SECRETS: The Jon Rallo story

SECRETSSECRETS

JON RALLO REVEALED: Susan Clairmont has new details from his murder trial and prison letters in today’s Weekend Reader

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MONTREAL ✦ When he answered thatSunday morning phone call back in 1966,Jake Ireland had no idea it would lead to 30years of weekly television exposure.

“It was a friend of mine desperate to findofficials for flag football in Burlington,”Ireland recalls on the eve of his 15th and final assignment to the Grey Cup game.

“He said, ‘If you’ve got a whistle, I’ll get

you a shirt and a piece of red cloth.’ Thatafternoon I was on the field at M.M. Robin-son High School with a bunch of tykes.”

Late tomorrow afternoon, he’ll be on thefield with a bunch of titans, refereeing thebiggest Canadian football game of the yearfor the 15th time. And he’ll lead a squad ofsix other striped-shirted men who want togrow up to be just like him.

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Kevin Gooding set out yesterday tobuy his wife snow tires so she wouldbe safe on the roads this winter. Hehad no idea his good intentionswould save another man’s life.

Gooding pulled onto the Red HillValley Parkway around 9:30 a.m.with his four-year-old son Carterin the back seat. Just as he passedthe Stone Church Road exit, a whitesedan in front of him started spin-ning across the highway. It clippedanother car and, by the time it col-lided with a guardrail, flames wereleaping out of the back window.

Gooding pulled over and ran tothe burning car. He frantically triedto open the doors and struck thedriver’s side window, hoping tobreak the glass and reach inside.The impact unlocked the door andallowed him to grab the driver.

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Piracy hasits risks andrewardsThe radical Islamic group al-Shabab plans to go after Somali pirates holding a Saudi super-tanker, saying the pirates shouldnot seize ships belonging to Mus-lim countries.

Meanwhile, the wages of piracyare turning Somalia’s brazen buc-caneers into the wealthy heroes of alawless, impoverished region.

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Montreal receiver Larry Taylor kicks it up a notch for tomorrow’s East-West clash.

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PHOTO FROM THE COLLECTION OF MARG LYNCH

Jon Rallo’s mug shot, taken after he was arrested in his daughter’s murder in 1976. Rallo was later convicted of murdering his family in their Hamilton home. He has never admitted his guilt.

WEEKEND READERTHE HAMILTON SPECTATOR ❚ NOVEMBER 22, 2008 ❚ EDITOR AGNES BONGERS ❚ 905-526-3234 OR [email protected]

They placed their firstchild in her cradle.Sandra. Five days old.The mother whisperedto the father:

“One day a young man is going totake her away from us.”

That man would come. And hewould have a secret life. A life ofwomen. And pornography. Bondage.And perhaps sexual assault.

Anger. And violence.

✦✦✦

Jon Rallo killed his wife and chil-dren 32 years ago.

Now, as he begins life after prison,some of his secrets are still being un-covered. Facts and allegations the jurynever heard. His letters from prison.

Some secrets remain. He still doesnot admit his guilt. He still will notreveal where he put his son’s body.

The Spectator tracked him down inSudbury, where he is on parole.

It seems he plans to take some secrets to his grave.

Continued on WR2

S E C R E T SJon Rallo revealed: Never-before-heard details from his murder trial and letters from prison

FIRST OF THREE PARTS ❚ BY SUSAN CLAIRMONT ❚ THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

Jon Rallo’s three

victims: his wife

Sandra, left, his

daughter Stephanie

and his son Jason.

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THE HAMILTON SPECTATORWR2

Continued from WR1

Monday, Aug. 16, 1976Sandra Rallo, 29, is out talkingwith a music teacher. Arrangingpiano lessons for herself and herhusband Jon. It will be nice to dosomething new together.

At home, the children are uppast bedtime. But rules can bendon a carefree summer night.

Jason and Stephanie sneakoutside in their pyjamas. A greenshort-sleeved nightie with tiesin the back for five-year-oldSteph, a fair-haired waif withhazel eyes and an olive complex-ion. Her six-year-old brother, ahusky, blue-eyed boy, wearsbeige shortie jammies. They runaround Lantana Court, gigglingin the twilight.

They knock on Mrs. Swinn’sdoor to tell her Mommy is homenow. She can come for a visit.They race back to their tidy bun-galow to get ready for bed withDaddy’s help.

Sandra and Barb Swinn sit inthe living room having coffee.They talk about furniture Sandrawants and their children’s bloodtypes.

“Because Sandra was tied upwith Mrs. Swinn,” Jon wouldtestify, “I put the children tobed.

“I made sure they had cleanedtheir teeth and gone to the bath-room and tucked them in andthey had said their prayers andStephanie had her doll. And Iwent into the living room andsaid to Sandra, ‘Kiss the childrengood night.’ ”

And Sandra did. By morning, Jon Rallo had

killed his entire family.

✦✦✦Jack and Dorothea Rallo had onechild.

Jon George Rallo. Born Nov.30, 1942, in Hamilton. His earlyyears were spent in the city’smodest north end before thefamily moved to the east Moun-tain.

Jack was an OPP forensic iden-tification officer who pho-tographed crime scenes. He leftthe force when his son was ateen. Became a Liquor ControlBoard manager.

Jon adored his mother. By the time Jon entered Cathe-

dral High School, he was settinghimself apart from the crowd.

While his peers slouched toclass in denim and plaid, Jondressed as if he had a job inter-view. Or a date.

He wasn’t a handsome teen.His unruly hair and lanky limbswere not the stuff of conven-tional good looks. Yet there wassomething about him. He hadstyle. Confidence. Charm.

School was a distraction fromwhat Jon was really interested in.

Girls.He spent his free time standing

on a downtown corner, watchingall the girls pass by.

He dropped out of Grade 12,finishing by correspondence. Hetook management and commu-nication courses at MohawkCollege.

And he dated.“I used to go out with a girl

whose idea of a great night outwas to sit in Paddy Green’sdrinking 15 cent draft beer,” hewould reminisce later in a letterwritten from prison. “Nowthat’s a cheap score ... I meantinexpensive. No, now that Ithink about it, I mean cheap.”

Though Jon fancied himself a

ladies’ man, there was one girl inparticular who caught his eye. Alively brunette with green eyesand a quick smile.

Sandra Pollington.

✦✦✦Jon says it happened like this:

He takes a pillow to his base-ment cot. He and Sandra havenot shared a bed the past fewnights.

They’ve had a falling-out overhis relationship with a neigh-bour. The previous summer, KayScordino came to borrow liquor.

“As I handed it to her, Itouched her ... On the breast.”

Kay told all of Lantana Courtand Sandra was humiliated.

Sandra’s marriage was alreadyunsteady. A year earlier, Jonsought divorce advice fromlawyer Dennis Roy. Sandrabriefly stopped wearing herwedding ring and confided ingirlfriends that Jon was not sat-isfying her sexually. For a day ortwo, they listed the house forsale.

But divorce is messy. Expen-sive. Embarrassing.

Soon, the Rallos and Scordinoswere friends again.

Just on Friday, the two coupleswent overnight to Cambridge,staying at Sandra’s parents’place while they were away.They skinny-dipped in the pooluntil 3 a.m. But Jon and Kay lin-gered a little too long. Alone inthe water.

Jon would dismiss it as “horse-play.” Sandra was furious.

So Jon is sleeping alone.

“I woke up Tuesday morning... I proceeded to go upstairs ... Ithought it was kind of unusualthat neither one or both of thechildren were up yet. Stephie es-pecially was an early riser. Shewas up at the crack of dawn usu-ally. Jason, when he got up, usu-ally he would be downstairswatching television. I ... lookedin Jason’s room and saw he was-n’t in his bed and nor wasStephanie, or Sandra in our bed.”

Jon says he finds a typed notefrom Sandra on his bureau. Itsays she has left him for a richlawyer.

She has taken the children andher wallet. Nothing else. Not herpurse or wedding ring. Not thechildren’s favourite toys, tooth-brushes, shoes.

“I was absolutely beside my-self,” Jon testifies. “I thoughtthings had gotten better. Weseemed very happy. The childrenseemed happy.”

One day and night pass beforeJon tells anyone his family isgone.

✦✦✦Jon claims he was gettinganonymous phone calls.

They started in the summer of1975 and only came when Sandrawas out of the house.

It was a male caller. He neveridentified himself but once, Jonsays, he let it slip he was alawyer.

“He knew an awful lot aboutour personal lives.”

Jon says he confronted his wife,who denied knowing anything.

Strangely, Jon did not changetheir phone number. Nor did heseek the help of police.

Instead, he would say, hearranged a rendezvous: “Let’s begrown-up and let’s meet.”

