Source says N.B.'s most notorious serial killer may be moving to less secure prison

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By MARC HUDON
Times & Transcript Staff

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OTTAWA - Officials with Corrections Canada are contemplating a prison transfer for New Brunswick's most notorious serial killer from a special-handling unit that houses Canada's most dangerous offenders to the segregation unit or general population at a less secure prison, according to a source close to the decision.

Sources told the Times & Transcript that Allan Legere is scheduled to be transferred next week from the super-maximum security Special Handling Unit at Ste.-Anne-des-Plaines near Montreal to a regular maximum security prison in Port-Cartier, 70 kilometres west of Sept-Iles, Quebec.

Christelle Chartrand, a spokeswoman with the Correctional Service of Canada, neither confirmed nor denied Leger's status, saying the federal organization cannot divulge information about prisoner transfers because of provisions in the Privacy Act.

Allan Legere is serving a life sentence for the grisly murders of five people in the Miramichi area between 1986 and 1989.

"Legere is excellent at manipulating other people," said Vincent Poissonnier, head of RCMP major crimes unit during Leger's murder spree.

"If he applied for a transfer and if the transfer was authorized, he was obviously successful at conning those who authorized the transfer. Under no circumstances should his security level be lowered.

"His only quest is to escape. He has scores to settle and given the opportunity, he will."

Legere was sentenced to life in prison for the 1986 murder of John Glendenning, a shopkeeper in Black River Bridge. His wife Mary was badly injured during the home invasion.

Two years later, Legere injured himself deliberately while in custody at the maximum security penitentiary in Renous.

He was transported to the Dr. Georges-L. Dumont Regional Hospital, where he orchestrated a daring escape.

Legere managed to convince two guards to let him use the washroom alone.

There, he picked the lock on his handcuffs with a piece of car antenna he concealed in his body.

He used the antennae to fool the guards into thinking he had a homemade knife, escaping by forcing a driver to take him to a wooded area near Moncton's industrial park.

The terror in Miramichi started three weeks later when firefighters arrived at the home of a pair of elderly cousins.

Inside they found a badly beaten Nina Flam sitting at the foot of the stairs.

Her cousin Annie Flam, in her late 70s, was found beaten to death upstairs. She had been sexually assaulted.

Four months later firefighters were again called to a burning house where they found the bodies of sisters Linda and Donna Daughney.

One month later, police found the body of Father James Smith, 69, beaten in his home in Chatham Head.

The manhunt came to an end in November 1989 when Legere surrendered to police near Nelson.

"When he escaped in 1989 he conned everybody," said Mason Johnston, the RCMP officer who elicited the confession from Legere following his first murder.

"He was the best model prisoner. Now he's conning them again."

Public Safety Minister John Foran said he has not received official word about Legere's possible transfer, adding he's asked his staff to investigate.

"If the rumours are true ... I hope they are taking all the proper steps to ensure the public safety of people in the community," he said.

Chartrand said Corrections Canada has ultimate decision-making power in prisoner transfers, meaning input from the public or elected officials is not considered.

But Miramichi Liberal MP Charles Hubbard said there will be a public outcry if Legere is allowed out of the special handling unit.

"I really believe minister Day has the right to make a recommendation (to the Correctional Service of Canada)," he said.

This wouldn't be the first time Corrections Canada contemplated moving Legere from the extra-secure unit where he has spent the past 17 years. Federal corrections officials authorized a transfer from the prison in Ste.-Anne-des-Plaines in 2000 but changed their minds after mounting political pressure.

Mélisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, said the Corrections and Conditional Release Act requires that Corrections Canada house offenders in the least restrictive environment possible.

"Our government is determined to address these and other shortcomings in current legislation as part of our initiative to transform the federal corrections system," said Leclerc in an e-mail to the Times & Transcript.

Poissonnier said he doesn't expect elected officials or the public to have input on every prisoner transfer in Canada.

"But there are exceptions to every rule," he said. "We have a few inmates in Canada that should be an exception, including Legere.

"This criminal needs to be handled in a special way. That's why we have a unit to handle people just like him. The people of the Miramichi and his victims should have the last say."