Episode 522: The Mysterious Death of Christina Kettlewell | Morbid

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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash.

And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid.

This is Morbid And I bit my lip She done bit her lip But it's okay Actually it's bleeding, but We all float on Okay I tried to sound like the song, but I just sounded cry cry You sounded perfect We all float on all right Right.

Oh and I almost just knocked over Caesar dressing.

This is just a mess.

I know sorry I didn't cover that.

It's a mess. We did a thing today and by we Alina did it.

Yeah. Say it. Here's the thing.

I wasn't ready to share this with the world but I guess.

Oh you don't have to.

No I'm totally kidding.

You don't have to. What if we just don't say it?

That's it. Okay so this.

No I'm just kidding.

So very quickly before we start this don't worry.

Of course. We just have to start off with like a fun little thing.

We're eating mozzarella sticks.

I fancy fancy myself a connoisseur of mozzarella sticks i love mozzarella sticks i like dipping mozzarella sticks but not just in marinara in fact i don't dip them in marinara you don't ever i would if it was the last dip on earth but what yeah i never knew this i never noticed that yeah my favorite thing is to dip it in blue cheese i judged you before and i shouldn't have so i I won't judge you about that.

You shouldn't, because there's many good dips in the world, as we are all aware.

Yeah, duh. And I will dip a mozzarella stick in most of those dips.

Just not marinara. And I got Caesar dressing today, and I said, never done this before.

So I just dip, dip right in the Caesar dressing.

And I said, that's delicious.

And Ash said, I'm judging you a little bit.

I actually said. She said it with her eyes.

I did. I said, I'm not judging you.

but did you just dip that in caesar dressing which is where the judgment i was gonna say i don't know ash so i know what judgment is actually coming through her words but she said do you want to try it try it she tried it i said okay and then she said can you pass me that dip again and then she just scooped it like a fucking spoon yeah i love caesar dress and you said i judged you a little bit yeah i admitted it after and you were like i know you did you know if you like two things try Try them together.

Who knows? Might be a great thing.

Yeah. Chocolate chip cookies are a mistake.

And so that's there you go with Ash and Elena.

That's weird snack food.

Well, I have a strange case today to just continue the snack food.

Yeah, exactly. Weird snack food, weird cases, all of it.

Obviously, it's a tragic case because somebody loses their life.

But it's the circumstances that lead up to that are very, very strange.

And this is one that I've heard before.

But I got to say, Dave did a really good job helping me find some new shit that I didn't know before.

So let's do it. Let's go.

Today we're going to be talking about the mysterious death of Christina Kettlewell.

And we're going to start at the very beginning, which is in 1925.

Oh, love it. When Christina Cecilia, I believe it's Moken, was born on August 7th, 1925 in Toronto, Ontario.

She was one of three girls born to parents Kazmir and Mary.

According to her sister Helen, the girls had a relatively ordinary upbringing, and she described Christina as, quote, a very nice girl.

Everybody liked her.

When Christina completed high school in 1943, she found work as a teller at a bank in Toronto and just settled into a pretty normal routine, just living life.

It was around that time that Christina met 23 -year -old Ronald Berry, a local professional ballroom dancer, casual, who lived in the same Toronto neighborhood as she and her family.

He was formerly known as Ronnie Suffo, and he had immigrated to Canada from Italy years and years earlier, hoping to establish himself in the construction industry, but when that failed, he moved on to selling insurance until he actually started supporting himself as a professional dancer.

Wow. Which is really cool.

That is cool. So he and Christina, they knew of each other, you know, they lived in the same neighborhood.

They hit it off and they started seeing each other out and about socially.

But Ronald insisted there was never anything romantic between them.

They were just friends.

Okay. He told a jury, he would later tell a jury, in 1947, there was definitely no feelings between me and Christina.

Everything was strictly on plain friendship basis.

That's nice. Yeah. You know, guys and gals being friends.

Yeah, no expectations, just friendship.

Yeah, Harry's wrong.

Girls and guys can be friends.

Hell yeah. Have you ever seen that movie when Harry met Sally?

Yeah. I just saw it for the first time this year.

Really? Yeah, loved it.

Wow. Fucking loved it.

But the platonic relationship between Ronald and Christina was likely due to her interest in his best friend and roommate, Jack Ketawa.

Although he had recently enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces in May of 1943, Jack and Christina began dating, and Ronald kind of acted as a proxy companion while Jack was stationed elsewhere during the war.

okay uh ronald said i wrote to him steadily while overseas and definitely told him that as long as he was christina's boyfriend i took her to the odd uh old odd dance and show so he was like i'll take care of her while you're gone i'm taking care of gal holding down the fort back here in july of 1946 while jack was still stationed overseas christina went to ronald and asked if she could borrow some money to buy something she said but she was very vague and very avoidant when And he asked what exactly she wanted the money for.

But he did trust her by that point.

And he ended up giving her $2 ,000.

Wow. Which, that's a lot of money.

Sorry, I didn't do the conversion.

I usually do. But they had an understanding that she was going to pay this money back.

However, after a month had passed and she still hadn't returned the money, he pressed her for an explanation.

He was like, hey, where's my money?

But according to Christina, quote, Quote, somebody was making it very hard for her to do some, excuse me, somebody was making it very hard for her due to some incident that had happened the previous April of 1946.

Okay. So still confused, Ronald pushed further and was like, well, what incident?

Like, what happened?

And Christina explained that in April, she had gone to a church dance in Toronto.

and after the dance she had been quote -unquote criminally attacked by five men who she said were now blackmailing her what and ronald was like that's horrible yeah why didn't you go to the police or ask your father for help like why why is this the first i'm hearing of this like this is a big deal yeah and when he started asking questions she became very emotional and claimed that she would kill herself before telling her father.

Now, Ronald was worried that Christina really was having thoughts of ending her life if put in that position, so he agreed to keep her secret.

And he actually continued to lend her money, eventually advancing her more than $12 ,000.

Wow. A lot of money.

That's quite an advance.

Mm -hmm. Now, he believed her story at first to some degree, but he definitely at the same time felt like some part of that seemed off and that she wasn't being entirely forthcoming but still he continued to keep the secret particularly from her boyfriend jack despite his growing concern internally now things took an even stranger turn a year later in april 1947 when christina came to ronald and jack's apartment that they shared and she asked ronald to speak privately in a separate room and out of the the apartment itself like they literally like left with jack there yeah huh so and out of jack's

uh earshot christina handed ronald an envelope that had ten thousand dollars in cash inside of it in denominations of fifty dollar and a hundred dollar bills and when he was like where did this come from like how did you find the money to pay me back she got really evasive and vague with him and according to him she said only that quote the persons that had been blackmailing her had agreed to help her that's strange because why would five men attack you outside of a church event steal money from you and then blackmail you and then decide to help you like what was the point of the blackmailing

i don't know now ronald thought the explanation like us seemed highly suspicious but the moment he said that christina became very emotional so he didn't press her any further he said and instead he asked that since she was going out already would she mind depositing the money into his account because she worked at the bank oh okay she said she would and later she returned with his bank book which indicated that the money had been deposited so so clean with your hands clean yeah in the months following her death because christina does eventually die unfortunately a lot would be made of her behavior and her

emotional state during her relationship with jack kettlewell later speaking to the jury during the coroner's inquest one of the medical experts concisely and somewhat politely referred to her emotional stability uh as that of a quote child who takes tantrums oh yeah you don't want to be described as that no uh christina's request to borrow money to pay off unnamed blackmailers for vague reasons were enough to give ronald uh pause and even make him somewhat suspicious but they were also part of a pattern of behavior that should have been more concerning to anybody who knew her yeah no like i know

that was all clean in the end but it's like what happened there well yeah like i need to know what happened here you can't just let it go that's the thing now many of christina's quote -unquote tantrums it seems came from what sounds like a deep insecurity and fear that jack would eventually leave her for somebody else well that's just sad it's not entirely clear what what made her feel that way.

But she had this suspicion that things weren't going to end well between them and that he was going to leave her for some reason.

Is that sad? Because she was beautiful.

