Max Haines (January 4, 1931 – September 30, 2017) was a Canadian
true crime newspaper columnist and author, widely syndicated internationally.
Max Haines was born in
Antigonish, Nova Scotia, to Jewish parents, Alexander and Augusta (Rich) Haines, and attended Morrison High School there.
He worked in the
textile
Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...
industry selling women's undergarments but began researching murders from around the world, past and present, as a hobby. After the ''
Toronto Sun'' launched in 1971, he went to the newsroom with writing samples to pitch an idea for a column. His "Crime Flashback" column made its debut in the ''
Toronto Sun'' in 1972 with a column about
Lizzie Borden. Over the next 35 years, he researched over 2,000 crimes and his "Crime Flashback" column was syndicated across Canada and in several Latin and South American countries. He also wrote 27
true crime books and a memoir, ''The Spitting Champion of the World,'' about growing up in
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
. Readership of his syndicated column was over 3 million per week. He lived in Toronto, Ontario with his wife Marilyn. He retired in 2006.
In 2005, he was awarded the Derrick Murdoch Award, one of the
Arthur Ellis awards, by the
Crime Writers of Canada.
Haines died from
progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) on September 30, 2017, aged 86.
References
1931 births
2017 deaths
Canadian crime writers
Non-fiction crime writers
People from Antigonish, Nova Scotia
Canadian columnists
Jewish Canadian journalists
Toronto Sun people
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