anyone can see him. But the problem was that even once Jack had been released from the hospital for a head injury and, quote, the apparent effects of a drug which left him in a dazed condition had wore off. He had said little to investigators or reporters, so nobody knew what the fuck had like. They were like, did anything happen before? But he didn't remember, allegedly.

What?

In his initial statement to the police, he insisted he remembered nothing from the morning of the fire until he came to in the hospital.

I need to know, like, you gotta rack the deepest parts of your brain, Jack. I gotta know.

But it seemed like he was in a dazed even, which I was like, did she give you codeine, too?

Well, that's what I'm wondering. I'm like, what's happening here? Because also, I'm still wondering what happened at the apartment. Oh, yeah, everybody's wondering. I'll never forget what happened at the apartment. I will not. So I'm still wondering what happened there. Like, what drug was used, what's going on over there? And now this happens, and it seems like there's more drugging happening, possibly, allegedly. And it's like, by whom? I do not know.

Nor me.

I wish I had ideas, or I got nothing.

Well, the wreckage of the cabin also yielded few clues to an explanation.

Oh, good.

Among the debris, investigators found a gallon jar of coal oil, which Ronald claimed he had brought along for cleaning pots and pans. And they also found a five gallon can, which a neighbor claimed was used to power the generator.

Okay.

Otherwise, there was nothing at the scene that could have explained Christina's death or the fire. Having ruled out the foul play and potential that the death was the result of a drug trafficking operation between Canada and the US, they ruled that out. The only theory investigators were left with was that Christina had indeed taken her own life after setting fire to the cabin.

Okay.

In fact, among the only physical evidence in the investigation was the couple's suitcase that Ronald grabbed on his way out of the burning building.

Oh, shit.

Which contained the letter Christina was writing on the morning of the fire, which turned out to be yet another suicide note, again addressed to Ronald, because, remember, the other one was too. When she allegedly had tried to end her life and Jack's allegedly. This time, Christina stated that she did not believe Jack's proposal of marriage was genuine and that he instead made it out of fear that she might harm herself if he didn't go through with it. She wrote, this will be the best way out, as I cannot bear to see another girl have him.

This is, like, heart wrenching.

It is it really sad.

She was so, like, she needed someone to just talk to her. Yeah.

So Ronald turned both suicide letters over to the investigators, which appeared to corroborate at least part of his story, particularly his account of the murder suicide attempt in April and Christina's behavior on the morning that she died. In the third suicide note, written on the morning of the fire and addressed to Mrs. Thomas, Christina wrote, ronnie is in the boat outside somewhere. By the time he gets back, everything will be all over with. He must have been afraid something would happen because he's staying an extra day to make sure we go back to Toronto with him.

I actually wondered if that's why Ronnie was hanging around so much. Yeah. Because either he, Jack or both of them were worried about not having a potential third person to watch over things.

Yeah, it kind of seems like I.

Wondered if that was part of it.

I think that's part of it, especially.

When Ronnie was coming in, being like, you guys need anything? Yeah, just going outside for a little while. I'll be back and I can bring you something if you need it. It seems like he was there to be, like, just keeping everything, keeping tabs on everything.

Yeah, I think so too.

Yeah.

And I especially think so when you find out details later. So nevertheless, the suicide notes didn't explain all the unanswered questions, so a coroner's inquest was scheduled.

Thank goodness. I was like, someone get me in. A coroner's inquest doesn't really do much, to be honest.

The primary motive for the coroner's inquest was to identify the circumstances of Christina's drowning. Sorry, I was just shifting there. And definitely or definitively, I can never say that, rule out foul play, but from the perspective of the public, it was the mystery surrounding Ronald's involvement that more people wanted to learn about. This aspect of the case was significantly amplified by Christina'sister Helen, who was always heavily suspicious of Jack and Ronald, and especially now she believed fullheartedly that they were responsible for Christina's death.

Wow.

Yeah. CP hope, the special counsel to the Crown, was also suspicious of Ronald's involvement in the drowning. At one point, just before the inquest began, Hope told reporters Ronald was a liar of the most blatant kind, whose sinister figure permeates the whole of this tragedy, but whose purpose and design are shrouded in mystery.

Whoa.

