The Midnight Slider

Support for criminal comes from fair. If you run your own shop, whether it's an online shop or brick-and-mortar, you want your products to be unique. With fair, it's easy for independent retailers to stock products from over 100,000 brands worldwide, perfect for planning inventory for the holiday season. Sign up today and get 50% off your first wholesale order, up to $100 at F-A-I-R-E.com/Criminal. Terms may apply. Hi, it's Phoebe. In just a few weeks, I'm going to be heading back out on the road with a brand new live show. But this tour is very different from the ones we've done before. Because this time, I'm telling the story I've never told before. My own. You'll get to hear about my wild family and the secrets I kept for them. To show about not giving up on people, get your tickets now at ThisIsCriminal.com/Live. I hope to see you. Around here, you know that you don't steal from loves for fishmen, and you don't steal from any fisherman. And there are consequences. There's a small island in Canada in Nova Scotia, called Ilema Dam where fishermen are up and out on the ocean at 4 a.m. pulling up traps full of lobsters. Millions of dollars worth of lobster. You need a license to fish for them, and the licenses are very expensive, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Someone who has a license that can set 250 traps can stand to make close to $500,000 in a run of a year, give or take, it's quite lucrative, and a lot of people's livelihoods rely on that. And that's really driving the economy, and been to cornerstone of it for quite some time. Everybody knows somebody who's involved with lobsters. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. They're related, or married into it, or they just know them. Everybody knows who the lobsters are fishermen are. This is Jake Boudreau. He's a journalist based in Nova Scotia. He grew up on Ilema Dam, and he says it's a place where many of the people that live there have been there a long time. There's always been that tradition of taking care of families, watching out, looking out for one another. You know, a lot of people are related, a lot of people grew up together. The year-round population of Ilema Dam is around 4,000. When you look it up, you find that most people call it an idyllic place. Rocky coastlines, small harbors, lighthouses that have been called the prettiest in Canada. Jake Boudreau says that despite all that, Ilema Dam doesn't get the summer tourist crowds, like other parts of the coastline. Jake says people in Ilema Dam are used to doing things for themselves. It's always been that way. You're a fisherman, but you also have the skills to fix your own boat, or be a carpenter as well. It's a do-it-yourself kind of ethos, he says, and he says that applies to everything, including handling disputes. He says people in Ilema Dam don't trust the police much to help. One morning in the summer of 2013, Jake received word that a boat had been found overturned. The boat was called the midnight slider, and everyone knew the man it belonged to. But he was nowhere to be found. I'm Phoebe Judge, this is criminal. The midnight slider belonged to a 43-year-old man named Philip Boudreau. One man on the island said midnight slider was a good name for the boat, and for Philip Boudreau, because he was always out there somewhere, sliding around in the middle of the night, in the woods, on the water, you never knew where. Jake Boudreau says everyone on the small island knew the name of Philip Boudreau. They're not related. Jake says there are a lot of Boudreau's on the island. In Ilema Dam resident, and journalist named Silver Donald Cameron, interviewed a lot of people on the island. Paul Lueh said they were happy to talk about Philip, but didn't want their names used because it's such a small place. One person described him as a kind of Robin Hood, who'd help you get anything you needed. One said, quote, "If I had told him that there was something I wanted, he would have went and stole it." Someone else said, "You got better deals from Philip than you ever got from Walmart." Another person said, "Philip would steal the beads off Christ's moccasins. But then, if you needed them, he'd turn around and give them to you." People described him as a strange genius, and said, quote, "that he figured out exactly where the holes were in the system. He didn't fall between the cracks. He lived in the cracks." There's a story about Philip Boudreau being chased by police and running right off the end of a dock and into the freezing cold water. He found some seaweed to hide under, and when he had to come back up to get air, his middle finger came up first. Some people tried to help. People offered him jobs. One couple bought him a plane ticket to Calgary to start fresh, living and working with a family friend. But he just came back to Almodam. Philip even stole from Jake Boudreau's family once. He stole their three-wheeler to go for a joy ride, and then just brought it back a while later. "I didn't know Philip personally. I did have some brief interactions with him. I saw a mile-mattered side to him, but then you hear stories