Traitors, Poisoners and Murderers: A Saint John Walking Tour

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada's oldest incorporated city, has a past that's equal parts gritty, violent, and fascinating. On this walking tour, you'll hear stories of serial poisoners, unsolved murders, public hangings, and a notorious American traitor who fled here seeking redemption. You'll also discover how this port city's working-class streets became the stage for some of Canada's most dramatic moments of crime and civil unrest.

The tour starts at Tin Can Beach, with sweeping views of Partridge Island – a quarantine station where over 600 Irish famine immigrants died of typhus in 1847, and a military outpost through two World Wars. From there, you'll walk the former Sheffield Street, once Saint John's red-light district, whose women's stories survive almost entirely through jail records. You'll pass the spot where New Brunswick's first murder was committed in 1784, just two months after the province was created, with a table fork.

Continuing through the Trinity Royal Preservation Area – 20 blocks of brick and stone rebuilt after the catastrophic Great Fire of 1877 – you'll stop outside 52 Canterbury Street, where wealthy brewer Richard Oland was beaten to death in 2011 in a case that still has no conviction. Just steps away stood the home of Benedict Arnold, who arrived hoping Saint John would give him a fresh start, only to have residents burn him in effigy. The tour ends near the York Point Slip, where the Great Fire itself is believed to have ignited, reducing over 1,600 buildings to ash and leaving half the city homeless overnight.

On this 75-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Visit King's Square, designed with pathways in the shape of the British Union Jack flag
• Hear how the 1889 Candy Killer poisoned prominent citizens with strychnine-laced chocolates sent through the mail
• Explore the Loyalist Burial Ground, where Salem witch trial descendant James Putnam III is entombed
• Learn about Clifford Ayles, the last person hanged at Gallows Hill, executed in 1956 for a brutal payroll robbery
• Stroll through the 1876 Saint John City Market, whose roof is built to resemble the inverted keel of a ship
• Discover how a streetcar strike in July 1914 turned so violent that federal troops rode into the city streets to restore order

If you've ever wondered what lies beneath a city's polished surface, this tour will show you exactly that.