Yeah. The inquest began on June 19, 1947, with the jury hearing from several medical experts, including R. C. Wade, the doctor who treated Jack at the hospital, and the coroner himself. Smurl Lawson.

Dr.

Smile Lawson. Wade explained to the jury that Jack had indeed been treated for a head wound. But when it came to his dazed and confused state, Wade said, I suggest he was not ill. He was upset. He did not act like a normal, like he was. He was upset because he had been drugged.

And I don't think you have mentioned it, but they don't know what kind of head wound this is. No, like what it's from. He was bleeding.

He was bleeding from his web.

Wild.

But according to Wade, he said Jack was more likely suffering from shock in the after effects of trauma. But he was unable to explain the head wound that he arrived with. He did have a head wound, but he did not know, had no idea.

Where it came from. What kind of head wound?

Like. No.

Wow.

No idea.

This is very strange.

So the second witness called was Helen, Christina'sister. Thank you. And her testimony would do little to exonerate Ronald or Jack. She told the jury that Christina was always a happy girl before Jack and Ronald came into her life, and that she had never, ever suffered any bouts of depression. Moreover, she refuted Ronald's claim that her sister had been sexually assaulted or blackmailed and emphasized that Christina had never talked about or been in possession of a large amount of money. She said if she had that kind of money, I would have known about it.

Or so you think. I understand thinking that. But it's like you can never know. People act strangely, especially when they're in a new relationship or something's different. It can change.

Or they're suffering.

They're suffering mentally with something. I can understand why she would think that. She would know that, but it's like there is a small chance that you wouldn't.

Well, it's like sometimes you lie to your sister.

Exactly. I mean, Ash never lies to me and I never lie to her. No, that's true. That's actually very true. Yeah. When I was younger, I lied to you. But you always got the truth out of me.

But the real problem, Helen claimed, was Ronald Barry. She said anytime Jack went out with Chris, Christina Barry was with them. And in fact, contrary to what anybody had heard, it wasn't Jack that their family objected to, but Ronald. According to Helen, ronald Barry was a generally bad influence on Jack and her sister. And Helen said that Ronald had even convinced Christina to try drugs on at least two occasions. In this case, Helen was referring to the incident in which she confronted the trio at the barger apartment and attempted to convince Christina not to marry Jack. She had no evidence to support her belief, but she claimed that Christina had been doped up when she agreed to marry Jack.

There's so much happening.

Everything is happening.

Because the reality of the situation is, from what you can tell from the whole story, is that that murder suicide thing happened and that's where the marriage was born out of.

Yeah.

So it's like, I think everybody was under an influence of many different kinds of stress. Stressors. Yes. At that point, I think the problem here is, like, that marriage never should have happened.

Well, and I think. Yes, I think that. And I think one of the other bigger problems is that nobody really knew what Christina was going through.

I think that's the thing.

Christina was going through some suffering alone.

It sounds like.

It sounds like it big time. And it sounds like she had a lot of secrets, maybe things she was going through.

Well, and it sounds like she clearly loved. Uh huh. But it sounds like it got to be a little bit of an unhealthy.

Love, a bit of an obsession.

Yeah.

For lack of.

When it comes to the I'd rather you die than be with anyone else, it's like that's when it's crossed over into a little bit unhealthy territory. And it's like love can make you do crazy things. It can make you feel unorthodox things. And it's like that's why you need somebody to talk to you about it, to kind of bring you out of that. It sounds like she didn't have that or didn't think she had that. Yeah.

Because I honestly think she could have talked to Ronald.

Ronald sounds like there was people around her that would have talked to her.

Exactly.

But maybe she just didn't know it.

And then what was the money?

Well, that's the other thing. I just can't wrap my brain around this money thing.

Why did she need that?

That's a lot of money to need. Yeah.

And back, it seems to me like there was. I think she was in some kind of.

She was in trouble.

I don't know why.

Being blackmailed by these men? It's possible. Yeah.

Maybe she got roped up with the wrong people.

Or it was something else completely that.

She was in trouble with. She was in trouble.

She was in trouble. You don't need that much money when you're not in trouble.

No.

So that's a huge part of this thing is, like, what the fuck was going on that nobody knew about. Yeah. And now I want to dedicate my entire life to figuring out what the fuck she was doing before this.

