By Tedi Buffet and Jacob Farrell
“It was 5:00 p.m. on November 25, 1989, and the phone rang. […] The person at the other end of the line, with no introduction, said ‘they got him’ and everybody knew exactly what that meant. [Allan] Legere had been caught,” said Mt. A alumnus and former editor of the Miramichi Leader, Rick MacLean. MacLean visited students of SCRN 4001: True Crime on November 7, 2024—nearly 35 years after Legere was caught—to discuss his coverage of the case.
Allan Legere, otherwise known as “the Monster of Miramichi,” is a convicted serial killer currently serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Edmonton. Legere killed the following five people: John Glendenning, Annie Flam, Donna Daughney, Linda Daughney and Father James Smith. Legere was imprisoned in 1987 and subsequently escaped custody in 1989 after being hospitalized for an ear infection. After 201 days on the run, he was caught. MacLean, who started his career in journalism at Mt. A, working at The Argosy, was editor of the Miramichi Leader when Legere was active. MacLean documented Legere’s crimes in the paper as well as in the two books he co-authored: Terror: Murder and Panic in New Brunswick and Terror’s End: Allan Legere on Trial.
“This was pre-internet,” explained MacLean, “[the Miramichi Leader] published two days a week, Tuesday nights [and] Thursday nights.” The story of Legere being caught after his escape had international coverage; everyone from the CBC to local radio had the opportunity to cover the story first. “We were going to get this story last and it’s our story,” said MacLean. So, they printed a 20-page special edition with a total circulation of 10,000 papers.
This was not the first story the Miramichi Leader published on Legere. In fact, the paper had been covering the man since the Glendenning case of 1986. Before escaping from custody, Legere was initially imprisoned for the murder of John Glendenning and assault of Mary Glendenning during a home invasion. “Legere testified in that case, I was there that day,” said Maclean about the Glendenning trial. “I went to the publisher and I said, ‘we’re gonna run a transcript from this trial. We’ll put a lead on it and then we’re gonna give people everything.’ Our sales went from about 8,500 to 10,000 during the trial. You couldn’t get a copy of it anywhere if you didn’t get there right away.”
The coverage was so complete that the lawyers involved in the trial “started using it as a running transcript to see how things were going,” explained MacLean. “Page, after page, after page. It was the trial of the century for us,” he continued. Their coverage of the Legere case was likely so popular because of its immersive qualities. “If you want to be a storyteller, you have to take into consideration that you’ve got an audience. The job of every storyteller is to make your audience feel like they are there.” By publishing the whole transcript, readers were able to get a grasp on the case by reading exactly what was going on in the courtroom.
Following his coverage of the case in the paper, MacLean was asked to write a book. “During its height, that book outsold Daniel Steele. And if you can outsell Daniel Steele, man, you are selling the books,” he shared. In less than a month, MacLean and his co-author Andre Veniot wrote Terror: Murder and Panic in New Brunswick. Given the success of the first book, they were asked to write another documenting Legere’s trial in 1991.
The first thing many people do, when they meet MacLean, is tell him where they were the day Legere escaped. “Because it’s that important,” said MacLean. “It’s one of those moments that you sort of tell time off of.” However, this case and Legere’s crimes do not define MacLean’s life. “I don’t live this every day, not at all. But I’m perfectly aware that this guy, if he got out of, you know, I’d be on the run,” he said. Legere has a notable disdain for MacLean and his reporting. During his parole hearing in 2021, Legere made several critical remarks about MacLean. Additionally, Legere has threatened legal action against MacLean for his documentation of the murders and trial.
For us, as the Editors-in-Chief of The Argosy and students in SCRN 4001, hearing MacLean’s story was enlightening and fascinating. The opportunity to meet such a prominent figure in Atlantic Canadian journalism—who was not only present during a major historical event but was directly involved in its media coverage—helps dispel the detachment we can often feel with cases involving true crime. MacLean speaks about his coverage of Legere in such an engaging way, full of pride in the work he did, but also acknowledging the role he was able to play as a journalist with a responsibility and duty to his community. We were overjoyed and proud to hear how working for The Argosy inspired MacLean, who continues to have such an illustrious career, to become a journalist. His work reminds us of how important local journalism is, especially for small town communities.
