Léopold Dion (February 25, 1920 – 17 November 1972) was a Canadian

sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a Sex and the law, sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convi ...

and

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

who raped 21 boys, killing four; he was active in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

in 1963. He was nicknamed the "Monster of

Pont-Rouge Pont-Rouge (, ) is a Canadian city along the Jacques-Cartier River in southern Quebec, Canada. In the Canada 2021 Census the population was 10,121 inhabitants. History The first efforts to colonise the area came around 1769. On April 15, 186 ...

" (''le monstre de Pont-Rouge'').

Crimes

Dion had a lengthy criminal history starting when he was 17, when he was convicted of

gross indecency Gross indecency is a crime in some parts of the English-speaking world, originally used to criminalize sexual activity between men that fell short of sodomy, which required penetration. The term was first used in British law in a statute of the ...

and sentenced to four months in prison. In 1939, he was charged with attempted murder, but acquitted. In 1940, Dion was sentenced to life in prison and lashed after being convicted of raping a 33-year-old woman in

. He was paroled in 1956, but had his parole revoked after being convicted of gross indecency in 1957. Dion was paroled again in 1962. Dion

sexually abused Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is r ...

21 boys, killing four. He lured his victims by posing as a photographer. His first

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

victim was 12-year-old Guy Luckenuck, from Kénogami, Quebec, who was in

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

that day for clarinet lessons. They traveled together every week to take music lessons at the

Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec (, CMQQ) is a music conservatory located in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Founded by the Quebec government in 1944, it became the second North American music institution of higher learning to be ...

in Québec City. Dion lured the boy by taking a series of snapshots with an old camera that had no film before claiming to want to continue elsewhere. He drove the boy into the country, where, in a remote spot, Dion then strangled him, and then buried him.
Réseau Canoë On 5 May 1963, Dion crossed paths with eight-year-old Alain Carrier and 10-year-old Michel Morel. He used the same ploy to lure them into his car, driving them to a run-down building in Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf. With the former, he pretended to play prisoner so that he could tie the boy up in the cottage. Once he had been overcome, Dion turned to the latter one, whom he led outside, whereupon he asked the child to take his clothes off. Dion then strangled him with a garrote, before going back inside to smother the other boy. On 26 May 1963, he met 13-year-old Pierre Marquis, who was also taken in by the fake photographer's promises. They were a couple of paces from a dune, the same one that had become Guy Luckenuck's grave a bit more than a month earlier. Once again, Dion asked his victim to pose naked. The child complied, but when Dion tried to assault him, he fought back before succumbing to the assault. Dion strangled Marquis.

Arrest

Dion, who was then on conditional release for raping a schoolteacher several years earlier, was arrested the day after his last murder. It was a description of Dion from another boy whom he had waylaid, but who had gotten away from him, that led to the police apprehending Dion. Once in prison, Dion held out for a month before he finally admitted to his crimes in detail to his interrogators. He then led investigators to the spot where he had buried the children's bodies.

Trial

Criminal lawyer Guy Bertrand defended Dion at his trial. Dion was, in the end, charged with only one murder, Pierre Marquis', due to a lack of evidence in the other cases. On 10 April 1964, Judge Gérard Lacroix sentenced him to be

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

. The

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

was commuted to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

by then

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada () is the federal representative of the . The monarch of Canada is also sovereign and head of state of 14 other Commonwealth realms and resides in the United Kingdom. The monarch, on the Advice (constitutional la ...

Georges Vanier Georges-Philias Vanier (; 23 April 1888 – 5 March 1967) was a Canadian military officer, diplomat, and statesman who served as the 19th governor general of Canada from 1959 to 1967, the first Quebecer (demonym), Quebecer and second Can ...

after Bertrand's appeal to the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

in the matter had failed.

Death

On 17 November 1972, Dion was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate named Normand Champagne (also known as "Lawrence d'Arabie", or Lawrence of Arabia) who was later found not guilty of this crime by reason of insanity.http://www.erudit.org/revue/crimino/1976/v9/n1-2/017057ar.pdf "Littérature carcérale québécoise", issue of "Érudit"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dion, Leopold 1920 births 20th-century murderers 1972 deaths Canadian murderers of children Canadian serial killers Canadian people convicted of murder Canadian people who died in prison custody Canadian prisoners sentenced to death Canadian rapists Deaths by stabbing in Canada Incidents of violence against boys Murdered Canadian criminals People murdered in Quebec People convicted of murder by Canada People paroled from life sentence Canadian people convicted of rape Prisoners sentenced to death by Canada Prisoners who died in Canadian detention Rape of males Serial killers murdered in prison custody Violence against men in North America

Crimes

Arrest

Trial

Death

See also

References