Jack Bernard Tuite
Windsor, ON / May 16, 1974
On May 16, 1974, 58-year-old Jack Tuite was found in the front seat of his cab in an alley in the 1500 block of Lincoln Road, Windsor. He had been shot in the head with a sawed-off .22 calibre rifle and then robbed.
Tuite was a veteran of World War II, having served in Europe with the Canadian Armored Corps. "He didn't deserve it," said his widow. "Overseas for three years and then to come over here for somebody to shoot him."
A year after the murder a 23-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder. The charge was later reduced to manslaughter. The man was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison. In 1987 after having served 12 years (two-thirds) of his sentence the killer applied for early parole.
During his imprisonment the killer had been transferred four times to medium-security prison but proved "too disruptive" and had to be returned to maximum security.
He was suspended from a prison drug and alcohol treatment program and refused to attend an anger control program. He was also reported to have abused his job as a window-cleaner and to have bragged that "given the parole board's female membership, he would easily have his way" and get released on early parole.
Nevertheless, with the exception of one member, a case management team recommended that the killer be released. The dissenting member wrote a minority report and urged that the case be referred to the full Parole Board for a decision as to whether or not the man should serve his full term before release. When the case was referred to the Board, the killer appealed on the grounds that the case management review and the minority report had not been carried out a full six months before his scheduled date of parole. The appeal was lost, but the Board nevertheless decided to grant early parole.
The killer was released on Sept. 23, 1987. Apparently he violated his parole and was soon back in jail. An article on disturbances at B.C.'s Kent Maximum Security Penitentiary in April, 1990, reports that he was beaten up in his cell.
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