Gorgeous. Like look up a picture of her because I'm telling you, like stunning.

Yeah, she was really pretty.

And Jack's a really handsome guy.

Yeah. I immediately looked him up and I was like, okay.

Yeah, that's okay. You can say that.

I don't think he's bad.

I know. I mean, I was like, is he bad?

Your face was like, can I say that?

Is he a bad guy? Please tell me now.

No, the day after she secretly handed Ronald the envelope containing the $10 ,000, Christina showed up again at Ronald and Jack's apartment a little before 9 o 'clock in the morning.

She had a dozen eggs in hand, and she told them that she had taken the day off and she wondered if they would mind her hanging out around the apartment for the day.

Nah, girl. Now, Ronald left to run some errands, and when he came home around lunchtime, excuse me, he came home around lunchtime, and then he left again and then returned about an hour later.

So it sounds like he was going off to work, came back for lunch, and then, like, ran a couple errands.

yeah but then he came back and when he came back he told police later i was back within an hour to find both of them unconscious at first i didn't know what happened and i tried to arouse them but to no avail they were both definitely unconscious like not asleep no we're talking like unconscious for hours like he could not wake them up this is very this is a strange case already like i don't know what's happening well and it's so abrupt like i'm very confused by what's happening she she borrows this money she gives it back she comes over to hang out she's very worried that jack is going to leave

her all the time but she's still hanging out at the apartment he comes back and everything's good and then he is only gone for an hour when he comes back the second time they're unconscious the two of them yeah huh so ronald spent the next several several hours instead of calling the police trying to revive jack and christina and while they were both still breathing he was on sec unsuccessful at getting either of them to come to like he could tell that they were breathing but they weren't waking up or responding so on his way to the bathroom to get cold towels to you know see if maybe that would make

them wake up he noticed an envelope sitting on the on an end table with his full name written on the outside of it in christina's handwriting this is weird man in the envelope was what appeared to be a suicide note written by christina that explained she had killed jack and herself in her words quote if jack didn't marry her she didn't want to live and she couldn't be mrs kettle uh she couldn't be mrs kettle well no one else was going to be if she couldn't be wow this is escalating very quickly very quickly so fearing what their friends or family might think if they learned the truth of this situation ronald

stuffed the letter in his pocket and spent the rest of the evening trying to bring them back from the brink of death really so to believe to be clear yeah they've been unconscious this whole time yeah and he's just milling about trying to wake them up and then And he finds this letter and he reads it and he's like, I don't know what her family is going to think or what his family will think.

So I'm going to hold on to this.

But in the meantime, I got to try to wake them up.

This is so this is so weird. It is like what's going on here?

What's going on? I'm dying to know.

Like what is the why are they unconscious?

Are they going to wake up?

What's going to happen?

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So he spent nearly all night moving Jack and Christina's limbs for them to keep their blood blood moving and applying cold towels to them never calling an ambulance okay no the next morning they were both still unconscious so ronald called a local pharmacy to ask their advice he later told police quote they got too nosy and i hung up the second one told me to give mustard and warm water to induce vomiting i gave some to christina but all she vomited was the mustard and the water i wish i had like adequate questions right now but i'm so confused by what is happening right now they've been unconscious

since yesterday is anyone going through active brain death right now like what is going on hope not like he's just like well they're breathing i guess so i i'm what couldn't tell you why is this man calling someone you'll find out later why he he doesn't call anybody at least or there there are explanations for why he doesn't call someone i guess you could say okay you don't find out definitively i am confusion i bet but i was too this whole time and then i got to the end and i was like oh good you didn't end up confusion so that's it i i ended up with some confusion still but there are a couple

things that made me you You know, figure it out.

Yeah. Yeah. All right.

At least I won't end up completely confused.

Yeah. You never know.

You feel like maybe.

Maybe. You might. I'm like, I'm not making any promises.

Now, Jack and Christina did finally regain consciousness by noon the next day, but they both remained very groggy and very violently ill for the remainder of the day.

The fuck? Later, in his statement to the police, Ronald recalled that several times throughout the the day, the phone and the door buzzer rang, but he ignored it, worried that he wouldn't be able to explain the scene in the apartment.

Now, by the time Jack was finally alert enough to understand what was going on, his immediate concern was Christina's reputation and what he assumed would be her family's concern that she hadn't returned the previous evening.

Because remember, she doesn't live there.

She was just hanging out for the day.

Yeah. And now she's been gone for like a whole whole day a whole night and into noon the next day yeah now ronald later said quote jack seemed to think maybe if we sent a telegram saying that they were married it would keep her people from worrying too much this is so extra like what the escalation that is happening here it's like what yeah so okay yes all right yeah they got married according to ronald they didn't get get married they didn't get married let's tell everybody we did though yep according to ronald the telegram was only intended to buy them all some time until christina regained

her faculties and could decide for herself what she wanted to do and you know explain things to her family yeah i mean it would be awesome if she explained things to me as well because i don't have any idea what the fuck is going on right now however when she did regain full consciousness christina could not be more pleased with the plan of course and rather than explain herself she convinced ronald to call her sister helen and tell her that she and jack had gone up to his cottage ronald's cottage okay ronald felt that the telegram had been enough notice but he was worried that christina might become

hysterical or try to self -harm if he didn't do what she wanted so he reluctantly agreed to make the call there seems like there's just so much happening there's everything is happening wow now by the next morning it had sunk in it started to sink in for the both of them that in trying to avoid a scandalous situation they had actually created a potentially larger problem for themselves by telling christina's family that he that she and jack had gotten married yeah ronald said he really i suppose intended to get married someday but he said he wasn't rushing any into anything unprepared i mean that's

smart it is but and by all accounts jack cared really deeply for christina but when it came to the subject of marriage he always seemed to have an excuse for not wanting to fully commit.

Okay. But now he had not only informed Christina's family of their supposed wedding, but had also given Christina every reason to believe that he intended to realize the scheme by getting married.

Yeah. When you're suggesting instead of just saying we fell asleep, I'm sorry.

Oh, man. Crazy us. When your first thought is let's just tell your parents we got married.

That would give me the idea that you wanted to get married yeah a hundred percent i think because of the time period yeah i know the 20s or the 40s oh yeah yeah um the the we fell asleep thing everybody would start calling her names and saying that yeah no that doesn't make sense out of wedlock but i can definitely understand why she but yeah i don't take that as like a hint of like maybe he you know he came up with that idea yeah it's like he must be thinking about it like i can understand that and especially when you really really like someone yeah and she i mean you can tell she like it seems

like she like loved him yeah i mean to the point that she didn't want anybody else to be mrs kettlebell because was that real i didn't know if that was real or not i didn't know what the it's hard to even say if it is or not fever dreamish i think it all does that's the perfect way to describe it i think yes but like you don't really know for sure because christina ends up dying at some point she's not around to confirm to confirm or deny all right interesting uh -huh okay either way we know she really loved him and was she did really invested desperately in this relationship so hearing him say

let's just pretend we got married she's like or we could do it yeah you know now later that afternoon after jack and christina appeared to be covered uh be appeared to be recovering from the previous day's events ronald finally felt comfortable leaving them alone in the apartment while he ran out to run some errands to be clear ronald has not asked them what the fuck happened no my first that question would be i don't really i don't really know if he asked them any questions it sounds like from what i read is that he read the suicide the suicide note or what was intended to be a suicide note and that answered

his questions and then to be clear here yeah to be clear yep he read that yeah a note which says i kill i'm like we're dying together i made him do this i killed him yep and then myself he read that he found them in that state yep and then when they woke up he didn't think to say like hey um about that like like attempted murder do you want to talk about it like do you want to should we he might have he didn't we have a conversation from what i read i don't know if we want to all live together or not like i'd be like i would like to move out like i don't want to live here anymore like that's a this is all

so non -fucking -chalant it's like it's true very much stressing me out no it's very stressful because i keep having to be like am i hearing this correctly i know i kept having to read things i don't know if there was any kind of discussion once they woke up or if it was like Like, we don't want to, like, make her upset, so we're just going to let this be what it is because now Jack wants to marry her, so, like, okay.