Me too.

I'm so invested.

But I haven't found anything that gives you any kind of clue because we're about to get murkier.

Awesome.

So despite testifying that their family had no objection to Jack Kettlewell, Helen went on to explain that the time Christina left the apartment and told Ronald she was going for a walk, she actually had gone to visit another boyfriend. Just like she told the landlady. She visited her boyfriend, Eddie Kura, whom the family preferred over Jack Kettlewell. So the family did have a problem with Jack Kettlewell.

And what, she was so in love with Jack? Like an obsessive love. Yeah. That she was willing to go through all that, but she's also dating another guy.

And she not only told the landlady that, but her sister knew about it, too, which leads me to believe, was she going? And it just leads me to question. Not to believe anything so much. It leads me to question, was Eddie? Was he related to the trouble that she was in?

That's what I'm like, who the fuck is Eddie? Bring me Eddie.

That's the thing.

Bring me Eddie. And also, it's like, so she didn't go to her parents that night?

I think she went to both places.

Oh, she went to both places. Because then the sisters came over all up in arms. But did she even see you today? Did she even tell you?

I think she went to see the boyfriend and I think. Or the previous boyfriend and told her parents that she was getting married. Was she going to see the previous boyfriend to tell him that she was.

Getting to break things off and be like, I'm actually getting married now.

Right?

Where's Eddie?

Where's Eddie? I don't know. But according to Helen, the sister Christina was quote unquote, afraid of Ronnie. And like Helen said, she came to me and my sister Sophie, and she had Sophie buy her a ticket to Hamilton, where Eddie Cura lived at the time. So Helen is saying my sister bought her a bus ticket to go but the landlady also said she gave her money.

But she gave her money. She didn't give her a ticket.

So maybe she needed.

What did she need money for?

Did she owe Eddie money?

She asked for more money from this landlord, got the money, and then went to her sister and asked for a bus ticket. What the fuck was that money for? Why does she need all this money?

And Helen claims that she said, according to Helen, Christina was afraid of Ronnie and Jack. Did she explicitly say that she was afraid of Ronnie and Jack, or did she seem afraid to you when she was going to visit this Eddie character?

And did they know about.

They said they preferred Eddie over does.

And then I'm thinking, I'm like, do Jack and Ronnie know about Eddie? Is there, like, some complete farce happening right now? And this wasn't a honeymoon at all.

But what would it be if not?

Were you all there for some other reason and you masked it as a honeymoon, maybe.

And there was that weird telegram that nobody ever.

And it's weird that Ronnie was there, even though we did come up with a. This is what I mean. There's so many different explanations. You can kind of explain away anything. Cause it obviously, we explained away, like, ronnie being on the honeymoon, as, like, they felt like they needed somebody else there because she was kind of going through it at the time and they wanted to make sure everything was okay.

Right.

But it's also weird that Ronnie was at the honeymoon. So it's like, maybe it wasn't a honeymoon at mean, this marriage is be. And it came to be in a strange way. And she keeps questioning it and worrying about just. I'm not hearing anything about them. I don't know. This is just weird.

Well, it gets weirder.

Oh, lord.

So Sophie, the sister, said she bought.

Her the ticket to go visit Eddie.

And she went to go visit Eddie. And Helen continued the story and said, although Christina gave no explanation as to why she feared Ronnie and Jack, she did say the men were at the apartment, quote unquote, fooling around with handwriting and said, let's see you write your name to Christina.

Okay?

So Christina went and told Helen, allegedly, that Ronnie and Jack were fooling around with handwriting and made her write her name for them.

Okay?

Now, Helen believed her sister had, quote, discovered Ronnie and Jack were a bunch of crooks and intended to do something nefarious, which is why she went to visit Eddie that afternoon. But if she discovered that they were a bunch of crooks and she did indeed go to visit Eddie that afternoon, why did she go back to the house that very night.

That's what I don't get.

Or like, the next night and then get married to Jack.

This is what I'm not understanding.

Unless she was kidnapped and forced into it. But then the priest said that everybody was happy that night.

Yeah, I don't know.