from other people of a not-so-mile side. There seemed to be two sides to him, and he didn't seem to fit into any box." Philip Boudreau grew up on Almodam. He was one of four kids. One of his teachers remembered that when he was little, about eight years old, there's a day when he kept falling asleep in class. He asked Philip if he was sick, and he said that he hadn't gotten much sleep, because it had been his turn to make sure the wood stove stayed lit all night. Teachers remember that he would sometimes come to school with his face cut or bruised. He eventually dropped out of school. I mean, he was known to make trouble in school and was a great student. As far as the thefts and that, I wasn't aware of that as much then. It's something that became known as time went on, which we get into the 90s, and there was more of that that went on, but the reputation doesn't take long to get out. As he got older, he was in and out of jail. And while some people thought he was kind of funny, this Robinhood figure, even sometimes letting him hide from police on their property, plenty of people in Almodam didn't find anything funny about any of it. People said he was a problem and a bully. No matter how many times he went to jail, he just kept coming back and he just kept stealing. I mean, there was a lot of people who promised him that if he broke into the house, he wouldn't think like what would happen. I mean, you can infer from that what you will. I know there was people who made specific threats that he would get shot if they showed up in his property or worse, or one of them worse than getting shot with other consequences. There were people who were not happy that he could steal from him or would or head, and then there were others who kind of looked at it in the context of his upbringing and that he did come from unfortunate circumstances and they were what some pity for him and some people felt bad. It was a mixed bag. I mean, it just depends on the person. I know there's people who did catch him stealing or knew that it was him and went to his house, picked him up and took him to where he stole or damaged and made him fix it or replace it. And what he did, oddly enough, he didn't even deny it and just went about and did what they told him to do. It's a mixed bag of tolerance, I guess, in that case. By the time Phillip Boudre was in his early 40s, his criminal record was 28 pages long, mostly breaking and entering in theft, but also harassment and assault and making violent threats. He threatened to sink people's boats and to burn down people's houses. Some people felt that it wasn't worth it to report Phillip to the police in the first place. If he reported him, he'd find out who made the complaint and as one person put it, once Phillip found out it was you, he'd come back to your house and do $10,000 worth of damage. The police wouldn't catch him and you'd have to pay for the repairs. Someone else said that he was simply a fact of life and you dealt with him as best you could. And when lobsters went missing from lobsterman's traps on Isle, Ma'am, people had a pretty good idea of who might be stealing them. Phillip would go out late at night and go on his… his aluminum boat with an outboard motor on the back and he would go from trap to trap pull up the traps take the lobsters out either all or some and put them back. Now sometimes he would do that and then cut the trap which meant that that trap and what was in there was lost for good. I'll see you find maybe someone to go down there and dive and find it. So you know the theft of the lobsters probably not as bad as cutting the trap and then having that trap lost forever and it was you know it was quite common. I mean he was known to flash the money around. I know he approached some family members of mine to if they wanted to buy some lobsters from him. You know people knew he didn't have a license or that he was getting them from another fisherman so you know it was it was well known and among the fishermen they knew what he was doing. We'll be right back to listen without ads join criminal plus. Support for criminal comes from skylight. This time of year family settle back into their busy routines. Schedules start filling up again and it might be too much to keep it all in your head. Skylight can help. It's an all-in-one digital smart calendar that syncs with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook and more. Beyond appointments and events you can organize chores and grocery lists and color code everything by family member. So each person has a clear idea of where they need to be and what they need to do. One of our producers has tried skylight and says our family really likes the grocery list. They can easily organize the items on the list by grocery aisle and check off items as they go through the store. Families are better when they're working together. Right now skylight is offering our listeners $30 off their 15-inch calendars by going to MySkylight.com/Criminal. Go to MySkylight.com/Criminal for $30 off your 15-inch calendar. That's spelled M-Y-S-K-Y-L-I-G-H-T.com/Criminal. Support for criminal comes from Ritual. Staying