Yeah, it just seems like so much is happening and not enough questions are being asked.

That's actually exactly what's happening, I'm pretty sure.

But, so he, what I don't agree with is that, you know, once they woke up from this failed murder -suicide attempt, allegedly, he was just like, I have errands to run, are you guys good?

like okay you just left the apartment i mean but i mean hey i guess he's not responsible for either of them i don't know yeah but as ronald was leaving christina asked him where he was going and he told her he was on his way to the bank and she immediately broke down crying oh and when he was like why are you like what's the problem she explained that she had said that she deposited that money into his account a few days earlier but she had in fact lied and never truly put the money and the ten thousand dollars that she returned to him or the additional 15 or excuse me the additional five thousand dollars

he gave her to deposit into the account but she was able to produce the the book yeah saying that she did right she worked at the bank wow a lot of power yeah she she messed things up oh man so as the current ledger keeper at the local branch of the the bank of nova scotia christina had fraudulently entered the deposit into ronald's bank book as having been deposited but then kept the money for herself yeah so she made a note looking like oh yeah looking like it had gone in but it hadn't oh no he recalled later ronald i've never been so i had never been so stunned in all my life i had done everything

under the sun to help her i'd placed myself heavily in debt to come to her assistance and here i found out that i'd had been living in a fool's paradise thinking the money was in my account oh damn so he started pressing her for an explanation like why the fuck did you do that yeah because not only she owed him ten thousand dollars and then gave him an envelope full of ten thousand dollars and he was like oh do you mind running that to the bank for me since you work there and can you take this too yeah so he gave her more of his own money like his own money yeah not as like a favor but as a hey

can you also put this in my account since you're putting she took it all she took all of it oh damn so he was was like why the fuck did you do that but she just started crying hysterically and begging him not to tell anybody so he dropped the matter a few minutes later when jack came into the room because remember jack knows nothing about this whole money situation damn now after learning that christina had once again manipulated him and taken his money ronald had every intention of getting an explanation for this behavior and this like you know screwing him over yeah but given Given everything

that had happened that last week of April, you know, the murder -suicide plot.

The alleged murder -suicide plot.

He decided to wait for quote -unquote more favorable circumstances before raising the issue.

This man has a lot of patience.

Ronald is patient, potentially kind.

He seems kind. Yeah.

I hope he is. He feels like he is.

I'm like, damn, for you not to be losing your mind right now.

The way that I would lose my shit.

And like not telling Jack, like he's thinking of everybody here.

That's pretty impressive.

Except himself, really.

Yeah, exactly, everybody else.

Now by May 3rd, 1947, the tension in the drama had subsided.

And somehow things returned normal between Christina, Jack, and Ronald.

That morning, May 3rd, Jack and Ronald had planned to leave for a weekend trip to go to Ronald's cottage on the Severan River, I think it is.

But first, Christina and Jack were going to go get their marriage license in order to make everything official.

Because they were doing it.

They were really doing it.

But by the time they got everything together for the trip, the licensing bureau had closed for the weekend.

So they decided to wait until after the weekend, like go on Monday.

And Ronald and Jack were going to make their way to the cabin.

But now Christina was coming along.

So they had planned to go just the two of them.

But then she ended up going.

Oh, okay. Yeah. So the trio spent four days by the river.

And during that time, Jack and Christina got along well and seemed to be having a good time.

They had, you know, put that wildness behind them.

And although he hadn't exactly planned on getting married, Jack told Ronald he was willing to make a go of things if she was.

Wow. And for her part, Christina was elated with his decision to go ahead with the marriage.

She was insisting that that was what she wanted all along.

Oh boy. And when they returned to Toronto on Wednesday, May 7th, she immediately began making plans for her and Jack's wedding.

Now, for reasons still unknown, because everything is unknown, she asked Ronald if he would go to the parish priest, Father Markle, and explain the circumstances on their behalf.

He agreed, and a few hours later, returned to the apartment with the news that the priest would like to see them immediately.

Like, to figure out this whole marriage thing.

Yeah. Now, although he was hesitant to bring up the matter of the missing $15 ,000 now, and he was, you know, hesitant to risk ruining the good mood and triggering another suicidal homicidal episode ronald claimed he did eventually get the nerve to bring it up but they were either quote interrupted or she got hysterical and i dropped it finally on the morning of may 11th he raised the issue again now determined to get an answer and after more than a little insistence christina claimed she had quote given it back to those fellows that she had Or that had been blackmailing her.

But I thought the fellows that, okay.

They gave it to her.

And she said she gave it back to them.

No, she did. So they blackmailed her for money.

She borrowed the money from Ronald.

She gave it to the blackmailers.

They gave it to her.

They had a change of heart, gave it back to her.

She gave it back to, quote unquote, gave it back to Ronald, but actually took it and then didn't actually just take it.

She gave it back to the blackmailers.

Yeah. Okay, I got it.

yeah you do yep good for you that was impressive honestly thank you lots of just making sure this all doesn't make sense lots of red yarn all over the fucking uh this is like this this is i feel like i'm serpentining you are you are i am we all are yeah yep so she said she gave it back to them and he was like okay why but she seemed deeply upset and spent the rest of the the day sulking so he didn't really know what he was to do about all of this now the next morning may 12th christina woke up early and left the apartment without saying a word to ronald or jack about where she was going she literally

just dipped so ronald stuck his head out the window and called after her and he was like hey where are you going and she was like i'm going for a walk i'll be back soon after several hours had passed both of them you know became concerned that christina hadn't returned and their landlady mrs barger reluctantly informed them that over the weekend christina had asked her to borrow a large sum of money from the landlady oh shit quote to go to hamilton ontario where some boyfriend of hers lived what yes now she comes back though later when she returned to the apartment the only explanation she offered

was that she had gone to see her parents where she quote had a sort of favorable reception of telling them about the wedding okay among other things she which like she said she had a sort of favor sort of favorable reception but then she explains it and it doesn't sound favorable at all what's happening because the family was disturbed by her behavior and the unexpected expected announcement that she was marrying jack all of a sudden casimir and mary her parents didn't fully object to her relationship with jack but they were flatly opposed to the idea that she was going to marry him because he was not roman catholic

like they were so that was out of the question that they get married they could date and have a good time but they could not get married this is the problem it was the 40s all right now there was also the matter of his his relationship with his roommate and best friend, Ronald Berry.

It's unclear whether Christina's family had actually met Ronald by this point, but she must have at least told them something about him because they, quote, couldn't understand the relationship between he and Jack.

They thought it was strange.

Yeah. Christina's sister, Helen, said, When Jack and Christina got married, we thought it was very strange that Berry went along on the honeymoon.

Ronald Berry. That's what made us wonder if Ronnie was also in love with Chris.

okay okay you following yeah absolutely i am so later that evening when jack christina and ronald had joined some friends for dinner like after she tells them about how everything went with her parents they had some friends over for dinner the group was surprised when their meal was interrupted by christina's two sisters showing up unannounced to the apartment and their names were helen and sophie and they were quote quite mad and antagonistic what so who knows this is so chaotic it's the most chaotic story that i think i've ever heard just real quick before we get into the next mayhem that's

i'm sure about to unfold no this is good that we have to keep explaining it along the way are so the landlord story just just moving on past that it like sort of comes comes back later.

Okay I was just wondering.

I was like okay so the landlord is like hate to break it but I gave her money so she could go see a boyfriend in Ontario and she comes home and is like no no no I saw my parents and they're like okay.

Yeah. Like what is Mrs. Burger or Berger to do with any of this?

Like she's not lying for any reason I would assume.

I don't think she's lying.

Maybe not. Who knows.

Okay. I think. And now her sisters show up out of nowhere they're fucking pissed.

They're fucking pissed.

They're pissed. Yes.

