Serial killer Allan Legere, New Brunswick’s ‘Monster of the Miramichi,’ dead at 78

CITYnews halifax / By Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — Allan Legere, the serial killer known as the “Monster of the Miramichi,” has died in prison at the age of 78.

Legere died in the maximum security Edmonton Institution, Correctional Service Canada confirmed Tuesday. There was no word on what caused his death, but the federal agency said police and the coroner’s office had been called in.

The notorious convicted murderer and rapist killed five people in New Brunswick in the late 1980s, four of whom were slain after Legere had escaped from custody.

In December of last year, the Parole Board of Canada denied his bid for full parole, saying Legere posed a high risk for violent offences and a moderate risk for sexual crimes. The board cited a psychological risk assessment that concluded Leger’s “maladaptive personality traits” had hindered any progress toward reducing his risk to the public.

“There is no evidence to suggest that (he has) the insight, skill or desire to combat these aspects of (his) personality,” the report said.

The board also pointed to his poor behaviour in prison and the serious nature of his crimes, which included physically and sexually assaulting several victims and “brutally ending the lives of five innocent people.”

The parole board also found Legere had yet to complete a high-intensity sex offender program.

Meanwhile, Correctional Service Canada told the board that Leger’s offences demonstrated a lack of consequential thinking, sexual deviance and cognitive distortions.

In 1986, Legere was one of three people convicted of murdering shopkeeper John Glendenning during a home invasion and robbery in Black River Bridge, N.B. The victim’s wife, Mary, was beaten and sexually assaulted.

Legere was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder in January 1987.

While serving his sentence at the Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B., he was taken to a hospital in Moncton, N.B., to be treated for an infection on May 3, 1989. Inside a washroom, he managed to remove his handcuffs and leg irons before he escaped.

A chronology compiled by researchers at the University of New Brunswick indicates Legere picked the locks on both restraints by using a collapsed TV antenna he had hidden in his rectum, and a piece of metal concealed in a cigar.

For the next seven months, Legere terrorized the Miramichi area of northeastern New Brunswick, attacking and robbing people while eluding a massive police manhunt.

On May 28, 1989, he sexually assaulted and murdered 75-year-old Annie Flam before setting fire to the house she shared in Chatham, N.B., with her sister-in-law, 61-year-old Nina Flam. Legere was also convicted of beating and sexually assaulting the younger woman.

In nearby Newcastle, N.B., sisters Donna and Linda Daughney, both in their 40s, were sexually assaulted and murdered in their home, which was set on fire on Oct. 14, 1989. And on the evening of Nov. 16, 1989, the beaten body of 69-year-old Rev. James Smith was found in the rectory of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Chatham Head, N.B.

The search for Legere ended on Nov. 24, 1989, when he surrendered to police near Nelson, N.B., after taking three motorists hostage, two of whom managed to escape.

When he was arrested, he was still holding the third hostage against their will.

Legere was later found guilty of all four murders and declared a dangerous offender.

According to parole board files, Legere kept plotting to escape soon after he was returned to prison.

The parole board’s decision in December drew attention to victim impact statements submitted over many years, saying that one statement filed in September 2025 “speaks to the fear that they continue to feel, that (Legere) may return to the community.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2026.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press