Albert Guay – Flight 108

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Albert Guay bombed his wife's airplane in an attempt to collect on her life insurance

Albert Guay committed the first act of air terrorism in Canada in September 1949.  Did he really want twenty-three people dead?  Investigators had plenty of clues and would quickly hone in on the suspects responsible.  Listen to the story of how one man’s narcissism destroyed so many lives.

Sault-au-Cochon et Fleuve Saint-Laurent
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Sault-au-Cochon et Fleuve Saint-Laurent Judicieux / CC BY-SA

September 9, 1949

The Canadian Pacific Airlines DC-3 flight 108 took off from Montreal bound for the lumber town of Baie Comeau, which was approximately 220 miles away. There was a brief stopover in Quebec City for additional passengers and packages to board at the airport at Ancienne-Lorette. 16 minutes into the flight, there was an explosion over Sault-aux-Cochons, a town located at the point of the little St. Francis River and the St. Lawrence River, that resulted in flight 108 dropping out of the sky and slamming into a mountain.

One witness to the air disaster reported that there was no fire, just a mass of wreckage and “all those bodies.” 19 passengers and 4 crew members would perish with only one corpse having a recognizable face, that of Rita Guay.

A coroner’s jury would come to conclude that the mid-air explosion had occurred in the forward luggage compartment. A metal box found among the wreckage would become the focus of the investigation. Investigators discovered that a 28-pound package had been rushed onboard moments before take-off. The hunt was on for who delivered that package.

A cab driver came forward and reported that a woman had hired him to drive her to the airport that day. He claimed that she was in a hurry and when he swerved to avoid hitting a truck she said “these aren’t eggs I’m carrying.” The package that the mysterious woman brought to the airport to be loaded on flight 108 was addressed to a Mr. Larouche, which turned out to be a fictitious name.

What wasn’t fictitious was that the parcel had been packed with dynamite nor the fact that this would turn out to be Canada’s first act of air terrorism.

Who was Rita Guay?

She was a wife and mother who was married to Albert Guay. Her maiden name was Rita Morel. Rita and Albert had met at the Canadian Arsenals Limited in St. Malo, Quebec. This was a factory utilized during World War II where he made $40 a week.

They married and their marriage seemed to be a happy one. That is until the birth of their first and only child.

Albert Guay, born Joseph-Albert Guay was the youngest of five children born in 1917 in Quebec, Canada, and was said to have been spoiled from the start. What Albert wanted Albert got. He was a jeweler by trade who sold watches and other jewelry on commission along with keeping his factory job until the plant closed in 1945.

An article was written by Guay’s neighbor and friend, Roger Lemelin entitled “My Friend Guay, the Murderer” can be found online and is where I found a lot of the background information I’ll be sharing.

Albert always dressed for success so to speak and stood out in his working-class neighborhood. Although he was slight of build and had a thin face he walked with an air of self-importance and confidence. He always wore dark shoes that were polished and slacks which was not the attire most wore in his neighborhood. Albert also drove a car which again was not common for the area.

He would put on great displays of affection towards his wife; kissing her and calling her pet names, when they were out in public. This shocked their neighbors as they felt that behavior was better left in private. He is also described as someone who “was interested in everything, yet knew nothing.  He was completely irresponsible, imaginative yet devoid of any practical sense.”

Unlucky?

Albert also seemed unlucky when it came to being robbed. In a two year time period, Albert would come to be robbed at least four times. Each time the thief would never be caught and Albert would pocket the insurance money. Albert always made sure to have plenty of insurance.

When the arsenal closed Albert decided to open up a small jewelry and watch repair shop in his neighborhood in Quebec City. Prior to that, he had been working out of his apartment. His bad luck seemed to follow him as his store sustained fire damage on two occasions. The insurance company covered the losses.

As I mentioned before Albert was brought up as a spoiled child, and that expectation of having everything he wanted didn’t diminish with age. But things hadn’t turned out as Albert expected and in fact, he was experiencing financial ruin and running into debt.

With the birth of his first child, he was no longer the central focus of his wife and that’s when he started to look outside his marriage. He began a relationship with a 17-year-old waitress by the name of Marie-Ange Robitaille. Maria-Ange was a waitress at the restaurant Chez Gerard. Albert took on a new identity as Roger Angers and began to call on Marie-Ange at least three nights a week at her parent’s residence. They were unaware that he was a thirty-year-old married man with a child.

Their relationship lasted several months until Rita Guay found out and confronted them at the Robitaille’s living room. In debt, no mistress, and a strained relationship with his wife Albert began to devise a way to improve at least two of those situations.

The Plan

It’s believed that Albert drew inspiration for his plan after reading about a failed murder plot that took place in the Philippines. A woman, along with some accomplices tried to kill her husband after placing a time bomb on a plane that he was to be on. To carry out this plan Albert needed at least two accomplices. They were:

Genereaux Ruest. He was a sudo friend & employee of Alberts.  Generaux was a watchmaker and with his knowledge of mechanics Albert convinced him to build a time bomb.