They were quite mad and antagonistic so mad but reports of this encounter vary widely depending on who's telling the tale of course but ronald insisted he tried to talk to christina's sister to find out what they were so upset about but they quote kept shouting something about giving christina opium and trying to force her to marry jack this can't get more bizarre no it does it will continue every paragraph gets more more crazy so um confused and rather frustrated by the situation ronald turned to christina and was like listen make up your mind do you want to be with jack or not like what's going

on here uh and jack was like yeah like what's going on he was equally confused now in helens her the christina's sister helens version of events christina quote was nervous and she wouldn't listen to anyone you couldn't get any sense out of her but what both versions agree on is that christina clearly stated she did want to marry jack and at that point they called a cab so that they could leave the tent situation okay ronald said sophie tried to stop them and kept crying that christina was being kidnapped which was ridiculous as christina was walking ahead of jack Jack.

What? Now, once they had left the scene at their own apartment, tensions escalated as Helen and Sophie continued to accuse Ronald and Jack of drugging and manipulating their sister.

When it was clear that there was nothing more they could do, Helen left the Barger apartment house and went to the police station to enlist the help of the authorities to stop the marriage.

But she was informed that because Christina was an adult, there was nothing that the police could do to to intervene.

Now, the other sister, Sophie, meanwhile, continued escalating in her emotional accusations until Ronald actually had to call the police to have her escorted out of the apartment.

This is a fever dream.

No, truly. Okay. So, given the fact that Jack Kettlewell never made a formal public statement about his marriage or the death of his wife...

He didn't? No. Never.

The only Only accounts of this altercation on record come from Ronald Berry, who gave his statement to the police, and Helen, the sister, who told the story to a jury during the coroner's inquest and during subsequent interviews with press.

So, it's difficult to establish what exactly happened at the apartment that night.

But it sounds like during her visit to her parents' house to inform them of the marriage, Christina may have given an inaccurate account of the suicide homicide attempt, maybe presenting herself as the victim and Jack and Ronald as the villains.

And that's where they were talking about drugging and opium and all that.

So she went to her parents' house to be like, hey, let's talk about me marrying Jack.

And they were like, yeah, that sucks.

We're not cool with the fact that he is not Roman Catholic.

like and she was like well this is really gonna blow your fucking top because he also drugged me with opium like that's what that went that's what some people and then helen and sophie were like wait a second like a day later like or later later that they were all of a sudden just like wait a fucking second and they just showed up at the house and were like we just realized what you said maybe they were at home and then the parents told them i don't know why would she just go and tell her parents that she was drugged with opium couldn't tell you but that she's marrying one of them i don't know

i'm confused maybe i'm missing a giant part of this puzzle but like this no we all are no we literally all are missing like the biggest part of this puzzle yeah so uh we'll never really know which of which version of the events is true but it seems like christina was trying Trying to hedge her bets weaving a story that would absolve her of her responsibility for the murder suicide attempt if her family found out about it without her compromising her impending marriage to Jack but like feels like it would compromise it a little bit feels like that to me too.

Like I'm going to go out on a limb here and say if my child told me that their future husband drugged them unwillingly with opium.

Yeah. That's going to compromise the marriage in my mind.

I wonder. And in my heart.

I wonder though if she said it was Ronald and not Jack.

But it seems like she was saying Jack and Ronald are like the villains of this story here.

Yeah. I don't know.

It's very confusing.

Damn. Okay. So that happened.

Hedge those bets, I guess.

But after satisfactorily explaining himself to the police, Ronald returned to the apartment because the police were like, yeah, I think this is all a big mess.

But like, did you drug anybody with opium?

And he was like, no way.

The police were like, we don't know what's going on either.

So he went back to the apartment where Christina and Jack had returned and told him that they didn't want to wait any longer to get married because they didn't want to risk further interference of her family.

the ones you told that he drugged you with opium yep okay or or ronald who knows and they decided they wanted to get married that very evening wow okay so ronald was like okay should i call the priest like this is for realsies and ronald you can have an opinion at some point like you can step in and be like friend to friend can i just like both of you like i don't think this is the time i would say that like ronald like i know you're trying to not ruffle feathers here but ruffle some feathers.

It's time to ruffle some fucking feathers.

Ruffle a few feathers.

He didn't. He called Father Markle who agreed to see them all that evening.

And they all were like oh my god let's go get married.

So they all left to go to the priest's house.

That evening in Markle's living room, Father Markle there, Jack and Christina were married before a wedding party that included of course Ronald Barry.

Of course. The landlady Emma Barger.

I'm obsessed with that.

The couple's friends the Thomases and they used Emma Barger's wedding ring as proxy for the ring that Jack had yet to buy and Christina was wearing a borrowed dress they did the damn thing they got married okay they did it if that's how they wanted to do it then they did it yeah this is very chaotic but like you know what you guys do you of all time you know tend your own garden yes that's all that's all on you she says if she eats a mozzarella stick dipped in Caesar exactly she just keeps moving away from the microphone I don't want you guys to hear it uh that's that's like so thoughtful but it's

funny to watch you crouch you're just like home caesar home mozzarella now in order excuse me in ronald berry's version of events the three of them decided as a group that it would be best for ronald to join them at the cabin on their honeymoon because quote they had so much stuff to take along okay drew and i had a lot to bring on our honeymoon like we each had a suitcase that that we had to check and to carry on, like, that's four bags right there.

It was just us. And you didn't need me to come with you.

No, I love you so much, but, like, I'm not inviting you.

I'm not inviting my best friend.

Like, what? Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know. Different strokes for different folks.

Yeah, I don't know.

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So on the morning of May 16th, 1947, all three of them drove down to the cabin in a car that they borrowed from a friend.

Okay, have fun, you guys.

Yeah, have the best time.

The first few days of the trip were casual and uneventful.

But on the morning of Sunday, May 18th, Ronald entered the kitchen to find Christina sitting at the table crying.

And he was like, what's wrong?

Like, why are you so upset?

And Christina said she, quote, didn't know whether Jack had married her because he loved her or on account of, you know, the murder -suicide attempt.

i feel bad yeah of course like that's i think the realization is hitting her yeah that like this this is all this was gone about in the wrong way it's very like twisted er romeo and julia kind of you know what i mean like that whole story where like no i know i know you were just blank for so long and i'm like i don't know i don't even see it like that i i kind of just see it like she kind of forced this to happen so it's like and now she i think it's hitting her that she kind of forced this whole situation and now she's like well i thought what's sad about it is she thought she was going what by getting

what she wanted it wouldn't matter how she got it yeah she got it she got jack she got to marry him but i think all of a sudden she She woke up in the morning, and it's like, okay.

But it still bothers me.

Like, I got what I wanted, but, like, now I'm really thinking about it, and I would rather have the love attached to this.

Yeah. And have it be his decision or, like, or her decision at that point.

Like, get it, girl.

That, like, nobody pressured anybody into it.

Yeah, that, like, you two were just so in love that you wanted to get married.

Yeah. And not because something had pushed you to having to do this.

Yes, yes, yes. And it's just really sad that she did come to that realization, because that's a hard realization, I imagine, to hit.

It's sad. Which is you got exactly what you wanted, but you still didn't get exactly what you wanted.

It's like a careful what you wish for moment.

Yeah. But Ronald said he reassured her that Jack did indeed love her, and she seemed to accept that fact.

But there were several points throughout that day where Christina seemed to be just lost in her thoughts, and ronald became concerned that she might try to hurt herself or you know somebody else again i mean yeah this is not there's no way you're going to trick yourself into into believing that everything is hunky -dory no it's just simply not yeah so the following morning ronald left the couple alone and went out for a long walk i think he was like i need to like remove myself from the situation for a minute and yeah it's heavy things seem okay ish right now and when when he returned, he found Christina at the table

writing a letter and Jack seemed like he was sleeping on the couch. Now he tried to like talk to them.

Like he was like, Oh, Hey, how are you guys?

But Christina ignored him and Jack was deeply asleep.

So rather than repeat himself, he just went to the couch to make Jack more comfortable.