healthy isn't always about making drastic changes. It's about maintaining routine. Ritual makes one part of your nutritional routine easier. Ritual's team of scientists looked at thousands of studies to find the common gaps between nutrient needs and what people are actually consuming. They're essential for women 18 plus contains 9 key nutrients in two delayed release capsules, so the body absorbs them in the best way possible. And they're gentle on the stomach so you can take them with or without food. I've been taking ritual for a while now and I've made them part of my morning routine. I take them at pretty much exactly the same time every day with breakfast. Instead of striving for perfect health, support your foundational health. Save 25% on your first month at Ritual.com/Criminal. That's Ritual.com/Criminal for 25% off your first month. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Jake Boudreau says he spoke to a number of fishermen around Isle, Madame who said their lobster traps were being emptied out in the middle of the night. They also told him that even though they reported the thefts to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP, nothing was being done about it. Apparently, every year at the preseason meeting of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, fishermen would ask what was going to be done about Philip Boudreau and officials would say they'd work on the problem. When we contacted the RCMP for the story, they sent a statement that reads and part. In this matter, police had received some complaints concerning allegations and assertions that were swirling in the community over time. These complaints were investigated and many were not incidents for which charges could be laid or there wasn't enough evidence to lay charges. It just seemed like the RCMP wasn't interested in doing anything about this. From all the evidence that I've compiled and everybody I've talked to, the overwhelming consensus that the RCMP just didn't do enough. They were just not there when the people needed them. And Philip Boudreau just kept stealing from the traps. I spoke to a couple of people who caught him on camera and sent the footage to the RCMP and nothing was done. I know the RCMP later claimed that the people themselves didn't pursue it. I'm not sure what that means. In my understanding of if a member of the public comes forward to complete it up to the police to investigate that complaint. It's Fishwinders' footage involved, which to me is quite damning even if you can't fully make out that it's that person. It's certainly enough to go on and at least look into this. But the blatancy in which Philip was perpetrating these crimes led me to believe that he didn't believe he was going to get caught or apprehended by law enforcement. Philip reportedly threatened the police, too. One retired RCMP staff sergeant has said he himself had been threatened and that Philip had once made a veiled threat against his daughter. An officer from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who had attempted to talk to Philip reportedly got to his car one day to find his tires slashed. He couldn't prove who did it. He bought replacement tires and then those were also slashed. Philip Woodrow would reportedly call Fisheries officers and threaten to burn down their houses. He reportedly left gasoline on one officer's front porch. When the midnight slider turned up empty in June of 2013, Jake Woodrow says the people on Isle, Medeum, didn't seem to be in a rush to look for Philip. Because it seemed that it was possible that Philip had just didn't one of his temporary disappearing acts where he took off for a weekend and people couldn't find him and then showed up a few days later. And I went out to the search that morning and there didn't seem to be a lot of a alarm or concern. I can remember people looking for him and we're coming back laughing. Researchers were searching in that but there didn't seem to be a great deal of panic and it didn't seem like an atmosphere where they were fearing for someone's life. And over time it became apparent that something had happened and before long it grew to become an effect that something had happened. A baseball hat belonging to Philip Woodrow was found near the water and his green rubber boots were seen floating in the harbor. Jake Woodrow says that he started talking to the fisherman on the island. Most of the people I talked to the fisherman and others in the community believed that he got what he deserved. There were some disagreement there, but the consensus seemed to be that this was coming. On the day Philip Woodrow disappeared, several witnesses told police that something had been going on with a lobster boat called the Twin Maggies. Some fishermen told police that they'd seen the Twin Maggies in water too deep for traps where they wouldn't normally be and there was something dragging behind it. A lobster buyer reported that the boat had arrived an hour later than usual and that it had scuff marks on it. Three men had been out on the Twin Maggies that day. The captain was Dwayne Samson, his wife Carla owned the boat. The second in command was Carla's father, a man named James Landry. And the third man, Craig Landry. He was James Landry's cousin. Within days, the crew of the Twin Maggies was arrested and charged with second degree murder. So the police arrest the crew of the Twin Maggies, these three men. When these men are arrested, what is the public reaction to their arrests? It was a lot of shock. You know, shock was definitely the mood of the day. I mean, there hadn't been a murder at that point and before that was in the 80s and then before that was in the 70s, murders. It's not something that occurs in this negative one very often. When questioned by police, Craig Landry and Dwayne Samson wouldn't say anything. At first, James Landry wouldn't talk either. But after hours of questioning, when the officer asked him, "Do you regret what happened? Be honest with yourself." He said, "Yeah, I regret it." James Landry told the officer his version of what happened that day. They, uh, steamed out of petter to grow a wharf, took a right outside the harbor. They saw Philip at, uh, one of their traps, apparently shone the light on him. James said that he then fired his gun at Philip four times. They then proceeded to go to his boat. They ran over his boat. Philip was in the water. James Landry claimed that it was all his doing. He said that 30 of his lobster traps have been cut, costing his family thousands of dollars. He said a fellow lobsterman told him that he'd seen Philip Woodrow out there near his traps. Someone else said that Philip admitted to cutting the Landry family's traps on three different occasions and said, "I'm not finished." So when they saw Philip Woodrow near their traps, James said he couldn't take it anymore. He said, "I wanted to destroy him." He said he'd been the one to shoot at Philip four times. And then he rammed the twin maggies into Philip's boat and then ran over it. Philip's boat capsized, he said, and then Philip disappeared from view. That was it. But then, three weeks later, Craig Landry finally talked and his version of events was different. He said that Dwayne, the captain of the twin maggies, was also making decisions. It was his idea to go after Philip in the first place. It was Dwayne who ordered Craig to load the gun and told James to fire it and said, "He's going to get a scare this time." Craig said it had been James's idea to ram Philip's boat, but that Dwayne had been the one to actually do it. They then gaffed Philip with a gaff hook, something that he used to haul up a trap or a corral rope or anything. They then drug him out to sea and as they're dragging the moat, he drowned. And then they tied an anchor around him and sunk him into a deep chasemot side of the Petit de Gras Harbor. His body was never found. The Royal Canadian mounted police sent out divers but had no luck. The interesting thing about that part of the investigation, they asked fishermen to join the search and one fisherman of dozens agreed to help. About a week after he gave his statement, Craig Landry was released on bail. And a few weeks later, when Dwayne Samson applied for bail, the community came together to raise money. It was quite remarkable that people immediately took up the cause of raising money, went door to door and raised money relatively quickly. People gave willingly, there were some holdouts, some people who were related to Philip or knew Philip or just didn't like what happened, but my understanding was vast majority of the community, especially Northern Alamedaam, more than willingly gave to that and quickly easily raised money for his bail. I don't know if that speaks to the loyalty of the people or just that he was respected and liked, I guess as well, but it was quite a remarkable thing. And also wrote letters to a testament of his character. Yes, which doesn't surprise me either. Dwayne was seen to be very well liked in his community and then you had people who just probably totally agreed with what he did, maybe didn't even know Dwayne that well, knew of him and thought what he did was right. Dwayne Samson was released on bail. James Landry, who said it was all his doing, remained in custody. By taking full responsibility, it became very clear that he was trying to protect the family and the family's interests. I think the calculation that James made was that he was older, that he could serve the time and that he had less to lose being older and kind of retired or should have been retired. He felt that if he fell on the sword, it would save everybody else. And it seemed to be something that a calculation that he made fairly early on. Whether you agree or disagree with it, even if you take responsibility doesn't necessarily deflect any of the blame from the other parties involved. But it gives the RSMP, basically, their person who said they shot him, admitted to it, admitted to participating in his death and there it is wrapped up in a bowl. That's why when you take it. There was a little problem though with his story and that was the gun. Yes. We'll be right back. Support for criminal comms from Bowling Branch. If you're looking to improve your sleep, Bowling Branch can help. They make comfortable bedding and bedding accessories, everything your bed needs. Signature organic cotton sheets, pillows, blankets and comforters are all designed to be breathable, incredibly soft and get better over time. They also make pajamas, sleep shirts and robes for cool nights. I've tried Bowling Branch myself. I got their signature sheet set which is made from organic cotton and it's soft and comfortable. I've had the sheets for months and it seems like they only get softer with each wash. Since they come in many great muted colors like dusty rose or blue stone. Upgrade your sleep with Bowling Branch. Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping at BowlingBranch.com/Criminal with Code Criminal. That's Bowling Branch spelled B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch.com/Criminal. Code Criminal to unlock 15% off. Exclusion Supply. Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales and somehow. None of them talk to each other. That's where auto comes in and all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing all-in-one powerful platform. No messy integrations, no bouncing between tabs and best of all, no spreadsheets. Stop managing software and start managing your business with one unified system. Free today at od.com/box. That's od.o.com/box. During the investigation police asked James Landry where the gun was. First he said he threw it overboard. Then he said it was at his house. That wasn't true either. Police found the real gun at his son-in-law Dwayne Samson's house. Jake Boudreau says he thinks that James was trying his best to protect his family. While James Craggin Dwayne were awaiting trial, a large number of people in Isle-Madam rallied around them and their families. I talked to a lot of people who felt that James did a favor to doll fishermen. Even some residents who didn't have to deal with Philip stealing their lobs or cutting their trots or going to their house. Stealing the items or breaking in. There was a lot of people helping them. They had people fishing their lobs or their license. The boat was confiscated as part of the investigation. So they couldn't use the boat to fish. So there were fishermen who went out and fished their license for them. Their family was there for them, you know, helped them in every way and babysitting. And there was people in the community who offered support to them. It was, you know, like any kilometre and sickness death. You know, anything that happens, people line up, especially if you're in that family. You line up and you help out and you, you know, you pitch in. And that's just the way it's always been. And I don't know how to change any time soon. And there's, you know, a lot of people in the community who felt he did a favor to everybody. And, you know, basically, you know, took out the trash. Of course, we have saying it, but I think there's a lot of people who probably agree with that. You know, and on the other side, you had a lot of people who believed that they were trash for doing that. That what they did was inexcusable. And there was a lot of people that, you know, morally just couldn't get their mind around it and couldn't forgive them for it. And then there's others who were related to Philip or knew Philip and felt that, you know, for all his faults, he didn't deserve to be killed in that fashion. Many people came to Philip Boudreau's funeral, even though he had a lot of enemies and had stolen from so many people on the island. As one person said, it's a time for setting aside grievances. One fisherman said there were lots of older people there. Philip would sometimes leave lobsters for them at their doors. Community members went out in boats to the place where Philip died and placed a wreath on the water. His obituary says he died at sea. James Landry was tried for the murder of Philip Budrow in November of 2014. During his opening argument, the prosecutor told the jury, "This case is about murder for lobster." The midnight slider was transported to the basement of the courthouse. The judge encouraged members of the jury to walk around it. They were shown the bullet holes and shown video of James Landry confessing. James Landry's defense attorney argued that just because he'd claimed responsibility didn't mean he did it. He said, "Most of us would like to think that if someone we cared about were in peril, we would make a sacrifice for them. We'd jump in front of a car to save our kid." James Landry tried to take the fall for a murder and the police believed him for a while. The jury found James Landry guilty of manslaughter, not murder. The sentencing took place two months later. Philip Budrow's sister read a victim impact statement in which she said that her family could see the place where he died from their house. She described how her brother was discarded, like, quote, "old bait." The judge sentenced James Landry to 14 years in prison. Dwayne Sampson pled guilty to manslaughter and didn't have a trial. At a sentencing, the judge said that he did not consider cutting lobster traps to be provocation and sentenced him to 10 years. The tragedy was sentenced to two years' probation. The judge and James Landry's trial said that the men on the twin maggies had perpetrated vigilante justice and that respect for the law was, quote, "necessary to our society. If each of us were able to exercise revenge and retribution, as we alone determined, it would be chaos characterized by fear and brutality." In his book, Blood on the Water, a true story of small town revenge, Silver Donald Cameron spoke to someone on aisle in the day I'm who said, "It's something that had to be done. It's just a pity that it was those guys that had to do it." He quote someone else is saying, "Those guys were not murderers. I cried when they sent James to jail." I've heard more than one person saying they should have made a statue because what James did was a good thing. He was a hero that he should have been inducted into the order of Nova Scotia. I've heard all those things. There's a lot of people who felt that Philip Edwarneau was welcome and that what James did was the right thing to do. When you steal lobsters, you're looking at, "That's a lot of money that you're stealing." You're stealing food off someone's plate and it's money that's hard-earned, it requires a lot of work. As newspapers all over Canada reported on the case, they often referred to it using that phrase from the prosecutor, "Murder for Lobster." A lot of people on aisle Madame thought it was pretty cheap. One person said, "Look, if that guy had come in my shed and took a screwdriver, would you have said "Murder for Screwdriver"? It's not about the value of what he stole. It's about having someone that is constantly disrupting people's lives. A lot gets lost. The whole case gets lost when you reduce it down to murder for lobster. Basically what you're saying is, "You know, you stealing my lobster so I shot it." But there's a lot more to this case than that. You had people who didn't have a criminal history engaging in criminality. So what drives them to that? Drives me more than just stealing lobster. They didn't just see him once doing this or hear him once doing this, that there must have been more to the story. Right? It seems like there are just a bunch of fishermen and that's it. Dwayne was called a fisherman and James were called a fisherman and it seemed like that's who they're identified as. They're people, their fathers, their brothers, their sons. These people had a life and had a life before fishing and in the winter not fishing. That humanity just seemed to get completely lost in this theme of commerce, where they killed them for lobster. It's all about money. People are making big money off of lobster and just reduced it down to just capitalism. It's far more than that. There's people involved. The humanity here and like murder for lobster just totally ignores that, you know, the human aspect of it. In 2018, James Landry and Dwayne Samson were released from prison early after serving only a few years of their 14 and 10-year sentences. James Landry died a year later in 2019. He was 72. Silver Donald Cameron writes that while people have all kinds of different opinions about the case, he describes an overarching mood of sadness and regret. Because it's a community of people who take pride in doing things for themselves, looking after one another, some people feel like they all failed. They failed Philip Boudreau, the Landry Samson family, and each other. As one person put it, there's plenty of guilt to go round. Criminal is created by Lauren Spore and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sedgico, Lily Clark, Lena Silicin, and Megan Canaine. This episode was originally mixed by Rob Buyers. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Semonetti. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at ThisIsCriminal.com and you can sign up for a newsletter at ThisIsCriminal.com/newsletter. We hope you'll consider supporting our work by joining our membership program, Criminal Plus. You can listen to Criminal ThisIsLove in February's Mystery without any ads. Plus you'll get bonus episodes. These are special episodes with me and Criminal Co-Creator at Lauren Spore talking about everything from how we make our episodes to the crime stories that caught our attention that week to things we've been enjoying lately. To learn more, go to patreon.com/criminal. Or on Facebook at ThisIsCriminal and Instagram and TikTok at Criminal_Podcast or also on YouTube at youtube.com/criminalpodcast. To learn more about this story, you can check out Silver Donald Cameron's book Blood in the Water, a true story of small town revenge, and you can find Jake Boudreau's reporting in the Port Hawksbury Reporter. Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great shows at podcast.voxmedia.com. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project, one app for accounting another for inventory another for sales and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where auto comes in, and all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together. And sells and accounting to inventory and marketing, all-in-one powerful platform. Try for free today at odu.com/vox. That's odl.com/vox.