Local drama group, The Storytellers, will be sharing the story of international serial killer, Earle Leonard Nelson, on stage at Killarney’s United Church the first weekend in October, this in collaboration with the local library and the Killarney and area Arts Council.
Arts Council Administrator, Giselle Beaupre, says the '1927 Manhunt for the Gorilla Man Strangler' was written by Betty Winterhalt who grew up in Killarney but now lives in Winnipeg. Winterhalt read the true crime story of Earle Nelson from a book written by fellow Winnipegger, Alvin Esau.
Esau has written two books on Nelson who committed a string of grisly murders across the United States before hopping the border into Canada, continuing his quest for killing in Winnipeg. The serial killer was named The Gorilla Strangler due to his exceptionally large hands.
The manhunt ended in all places, Killarney!
Beaupre says there are quite a number of different groups working on this project, with actors from Killarney and surrounding communities, as well as other local groups to tie it all together.
"They're going to have a couple of old cars from 1927, cars of that era," she says, "and then inside they're going to have a display of information and artifacts and stuff that is connected to the play."
"They've really put their heads together and they've put in a ton of work,” says Beaupre, “and our connection was that Betty Winterhalt approached us to see if we would help with ticket sales and advertising, and we have become the recipient of any proceeds that they might make.”
“So, it's all because of Betty,” she adds. “She came to talk to us about it. She's connected with the school about it, connected with the library about it, connected with the museum about it, just to sort of put together the play, the artifacts, the displays, the Meet the Author part at the library. You know all these good things! So yeah, it's quite an undertaking for all these different groups to put this together!”
The 1927 Manhunt for the Gorilla Man Strangler will be performed at the CE Centre at the Killarney United Church, the evenings of October 4th and 5th at 7pm, and Sunday afternoon October 6th at 2 pm.
Author, Alvin Esau will be at the Lakeland Regional Library on Saturday October 5th at 2 pm.
It's important to note this is a family-friendly version of this true-crime story of this nefarious criminal that picked the lock of the Killarney jail to make a run for the border but got caught! Community effort to catch a criminal!