He said not wanting to intrude any further, he left again and told Christina that he was going to go lay out in the sun for a bit and that he'd be back in a few hours, but that he would come back and check on them periodically throughout the afternoon to see if they needed anything okay when he returned later that afternoon he found christina still sitting in the kitchen and jack still on the couch where he had last seen him several hours earlier still asleep huh but this time ronald noticed that the pillow under jack's head was covered in blood oh so assuming he had a nosebleed ronald took a closer

look and and realized that the blood was actually coming from Jack's head.

What the fuck? So concerned, he started cleaning his friend's head and face, looking for a cut.

He told police, I asked Christina what happened, but she just looked up at me and didn't say a word. What the fuck?

So he's wiping Jack's face and head, and he begins to notice the faint smell of coal oil, and fearing that there might be a leak somewhere, he said he lifted Jack off the couch and carried him outside to get fresh air.

Wow, this is a good friend.

I know, honestly. After getting Jack situated on the ground by the river, and when he turned to start back towards the cabin to you know figure out where what christina was doing he saw smoke billowing from the exterior door leading to the kitchen what so he ran on he ran back into the cabin yelling out for christina but by the time he made his way back into the front part of the cabin he could barely see anything through all the smoke but still he was yelling making his way to the front room calling out for christina but he wasn't getting any response so he was like i is she not in here anymore

because the fire hadn't started here but he he had to get out of there he couldn't tolerate the smoke filling the cabin so he made his way back out the front door leading outside and he grabbed a couple small items on the way including one of jack and christina's small suitcases man he's a good friend i know damn no he'd only reached the shore where jack sat when he looked back and saw that the cabin was now engulfed in flames and And mind you, this is his cabin.

This is his home. Oh yeah, this is his.

So he later claimed that he dragged Jack further from the house to a safer location and then went in the direction of the woods calling out for Christina, but he didn't see her and he didn't hear her anywhere.

So after about 30 minutes of searching for Christina, Ronald returned back to Jack's location and managed to flag down a passing boat.

He explained to the men in the boat what had happened and that he still hadn't been able to find Christina anywhere.

anywhere so one of the men volunteered to stay behind and look for christina while the other men took jack and ronald to meet the nearest car to go get them to the hospital so after checking jack in at the hospital ronald went straight to the provincial police to report what had happened and that was when he learned that christina's body had been discovered near the shore of the river about 200 yards from the cabin what the fuck is going on so she made it out of the house before the fire started but she's dead holy shit so authorities were able to locate christina's body lying face down in a nine

inch pool of water adjacent to the riverbank what still dressed in the floral print pajamas that she'd been wearing the night before there were no burns on her body no evidence to suggest that she had been in the fire there were no signs of violence or indications of what had caused her death.

Jack remained hospitalized where he claimed to have no memory of the fire or the events leading up to it.

What? So he was of little help to the investigators.

Come on. Now, given the wildly mysterious circumstances under...

You need to make up a new word for mysterious.

Truly. Under which Christina had died, authorities opened an investigation to determine whether or not she'd been murdered.

What the fuck? Because this is all so bizarre.

They're like, was she murdered?

Yeah, like what happened here?

This makes no No fucking sense.

On the morning of May 22nd, 1947, an autopsy was conducted by the chief coroner, Dr. Smurl Lawson.

Following his examination, he confirmed there were no signs to indicate that Christina had been in a fire.

There was no smoke in her lungs.

She wasn't burned. Nothing to indicate that she'd been in the fire.

What? And he deemed that her cause of death had in fact been drowning.

What? She drowned in a nine -inch pool of water.

her with no smoke in her lungs like she wasn't really affected by the fire no she got out in time somehow and like in and right before that according to ronald jack has like a head injury he found jack lying unconscious with a head injury and said it to christina was like what happened to his head and she just looked at him and didn't answer him like what was happening here all i can say lawson told reporters that's the coroner is that mrs cat uh mrs kettlewell was definitely drowned To make sure that she wasn't drugged or poisoned, specimens of her body are being examined, while the contents

of her stomach and other material have been sent for chemical analysis.

What? A short time later, when the lab results came back, Lawson learned that there was codeine in Christina's stomach at the time of her death.

Oh, okay. On its face, Christina's death and the circumstances leading up to it were the most suspicious thing anybody had ever heard of in their entire fucking life.

life. Why had she been so quick to marry Jack?

Why have they done it so secretly?

What the fuck was going on?

Why was Ronald Barry always around?

Yeah. Why would a newlywed couple bring a third party with them on their honeymoon?

Exactly. And how does somebody ostensibly escape a roaring house fire without a scratch only to drown in what was more or less a puddle of water?

This is the most bizarre thing I think I have ever heard. Me as well.

So those unanswered questions led investigators to suspect foul play and what they learned next did little but make them more suspicious.

Oh no. The statement given by Ronald to the police was sus, but it only got more so when he got to the subject of money.

There was of course the $15 ,000 he claimed Christina had stolen from him over the course of the previous year and refused to return, but there was also the matter of insurance money.

Between having bought the cottage the previous year in the fire he had procured insurance on the home for three thousand dollars now that wouldn't have been unusual in and of itself but in his statement to the police he mentioned that he had become quote -unquote financially embarrassed due to the large sums of money that he'd lent christina and he was unable to pay many of his bills as a result okay so they were like are you trying to cash in on the three thousand dollars to like make up for some of your bills that feels like it would would be but it's like a lot it's only three thousand dollars

and you're out like what are you gonna thousand yeah and i'm not saying only three thousand obviously that's a lot of money but if you're out fifteen thousand like is that really worth all of that right exactly that's what i'm saying now given that he you know had become financially embarrassed and needed money it did seem plausible to investigators that the fire could have been set intentionally in order to collect on the insurance yeah and also ronald had sent to and received a telegram from an unknown person in the united states which just added to the mysterious which just added to the mysterious

facts of the kettlewell case and given all the talk of large sums of money led the investigators to wonder whether there was some kind of illegal business being operated by ronald christina and jack so in a statement given to the police ronald very flatly rejected the possibility that he had burned down his own cottage for insurance money he said we lost everything when a thing like this happens one does not think of insurance it is something that cannot be replaced it is like a life lost we had planned on staying here all summer away from everybody the flowers were beautiful we were going to

plant so many more but i guess i shouldn't say anything else i've said too much what investigators found his statement to be quote unquote fantastic fantastic like like fantastic like whoa not like fantastic like amazing like fantastic like a little hard to believe yes exactly exactly yeah i mean it's yeah i mean with the thing he's saying everything he that you want to hear yeah from somebody but they either doubted or at the very least were very suspicious of many of his claims but just a few days later chief inspector albert at ward formally announced that there were no signs of foul play and no suspects

but emphasized that the case would remain open okay ronald talked to reporters after ward's statement and he doubled down saying there was no foul play on that i would stake my life i mean i i'm not saying ronald has anything to do with it because i honestly nothing up to this point would lead me to believe that he would hurt her no know but but like this play looks pretty foul it's just wild it just looks strange like what happened i have no idea it's like a riley sager novel it literally is you were explaining that one to me the other day and it sounds like this it does like i'm just i'm just

so confused i'm so confused i'm so confused how this woman how she was sitting there and ronnie's asking her like Like, hey, Jack's got a massive head injury and is bleeding all over the pillow and has been out for several hours.

And she's just like, do you know what happened here?

And she's just like, hmm.

And then just a fire starts and he carries Jack out and she somehow makes her way out and then toots along 200 yards or so and drowns in a tiny puddle.

Nine inches of water.

Yeah. It's wild. I've never heard anything like it in my entire life.

I can't come up with it.

i'm gonna have to think on this one so hard well we're not done yet curly so i'm shocked it's it is shocking meanwhile reporters were attempting to get their own statements from jack and ronald with the latter having promised to make one in the days immediately following the fire but the statement however was never given and ronald did seem to be avoiding the press at that point so they turned to their next best contact his brother mario ronald's brother mario and mario told the press ronnie has always been a secretive fellow according to his brother the family had always found his closeness with jack

somewhat unusual okay he said we often remarked on the close friendship between ronnie and jack it seemed they were always together both worked for a box factory and when one was discharged the other quit so he was like they were just very close yeah now as far as jack kettlewell was concerned investigators were very clear that he was was never a suspect and at no time was he detained for questioning.