So Helen's story fed into the prosecutor and the public's belief that Ronald was somehow responsible for Christina's death, but it was based purely on her own interpretation of events that not only was unsupported by the facts of the case, but also directly contradicted the testimony of others. For example, like I just said, Father Markle, the priest who performed the wedding ceremony, told both the family and the jury at the inquest that, quote, he had not observed anything unusual about Christina's appearance or her behavior on the day of the wedding. He went on to explain that though he understood the family opposed the marriage, both Jack and Christina were clear that they wanted to be married and entered into the marriage of their own free will. Okay, and remember that night she looked at her sisters and said, I want to marry Jack. And Helen was like, no. And went to the police. And the police were like, we can't do anything.

And this is what's making me even more just wilding out over here, because I'm like, her sisters were so serious.

They were so upset that they went to the police.

Like, what the fuck is going on? Because that leads me to believe that maybe Christina did say to them, I'm scared of Jack and Ronnie. And they thought, okay, we got to get her out of there.

And then it's like, did she just say that? To double down on the story that she had nothing to do with the.

Again, try to preserve her innocence in the story of the murder suicide. Allegedly thing.

The alleged murder suicide?

Yeah.

I don't know.

Wow.

But as for Helen's comments about Jack and Ronald, quote unquote, fooling around with handwriting, that might have been an attempt to dismiss the inevitable issue of the suicide notes supposedly, allegedly written by Christina, helen insisted Christina never experienced depression or mental illness and that she would have never taken her own life. However, Toronto handwriting expert Stephen let testified that he examined the letter supposedly written by Christina and determined and confirmed that the handwriting was undoubtedly that of Christina, which.

It's a shaky, but it's all question mark. But many times when someone takes their life, the people around them say they were never depressed.

They wouldn't have done that.

They never would have done that, right? So it's one of those things where you just don't realize that some people suffer silently.

Yeah, absolutely.

Which is not anybody's fault that they don't know that. You know what mean? Like, it's not her sister's fault for being like, I never saw her, like. But that is absolutely something that could have been happening without your knowledge.

And the handwriting expert was not the only person who believed that the letters were indeed written by Christina. Dr. C. S. Tennant, a local psychiatrist, also testified as to the content of the letters, telling the jury he believed Christina, quote, belonged to a group of people who are abnormal in certain ways. They are abnormal, habitually abnormal in their emotional reactions from childhood or early adulthood. He went on to say that people like Christina, quote, demonstrate rather poor judgment, often had tantrums. And in their emotional outbursts, they may commit acts which may be a crime and which they would not ordinarily commit.

Hadn't she been described before as having tantrums? Yes. So whatever it is he's describing seems to like something she might be suffering from, at least around something like that. Yes.

Now, going into the coroner's inquest, Helen was confident that the proceedings would clear up the mystery surrounding Christina's death. But within just a few days, the conflicting testimony from Helen and the other witnesses really only seemed to further confuse things. Ultimately, and somewhat ironically, it was testimony from Ronald Berry and Jack Kettlewell that would provide clarity around many of the more confusing matters. No time, kind of. In his statement given to police shortly after his discharge from the hospital, Jack Kettlewell admitted to the police that in addition to his three year relationship with Christina, he had also been engaging in, quote, unquote, unnatural sex relations. He says that because of the time with Ronald Barry and that the two had been, quote, unquote, male lovers for many years. Okay, so when hope confronted Jack with his statement during the inquest, Jack actually tried to walk back his admission, telling the jury that he had been pressured into that confession by the police, which maybe he was pressured into that confession, or maybe he just wasn't willing to admit in front of an entire room full of in the people in the 40s that he was a gay man.

Exactly.

The problem with his recantation was that it had already been confirmed by Ronald Berry in his own statement to the police. But nevertheless, when he was called to testify, Ronald Berry still tried to corroborate Jack's assertion, telling the jury that they had only engaged in sex a few times, and it had been over a long time ago.

This makes me really sad. It's really sad that they both clearly like each other. And it's making me really sad that they're having to run it backwards. No, it was just one. Like, it happened a long time ago, and it's like, it's okay, man.

It's really sad.

But it's like the. It's like, fuck.

That's the thing. And still convinced of Ronald Berry's guilt. And that's the sad thing. I think Ronald Barry was always around because he loved Jack and he was worried about Jack's safety with.