Jon says he waited outside thecourthouse. The same court-house where he would laterstand trial.

The man never showed.

✦✦✦The Crown says it was like this:

Jon planned it. He had, for months, been fab-

ricating a story about a mysteri-ous lawyer. Sullying his wife’sreputation. Creating a scapegoat.

Then he and Sandra argue intheir room. Maybe she confrontshim about an affair. Or he accus-es her.

He punches her in the face.Her nose is damaged, her teethloosened. Her blood soaks intothe shag carpet below the win-dow. It spatters the red drapesand the legs of a bench. It is onthe sheets. The mattress.

A blind cord is handy. Jonstrangles Sandra.

During this, the children comein. Witnesses to Daddy’s fury.

He kills them, too. Suffocatingeach one with a pillow in a prettyflowered case. It takes four min-utes for Stephanie to die.

Jon begins cleaning up. He takes the bodies to the

basement. Strips them and putsthe clothes, along with bloodylinen, in the washing machine.Blood drips onto his leather slip-pers, smears on a door jamb and

a wall. Trickles into the drain inthe concrete floor.

It is Type B blood. Sandra hasType B blood.

He takes two green garbagebags from the package on hisworkbench, puts one over hiswife’s head, the other over herred-polished toenails. He slidesher into a sleeping bag. He putstwo anchors from Canadian Tireon Upper James Street into thebag. He binds the whole packagewith knots he may have learnedfrom a dirty magazine.

Stephanie requires just onegarbage bag and one anchor.

He folds her into a fetal posi-tion and stuffs her inside a blueduffel bag sold at Canadian Tireon Upper James. He zips it shut.

Jason is likely put inside agarbage bag. Likely put into asleeping bag.

Jon hauls furniture out of theirbedroom, rips up shag and un-derpadding.

He washes his bloody hands inthe bathroom — there is a bitemark near his wedding ring —leaving smears on the faucet,cold-water tap, counter. There isblood in the bathtub.

In the basement, he crudelytaps out a Dear Jon note on San-dra’s Underwood typewriter.

After dark, he brings the bod-ies into the garage — where moreblood drips — places them in thetrunk of his car, then drives todump them in waterways aroundSt. Catharines.

✦✦✦Sandra was 15. Jon was 20.

They were in love.Sandra’s parents were not

pleased. Jon was too old. And hewas Catholic.

Doug Pollington, a Hamiltonfirefighter who became fire chiefin Cambridge, did not approve.

Margaret Pollington did notcare for her daughter’s suitor,either, but when she saw Sandrawas head over heels, she con-ceded.

Jon called them Mom and Dad.The courtship lasted four years.

During that time, Sandra got ajob as a title searcher at a lawfirm. Jon landed a job as a rod-man on a city survey crew.

They married Oct. 8, 1966. Jonwore a tux and white bow tie. Hiscurls were coaxed into submis-sion. Sandra wore a veil over herdark bob. Her smile was radiant.

The young Rallos started in aConcession Street apartment.One of their first purchases wasa double bed. A jury would cometo know a lot about that bed.

Jon moved up in the engineer-ing department at City Hall — orThe Hall, as he always called it —eventually becoming officemanager.

Sandra learned to macrameand took yoga classes. Jon playedhockey and was a Ticats fan.

Then Sandra got pregnant. So they bought a house on

Dundurn Street South and onOct. 30, 1969, John Jason wasborn. His sister came along onJune 30, 1971.

Jon says the night Stephaniewas born, Sandra hemorrhaged,her blood soaking their bed. Lat-er, he says, Sandra cut the stainsfrom the mattress cover.

In 1972, the Rallos moved to 16 Lantana Ct. Seven houses on aquiet street.

They parked their dark greenFord Maverick in the garage.

Continued on next page

TRUE CRIME

A trail of lies and bloodTHE FAMILY

THE CRIME

HAMILTON SPECTATOR FILE PHOTOS

Jon Rallo stands outside court during a break in his trial in 1977. Hundreds filled the courthouse as he stood

trial for the murders of his family: wife Sandra, top, daughter Stephanie and son Jason.

Jason Rallo’s bedroom in the house on Lantana Court

after the murders.

Blood spots are marked on the basement floor in the Rallo home.

The Crown said this is where Rallo stuffed his victims’ bodies in

sleeping bags or duffel bags.

PHOTOS FROM THE COLLECTION OF MARG LYNCH

Sandra and Jon’s mattress leans in the upstairs hallway after

the murders. Jon said he took apart the bed to relieve frus-

tration after his family went missing.


THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR WR3

Continued from previous page

Planted a vegetable garden.Adopted a black and white cat.

✦✦✦Jon had a secret cache of dirtymagazines. Hidden in a drawer.

Bondage pornography sohard-core it was illegal in Cana-da. Photos of intricate knots. Re-markably similar to the onesused to bind Sandra’s body.

✦✦✦Other women interrupted theRallos’ life.

If Jon wasn’t having lunchwith a woman, he was girl-watching. In a letter writtenfrom prison he would recall: “Iused to stand in front of LauraSecords at King and James everyday over lunch hour and thecrowd was a better show thanany you’d ever see at DiamondJim’s and some of the peoplewere old enough to know bettertoo, it used to be the best show intown.”

Julia Glen worked with Jon.She was young. Pretty.

Sometimes she gave Jon a ridehome, dropping him at the cor-ner.

She invited Jon and Sandra toher wedding.

When she was a stenographerat The Hall and Jon was her boss,they lunched together at TheOverdraft, Al’s Delicatessen,The Pioneer.

When she split from her hus-band in early 1976, Jon consoledher. He met her for a drink at TheGolden Garter. He called on herat her parents’ home and waitedfor hours outside when he wastold she was out with girlfriends.

When Julia got her own apart-ment, he arrived with a plant anda bottle of wine. They orderedpizza. When he left at midnight,he kissed her on the lips.

It was platonic, each wouldtestify.

“On any occasion I was withJulia Glen, sir, my wife knewabout it.”

Jon’s relationship with Marjo-ry Jane Smith was not platonic.

She was an attractive, marriedwoman in the Hall’s legal de-partment. She dropped by Jon’soffice to ask about a cruise hehad taken with Sandra and soon,they were regularly going forlunch.

She confided she was havingmarital problems. He told her hewas, too.

In May 1975 they began havingsex.

“There were times when Iwould go home after being withthe young lady, kiss my childrengood night and tuck them in bedand say to myself: ‘What theheck are you doing? If you everget found out, you are going tolose everything.’ ”

Marjory would testify Jongave her “friendship” and“love.”

The same month the affair be-gan, Sandra went to the Bahamaswith a group of women. At firstJon didn’t want her to go.

Suddenly, he was encouragingher to take time away.

“I thought the change mightdo us both some good.”

Jon and Marjory had sex in hismarital bed.

✦✦✦In August 1975, Marjory endedher affair with Jon.

“The lady and I discussed it atlength,” Jon would testify. “Weboth established our priorities.We both knew that she neededher husband and she knew Ineeded my wife and my chil-dren.”

✦✦✦Tuesday, Aug. 17, 1976

Jon calls in sick.The phone rings at the house:

daycare, neighbours, Sandra’smother Marg ... Jon says Sandrais out.

To relieve frustration over hismissing family, Jon says, he lis-tens to the radio and dismantleshis bed.

He rips up the beige shag.Tears out a chunk of green un-

derpadding below the window. “The children had been sick on

it, the cat had soiled it and San-dra complained about the odourcoming from this rug,” he wouldtestify.

To pass time, Jon does laundry.In the afternoon, wearing

shorts, a T-shirt and a yellowfishing hat, he goes to CanadianTire on Upper James and returnsa light switch.

At dusk, he ventures out for along drive. He says he goes to thebeach strip, Toronto, Brantford,Caledonia. When he arriveshome at midnight, he takes aspin on his bike. In the school-yard he hits “a rut or stone orbrick or something” and falls,cutting his hands.

✦✦✦Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1976

Jon is up by 5:15 a.m. and vac-uums and dusts “simply forsomething to do.”

He takes three pieces of carpetand one piece of underpaddingto the Glanford Dump off High-way 6, he says. A “garbage pick-er” asks for the carpet. Jon sayshe hands it over.

Barb Swinn is the first personhe tells that Sandra and the chil-dren are gone. They have beenmissing more than 24 hours.

At 11:30 a.m., he shows up athis father-in-law’s office inCambridge with the Dear Jonnote.

They go to the Pollingtonhome and sit at the kitchen

table, where Jon, Sandra and thechildren had dinner hours beforetheir disappearance. Jon sobs in-to his hands.

“I didn’t see tears,” Marg sayslater.

Jon meets with lawyer DennisRoy, who recommends a privateinvestigator.