Okay. An inspector told the press he's not under arrest nor in any kind of custody.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone can see him.

But the problem was that even once Jack had been released from the hospital for a head injury and quote, the apparent effects of a drug, which left him in a dazed condition had where it wore off.

He had said little to investigators or reporters.

So nobody knew what the fuck had like, they were were like did anything happen before but he wasn't he didn't remember allegedly what in his initial statement to the police he insisted he remembered nothing from the morning of the fire until he came to in the hospital i need to know like you gotta rack the deepest parts of your brain jack i gotta know but it seemed like he was in a dazed condition yeah like from some kind of drug even which i was like did she give you codeine too well that's what i'm wondering i'm like what what's happening here because also i'm still wondering what happened at the apartment

oh yeah i mean everybody's wondering never like never forget what happened at the apartment i will not so it's like i'm still wondering what happened there like what drug was used what's going on over there and now this happens and it seems like there's more drugging happening yeah possibly allegedly yep and it's It's like, by whom I do not know.

Nor me. Yeah. I wish I had ideas, or I got nothing.

Well, the wreckage of the cabin also yielded few clues to an explanation.

Oh, good. Among the debris, investigators found a gallon jar of coal oil, which Ronald claimed he had brought along for cleaning pots and pans.

And they also found a five -gallon can, which a neighbor claimed was used to power the generator.

Okay. Otherwise, there was nothing at the scene that could have explained Christina's death or the fire.

Having ruled out the foul play and potential that the death was the result of a drug trafficking operation between Canada and the U .S., they ruled that out.

The only theory investigators were left with was that Christina had indeed taken her own life after setting fire to the cabin.

Okay. In fact, among the only physical evidence in the investigation was the couple's suitcase that Ronald grabbed on his way out of the burning building.

Oh, shit. Which contained the letter Christina was writing on the morning of the fire.

Oh. Which turned out to be yet another suicide note, again addressed to Ronald.

Because remember, the other one was, too, when she allegedly had tried to end her life and Jack's, allegedly.

This time, Christina stated that she did not believe Jack's proposal of marriage was genuine and that he instead made it out of fear that she might harm herself if he didn't go through with it.

She wrote, this will be the best way out as I cannot bear to see another girl have him.

This is like heart -wrenching.

It is. It really is.

It's sad. She was so sad.

She needed someone to just talk to her.

Yeah. So Ronald turned both suicide letters over to the investigators, which appear to corroborate at least part of his story, particularly his account of the murder -suicide attempt in April and Christina's behavior on the morning that she died.

In the third suicide note written on the morning of the fire and addressed to Mrs. Thomas, Christina wrote, Ronnie is in the boat outside somewhere.

By the time he gets back, everything will be all over with.

He must have been afraid something would happen because he's staying an extra day to make sure we go back to Toronto with him.

i actually wondered if that's why ronnie was hanging around so much yeah because either he jack or both of them were worried about not having a potential third person to watch over things yeah it kind of seems like i wondered if that was part of it i think that's part of it especially when ronnie was coming in being like you guys need anything yeah just going outside for a little while like i'll be back and i can bring you something if you need it like it seems like like he was there to be like just keeping everything keeping tabs on okay yeah i think so too yeah and i especially think so when you

find out details later so nevertheless the suicide notes didn't explain all the unanswered questions so a coroner's inquest was scheduled goodness i was like someone get me in a coroner's inquest doesn't really do much to be awesome the primary motive for the coroner's uh inquest was to identify the circumstances of christina's drowning Sorry, I was just shifting there.

And definitely, or definitively, I can never say that, rule out foul play.

But from the perspective of the public, it was the mystery surrounding Ronald's involvement that more people wanted to learn about.

This aspect of the case was significantly amplified by Christina's sister, Helen, who was always heavily suspicious of Jack and Ronald, and especially now.

She believed full -heartedly that they were responsible for Christina's death.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. C .P.

Hope, the special counsel to the Crown, was also suspicious of Ronald's involvement in the drowning.

At one point just before the inquest began, Hope told reporters Ronald was a liar of the most blatant kind whose sinister figure permeates the whole of this tragedy, but whose purpose and design are shrouded in mystery.

Whoa. Yeah. The inquest began on June 19th, 1947, with the jury hearing from several medical experts, including R .C.

Wade, the doctor who treated jack at the hospital and the coroner himself smirl lawson dr smirl lawson wade explained to the jury that jack had indeed been treated for a head wound but when it came to his dazed and confused state wade said i suggest he was not ill he was upset he did not act like a normal individual what so like he was he was upset because he had been drugged and i don't think think you have mentioned it but they don't know what kind of head wound this is no like what it's from he was bleeding he was so he was bleeding from his head wild but according to wade he said jack was more

likely suffering from shock and the after effects of trauma but he was unable to explain the head wound that he arrived with he did have a head wound but he did not know had no idea Do you have any idea where it came from?

What kind of head wound?

No. Wow. No idea. This is very strange.

So the second witness called was Helen, Christina's sister.

Thank you. And her testimony would do little to exonerate Ronald or Jack.

She told the jury that Christina was always a happy girl before Jack and Ronald came into her life, and that she had never, ever suffered any bouts of depression.

Moreover, she refuted Ronald's claim that her sister had been sexually assaulted or blackmailed, and emphasized that christina had never talked about or been in possession of a large amount of money she said if she had that kind of money i would have known about it or so you think that's you know like i understand thinking that but it's like you never know yeah you don't know people act strangely especially when they're like in a new relationship or something's different like it can change or they're suffering they're suffering you know yeah mentally with something it's like i can understand why

she would think that she would would know that yeah it's like there is a small chance that you wouldn't well it's like sometimes you lie to your sister like exactly you know i mean ash never lies to me and i never lie to her no that's true that's actually very true yeah i never lied when i was younger i lied to you but you always got the truth out of me yeah but the real problem helen claimed was ronald berry she said anytime jack went out with chris christina berry was with them and in fact contrary to what anybody had heard, it wasn't Jack that their family objected to, but Ronald.

According to Helen, Ronald Berry was a generally bad influence on Jack and her sister, and Helen said that Ronald had even convinced Christina to try drugs on at least two occasions.

In this case, Helen was referring to the incident in which she confronted the trio at the Barger apartment and attempted to convince Christina not to marry Jack.

She had no evidence to support her belief, but she claimed that christina had been doped up when she agreed to marry jack there's so much happening everything is happening because like in the the reality the situation is from like what you can tell from the whole story is that like that murder suicide thing happened and that's where the marriage was born out of yeah so it's like i think everybody was under an influence of many different kinds of stress yes stressors yes at that point like absolutely i think the problem here is like that marriage never should have happened well and i think yes

i think that and i think one of the other bigger problems is that nobody really knew what christina was going through i think that's the thing christina was going through some kind of suffering alone it sounds like it sounds like a big time and it sounds like she had a lot of secrets maybe yeah things she was going through that when it sounds like she like she clearly loved jack uh -huh but it sounds like it was it got to be a little bit of an unhealthy love a bit of an obsession to yeah like for lack of like when it comes to the i'd rather you die than be with anyone else it's like that's when it's

crossed over into a little bit unhealthy healthy.

And it's like love can make you do crazy things.

It can make you feel what you know unorthodox things and it's like that's why you need somebody to talk to you about it to kind of bring you right out of that.

It sounds like she didn't have that or didn't think she had that.

Yeah because I honestly think she could have talked to Ronald.

Ronald seems like a very understanding person.

It sounds like there was people around her that that would have talked to her.

Exactly. But maybe she just didn't know it.

And then what was the money?

Well that's the the other thing i just can't wrap my brain around this money thing why did she need that that's a lot of money to need yeah and back it's even more now there was i think she was in some kind of trouble whether it was being blackmailed by these men it's possible yeah maybe she got roped up with the wrong people yeah like or it was something else completely that she was in trouble with she was in she was in trouble you don't need that much money when you're not in trouble so like that's a that's a huge part of this thing is like what the fuck was going on uh -huh that nobody knew about yeah

and now i want to dedicate my entire life to figuring out what the fuck she was doing for this me too i'm so invested but i haven't found anything that gives you any kind of clue because we're about to get murkier awesome You've done it again, finance teams. You closed the books, and it went fine.

