Canadian Killers Series: The Chambermaid Slayer

It was the late 1960s when the first of three chambermaids was murdered in London, Ontario.

All three murders were brutal killings and shared several other similarities. Besides having the same job cleaning hotels, each woman was around 60 years old, suffered blunt force trauma to the head, and was found at home lying in a pool of blood. Their houses showed no sign of forced entry and their clothes had been removed. All of them were victims of an attempted sexual assault. Sometimes the perp was successful and at other times he was not.

Despite the multitude of similarities, it would take nearly 30 years before police would realize they were connected.

The victims are:

• Jane Woolley, 62 - Found on Feb. 3, 1969
  

• Edith Authier, 56 -  Found on Sept. 5, 1970
  

• Belva Russell, 57 -  Found on January 23, 1971 (No image available)

Gerald Thomas Archer was 40 years old when he was convicted of non-capital murder and sentenced to life behind bars for the murder of Belva Russell.

As he was escorted out of the courtroom following his conviction, he yelled, "That's not the end of the ballgame. That's just the first strike."

He died in 1995 of an apparent heart attack. Five years later a cold case unit determined he was responsible for Woolley and Authier's murders as well.

There is no known image of Archer available online. We found one that purports to be him on a WikiFan-type website, but when we did a reverse Google image search, the altered photo traced back to an image of a different killer. The image to the left is the only credible one of Archer and was distributed to the media after Russell's 1971 murder. It is a police sketch created by an eyewitness who saw Archer leaving Russell's home.

A montage of newspaper clippings connected to Archer's crimes, arrest, and conviction. | Courtesy: Newspapers.com

This episode kicks off our 'Canadian Killers Series' that will span the next four weeks. It wasn’t the original plan, but Em stumbled upon something extremely interesting while researching a different case. It is the simple fact that London, Canada, and its surrounding area was considered the serial killer capital of the world. According to one source, between 1959 and 1984 there were more active serial killers per capita than compared to anywhere else on earth.

We'll explore why that might be, who the victims were, and why it took so long to catch their killers. There are also more than two dozen unsolved murders in the area from around this time frame and we'll focus on those in our fourth and fifth episodes in this series. Perhaps some of you will be able to help solve some of them. Let's get sleuthing!

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Sources:

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/502182780/?match=1&terms=Gerald%20Thomas%20Archer 

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503040775/?match=1&terms=Gerald%20Thomas%20Archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503040765/

• https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48417869/the-windsor-star/

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/950184086/?match=1&terms=Gerald%20Thomas%20Archer

• https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/murder-suspects-dead-cold-squad-determines/article25455328/ 

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503757510/?match=1&terms=Gerald%20Thomas%20Archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/502084081/?match=1&terms=belva%20russell

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503039551/?match=1&terms=belva%20russell

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503039530/?terms=Archer%20trial

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/502088971/?match=1&terms=belva%20russell 

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/1008943881/?match=1&terms=belva%20russell

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/502029947/?match=1&terms=belva%20russell

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/501649088/?match=1&terms=Edith%20Edith%20Authier 

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/501649090/

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/733740413/?match=1&terms=%22Jane%20Woolley%22

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/1008511802/?match=1&terms=Wooley

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/505900045/?match=1&terms=%22Jane%20Woolley%22

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/1014000813/?match=1&terms=%22Edith%20Authier%22

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/506010583/?match=1&terms=Edith%20Edith%20Authier

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/505935514/?match=1&terms=Edith%20Edith%20Authier

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/505948820/?match=1&terms=%22Edith%20Authier%22 

• https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/london-ontario-was-serial-killer-capital-of-the-world-book_n_4937693

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/948068652/?match=1&terms=%22Project%20Angel%22

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/732108263/?match=1&terms=%22Project%20Angel%22

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/502106745/?match=1&terms=gerald%20archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/502092966/?match=1&terms=gerald%20archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/504235838/?terms=shock&match=1

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/1019460996/?match=1&terms=gerald%20archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503039530/?terms=gerald%20archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503040989/?match=1&terms=gerald%20archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/502089316/?match=1&terms=gerald%20archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503040765/?terms=gerald%20archer

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/992428514/?match=1&terms=gerald%20archer

• https://www.opp.ca/museum/historicalhighlights.php

• https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/explainer-why-we-dont-have-mug-shots-of-criminals