Her father defended the men who killed 2 Moncton police officers. It destroyed him — and her family

In December 1974, two Moncton police officers disappeared while searching for the kidnappers of a 14-year-old boy.

On Dec. 15 that year, Const. Michael O'Leary and Cpl. Aurèle Bourgeois were found shot to death and buried in shallow graves outside of Moncton.

Police picked up Richard Bergeron, who was known as Richard Ambrose at the time, and James Hutchinson. They were charged with kidnapping, then later capital murder.

The case still haunts the community. So why, 48 years later, was the daughter of the lawyer who defended Hutchinson and Ambrose totally unaware of it? And how did it destroy her family? 

These are the questions Amy Bell, history professor at Huron University College in London, Ont., and the daughter of then-defence lawyer Ed Bell, is trying to answer in her new book. The murders had a profound impact on the community and everyone involved, and her family was no exception.

"My father was away in Moncton so much during the trial that it ended his marriage," she said.

His law practice suffered, and he eventually stopped practising.

"A lot of clients deserted him. They didn't want to be associated with someone who would defend cop killers.

"Basically, we were never a family again."

One of the men found responsible, James Hutchison, died in prison. The other, Bergeron, was just denied parole last week. He's now in his mid-70s.

In writing Life Sentence: How My Father Defended Two Murderers and Lost Himself, Bell discovered a side of her father she hadn't known. He had kept the fact he was a lawyer secret and refused to speak of the case even on his death bed.

"He told people that he was a retired first-aid instructor," she said.

"He felt that the case had ruined his life, and he wished he'd never taken it."

Prosperous and charmed life, at first

Bell was only a year old at the time of the murders, so to discover how the trial changed her father, she spoke to uncles, her father's friends and some of his law colleagues.

She learned that he was the first of his family to go to university. He earned a law degree from the University of New Brunswick, to the pride of his parents and siblings. He was also heavily involved in the Liberal Party and was close friends with former premier Louis Robichaud, she said.

Bell said her father had a practice in St. George and took on minor criminal cases. When he was called in about the Moncton murders, the two police officers were still missing.

"It was not the violent crime that it later turned out to be," she said.

"He had hoped that his clients were innocent."

The case started with a kidnapped teenage son of a wealthy restaurateur, Cy Stein. Undercover police officers missed the chance to intercept the $15,000 ransom drop, and the son was returned safely.

I felt like I was travelling through the trial with him.- Amy Bell, author

A large part of the book recalls the trial. Amy Bell said she was struck by the standard of evidence used in the  trial and somewhat understood the uphill battle her father faced.

"For the identification parades, it was almost deliberately flawed," she said. "Hutchinson was without a belt or shoelaces … that made it very clear that he was the one that was in prison.

"My dad spoke out against these practices, but the judge was not interested."

Amy Bell read court transcripts but also had legal strategies that her father wanted to use. She said seeing her father's notes made her feel closer to him.

"I felt like I was travelling through the trial with him," she said.

Sentenced to death

The two men were first sentenced to death, but that was converted to life sentences when capital punishment was abolished.

Hutchinson died in prison in 2011 at the age of 83.

Amy Bell said researching and writing the book has helped her understand why her father was so invested in the case. He believed in the concept of innocent until proven guilty but was shunned for defending the two men. 

"He was in some ways a hated figure in Moncton in the 1970s. And now he gets to tell his side through his own words, through the court transcript, and I've tried to put him as much as possible at the centre of the story."

'All of that promise and happiness … was gone'

After the trial, her father and mother split up, and Ed Bell started drinking more heavily. Her mother died a few years later.

"My father became a single parent, living in kind of poverty and isolation, so all of that promise and happiness and nuclear middle class family, all of that was gone."

She said in the book that while her father maintained everyone deserves a defence, he "bitterly regretted" taking on this case.

Her brother ended up in foster care and developed problems with drugs. He died in a car accident at just 39 years old, Bell said.

"In a way, there's only me left to tell this story of my family. I'm the only one left."

She said writing the book not only helped her learn about her father and her family, but also about her own relationship with her father.

"We had a good relationship, but it was at times difficult," she said. "This was a difficult book to write, but it was also cathartic."