After drinking coffee in an all-night cafe a 38-year-old ex-convict from California and his companion, a 21-year-old woman with a grade six education, plotted to rob "an old taxi driver" to get some cash. The man had served 15 of the previous 21 years in California prisons for assaults and armed robberies as well as brief terms in mental hospitals. Shortly before 6:15 a.m. on Dec. 28, 1971, Jack Green, 62, was driving along Dundas Street West when he spotted a man and woman flagging him down. Mr. Green was the third driver the couple had attempted to hail. He made a U-turn to pick them up and they climbed into the back seat. Unbeknownst to Mr. Green the killer opened a jackknife with a five-inch blade soon after entering the cab. When Mr. Green pulled over at Tyndall Street and Thorburn Avenue and held out his hand for the fare --- less than two dollars -- the killer began stabbing him. Mr. Green, five foot three and 138 pounds, tried to fend off the knife with his right hand but his six-foot, 185-pound assailant drove the knife blade through his breast bone and into his heart. Mr. Green was stabbed two more times but the couple fled the cab without robbing him when they noticed someone watching from a nearby Tyndall Street house. As they ran away the cab lurched forward and jumped the curb. Mr. Green fell out of the passenger side door bleeding from his wounds. He managed to walk fifteen feet before collapsing on a nearby lawn. The witness was getting dressed for work when the drama unfolded before his eyes. Mr. Green was still breathing when police arrived but died before reaching St. Joseph's hospital. Police found $33 in Mr. Green's jacket pocket. Mr. Green was an independent driver for 42 years, making most of his money from picking up fares at the Royal York and King Edward-Sheraton hotels. His car, taxi 187, was not equipped with a radio. Mr. Green had a reputation for being a cautious driver. "If he saw a fare he didn't like, he'd pass it up," said his widow. With respect to robberies, "He always said that if something happened he would give the man his money and give him his cab," said a friend. "He said all he'd ask for would be carfare to get home." Mr. Green and his wife had two teenaged sons and a married daughter. Based on the witness's description police circulated drawings of the two suspects. The Toronto Police Commission offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to their arrest. A local businessmen set up a trust fund to accept donations for Mr. Green's family. Another fund was organized by cab owners and drivers. The taxi fund, fed by small donations from hundreds of people, reached $1,500 by the end of January. Toronto alderman Anthony O'Donohue suggested that cabs be equipped with protective screens but he was accused of "pushing a panic button" by a spokesman for the Toronto Taxicab Conference. "This city has a record in safety that is second to none, and if you start to think violence you are going to get violence," said Al Sadoff. In March, 1972 the couple were arrested in Montréal on a shoplifting charge. Finding the killer to be a U.S. citizen the Montréal police turned him over to Canadian immigration authorities before they found out about Mr. Green's murder. By the time they heard about the murder the man had escaped. Toronto police arrested the killer after a brief struggle at the home of the woman's stepfather in Mississauga. Police had staked out the home for seventeen hours. He was charged with non-capital murder in the death of Mr. Green, with eight armed robberies in Hamilton and Montréal and with a wounding in Toronto. A warrant for the female fugitive was held back pending her release from jail on the shoplifting charge. She was ultimately charged with murder and the two suspects were tried together. [Next column]

Jack Green. (Source: Toronto Globe and Mail, December 29, 1971, p. 5) During the trial the killer entered a plea of insanity and a psychiatrist testified the he was indeed insane at the time of Mr. Green's death. However, after four days the man instructed his lawyers to abandon his insanity defence so that he could testify against the woman. This was allowed after four psychiatrists gave evidence as to his sanity. The killer claimed that robbing Mr. Green was the woman's idea and that she had screamed "Kill him! Kill him!" during the attack. The woman for her part claimed that she had tried to stop the killer. Defence lawyers characterized her as "a slow learner" who was "easily dominated". She was unable to work as a prostitute because of bleeding from a miscarriage. She had also given birth to a child two years earlier which she eventually turned over to child welfare authorities. Toronto Star reporter Pat Sykes characterized the murder as "a squalid story of the streets". The killer and his accomplice "existed by begging in the streets, sleeping in movie theatres during the day, walking the streets 'window shopping' and sitting in 24-hour restaurants during the cold, lonely hours of early morning." A police detective testified that he had often seen the woman talking to cab drivers in a restaurant frequented by drivers and plainclothes police. "They [the cab drivers] were nice to me," she said. "They told me to be careful." The killer had breached his California parole by coming to Canada with the "honourable intention" of joining a mercenary army in Morocco. When that fell through he offered his services as an assassin to the Québec terrorist organization FLQ. They refused him. Both accused were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The killer later pleaded guilty to ten charges of armed robbery, theft and stabbing and was sentenced to fourteen years to be served concurrently with his life sentence. In 1973 the killer signed a statement that he had lied at his trial and he now swore that the woman had not participated in Mr. Green's murder. In 1974 she was given a reduced sentence of two years plus time already served for manslaughter. Also in 1973 Jack Green's widow was awarded $3,426 to cover expenses, plus $87 a month in compensation by the Ontario Criminal Injuries Compensation Board.