Jon and Marg drive to his par-ents’ home to break the news tothem. The two mothers try toconvince him to go to Hendersonhospital to have his injured handtreated. He refuses.

Dorothea goes with her son toLantana Court. She is the onlyperson he allows in. He has de-cided to spend the night at hisparents’ and while he gathers histhings, she makes him a sand-wich.

Private investigator RonArnold comes to Jack andDorothea’s home. The formerScotland Yard detective asks Jonif he has been faithful to Sandra.Jon says he has.

Later, Sandra’s sister Janicecomes by.

All summer, Janice has beenavoiding Jon. He was becomingincreasingly flirtatious. Whenshe was at Lantana Courtbabysitting her niece andnephew, Jon often arrived homeunexpectedly. She had taken toshutting herself in the bathroomand running the shower, just toduck him.

But she puts all that aside.“Janice was there for some

time, but as far as conversationgoes, it wasn’t very lengthy be-cause I dozed off twice ... Wewere sitting outside in my fatherand mother’s yard in the gaze-bo.”

Jon walks Janice to her car.She says he wraps his arms

around her and puts his handdown her pants.

✦✦✦Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1976

A mom and her sons fish atTwelve Mile Creek in St.Catharines.

Two boys wander off to ex-plore. Shawn Labonte, 13, andPaul, 11, spot a royal blue vinylbag in the muddy water. Theyhaul it ashore and open it.

“There was a green garbagebag in it,” Shawn would tell a ju-ry. “I ripped open the hole and Icould see the back of a little kid.”

The boys run screaming. By nightfall, the body is on a

steel table in the morgue at St.Catharines General Hospital.

A girl. Forty-three pounds.Three feet seven inches tall.Nude. Bruises on her temples.Tan lines from a two-piecebathing suit. A small bandagestuck to her right knee.

✦✦✦Thursday, Aug. 19, 1976

MorningJon is at work by 9 a.m.

He tells Marjory his family hasdisappeared.

She reminds him her birthdayis the next day. He promises hehasn’t forgotten.

At 10 a.m., Jon gets a visitor athis fourth-floor office. SergeantLarry Dawson of the Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Police ishere to do a missing personreport.

“I was just going to call you,”Jon says.

But Doug Pollington beat himto it. He phoned Chief Gord Tor-rance, who made the case a prior-ity.

Dawson starts his notes in asmall black book: Jon Rallo, 33,“missing wife and two children.”

Meanwhile, his boss, Inspec-tor Norm Thompson, hears a

radio report. A girl’s body has been pulled

from Twelve Mile Creek.

✦✦✦The final summer.

The children played T-ball.Stephanie was crazy aboutSnakes and Ladders.

Steph was enrolled at PeterPan Nursery School and Jasonwas about to enter Grade 2 atR.A. Riddell elementary school.

The family went to CrystalBeach, Storybook Gardens.

Jon was moving forward in amillion-dollar business venturewith Doug and neighbour PhilScordino. They planned to builda racquet club on land theyowned at Limeridge Road andUpper Wellington.

✦✦✦Hours before the murders, Jon,Sandra and the children were atthe Pollingtons’.

All summer, Sandra’s brotherDavid had been trying to coax Ja-son off the diving board.

Now, he got Jason to the edge.The boy summoned his courage.

This time, he jumped.Jon did not seem to care.


AfternoonInspector Thompson is on hisway to the morgue with a photoof Stephanie.

At 2 p.m., Detective Dawsonphones Jon and asks him to cometo the station. There are morequestions.

Jon first goes to the bank. Hechanges the joint chequing ac-count he shares with Sandra tohis name only. Then he is chauf-feured to the police station by aCity Hall driver who waits whileJon does a 90-minute interview.

Jon talks about the mysteryphone calls.

“If she came home tomorrow, Idon’t know whether I could for-give her or not because, youknow, for a year she made me feellike a heel ... that I didn’t believeher and I didn’t trust her ... Forher to be proven wrong and me tobe right ... you made me feel likea damn fool for a whole year.”

At 4 p.m., Jon is allowed to goand lock up his office at TheHall, then drive his car back tothe station. He returns by 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, Thompson makeshis second trip to the morgue. Heescorts Doug, Marg, Janice andDavid.

Doug goes in.“That is her,” he says. He emerges into the sunshine,

sits on a curb. He asks to go inagain. To make sure. He is gentlyrefused.


EveningJon is at the police station.

He wears a green leisure suit, awhite shirt, owlish glasses.

At 7 p.m., Thompson tells himStephanie’s body has beenfound.

Jon puts his head on Thomp-son’s shoulder.

“There were no tears in hiseyes,” the inspector recalls.

Jon hands over his house andcar keys. Thompson calls theCentre of Forensic Sciences inToronto and asks for a “biologi-cal examiner” to come to Hamil-ton.

He summons Detectives EdKodis and Bob Slack to go withhim to Lantana Court. They re-move their shoes and have theirfirst look inside.


THE CRIME

THE LAW

RON ALBERTSON, THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

Justice Anton Zuraw, in his Sopinka courthouse chambers this month,

was the Crown attorney for the Rallo trial.


Norm Thompson, at home with his wife Joyce, headed the Rallo murder

investigation for the Hamilton-Wentworth police.


Retired detective Bob Slack

worked on the Rallo investigation.


Cuts and scrapes marked Jon Rallo’s hands the night of his arrest. Rallo claimed he got them on a midnight bike ride after his family disappeared, when his bike hit ‘a rut or stone or brick

or something’ and he fell.

TRUE CRIME




The house is in shambles. Furni-ture is moved. Carpet is torn up.

Back at the station, Slack asksJon why the house is in disarray.Jon tells him about the smellycarpet and the Glanford dump.

Jon’s father shows up withlawyer William Hubar. Afterthat, Jon won’t answer any morequestions.

At 11:30 p.m., Jon Rallo ischarged with murdering hisdaughter.

William Towstiak of the Cen-tre of Forensic Sciences arrivesat the Lantana Court house. Histrained eye spots remnants ofspatters and drops and smears.

“This bloody house,” he says.

✦✦✦Detective Kodis spends two daysdigging through garbage at thedump. He finds a large piece ofbloodied shag that matches therug from the Rallo home. How-ever, this is not at the Glanforddump, where Jon insists he went,but rather the Ottawa Streetdump. A security guard remem-bers Jon with three garbage bagsand two boxes.

✦✦✦Police divers scour the water-ways for Sandra and Jason.

Bizarrely, they find other bod-ies, but not the ones they arelooking for. A Hamilton manwho’d disappeared on a fishingtrip in the spring is found behindthe wheel of his car submergedin Twelve Mile Creek. He had aheart attack.

A middle-aged woman whocommitted suicide is also recov-ered.


Stephanie is buried.The service begins with an

open casket, but the lid is closedmidway through. Her body isturning black.


OPP searching from a helicopterspot a bundle floating in theWelland Canal.

Feet are sticking out.At 12:27 p.m. an officer notes

the discovery: “A green clothzippered sleeping bag and thebag was tied with what appearedto be rope and sash cord, and thebag was open at one end withpart of a green plastic garbagebag sticking out the open end. Iobserved a pair of feet with thetoenails painted red.”

The rope and sash cord areelaborately tied, “each knot re-lated to the next knot.”

There are two sleeping bags, ablue inner one, a green outer onewith a label sewn into its lining.It says Jason Rallo.

Sandra’s body is decomposed.Her green eyes are discoloured.There is a round hole above her

right ear, bruising to her thighs,forearms and face. The tip of hernose is crushed. There is a redmark on her chest.

Her tongue protrudes frombetween her teeth. Typical ofstrangulation.

Doug goes back to the morgue.“Yes, I would say that is her.”Slack and Dawson bring Jon

from the jail to the station at8:50 p.m.

“Jon,” says Slack, “it is my duty to inform you of the deathof your wife, Sandra. It is also my duty to advise you that youare charged with two counts ofmurder concerning the death of

Sandra Rallo and John Jason Ral-lo.”

Once again, Jon appears upset.But he does not cry.


Sandra is buried beside herdaughter.

Men who were ushers at herwedding are her pall bearers.

✦✦✦Late October 1976

Police call off the search forJason.

✦✦✦Christmas Eve 1976

A back door at Central policestation opens. A man and hislawyer slip into the chill.

Jon Rallo has been released on$100,000 bail.

He has undergone 58 days ofpsychiatric tests — includingsessions with truth serum — atthe Clarke Institute in Toronto.Doctors have deemed him men-tally fit.

A judge has deemed him fit forbail.

For the next year, Jon lives with

his parents.Every day he puts flowers on

the grave shared by his wife anddaughter. The one with the spaceleft for Jason.