And I think he knew that obviously, he and Jack had been involved in some way, and I think he knew that. This seems like it's a bad idea.

Yeah.

This marriage. Because this isn't for the kind of love that you are looking for.

Exactly.

And that's really sad.

It is. And it's really sad, too, that everybody thinks that he has something to do with this woman's death. If he didn't.

I still have no fucking idea one way or the other. But it just doesn't feel like it.

It doesn't totally. I wouldn't say like 100%. I'm unconvinced, but I wouldn't say I'm 100% convinced.

No.

At all. No, but that's the sad thing is that most people did suspect him. And one of those people convinced of Ronald Berry's guilt was hope there. And he rejected his attempts to shield Jack and pursued this angle as one of the driving forces in the case. And actually asked Dr. Tennant, the psychologist, his opinion of the men's relationship. This is the 40s, remember? According to Tennant, quote, the case of homosexual is a case of arrested development. Many matured slowly, but they did mature. He said others told him that women nauseated them. So we cannot tell what the girl found out or experienced emotionally.

That is some 40s ass backward shit.

Absolutely.

And that was said with his whole chest. That was right out in public being like, I am a doctor, and this is true.

And at the same time, was he saying, we cannot tell what the girl found out or experienced emotionally because did she find out?

That's the thing, that they were together. This.

And that's what know triggered this entire thing potentially.

But then you wonder too, because in her notes, she says another says another girl.

Does she say that to save Jack or does she say that because she possibly believes it? Who knows?

Because I would think she was, say.

Another person at the same time in her emotional state. Would she possibly, and this is just a question, have used that to her advantage and outed him? Because this was a time where you could do that and people could have suffer serious consequences. So did she?

Yeah. That's what makes me think she didn't know. Yeah. But then again, I don't know Christina. I don't know either if that would be something she would do. Yeah.

I don't think anybody really knew Christina.

Oh, man.

At this point, anyways. Now, after several days of testimony, the coroner's inquest came to a close on June 20, 547, when the jury returned an open verdict, meaning that while they didn't believe Christina had died as a result of murder, they nonetheless still found the circumstances very suspicious and recommended further police investigation.

Yeah.

In their statement, they said due to the fact that the post mortem examination disclosed codeine in the stomach of the deceased and the suspicious fact that she was found drowned in nine inches of water, the jury is unable to decide from the evidence given whether or not there were foul means employed in her death.

Because, I mean, codeine will knock you out.

Yeah.

So it's like if she staggered away from that fire, the stress of a fire, that's an adrenaline rush. You get an adrenaline crash with codeine in your stomach, you fall down flat, unconscious in nine inches of water.

You're still breathing and you breathe that.

You'Re breathing in water. I don't know, but it just doesn't explain anything else. The jack of it all. Well, did she head wound?

Did she drug Jack?

And where did his head wound?

I don't know about the head wound.

And why was she just laying on the couch?

He was laying on the couch.

That's what I mean. Like, why was he just laying on the couch with a head wound?

Did he, like, stumble and fall after ingesting some kind of codeine? Whether or not she drugged him or.

He took it, I have no idea.

And then she took some, too.

And what was the reason for that if it did happen?

The only thing that I can think of, and this is, again, alleged and just a thought, a theory, was she upset because, remember, she was upset that morning saying to Ronald, I don't know if he married me because he wanted to, or because the alleged murder suicide.

Yeah.

Did she get to a point of deep, deep sadness again and realize that he didn't love her and maybe he was going to leave and she ingested some kind of codeine herself and gave him some, and somehow he stumbled and hit his head and then climbed up onto the couch and fell asleep?

I mean, maybe.

I don't know.

That's a possibility. Absolutely.

The head wound of it all is the part that kind of is strange to me.

But without saying any suspect leads or.

Even evidence of a crime, the police declined to pursue the case as a murder, and Christina's death to this very day remains a mystery. Now, obviously, the coroner's inquest was intended to provide answers for many of the lingering questions in the case of Christina's death and to determine whether foul play was involved. And although many felt like those lingering questions were never answered or an explanation was provided, it's more likely that they just didn't like or couldn't accept the explanations they were given.