Sure, some expenses were missing receipts, but that's fine.

Stayed late to process invoices by hand.

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so despite testifying that their family had no objection to jack kettlewell helen went on to explain that the time christina left the apartment and told ronald she was going for a walk she actually had gone to visit another boyfriend just like she told the landlady she visited her boyfriend eddie cura whom the family preferred over jack kettlewell well so the family did have a problem with jack kettlewell and what she was so in love with jack like an obsessive love yeah that she was willing to go through all that but she's also dating another guy and she not only told the landlady that but her

sister knew about it too which leads me to believe was she going and it just leads me to question not to believe anything so much it It leads me to question, was Eddie, was he related to the trouble that she was in?

That's what I'm like, who the fuck is Eddie?

Bring me Eddie. That's the thing.

Bring me Eddie. And also, it's like, so she didn't go to her parents that night.

I think she went to both places.

Oh, she went to both places.

It sounds like. Because then the sisters came over all up in arms. Right.

But did she even see you today?

Did she even tell you?

I think she went to see the boy friend The previous boy friend And told her parents that she was getting married Was she going to see the previous boy friend To tell him that she was getting married To break things off And be like I'm actually getting married now Right Where's Eddie I don't know But according to Helen the sister Christina was quote unquote Afraid of Ronnie and Jack So she said that like helen said she came to me and my sister sophie and she had sophie buy her a ticket to hamilton where eddie cura lived at the time so helen is saying my sister bought her a bus ticket to go say

or a ticket but the landlady also said she gave her money but she gave her money she didn't give her a ticket so maybe she needed money for did she owe eddie money she asked for more money from this landlord got the money and then went to her sister and asked for a bus ticket what the fuck was that money for and why does she need all this money and Helen claims that that she said that she was a she said according to according to Helen Christina was afraid of Ronnie and Jack did she explicitly say that she was afraid of Ronnie and Jack or what did she seem afraid to you when she was going to visit

this Eddie character and do they know about like they said they preferred eddie over jack but does and then i'm thinking i'm like does do jack and ronnie know about eddie is there like some complete farce happening right now and this wasn't a honeymoon at all but what would it be if not like that's it i'm like were you all there for some other reason and you masked it as a honeymoon maybe and there was that weird telegram that nobody ever figured out and it's weird that Ronnie was there even though we did come up with a this is what I mean there's so many different explanations you can kind of explain away

anything uh -huh because it obviously we explained away like Ronnie being on the honeymoon is maybe you know like they felt like they needed somebody else there because she was kind of going through it at the time and they wanted to make sure everything was okay right but but it's also weird that Ronnie was at the honeymoon so it's like maybe it wasn't a honeymoon at all I mean this this marriage is strange and it's I mean yeah and it came to be and it came to be in a strange way and she keeps questioning it and worrying about it and it and i just i'm not hearing anything about them i don't know

this is just weird well it gets weirder oh lord so sophie the sister by said she bought her the ticket to go visit eddie and she went to go visit eddie and helen continued the story and said although christina gave no explanation as to why she feared ronnie and jack she did say the men were at the apartment quote -unquote fooling around with handwriting and said let's see you write your name to christina okay so christina went and told helen allegedly that the that ronnie and jack were fooling around with handwriting and made her write their her name for them okay now helen believed her sister

had quote discovered ronnie and jack were a bunch of crooks and intended to do something nefarious which is why she went to visit eddie that afternoon but if she discovered that they were a bunch of crooks and she did indeed go to visit eddie that afternoon why did she go back to the house that very night that's what i don't get like the next night and then get married to jack this is what i'm not understanding unless she was kidnapped and like forced into it but then the priest said that everybody was happy that night yeah i don't know so helen's story fed into the prosecutor and the public's

belief that ronald was somehow responsible for christina's death but it was based purely on her own interpretation of events that not only was unsupported by the facts of the case but also contradicted direct directly contradicted the testimony of others for example like i just said father markle the priest who performed the wedding ceremony told the family told both the family and the jury at the inquest that quote he had not observed anything unusual about christina's appearance or her behavior on the day of the wedding he went on to explain that though he understood the family opposed the marriage

both jack and christina were clear that they wanted to be married and entered into the marriage of their own free will okay and remember that night she looked at her sisters and said i want to marry jack yeah and helen was like no and went to the police and the police were like we can't do anything and this is what's making me even more just wilding out over here because i'm like her sisters were so serious they were so upset that they went to the police like what the fuck is going on let's go because that leads me to believe that maybe christina did say to them i'm scared of jack and ronnie and maybe

they thought okay we got to get her out of there and then it's like did she just say that to double down on the story that she had nothing to do with the to again try to preserve her innocence in the story of the murder suicide suicide allegedly thing the alleged murder suicide yeah i don't know wow but as for helen's comments about jack and ronald quote unquote fooling around with handwriting that might have been an attempt to dismiss the inevitable issue of the suicide notes supposedly allegedly written by christina helen insisted christina never experienced depression or mental illness and that she

would have never taken her own life however toronto handwriting expert steven lett uh testified that he examined the letter supposedly written by Christina and determined or and confirmed that the handwriting was undoubtedly that of Christina which it's a shaky yeah it's a shaky question mark but many times when someone takes their life yep the people around them say they were never they wouldn't have done that they never would have done that right so it's one of those things where you just don't realize that some people suffer silently yeah absolutely which is not It's not anybody's fault that they

don't know that, you know what I mean?

No. Like, it's not her sister's fault for being like, I never saw her depressed.

Yeah. I never. So it's like, but that is absolutely something that could have been happening without your knowledge.

And the handwriting expert was not the only person who believed that the letters were indeed written by Christina.

Dr. C .S. Tenet, a local psychiatrist, also testified as to the content of the letters telling the jury he believed Christina, quote, belonged to a group of people who are abnormal in certain ways.

They are abnormal, habitually abnormal, and their emotional reactions from childhood or early adulthood.

He went on to say that people like Christina, quote, demonstrate rather poor judgment, often had tantrums, and in their emotional outbursts, they may commit acts which may be a crime in which they would not ordinarily commit.

And hadn't she been described before as having tantrums?

Yes. so whatever it is he's describing seems to be like something she might be suffering from at least around something like that yes now going into the coroner's inquest helen was confident that the proceedings would clear up the mystery surrounding christina's death but with just a few within just a few days the conflicting testimony from helen and the other witnesses really only only seem to further confuse things.

Ultimately, and somewhat ironically, it was testimony from Ronald Berry and Jack Kettlewell that would provide clarity around many of the more confusing matters.

It's about time. Kind of.

In his statement given to police shortly after his discharge from the hospital, Jack Kettlewell admitted to the police that in addition to his three -year relationship with Christina, he had also been engaging in quote -unquote unnatural sex relations he says that because of the time with ronald berry oh and that the two had been quote unquote male lovers for many years okay so when hope confronted jack with his statement during the inquest jack actually tried to walk back his admission telling the jury that he had been pressured into that that confession by the police which maybe he was pressured

into that confession or maybe he just wasn't willing to admit in front of an entire room full of in the people in the the 40s that he was a gay man exactly the problem with his recantation was that it had already been confirmed by ronald barry in his own statement to the police but nevertheless when he was called to testify ronald barry still tried to corroborate jack's assertion telling the jury that they had only engaged in sex a few times and it had been over a long time ago this makes me really sad it's really sad that they're both like they both clearly like each other and it's like and it's

It's making me really sad that they're having to run it backwards.

Like, nope, it was just like it happened a long time ago.

And it's like, it's OK, man.

It's really sad. But it's like the 40s and it's like, fuck.

That's the thing. And still convinced of Ronald Berry's guilt.

And that's the sad thing.

I think I think Ronald Berry was always around because he loved Jack.

And he was worried about Jack's safety.