He goes to Lantana Court,mows the grass around his chil-dren’s swing set and walksthrough the house.

He waves at neighbours butthey do not speak to him.

✦✦✦January 1977

Jon’s lawyer sends a letter toMayor Jack MacDonald asking ifJon could return to work at CityHall.

The request is refused.

✦✦✦November 1977

It is the biggest Hamilton trialsince Evelyn Dick took the stand.

Jon Rallo faces three counts offirst-degree murder.

The courtroom is packed, peo-ple sitting shoulder-to-shoul-der, holding overcoats andbrown lunch bags in their laps.Others line up down the hall,hoping to nab a seat should any-one leave.

A team of Hamilton Spectatorreporters is here, along with thenational press.

The Crown will call 48 wit-nesses. Nearly 150 exhibits willbe introduced.

A jury of nine men and threewomen is chosen for the Rallotrial: a union official, a typist,two truck drivers, a secretary,three factory workers, a house-wife, a foreman, a college stu-dent and a supervisor.

✦✦✦Nov. 23, 1977

Crown attorney Anton Zurawopens his case in front of JusticeJohn O’Driscoll.

Decades later, in his ownjudge’s chambers at the JohnSopinka Courthouse, Zuraw willrecall the oddness of prosecutingsuch a big case in such a smallcity.

He was the same age as Rallo.Had a son the same age asStephanie. He had a passing ac-quaintance with Sandra, fromher law office jobs. He workedseveral coroner’s inquests withDetective Joe Rallo, Jon’s cousin.

“Ladies and gentlemen of thejury, you are here, and have beenchosen, a panel of 12, to deter-mine the guilt or innocence ofJon Rallo. He is charged with themurder of his wife, his son andhis daughter ... You will hear allabout the finding of the bodies,how they were packaged and an-chors placed in those packagesand how they were ultimatelyfound in their watery graves.”

The trial lasts 16 days.

✦✦✦Hamilton lawyers had a uniquereputation in 1977 for completedisclosure. There were no secretskept by defence and Crown.

But there were things the jurynever heard.

The Rallo jury never heardabout Jon’s bondage pornogra-phy. Never knew of the link be-tween it and the knots binding

Sandra’s corpse.And it never heard that Jon

groped his sister-in-law whenshe tried to comfort him.

Janice says she signed a writ-ten statement about the allegedsexual assault at the time it hap-pened. And she was told backthen that police had discoveredher brother-in-law’s stash ofpornography when theysearched his home.

Zuraw — who still will not talkof those two issues — decidedbefore the trial that they mightmuddy the legal waters andcould be grounds for an appeal.

He needed to make all thepieces fit: “Don’t leave anythingtangled.”

And he needed to be fair: “Thiswas not trial by ambush. Rallohad the opportunity to clearlyget his story out.”

✦✦✦Lawyer Dennis Roy and PI RonArnold are called to testify.Neighbours give their accounts.Cops refer to their notebooks.The boy who found Steph is ner-vous. Doug Pollington is angry.Marg is sad. Lover MarjorySmith weeps. Julia Glen smilesand laughs.

✦✦✦Nov. 30, 1977

Jon’s bail is revoked.In the wake of testimony from

Marjory Smith, public outragereaches a new high: Jon is not onlyan accused murderer, he is an ad-mitted adulterer. Zuraw fears Jonmay skip town or be in danger.

He is jailed and brought intocourt each morning before thejury arrives so they will not knowhe is in custody.

✦✦✦Dec. 8, 1977

Jon is called to the stand. He tes-tifies for five hours over twodays.

Two hundred people brave asnowstorm to fill the court.

He is cool. Polite. Articulate. He “gulps for control” when

he talks of the murders.Jon testifies that on the night

after his family vanished — afterhis extremely long car ride andmishap on the bike — he wan-dered his house sadly before set-tling for the night on the livingroom couch.

“I stayed there all night look-ing out the window and dozingoff and waking up and hopingagain if a car came on the court,or a cab or something, and it wasSandra, I could see her out thewindow.”

✦✦✦Justice O’Driscoll gives hischarge to the jury.

“If the accused is the man,then you have before you a verycold, calculating, cold-bloodedkiller ... who wiped out his fami-ly ... and then tried to destroythe evidence. If the accused isnot the person, then he has un-doubtedly gone through hell onearth since he was arrested.”

MONDAY:

Jon Rallo’s life in prison

THE CRIME

POLLINGTON FAMILY PHOTO

Sandra Rallo on her wedding day in October 1966. She and Jon met and

fell in love four years earlier, when she was 15 and Jon was 20.


Stephanie Rallo was five years old when she died. She was enrolled in

Peter Pan Nursery School and loved playing Snakes and Ladders.


Six-year-old Jason Rallo played T-ball and swam in his grandparents’

pool. He would have started Grade 2 a few weeks after he was killed.

THE VICTIMS

The basement room where Jon Rallo said he slept the

night his family disappeared. When he woke up, he

said, they were gone.

The trunk of Jon Rallo’s Ford Maverick. The Crown said he put his

family’s bodies in the trunk before driving to the St. Catharines

area and dumping them in waterways.


The floor of Jon and Sandra’s bedroom after the bloodied

shag carpet was ripped out and taken to the dump.

TRUE CRIME

G O T O T H E S P E C . C O M F O R A N I N T E R A C T I V E T I M E L I N E A N D A D D I T I O N A L P H O T O G R A P H S

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Columnist Susan Clairmont

has won five Ontario Newspaper

Awards and been nominated for

a National Newspaper Award.

Contact her at 905-526-3539

or [email protected].
























































✦✦✦Nov. 23, 1977
















✦✦✦Nov. 30, 1977




✦✦✦Dec. 8, 1977









MONDAY:


THE CRIME










THE VICTIMS










TRUE CRIME


ABOUT THE AUTHOR






























































✦✦✦Nov. 23, 1977
















✦✦✦Nov. 30, 1977




✦✦✦Dec. 8, 1977









MONDAY:


THE CRIME










THE VICTIMS










TRUE CRIME


ABOUT THE AUTHOR







MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2008THE HAMILTON SPECTATORA12

TRUE CRIME

Dec. 14, 1977, 9:32 p.m.

It is Jon Rallo’s moment ofreckoning.His wife is dead. And hissmall daughter. His youngson, too, though his body

has not been found.Did this man kill his entire fam-

ily? Strangle and suffocate themin their nightclothes in their ownhome? Wrap their naked bodies ingarbage bags and keep them in thebasement for a day before dump-ing them in deep water?

Or, as he claims, was it some-one else? A mysterious lawyerwho lured Sandra and the chil-dren away with promises ofwealth?

The jury enters the courtroom.It has been deliberating six hours.

Jon sits silently. Legs crossed,hands clasped in his lap. Hewears a dark blue suit.

Jury foreman Thomas Princereads the verdicts.

On the count of first-degreemurder for the death ofStephanie Rallo: Guilty.

On the count of first-degreemurder for the death of SandraRallo: Guilty.

On the count of first-degreemurder for the death of JasonRallo: Guilty.

Margaret Pollington, Sandra’smother, collapses in tears. Herhusband, Doug, comforts her.Their remaining daughter, Jan-ice, weeps.

Mr. Rallo? Do you have any-thing to say?

Jon stands, clenches the rail ofthe prisoner’s box. Pauses. Lickshis lips. Bows his head. Thenlooks directly at the judge.

“Well, my Lord, in your chargeto the jury you said the past 16months has been hell for me.What has kept my head abovethe water is that I know I did notdo it. But more importantly, Iknow Sandra knows I did not doit. Stephanie knows I did not doit and Jason, wherever he maybe, knows I did not do it.

“That is all, my Lord.”

✦✦✦Each conviction carries a sen-tence of life imprisonment with-out eligibility for parole for 25years. To be served concurrently.

Just one month before Jonkilled his family, Canada abol-ished the death penalty.

✦✦✦Jon stays at the Barton Street jailover the holidays.

He is in isolation because he isso hated by other inmates.

They send him a Christmascard signed with the names ofhis slain wife and children.

✦✦✦Christmas Day, 1977

Jon begins a surprising corre-spondence that will last adecade.

He hates The Hamilton Spec-tator. Loathes the coverage it hasgiven his case from the momenthe was arrested.

And yet, he reads it every day.So when he gets his first letter,

days after his conviction, fromcolumnist Marguerite Lynch, herecognizes her name. She cov-ered his trial. Now she wants towrite a book.

Marg introduces herself bytelling Jon they both grew up onBarton Street West.

“Dear Mrs. Lynch,” Jon repliesin precise handwriting. “While Idon’t remember you personally,I do have fond memories of yourbrother, sister ... Now, includingyou, I know of four people whoare proposing just that (to write abook) ... Needless to say, I’m alsoplanning a book, except thatmine will include additional pe-riods of my life rather than justthe trial.