Yeah.

This was a time where mental illness was a very taboo subject and was very poorly understood. And in addition to that, the type of illness described by Dr. Tennant is essentially a personality disorder was hardly what anybody had in mind when they considered a mentally ill person. So they were like, no, she wasn't mentally ill, and it wasn't something that they would apply to a quote, unquote, seemingly normal young woman. But the suicide notes corroborated by Dr. Tennant and Ronald Berry's descriptions of Christina confirm that she was emotionally unstable, impulsive when it comes to the marriage, and potentially dangerous with what she had done, allegedly, who had already shown herself as willing not to just end her own life. But Jax, if they couldn't be together.

Yeah, if all that is true.

So if all that is true, it is entirely plausible that Christina did take her own life and tried to take Jax a second time. But we'll never know if that happened.

That's the thing.

And as for the suspicious behavior of Ronald Berry, that was more or less explained in his statements to the police and the jury, not in a way that they would have been able to understand. At the time, though, as a closeted gay man, his entire life was ruled by secrecy and ambiguity in order to protect his privacy and his relationship with Jack. And realistically, both of their personal safety.

Absolutely.

But unfortunately, in this case, that drive for secrecy made his behavior seem more inappropriate, suspicious, or malevolent.

Yeah. Even if it was really innocuous.

Right. For example, in hindsight, his attempts to revive his friends after the first suicide attempt, rather than call a doctor or a hospital, seem suspicious because it implies that he's trying to do something. But instead, according to his own statements, what he was really concerned about was protecting his relationship with Jack and not wanting to put Christina in a scandalous situation should the truth about her actions come to light.

That's true.

Now, what confirms this even further for me is that three years after Christina died. Jack remarried and had a son, but he did separate from his wife in 1969. Excuse me. And he never remarried. And when he died in 1998, he left his military pension to Ronald Barry.

Wow.

So they absolutely were in love. At some point, I just got, like, chills. I know. I did, too.

Wow.

Jack's family never knew about Christina or Ronald, and they only learned about the case after his death when his daughter in law discovered something about it in an old newspaper.

Shut up.

So he just went on to live life alone without Ronald, even.

Oh, that shatters my heart. Yeah.

Alone in the way of not having a romantic partner is what I mean. Because obviously he had, like, family and.

A son and everybody, but it seems like never really getting what he wanted. Yeah.

Needed because, I mean, still 1969.

Damn.

He was still closeted at that point.

Wow.

So to me, I do come out of this leaning toward that it was a second suicide murder attempt. Murder suicide attempt.

Yeah, it seems that way.

And that the codeine in her system made her fall into that puddle after.

She escaped the house fire. Yeah, it kind of seems that way.

And who knows if the house fire was just an accident. I don't know if I believe that she intended to set fire to that house. I don't know if it was an accident with the coal.

And what happened to Ronald?

Ronald stayed in, I think it's mimico, for about ten years after the inquest. But in 1956, he left Canada for New York and dropped out of sight. He left his Pekinese dog, ling, for Jack's then two year old son, Richard.

So Jack leaves his military pension for. Yep. And Ronald leaves his beloved dog for Jack's two year old son.

Yeah.

Like, I'm sorry.

Like, they were in such.

That's a love story.

That is very tragic love story. The most tragic love story. And you feel bad because Christina's like.

Christina lost in here somewhere in the confusion and the mystery surrounding all of it. Yeah.

Because we don't know.

No.

If that's really what happened. If she did try a second time, we really don't know if she tried the first time.

It's like this is all just.

She's not here to say, wow. But it truly is one of the most confusing and just unclear tragic cases I've ever heard of. And the fact that it's still unsolved.

Is just like, what I truly think that might be the most bizarre story I've ever heard.

Right.

I don't think I've heard anything that shocking and confusing in. I'm. My brain will not stop. Just like trying to piece these things together.

Cannot compute.

Wow. But, yeah, that is the tragic of.

Christina Kettlewell and the tragic and mysterious death of Christina.

Mysterious.

And with all of that, we hope.

You keep listening and we hope you keep it weird, but not so weird.

That someone out there someday doesn't solve this because, wow, I really need answers.

I'm going to solve this, man. You got this.

Keep it that weird.

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