And I think he knew that that obviously he and Jack had been involved in some way.

and I think he knew that this seems like you know like it's a bad idea yeah this this marriage because this isn't for the kind of love that you are looking for exactly and that's really sad it is and it's really sad too that everybody thinks that he has something to do with this woman's death if he didn't I still have no fucking idea one way or the other but it just doesn't feel you like it it doesn't totally i wouldn't say like 100 i'm unconvinced but i wouldn't say i'm 100 convinced no oh no at all no now but but that's the sad thing is that most people did suspect him and one of those people

convinced of ronald berry's guilt was the was hope there and he rejected his attempts to shield jack and pursued this angle as one of the driving forces in the case and actually act doctor asked dr tenant the psychologist his opinion of the men's relationship this is the 40s remember according to tenant quote the case of homosexual is a case of arrested development many matured slowly but they did mature he said others told him that women nauseated them so we cannot tell what the girl found out or experienced emotionally that is some 40s ass backward shit absolutely and that was said with his whole

chest oh like that was right out in public being like I am a doctor and this is true and at the same time was he saying we cannot tell what the girl found out or experienced emotionally because did she find out that's the thing that they were together and that's what she was so upset about and that's what had you know triggered this entire thing potentially but then you wonder too because in her notes she says another says another girl does she say that to save Jack or does she say that because she possibly leaves it who knows yeah but then at the same time another person at the same time in her

emotional state would she possibly and this is just a question have used that to her advantage and outed him because this was a time where yeah you could do that and people could have suffer serious consequences so did she yeah that's the that's what makes me think she didn't know yeah but then again i don't know christina i don't know So, if that would be something she would do, you know, if she didn't know.

I don't think really, I don't think anybody really knew Christina.

Oh, man. At this point, anyways.

Now, after several days of testimony, the coroner's inquest came to a close on June 25th, 1947, when the jury returned an open verdict.

Meaning that while they didn't believe Christina had died as a result of murder, they nonetheless still found the circumstances very suspicious and recommended further police investigation.

Yeah. In their statement, they said, due to the fact that the postmortem examination disclosed codeine in the stomach of the deceased and the suspicious fact that she was found drowned in nine inches of water, the jury is unable to decide from the evidence given whether or not there were foul means employed in her death.

Because, I mean, codeine will knock you out.

Yeah. So it's like if she staggered away from that fire, the stress of a fire, that's an adrenaline rush.

You get an adrenaline crash with codeine in your stomach. You fall down flat unconscious in nine inches of water.

You're still breathing.

And you breathe that water into your lungs.

I don't know. But it just doesn't explain anything else.

The jack of it all.

The head wound and all that.

Did she drug Jack? And where did his head wound come from?

I don't know about the head wound.

The head wound is strange.

And why was he just laying on the couch?

couch he was laying on the couch that's what i mean like why was he just laying on the couch did he with a head wound did he like stumble and fall after ingesting some kind of codeine whether or not she drugged him or he took it i have no and then she took some to like and what was the reason for that if it did happen the only thing that i can think of and this is again alleged and just a thought a theory did did was she upset because remember she was upset that morning saying to Ronald like he I don't know if he married me because he wanted to or because you know the alleged murder suicide yeah

did she get to a point of like deep deep sadness again and realize that he didn't love her and maybe he was going to leave and she ingested some kind of codeine herself and gave him some and somehow he stumbled and hit his head and then climbed up onto the couch and fell asleep I mean maybe I don't know that's a possibility absolutely the head wound of it all is the part that kind of is strange to me.

But without any suspect leads or even evidence of a crime the police declined to pursue the case as a murder and Christina's death to this very day remains a mystery.

Now obviously the coroner's inquest was intended to provide answers for many of the lingering questions in the case of Christina's death and to determine whether foul play was involved.

And although many felt like those lingering questions were were never answered or an explanation was provided, it's more likely that they just didn't like or couldn't accept the explanations they were given.

Yeah. This was a time where mental illness was a very taboo subject and was very poorly understood.

And in addition to that, the type of illness described by Dr. Tennant is essentially a personality disorder.

Yeah. Was hardly what anybody had in mind when they considered a mentally ill person.

Yeah, of course not.

So they were like, Like, no, she wasn't mentally ill.

And it wasn't something that they would apply to a quote -unquote seemingly normal young woman.

But the suicide notes corroborated by Dr. Tennant and Ronald Berry's descriptions of Christina confirm that she was emotionally unstable, impulsive when it comes to the marriage, and potentially dangerous with what she had done, allegedly, who had already shown herself as willing not to just end her own life but Jack's if they couldn't be together.

Yeah, if all that is true.

So if all that is true, it is entirely plausible that Christina did take her own life and tried to take Jack's a second time.

But we'll never know if that happened or not.

Yeah, that's the thing.

And as for the suspicious behavior of Ronald Barry, that was more or less explained in his statements to the police and the jury.

Not in a way that they would have been able to understand at the time though.

As a closeted gay man, his entire life was ruled by secrecy and ambiguity in order to protect his privacy and his relationship with Jack and, realistically, both of their personal safety.

Yeah, absolutely. But unfortunately, in this case, that drive for secrecy made his behavior seem more inappropriate, suspicious, or malevolent.

Yeah, even if it was really innocuous.

Right. For example, in hindsight, his attempts to revive his friends after the first suicide attempt rather than call a doctor or a hospital seems suspicious because it implies that he's trying to do something but instead according to his own statements what he was really concerned about was protecting his relationship with jack and not wanting to put christina in a scandalous situation should the truth about her actions come to light that's true now what confirms this even further for me is that three years after christina died jack remarried and had a son uh but he did uh separate from his wife

in 1969 in 1969 excuse me and he never remarried and when he died in 1998 he left his military pension to ronald barry wow so they absolutely were in love at some point i just got like chills i know i know i did too wow jack's family never knew about christina or ronald and they only learned about the case after his death when his daughter -in -law discovered something about it in an old newspaper shut up so he just went on to live life alone without ronald even oh that like shatters my heart yeah alone in the way of not having a romantic partner is what i mean because obviously he had like family

and a son and everybody yeah but like never really it seems like never really really like getting what he wanted yeah no because i mean still 1969 damn he was still closeted at that point you know wow so to me i do come out of this leaning toward that it was a second suicide murder attempt murder suicide attempt yeah it kind of seems that way and that the coating in her system made her fall into that puddle after she escaped the house fire yeah it kind of seems that way and who knows if the house fire was just an accident i don't know if i believe that she intended to set fire to that house i

don't know if it was an accident with the coal and what happened to ronald ronald stayed in i think it's mumiko about 10 for about 10 years after the inquest but in 1956 he left canada for new york for new york and dropped out out of sight he left his pekinese dog ling for jack's then two -year -old son richard so jack leaves his military pension for ronalds yeah and ronald leaves his like beloved dog for jack's two -year -old son yeah like i'm sorry like they were in such that's a love story that is like a very tragic love story the most tragic love story and you feel bad because christina's like

christina uh lost in here somewhere yeah in the confusion and the mystery surrounding all of it yeah because we don't know no if she if that's really what happened if she did try you know a second time or i mean we really don't know if she tried the first time yeah it's like this is all just she's not here to say wow but it truly is one of the most confusing and just unclear clear tragic cases I've ever heard of and the fact that it's still unsolved is just like what I'm that I truly think that might be the most bizarre story I've ever heard right I don't think I've heard anything that shocking

and confusing in forever like I'm my brain will not stop just like trying to piece these things together cannot compute wow but yeah that is the the tragic death of Christina Kettlewell and the tragic and mysterious death of Christina Kettlewell.

And with all of that, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that someone out there someday doesn't solve this because, wow, I really need answers.

I'm going to solve this, man.

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[The Mysterious and Tragic Death of Christina Kettlewell]-[Episode 522: The Mysterious Death of Christina Kettlewell]

📋 Summary

The Enigmatic Life and Death of Christina Kettlewell

The Unusual Dynamics of a Trio

Financial Manipulation and "Tantrums"

The Final Tragedy at the Cabin

Unanswered Questions and Lasting Mystery

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript