Everett Hugh "Deacon" Maclean and his wife Margaret lived in Sydney Forks, about 11 kilometres (7 miles) southwest of Sydney, Cape Breton. Mr. Maclean, 63, drove a taxi in Sydney on the night shift. Just after midnight on the morning of Thursday, September 9, 1971 Mr. Maclean told his dispatcher that he had picked up two passengers in Sydney. A short time later he reported passing through North Sydney. That was the last anyone knew of him until the next day when his burned-out taxi was found at the end of a wharf at Ingonish, 135 kilometres (85 miles) north of Sydney. A search was immediately begun for the missing driver. On Sunday, September 12 an RCMP helicopter crew spotted Mr. Maclean's body lying at the rocky base of a 30-foot cliff at Green Cove, 18 kilometres (11 miles) north of Ingonish. A few hours after Mr. Maclean's body was found, police investigating suspicious activity at a summer cottage north of Ingonish arrested two brothers aged 24 and 23 for trespassing. One of the brothers later led police to a local church and showed them a loose floorboard under which Mr. MacLean's wallet and other effects were hidden. The two brothers were taken into custody and charged with Mr. Maclean's murder. During their interrogation police learned that the brothers had spent Wednesday, September 8, drinking in Sydney taverns. At about midnight they decided to go to a party in North Sydney, about 19 kilometres (12 miles) from Sydney. The brothers had just enough money between them to cover the fare.

Charlotte Street, Sydney, circa 1970. (Source: Shooting the Drag in Sydney, Cape Breton, a film by the iCreate Cape Breton youth documentary team (6:53 minutes) with photos from the Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University). Along the way one brother, who had an IQ of 65, asked the driver to stop because he was sick. This request seems to have been genuine but while he was outside the cab the other brother struck Mr. MacLean over the head with a wine bottle, knocking him unconscious. The attacker then ordered his brother to drive the car and they eventually arrived at Green Cove. Here the killer attacked Mr. Maclean a second time, striking him with a rock and causing him to fall over a guard rail to his death. The brothers then drove the taxi to the wharf at Ingonish and after failing in their attempt to push it into the water, set the car on fire. The brothers were put on trial for murder in May, 1972. They were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. The killer's brother appealed on the grounds that certain psychiatric evidence, showing him to have acted under compulsion, was not admitted in court. The appeal was dismissed on the grounds that compulsion is not a defence where murder is concerned, and in any case sufficient evidence had been presented to show his limited mental capacity. Mr. Maclean is buried in Resurrection Cemetery in Sydney Forks.