“I apologize for writing to youin pencil but that is all that regu-lations allow at present.”

✦✦✦Thirty days after he is foundguilty, Jon files an appeal. Heclaims the trial judge made er-rors in law and a blood analystwho testified did not qualify asan expert.

✦✦✦Feb. 13, 1978

A van arrives at Kingston Peni-tentiary. There are 13 prisonersinside.

One of them is Jon.He is put in protective custody.

✦✦✦The new arrival from Hamiltonhas strong clerical skills from hisdays as a City Hall manager. Heis put to work in the prison officefor five hours a day.

Jon starts a correspondencecourse from Queen’s Universityto earn a BA in political science.He teaches himself to type —ironic, because the poorly typedDear Jon note he tried to pass offas his wife’s work was key evi-dence at his trial.

He whips through bestsellersand subscribes to several busi-ness magazines and newspapers.

He learns to play bridge, whichhe finds “most fascinating.”

“I’m keeping well,” he writes,“doing lots of running trying tokeep my waistline relatively slim

considering all the bread I’meating. The meals aren’t to myliking and so I’m filling up onbread and peanut butter, whichI’m allowed to buy through thecanteen. As a result I’m getting aflotation collar around my waistlike you wouldn’t believe.”

He starts to pen his autobiogra-phy. Ninety pages in, he gives up.

✦✦✦Nov. 23, 1978

The Ontario Court of Appeal up-holds Jon’s conviction.

“I was absolutely astoundedthat the appeal was dismissed soquickly since everyone was opti-mistic about the ‘points scored,’on the first day of the hearing ... Iintend to exhaust every avenueavailable to me.”

In 1980, the Supreme Court ofCanada also turns down his ap-peal.

✦✦✦Three days after the Ontario ap-peal court decision, InspectorNorm Thompson pays Jon a visit.

Thompson was the lead inves-tigator on the murders. He andhis wife, Joyce, have becomeclose with the Pollingtons, evengoing with them to a seance inthe hope of learning where Jasonis. (About that seance, which theSpec reported on, Jon writes:“What a farce, with a capital F. Iguess it was a slow news day. I’malways good for a line or two onthose days.”)

That same question bringsThompson to Jon now.

Jon says he doesn’t knowwhere his son is.

A dozen years later, Thompsonwill try again, waiting for Jon in aroom at the Beaver Creek Insti-tution in Gravenhurst.

“He comes in, with a cookie ineach hand, doesn’t even sitdown. Just shrugs and walksaway.”

✦✦✦It is nearing Jon’s second Christ-mas in prison.

He is still putting off meetingwith Marg, who writes a humourcolumn focusing on her youngfamily.

“I would suggest that we waituntil after the holidays are overwith,” he writes, “as I recall thisnext month and a half or so arebusy times for parents withyoung children.”

He asks her not to contact hisparents until the new year be-cause “contrary to what youmight read in the paper, there aretwo sets of grandparents wholoved the children and Sandravery much and have suffered atragic loss, and had a couple ofdismal Christmas seasons, andfor some of us, all is not over yet.

“I enjoy your weekly columns,but sometimes you strike a rawnerve when you start talkingabout ... your babies’ early daysand all those other memories ...Sometimes Marg, I think that’sall I have left.”

✦✦✦Jon becomes more enthusiasticabout Marg’s book.

“I have come to the conclusionthat I must do something sooninsofar as telling my side of thestory. I’m tired of being theheavy while others are smellinglike roses.

“I’ll have lots to say about lotsof things to lots of people ... Iwant a book written Marg and I’dlove you to do it but I want andneed some assurances ... While Irealize it’s your book, I honestlythink I can contribute an awfullot in certain areas ...

“As far as putting you on to aclose relative, I didn’t realize youwere going to include my earlylife. I’m kind of young for a lifestory, aren’t I?”

✦✦✦May 1979

Marg writes of a new racquetclub at Limeridge and UpperWellington.

Just before the murders, Jon,his father-in-law and a neigh-bour owned that corner andplanned to build their own rac-quet club. The business dealcame up at the trial, leaving openthe possibility Jon didn’t divorcehis wife for fear his father-in-law would back out of the deal.

“I’m pleased that the racquetclub is the success I thought itwould be,” he writes back. “If Iwas speaking to my two formerbusiness partners I’d let themknow what we missed out on.”

✦✦✦July 1980

Jon sees a wire photo in TheSpectator of a boy from Massa-chusetts riding a bike. He is cer-tain it is Jason. The Spectatortracks down the boy’s motherand debunks the theory.

✦✦✦Jon agrees to an interview.

But it is not with Marg. Insteadit is with her colleague, court re-porter Dulce Waller.

She meets Jon in late 1980 in theKingston Pen’s office building.He brings a thick file of docu-ments and newspaper clippings.

He is not convinced his wife isdead, because the body identi-fied as Sandra’s was decomposedwhen it came out of the WellandCanal. He is sure Jason is alivebecause his body has never beenfound.

He talks of rumours regardingJason. Stories about Jon being asecret Crown witness at a Mafiamurder trial. His wife anddaughter being killed and Jasonkidnapped and taken to Italy toprevent him from testifying.

Some of Jon’s friends and fam-ily tell The Spectator those ru-mours were started by Jon whilehe was in jail.

“I didn’t do it,” he tells Waller.“I just keep hoping and prayingsomething will come up to proveme right.

“I guess until Jason turns upalive or dead I won’t be con-vinced he’s not alive somewhereand I won’t ever be convincedthat’s Sandra in the ground inview of what happened in theidentification of Jason.”

✦✦✦What happened in the identifi-cation of Jason was unthinkable.

In April 1977 — while Jon wasout on bail — a boy’s skeletonwas found in Springwater Parknear Barrie.


HAMILTON SPECTATOR FILE PHOTO

Sandra Rallo’s parents, Margaret and Doug Pollington, stand outside the old Hamilton courthouse after the faint hope parole hearing for Jon Rallo in

November 1992. Rallo was convicted 15 years earlier of killing Sandra, his 29-year-old wife, and their children, Jason, 6, and Stephanie, 5.

PHOTO FROM THE COLLECTION OF MARG LYNCH

A police photo of Jon Rallo taken the night he was arrested for his

daughter’s murder in August 1976.


SECOND OF THREE PARTS ❚ BY SUSAN CLAIRMONT ❚ THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

No tears, no admission of guilt


A pathologist used dental recordsand confirmed the child was Ja-son.

The minister who baptized Ja-son performed the funeral as theboy was laid to rest with hismother and sister.

It was three months before any-one realized the mistake.

An RCMP investigation in Al-berta into the disappearance ofanother little boy led detectives toSpringwater.

The body was exhumed. Theskull sent to a forensic dentist inConnecticut. The error was con-firmed.

The boy was Jaime Shearer, 5. Hehad disappeared a year earlier afterhe and his mom went to Torontowith a man who escaped from aFlorida prison. Jaime’s mom hadsince committed suicide.

Doug and Marg Pollington,Sandra’s parents, had visited thegrave every week.

Jon’s bail conditions preventedhim from attending the funeral.But he sent word to the funeralhome that there shouldn’t be aprocession for the boy.

Perhaps he knew it wasn’t hisson.

✦✦✦Jon meets a woman.

They are introduced in 1979.She is from the Toronto area.

They begin dating while Jon ison family visits. She is identifiedto prison officials as a familyfriend.

By 1992, the couple has had fourprivate visits, spending 72 hoursat a time in a trailer on prisongrounds.

In 1997, Jon proposes.Neither Jon nor parole officers

inform the National Parole Boardhe is in a relationship. It isn’t untilthere is a passing reference toJon’s girlfriend in a psychologicalreport that the board learns thetruth.

In 2000, the board rebukes Jonand the Correctional Service ofCanada for being deceptive.

In May 2005, the 26-year romance ends.

✦✦✦In November 1983, Jon transfersto medium-security WarkworthPenitentiary near Campbellford.

He works in the institute’s engi-neering department earning$6.30 a day. He is on the executiveof the Life Servers Group, is presi-dent of the Italian Heritage Club,works on a BA from the Universityof Waterloo (paid for by the gov-ernment) and tends a vegetablegarden.

He co-authors a manual onmanaging anger and violence.

Jon attends meetings for lifersinvolved in domestic violence. Hedoes not actively participate. Helater tells a parole board he couldnot relate to the issue.

✦✦✦By 1986, Jon is going out into thecommunity on escorted tempo-rary absences.

Some of those are used to returnto Hamilton to celebrate holidayswith his parents and cousins. Anunarmed male guard stays “insight and sound” of him.

The Pollingtons are not told ofthese visits. It isn’t until five yearslater, when people begin tellingthem they have seen Jon inHamilton, that they becomeaware.

In February 1990, Jon transfersto Beaver Creek Institution, aminimum-security facility inGravenhurst. He is, like all well-behaved inmates, “cascading”down the security levels.

✦✦✦Nov. 16, 1987

Jon writes his last letter to Marg.He thinks it best to end commu-

nication while he tries for earlyparole.

“I have purposely kept a lowprofile all these years ... I don’twant anything to jeopardize myappearance before the ParoleBoard ... the system is very sensi-tive to public opinion.

“Secondly I feel it serves nopurpose in requiring my parentsand family to have to go through

all they did 11 long years ago,bringing up all the old woundsand heartbreak ... and in the end itwill change nothing except ... toperhaps set me back for a periodof time ... Many books have beenwritten several years after thefact, two that come to mind areprojects on both Steven Truscottand Evelyn Dick, both done some20 years later ... Don’t you thinkthe book should include how allthis turns out?”

His last letter is signed: “Yoursvery truly, Jon Rallo.”

✦✦✦When Parliament did away withcapital punishment, it quietly in-troduced the “faint hope” clause.

Jon is one of the first inmates inCanada to apply.

It allows lifers to ask a jury to re-view their automatic 25-year sen-tence after 15 years. Jon reachesthat mark in July 1992. The reviewconsiders an inmate’s character,conduct in jail and crime.

Jon’s crime was heinous. Yet heis a “virtually perfect institutionalcitizen,” as one parole officer says.

The review takes place inHamilton that November. Jon is inisolation during the hearing be-cause “Hamilton’s general dislikeof Jon Rallo extends into the Bar-ton Street jail,” his lawyer says.

Psychiatric reports introducedat the hearing show Jon is no dan-ger to himself or others.

In the end, the jury unanimous-ly rejects Jon’s chance of early pa-role.

Jon shows no emotion.

✦✦✦In March 1993, the Pollingtonssee Jon for the first time in 16years.

In keeping with policy, he’dbeen transferred back to themedium-security Warkworth be-fore his faint hope hearing. Nowhe has a parole hearing to deter-mine if his escorted temporaryabsences, or ETAs, will continue.Thanks to the new Correctionsand Conditional Release Act, ob-servers are now allowed.

The Pollingtons sit within arm’sreach of Jon in a prison chapelwhile case managers tell the panelhe is not a security risk.

A psychiatrist reports Jon con-tinues “to present in an emotion-ally flat and deliberate manner.”

This panel has a concern thatwill be echoed by others for thenext 15 years: “It is difficult to dealwith, because of the horror of theoffence and your maintaining ofinnocence.”

Jon makes a speech he will go onto repeat at other hearings: “Not aday goes by when I don’t thinkabout my children and wonderwhat they would have accom-plished by now. Birthdays, wed-ding anniversaries, Christmasesare hard ... I don’t know whathappened. I have tried to figureout how it happened, who did it,but I just don’t know.”

It is the only time Jon’s parentsspeak publicly. Jack Rallo ad-dresses the panel:

“We lost a beautiful daughter-in-law and two grandchildren andwe can never bring them back. Ican understand how Sandra’sparents feel. We feel the same waybut we can never change it. We’rein our mid-70s and it’s a terriblething to see our only son in prison.The only thing we can look for-ward to is to spend a few hoursaway with our son.”

Jon is allowed to continue hisETAs.

✦✦✦Doug and Marg Pollington be-come two of the country’s mostpowerful advocates for victims’rights. They work with Priscillade Villiers and her CAVEAT advo-cacy group to try to repeal thefaint hope clause. They supportthe French and Mahaffy familiesduring the Paul Bernardo andKarla Homolka trials.

“We won’t stop agitating, writ-ing, working to change the laws sopeople like him (Jon) have tospend the rest of their lives inprison,” Doug says.

✦✦✦Jon returns to Beaver Creek.

He cooks his own meals, takeslong walks, joins Toastmastersand is on a work crew doing man-ual labour in the community. Heattends church in Gravenhurst.He visits Hamilton regularly.

Parole hearings take place everytwo years, beginning in 2000. Forthe first one, Jon applies for bothunescorted temporary absences,known as UTAs, and day parole.He wants to move to a halfwayhouse in Peterborough, but a citi-zens’ advisory group rejects himbecause of his lack of remorse. Hisbackup plan is to return to Hamil-ton.

The panel denies his UTAs.“Despite almost 24 years of

incarceration, the boardcan distinguish nomeasurable, posi-tive change inyour risk of re-offending.”

Jon is eligible forfull parole July 26,2002, and asks againfor UTAs and day parole.

Again he is turned down.“The board continues to

be struck by your continueddenial ... despite the over-whelming circumstantial andforensic evidence that supports afinding of guilt.”

By his June 2004 hearing, he isone of Canada’s longest-servinginmates.

He is denied UTAs. The board says he is “emotion-

ally detached” and “a certain ele-ment of emotional detachmentwould almost certainlyhave to exist during themurders of yourfamily and thedisposal oftheirbodies ...Nothing hasreallychanged inyour personali-ty.”

The next hearing isSeptember 2006.

Jon applies to the As-sociation in Defence of theWrongly Convicted, askingthe group that fought to ex-onerate Guy Paul Morin, DavidMilgaard, Donald Marshall Jr.and Steven Truscott to adopt hiscase. He never supplies his legaldocuments, so his application isdismissed.

Again he is denied full and dayparole. Two of the panel’s threemembers reject his UTA application, citing his denials and lack ofemotion.

Jon files an ap-peal and gets a newhearing. That year,450 federal prisonersappeal parole board de-cisions. Just 15 appeals —including Jon’s — result innew hearings or the removalof a condition.

✦✦✦June 27, 2007

Jon does something at this hear-ing he has never done publicly inthree decades. He weeps.

Tears come when Jon speaks ofthe year after the murders, whenhe was on bail and visiting thehome where his family died.

“I’d go there and cut the grass ...I’d go in to that house and walkfrom room to room. I missedeverybody and I missed every-thing ... Beautiful kids ...Beautiful wife. It’sbeen difficult ... Iknow there’s beenpsychological reportsabout a lack of emotion... I’d just sit in that houseand really break down. I’dwalk from room to room. Allthe children’s stuff was there. I thought: Be strong ... I guessbeing strong means showing noemotion.”

He is granted UTAs. He will usethem to scout out Sudbury, wherehe wants to live.

This hearing is monumental inanother way, too. It is the firsttime Doug and Marg Pollington —aged and unwell — are unable toattend.

✦✦✦Aug. 26, 2008

Jon gets out after nearly 32 years in prison. The triple murderer isgranted day parole.

He has not confessed. He hasnot revealed what he did withJason.

And now, he is free.

TOMORROW:

Jon Rallo on parole in Sudbury

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2008

THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR A13

TRUE CRIME

FROM THE COLLECTION

OF MARG LYNCH

Jon Rallo and late Spectator

columnist Marguerite Lynch

exchanged letters for a

decade, starting shortly

after he was convicted in

1977. Lynch was writing a

book about Rallo. He broke

off contact in 1987.








ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Inside

today

In the U.S., president-elect Barack Obama named his crisis team and promises

to push for a $700-billion stimulus package. Britain is spending

$37 billion to jump-start its economy. Will our PM take action sooner rather

than later if Canada continues to lose ground?

United States❚ unveils team of economic advisers

❚ urges Congress to pass a costly,

job-creating stimulus bill as quickly as possible

❚ orders advisers to craft package to create

or protect 2.5 million jobs

❚ vows to support bailout commitments

of current administration

Britain❚ $37-billion stimulus plan

❚ cuts sales tax by 2.5 percentage points

❚ increases taxes for the rich

❚ speeds up $5.6 billion

in public works spending

DAMAGE CONTROL

BY NICOLE MacINTYRE

The city says it is the proud newowner of a downtown strip joint.

CityHousing penned a deal lastweek to buy Maxim’s with a long-term plan of converting the GorePark club into public housing.

“This is a strategic move,” saidCouncillor Brian McHattie, presi-dent of CityHousing Hamilton.

He said the purchase serves a dualpurpose of adding housing to thecore, while also helping to clean upthe downtown’s image. The prop-erty is beside the Gore Building, anew subsidized apartment built bythe city. In a release, the city saidthe deal will close next month.

That’s news to Dan Charnicov-sky, Maxim’s registered owner,who says he also owns the KingStreet building. Though the prop-erty is for sale, the Windsor mansays there’s no deal on the table.

“I haven’t sold it to anyone. Idon’t know what’s going on,” hesaid last night.

Chris Murray, the city’s directorof housing, said he can’t discussconfidential details of the deal, butsaid the city plans to shut down thestrip club. “That business is done.”

The city hopes to find a new ten-

ant to cover operating expenses.Eventually, Murray said, there’splans for housing, including an op-tion for subsidized units for artists.

Murray declined to reveal thepurchase price, saying it was “rea-sonable.” Earlier this year, councilapproved $1 million for CityHous-ing to buy a property in the core.

The strip club, formerly knownas Chez M and Bannisters, is a “sadremnant of the downtown’s pastera of decline,” said Councillor BobBratina.

Maxim’s owner has not appliedto transfer the strip club’s licenceto another location. A new stripclub could not open downtown orwithin 500 metres of a residentialneighbourhood.

The closure will leave only oneoperating strip joint in Hamilton.

[email protected]

Red Greengets realSoul-baring book

only sold at select

hardware stores.

In Go today

City buys strip clubPlans to turn Maxim’s into public housing

SECRETSSECRETSJON RALLO REVEALED:

A killer tastes freedombut a devastated family never gets

closure.A6-7

BY EMMA REILLY

A proposal to ban smoking inHamilton’s public housing is stir-ring debate about the right tosmoke in the privacy of your homeversus the right to clean air.

The city is preparing a report onbanning smoking in all publichousing buildings, as well asbeaches and parks.

The report is expected in June2009.

The proposed ban has raisedquestions about whether pro-hibiting smoking in private homescould be a violation of humanrights.

John Fraser, a program directorat the Centre for Equality Rights inAccommodation in Toronto, saidbecause people with lower in-comes are overrepresented in thesmoking population, imposingthe ban could be construed as dis-crimination against low-incomefamilies.

“Social tenants don’t have achoice to be there,” he said.

“They’re living there becausethey don’t have a lot of other op-tions.”

But several tenants in publichousing say they would support acity-sanctioned ban on smokingin their homes.

Tracy Woods, a longtime smok-er who has lived in public housingwith her two children for 13 years,said she agrees with the move. Shesays she currently smokes in herhome, but only away from herkids.

“Yes, it’s my right, but at thesame time, it’s not your right whenyou’re polluting your kids and thepeople around you.”

Woods also has a personal stakein the issue.

Her husband, John, who alsosmoked, died from lung cancer inFebruary. He was 37.

Maria Rose, who has lived in acity-owned house on the Moun-tain for the past three years, saidshe also supports the ban. Rose isalso a smoker, though she alreadyabides by a strict “no smoking inthe house” policy.

Continued on A3

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310-NEW•U

JOHN PACKMAN, SPECIAL TO THE SPECTATOR

Maxim’s owner denies a sale,

saying there’s no deal on the table.

WHAT THE LEADERS ARE SAYING

Obama’s new team Economic advisers

tapped to start recovery efforts now A12

British ‘shock treatment’ Tax hikes

for rich, more government borrowing A12

Canada’s plan? Flaherty says no to new

measures, but package still possible A13

MORE ON THE ECONOMIC FRONT

The Spectator’s view Act now A10

Deflation Is it coming to Canada? A13

Consumers Confidence plummets A14

No buying Happy without the mall Go 6

‘We need a recovery plan for both

Wall Street and Main Street. A plan

that stabilizes our financial system

and gets credit flowing again, while

at the same time addressing our growing

foreclosure crisis, helping our struggling

auto industry and creating and saving

2.5 million jobs.’

— U.S. president-elect

Barack Obama

‘We have seen in previous recessions

how a failure to take action at the start

of the downturn has increased both

the length and depth of the recession.

To fail to act now would be not only

a failure of economic policy, but a

failure of leadership.’

— British Prime Minister

Gordon Brown

Canada❚ no new stimulus package in Thursday’s

economic statement

❚ considers moving up billions in infrastructure

spending before February budget

❚ expected to ease pension requirements

for cash-strapped firms

❚ plans more room for seniors to draw

from their registered retirement plans

‘The most recent private-sector forecasts suggest

the strong possibility of a technical recession …

Yes, I am surprised at this.’

— Prime Minister Stephen Harper

(in Peru Sunday)

THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR


THIRD OF THREE PARTS ❚ BY SUSAN CLAIRMONT ❚ THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

TRUE CRIME

SUDBURYThursday, Oct. 23, 2008

The back door of thehalfway houseopens and Jon Rallosteps into the cold.Hunching his shoul-

ders against the wind, he shoveshis hands deep into his jacketpockets and sets off at a briskpace.

In an instant, he merges withthe flow of early morning pedes-trians rushing to get to theirdowntown jobs. He walks withthem past a funeral home, ablood bank, a coffee shop.

In just two blocks he reacheshis destination. A large, non-descript government building onLisgar Street. He heads insideand up to the third floor wherehe sits, alone, in the waitingroom of the Correctional Serviceof Canada office.

He has a meeting with his pa-role officer.

They will talk about how he isadjusting to life on the outside.

✦✦✦Jon was granted day parole onAug. 26, 2008, 32 years aftermurdering his wife and twosmall children in a tidy Hamiltonbungalow.

Though considered a modelprisoner, he was incarceratedlonger than most killers in Cana-da. He was kept in because hewouldn’t admit his guilt. Hewouldn’t show remorse. Hewouldn’t acknowledge his mar-riage was anything less thanperfect.

And he wouldn’t tell anybodywhere he put his son’s body.

But even Jon Rallo can’t staylocked up forever.

✦✦✦His wife Sandra would be 61years old now. Their son Jasonwould be 39. Stephanie, theirdaughter, would be 37.

✦✦✦In just a few days, Nov. 30, Jonwill celebrate his 66th birthday.

Perhaps he will come home toHamilton, where his parents stilllive. Jack and Dorothea Rallo arenow in their 90s.

His parole conditions say hemust live at the Sudbury halfwayhouse on weekdays. During theday he can go out into the com-munity as he pleases, so long as

he is back in the house over-night.

On weekends, though, he canleave Sudbury.

He can come to Hamilton. Hewas here in June for his parents’67th wedding anniversary.

Now he can come without anescort.

Jon is an only child, but he hasa large extended family and theyoften get together to see himwhen he is in town.

The parole board is supposedto call Sandra’s family to warnthem when Jon is coming here.Her parents, Margaret and DougPollington, her sister Janice andbrother David all live in the area.Jon is not to have any contactwith them.

A few times over the years, Jonhas told parole panels he plannedto return to Hamilton once hewas out.

“The board was quite sur-prised to see such a request,”which shows “your apparentlack of consideration and under-standing with respect to howothers view your crime and yourrisk.”

It wasn’t until his August

hearing, when he was grantedpermission to move to Sudbury,that Jon assured the panel he hadabandoned any hope of perma-nently returning to Hamilton.

“I have a lot of mixed feelingsabout Hamilton,” he said. “I wasborn and raised there. I workedfor the city. A lot of good memo-ries. A lot of bad memories.”

✦✦✦The meeting with the parole of-ficer lasts 20 minutes.

Jon emerges onto the sidewalkand hesitates a moment as helooks over some documents inhis hand.

If he was to turn to his rightand walk a block, he would cometo Sudbury Police headquarters.

They know who Jon Rallo is.“Am I happy he’s in our com-

munity? Not particularly,” saysChief Ian Davidson. “He’s con-victed of some absolutely hor-rendous acts. People are not eas-ily going to forgive or forget.”

The Sudbury police service toldthe National Parole Board it op-posed Jon’s release into its com-munity because of his “denialstance.” But the board went ahead

and did it anyway. The Larch HalfWay House of Sudbury, a privatefacility on Larch Street operatedby the St. Leonard’s Society, saidit would take Jon and that wasgood enough.

Jon has stayed at the house be-fore.

In 2002, he did a two-monthwork placement in Sudbury. Heliked it there. He went to church,the grocery store, the mall. Hethought he might move thereand earn a living as a real estatedeveloper. Do some volunteerwork. Go fishing, tend a garden,get a YMCA membership. LearnFrench.

“I would see the sights of thecity,” he told a parole boardmember. “I’d keep myself busy. Ihope you can appreciate, sir, Ihave a lot of catching up to do.”

He went back again severaltimes this year on unescortedtemporary absences. He used hisvisits to prepare for starting a lifethere. He checked out the li-brary, had dinner at a restaurantwith another parolee, and scout-ed out the arena where the Sud-bury Wolves play their hockeygames.

He even went to a retirementhome to inquire about getting onthe waiting list.

Jon has more money than mostlifers getting out of prison. Hispension brings in about $1,200 amonth, plus he has some sav-ings.

