394: The Castleton Massacre with Margaret Carson & Sharon Anne Cook

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Erik Rivenes

True Crime, History, Education

4.7 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She (and her brother) lived to tell the story of what motivated a talented man who had been widely admired, a scholar and graduate from Queen’s University, to stalk and terrorize the women in his family for almost twenty years and then murder them. Through extensive oral histories, Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson painstakingly trace the causes of a femicide in which four women and two unborn babies were murdered over the course of one bloody evening. While they situate this murderous rampage in the literature on domestic abuse and mass murders, they also explore how the two traumatized child survivors found their way back to health and happiness. Their book is called "The Castleton Massacre: Survivors' Stories of the Killins Femicide" and the authors join me to discuss this horrific and very personal tragedy. Their publisher's book page: https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459749863-the-castleton-massacre Sharon Anne Cook's website: https://sharonannecook.com/ Sharon Anne Cook's faculty page: https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-education/sharon-anne-cook More about Margaret Carson: https://www.dundurn.com/authors_/t156375/p148940-margaret-carson Hungry? Support the show here! Get started with Factor here to get 50% off plus FREE shipping on your first box!: http://factormeals.com/notorious50off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.0	All right guys, let's head to the stadium and grab some high ground. Copy that. I'll drop near the
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0:55.2	Let's do this.
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0:57.8	To verify I see EE.com.com.
0:59.4	Hey there.
1:00.9	So a quick note before we begin, apologies in advance from my voice.
1:06.1	I've had a sinus infection recently that's been hard to get rid of, and you can definitely
1:10.1	hear it in this
1:11.5	week's interview. Luckily for me, I have two very articulate and conversational guests. Fingers crossed,
1:17.9	I can shake this pesky thing soon and get back to a less stuffy version of myself.
1:24.4	Anyway, off we go, and I hope you enjoy.
1:56.4	Music Anyway, off we go, and I hope you enjoy. Welcome, everyone to another episode of the Most Notorious podcast.
1:59.0	I'm Eric Rivenis and welcome.
2:04.7	I am so pleased to introduce Sharon Ann Cook and Margaret Carson to the show.
2:15.3	Sharon is a professor, Emerita at the University of Ottawa, and the author and editor of 12 books on Canadian women's history.
	...

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