Marguerite Ruest-Pitre was Genereaux’s sister. She was brought into the plan to be the one to purchase the dynamite and detonating caps that were to be used in the bomb. Marguerite told the hardware store clerk it was for blowing up tree stumps. She also was the mysterious woman who took the bomb to the airport to be loaded on the plane in Quebec City.

Albert even took a trip on the same route Rita’s plane would take to make sure the bomb would explode over the water. Albert felt that it would help the cover up evidence especially if the bodies were washed out to sea. Using the schedule that Albert came up with Genereaux constructed a timing device and set it to explode when the flight would be over the water.

Two Weeks Before

Two weeks before the bombing Albert and Rita had begun to repair and rekindle their relationship. Friends would say they acted like a couple enjoying their honeymoon. Albert also went back to buying his wife flowers every week like he had done when they were first together. Albert had even persuaded Rita to do him a favor and go on a business trip to pick up some gems.

She was reluctant at first but eventually conceded and on September 9, 1949, Albert bought her ticket for Canadian Pacific Airlines flight 108 to Baie Comeau. Along with Rita’s ticket, Albert purchased a $10,000 life insurance policy for the flight. This was not out of the ordinary as it was a common practice in those days, but he only bought the ticket for one way.

September 9, 1949

Canadian Pacific Airliner - Late-1940s

Albert’s plan seemed to be going perfectly, but what he didn’t count on was that Rita’s flight was delayed for takeoff by five minutes. This delay resulted in the plane exploding over land and not over the St. Lawrence River. It left dead bodies, a debris field, and enough clues to aid in the investigation

In all, there were four crew members and 19 passengers. Three of them were said to be children along with their mother and three of them were American businessmen all from Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation.

The bomb was composed of dynamite and an alarm clock with batteries. Simple, but effective.

Albert put on a great display of grief at Rita’s funeral purchasing a floral cross that was at least five feet high with an inscription that read “from your beloved Albert.” He would remain at the funeral parlor from dawn to dusk.

He also looked to collect on Rita’s life insurance policy three days after the bombing. Along with another $5,000 policy that Albert had taken out on Rita in 1942.

Newspaper coverage at the time reported that the police were looking for the mysterious woman who had delivered the package to the airport. The description they gave fit Pitre to a tee.

Guilty As Charged

Albert went to see Marguerite and convinced her to take her own life by poisoning herself and leaving behind a note, which he scripted.

Marguerite did try to commit suicide ten days after the bombing. She was unsuccessful because she had miscalculated the correct amount of poison needed to do the job. Marguerite awoke at the hospital in police custody where she confessed her part. She told police she thought she was delivering a statue, not a bomb. Her brother told police that Albert told him that the bomb was to be used for clearing tree stumps from a field.

Two weeks after the bombing Albert Guay was arrested. He would stay in prison until his trial in February 1950. Albert was found guilty and was sentenced to hang. After his conviction, Albert told police that both Ruest & Pitre had knowingly helped him.

Albert was hanged on January 12, 1951, at the age of 32. His last words were “Au moins je meurs célèbre” (at least I die famous). Ruest was arrested on June 6, 1950, and tried in November 1950. He was hung on July 25, 1952, at the age of 54. Pitre was arrested on June 14, 1950, tried separately on March 6, 1951, and hung on January 9, 1953.

Marguerite Pitre was only the 13th woman to be put to death in Canada. She would be the last woman to be hanged. All three executions took place in Montreal

Albert as Inspiration:

Remember when I said that Albert got his inspiration from the failed plane bombing in the Philippines? Well someone else got their inspiration from Albert.

John Gilbert Graham (age 23) from Colorado was the first person to be criminally prosecuted in the United States for placing 25 sticks of dynamite along with a timing device on board United Airlines Flight 629 from Denver, Colorado to Portland, Oregon on November 1, 1955.

Graham collected $37,500 ($350,000 in 2018) in life insurance. He had taken out the life insurance on his mother who died in the explosion that killed 43 other people. Graham was found guilty by a jury of his peers. He was executed by the state of Colorado in 1957 in the gas chamber. His last words:  “as far as feeling remorse for these people, I don’t. I can’t help it.  Everybody pays their way and takes their chances. That’s just the way it goes.”

We’ve mentioned before in previous episodes that most killers are either psychopaths or sociopaths. Both share a common feature of having an antisocial personality disorder. I feel both of these guys are psychopaths. They planned their murders with little regard for the loss of life it would entail. Clearly, they have a lack of remorse or empathy. I’m not really feeling any deep emotional attachments to their targets. In Albert’s case, he saw Rita’s demise as a means to an end. It was also an opportunity to rekindle his relationship with Marie-Ange. He didn’t even think about his daughter growing up without her mother. He had no regard for any of the other passengers onboard and how their deaths would affect their family members. 

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