The halfway house is a pleas-ant, three-storey home with anornate wrought iron railing upthe front steps. It sits in theshadow of the city’s water towerand between the downtown coreand a quiet residential neigh-bourhood.

On a sunny autumn afternoon,a woman walks past pushing twoyoung children in a stroller.

✦✦✦Jon turns left and heads to theshopping mall.

He strides through the foodcourt, where clusters of men hisage sit and talk and sip coffee.

He passes stores that are justopening for the day.

He stops at a kiosk. Smiles andchats to the woman who worksthere.

Buys a lottery ticket.

✦✦✦Jon’s parole conditions requirehim to have psychological coun-selling to help him transition in-to the community.

And he must report any rela-tionship with a woman to hisparole officer.

In August, Jon told the paroleboard he is not currently seeinganyone.

✦✦✦Jason has never been found.

Over the years, there have beenmoments of hope, always fol-lowed by disappointment.

There was a mysterious phonecall made to then Hamilton po-lice superintendent GeorgeFrid’s home telling divers tosearch a certain area of JordanHarbour.

Then there were inconclusiveDNA tests done on bones andhair found in the Niagara River.

A psychic from Niagara-on-the-Lake directed police diversto search a section of theWelland Canal.

Bones found in a green garbagebag were eventually identified asanimal remains.


A killer finally tastes freedom

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2008A6


Jon Rallo’s new home: a halfway house on Larch Street in Sudbury operated by the St. Leonard’s Society.


Jon Rallo leaves the parole office in Sudbury last month. The Hamilton man who killed his wife and children in 1976 moved to Sudbury after he was granted day parole in August.


Jon Rallo crosses a street in Sudbury. The Sudbury police service opposed his move to the community because he continued to deny that he murdered his family.


Stephanie and Jason Rallo stand on the front lawn of their home on

Lantana Court, Hamilton.


Jason and Stephanie Rallo on a family outing with their mother, Sandra. Jon Rallo was convicted of killing all

three of them a few years after this photo was taken.


And most devastating, anotheryoung murder victim was buriedby the Pollingtons — before theyrealized he was not their grand-son.

The detectives who investigat-ed the case have their theories.

Norm Thompson believes Jason’s remains are mired in mudat the bottom of Twelve MileCreek, where his sister wasfound.

Bob Slack thinks the boy’sbody was swept out to Lake On-tario and will never be found.

There is still an empty spot inthe grave shared by Stephanieand Sandra.

✦✦✦Jon leaves the mall and starts towalk. He heads up a hilly street,past an apartment building, aCatholic high school.

The sidewalk is deep withnewly fallen leaves and Jon takesa playful kick at them as he pass-es through.

His stride is long and fast. Heis, after years of leading a prisonwork crew, in excellent health.

He dashes across a street busywith traffic and construction.Bounds up the steps of a store.

The Salvation Army thriftshop.

✦✦✦There have been only 90 murderconvictions in Canada where abody was never found.

One of those convicted is JonRallo.

Australian author Steve Banicis working on a book about “no-body” murder trials. He has col-lected data from all over the

world, from the fifth century BCto now. A total of 2,100 caseswith another 150 still before thecourts.

Canada ranks fourth in theworld for no-body cases, behindthe U.S. (1,254), the U.K. (154)and Australia (124). By province,the greatest number is in BritishColumbia, with 25. Ontario isnext with 20. At the bottom ofthe list is Newfoundland, whichhas one.

Worldwide, there is a spike inno-body cases during the monthof July. Banic says that’s becauselakes and rivers have thawed andbecome dumping grounds forbodies.

In the U.S., California andFlorida were the states with themost no-body cases.

“Though California and Flori-da are surrounded by ocean ...my research will be interesting tosee how many of the ... cases ac-tually result in an offender dis-posing of a body at sea.”

Seldom, according to Banic,does a murderer ever reveal thelocation of a body after beingconvicted in a no-body trial. Heknows of fewer than 30 cases.

“Depending on a number offactors, such as guilt, sentenc-ing, etc., the offender will usual-ly reveal the location if it wouldpotentially result in a lesser sen-tence or punishment.”

The most common ground ofappeal on a case like this is to ar-gue the “corpus delicti” princi-ple, Banic says. The problem is, alot of criminals and their lawyersdon’t understand it. It does not,as many believe, mean that nothaving a body is grounds for ap-peal. Rather, the Latin term

refers to the “body” of evidencethat shows an alleged crime hasoccurred.

There must be a crime in orderto have a conviction.

✦✦✦Jon has always been known as asharp dresser.

Classmates at Cathedral HighSchool say his fancy clothesmade him stick out from therest. His Grade 10 class photoshows a sea of boys mostlydressed in cardigans and plaidshirts. And then there’s Jon in asuit jacket, complete with a puffin his pocket.

In the days immediately fol-lowing the murders, Jon’sfriends and family were shockedat his dishevelled appearance, sodifferent from his usual well-groomed look.

During his trial, Spectator re-porters devoted a paragraph ortwo every day to describing Jon’sattire:

A grey knit suit. A salt-and-pepper suit. A sand-colouredthree-piece suit, a dark browntie and a white shirt splashedwith brown polka dots. A tweedsuit, five-button vest, whiteflecked shirt and striped tie.

Even now, Jon dresses as wellas his limited resources will al-low.

He goes toward the back of theSalvation Army thrift shop. Be-gins to carefully peruse theracks.

He is shopping for clothes.

✦✦✦Marguerite Lynch’s book wasnever published.

The Spectator columnist cov-ered Jon’s trial and maintained a10-year correspondence withhim.

“It became very bothersome tome to think, ‘This is my pen pal,’ ”Marg once said.

Her 250-page manuscript ledreaders to the conclusion thatJon Rallo was guilty.

But publishers told her theyneeded a new hook. A reason forpeople to read it. Maybe, theysaid, she should try again when

Jason is found. Or when Jon getsout of prison.

Marg died of cancer in May2006.

✦✦✦Justice Anton Zuraw says it wasone of the most fascinating caseshe has been involved with.

He was the acting Crown attor-ney who won three first-degreemurder convictions against JonRallo.

“This was a case that had nosmoking gun, no eyewitnesses,no confession,” he recalls. “Thefact that there were two youngchildren added empathy. Andthe mystery of the missingbody.”

For 32 years, Jon has stuck tohis story that someone else didit. That a rich lawyer lured San-dra and the children away andkilled them.

Could Jon Rallo be innocent?“I am unaware of any corrobo-

ration of any of Mr. Rallo’s tale,”Zuraw says.

✦✦✦“Mr. Rallo?”

He turns and flashes a broadsmile.

“Yes?” he says.“I’m Susan Clairmont from

The Hamilton Spectator. I’mwriting a story about you andwanted to give you a chance totalk.”

The smile vanishes. He turnsaway. Rifles through the rack ofthrift shop clothes so fast itemsfall to the floor.

“I have nothing to say,” he re-sponds, his voice measured.

“It’s a story about your life.About what you’ve done ... It’s alarge story.”

“It always is with you people.”He begins to walk away.

“How are things going for youin Sudbury?”

He stops. Turns. “I have nothing to say to you,

Susan.”He immediately rushes back to

the halfway house.

✦✦✦In February, Jon will be eligible

for full parole.About a month before that, the

National Parole Board will get areport on how he is doing on dayparole. And then Jon can have ahearing and ask to leave thehalfway house and live on hisown in the community.

But chances are, that won’thappen. Not yet.

Lifers usually stay on day pa-role for a year or more, says CarolSparling of the National ParoleBoard. They have a big adjust-ment to make.

Jon will have a full parole hear-ing once every two years. He canstay on day parole for an indefi-nite period of time. It’s not un-common for lifers to live in ahalfway house for seven or eightyears. Sometimes that is because“the offender hasn’t got themeans to live on their own.” Andsometimes it’s because theyhave had minor violations oftheir conditions.

✦✦✦Marg and Doug Pollington havealways said that, before they die,they want to be able to lay Jasonto rest with his mother and sister.

They are on in years now. Un-well.

They have lived to see the manwho murdered their daughterand grandchildren gain his free-dom.

But they still have not buriedtheir grandson.

“To this day, the constant,ever-growing fear exists in ourminds that the body of thatbeautiful young boy will never befound,” Marg once said. “When Icannot sleep, I come downstairsand look out my window andwonder where Jason is.

“(Jon) had a car and a suitcase.If he wasn’t happy, all he had todo was leave.”

Doug, the tough-as-nails firechief who went to the morgue toidentify Stephanie and thenwent back again a few days laterto identify Sandra, has foreverbeen haunted by what he saw.

“You see that and then youimagine her the day she wasborn.”

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2008

THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR A7


TRUE CRIME







ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Documents

SECRETS: The Jon Rallo story