The authors of a book on a grim story from this area’s past will be reading from their book at Warkworth Library.
“The Castleton Massacre – Survivors’ Stories of the Killins Femicide” written by Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson, a survivor of the femicide and a relative, will be reading passages from their book and taking questions at the Warkworth Branch of the Trent Hills Public Library on August 5th, 2022.
This book recounts a dark point in the local history, when a former United Church minister massacred the women in his family, what led to this act of femicide, and why his victims were forgotten.
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.
“This is a true crime story about terrible domestic abuse and unfortunately almost 60 years later, this issue still exists today,” said Patrick Muldoon – Warkworth Branch Supervisor of the Trent Hills Public Library. “Historically rural settings made accessing supports difficult, and this book is written from the perspective of a survivor and a relative of the family and it is a book about restoring the voices of victims. It is an important book to read in area, a story many don’t know about.” Through extensive oral histories, Cook and 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. Told through vivid first-person accounts, this family memoir explores how a murderer was created.
Cook and Carson will be special guests of the Warkworth Branch of the library on August 5th, 2022 and will be reading excerpts from their book and taking questions at 1:00 pm.
“We will be hosting the authors on August 5th in our branch in Warkworth and they will be at the Brighton branch on August 4th and the Castleton branch on August 6th,” added Muldoon.
The library has copies available to sign out and there will be copies available for purchase on August 5th from the authors.
If you are not able to attend but would like a copy, stop in to see Kathryn at Lighthouse Books at 65 Main Street in downtown Brighton, she has copies available for purchase too. (https://lighthousebooksbrighton.ca/ or phone: (613) 475-1269)
For more information about this reading or other activities at the Warkworth Branch of the Trent Hills Public Library, visit their location at 40 Main Street in Warkworth, call 705-924-3116 or email warkworthlibrary@trenthills.ca
