David Michael Krueger

Identification

• Peter Woodcock (birth name) was a Canadian serial killer and child rapist.
• David Michael Krueger was the legal name adopted in 1982.

Timeline

• September 15, 1956 — Wayne Mallette, a seven-year-old boy, was lured into the deserted Toronto Exhibition grounds.
• October 6, 1956 — Gary Morris, a nine-year-old boy, was lured to Cherry Beach.
• January 19, 1957 — Carole Voyce, a four-year-old girl, was murdered by Woodcock in a ravine under the Prince Edward Viaduct.
• 1957 — Woodcock was apprehended for the murders; he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was placed in Oak Ridge, an Ontario psychiatric facility located in Penetanguishene.
• 1982 — Woodcock legally changed his name to David Michael Krueger.
• 1991 — Woodcock murdered a fellow psychiatric patient, Dennis Kerr, at the medium-security hospital in Brockville during the first hour of his very first weekend pass.
• July 13, 1991 — Dennis Kerr, a psychiatric inmate, was murdered with a knife and hatchet by Peter Woodcock with the help of former inmate Bruce Hamill.
• March 5, 2010 — Woodcock died at Oak Ridge, his 71st birthday.

Background

Woodcock was born to a 17-year-old Peterborough factory worker who gave him up for adoption. He spent the first three years of his life in various foster homes. He was physically abused in at least one of those homes, suffering a serious neck injury. He was later adopted by a wealthy family living near Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue. The family paid for a private school education, therapy and bikes for Woodcock.

When he reached puberty, he began to travel around Toronto on his bike, fantasizing about becoming a gang leader and, in reality, sexually assaulting children in Parkdale and Cabbagetown.

Woodcock was a diagnosed psychopath.

The offence

Murders of children in Toronto (1956–1957)

• Wayne Mallette was a seven-year-old boy lured into the deserted Toronto Exhibition grounds on September 15, 1956. Originally another teen, identified only as "Ronald Mowatt", was charged with the child's murder.
• Gary Morris was a nine-year-old boy lured to Cherry Beach on October 6, 1956.
• Carole Voyce was a four-year-old girl murdered by Woodcock on January 19, 1957 in a ravine under the Prince Edward Viaduct.

Murder of a psychiatric patient (1991)

Woodcock was deemed greatly improved after completing a treatment program for Woodcock and other psychopathic individuals. He was then sent to a medium-security hospital in Brockville, Ontario in 1991.

During the first hour of his very first weekend pass in thirty-five years, Woodcock stabbed Dennis Kerr to death. Woodcock said he fell in love with fellow psychiatric patient Dennis Kerr, who rejected his sexual advances.

The pass supervision was provided by Bruce Hamill, a former patient who killed an elderly Ottawa woman in 1984. Hamill was an accomplice in the Brockville murder, and both men were subsequently returned to Oak Ridge.

On July 13, 1991, Dennis Kerr, a psychiatric inmate, was murdered with a knife and hatchet by Peter Woodcock with the help of former inmate Bruce Hamill.

Investigation

Woodcock was apprehended for the murders in 1957.

In the summer of 1993, people in Ontario were shocked by one of the most bizarre murders in the province’s history. A patient at the Brockville psychiatric hospital was brutally killed in a forest grove on the grounds of the institution. One of the killers, a nearly blind psychiatric patient, walked into a nearby police station and turned himself in. The other murderer lay near the body in a sleeping bag, drugged into unconsciousness. Police found that the myopic suspect was one of Canada’s most dangerous killers, David Michael Krueger.

Arrest / Custody

In 1957, Woodcock was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was placed in Oak Ridge, an Ontario psychiatric facility located in Penetanguishene. He was declared legally insane and placed in the facility in 1957.

He legally changed his name there.

Trial

Woodcock was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1957.

Sentencing / Disposition

• Woodcock was ruled insane in 1957 and placed in Oak Ridge, an Ontario psychiatric facility located in Penetanguishene.
• After the Brockville murder on his first weekend pass in thirty-five years, he was subsequently returned to Oak Ridge.
• He was ruled insane again in 1992.

Appeals

No appeal information was provided.

Outcome

Woodcock died at Oak Ridge on March 5, 2010, his 71st birthday.

Aftermath / Public profile

Woodcock, billed as David Krueger, was prominently featured in the 2002 BBC documentary, Mind of a Murderer: Mask of Sanity.

Other details

Adoption and upbringing details

• Woodcock was born in Peterborough to a 17-year-old factory worker who gave him up for adoption.
• He was physically abused in at least one foster home, suffering a serious neck injury.
• He was later adopted by a wealthy family near Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue.
• The family paid for private school education, therapy and bikes.

Claimed motivations / method elements included in the record

• The motive was described as Sex.
• The record described a method as a pedophile slayer of children, with allegations that he killed/sodomized a 27-year-old man.
• The record described that the treatment program served only to make him more adept at manipulating others.

Name change and documentation references included in the record

• Mark Bourrie, By Reason of Insanity: The David Michael Krueger Story (Toronto: Hounslow, 1997).
• Peter Vronsky, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters (New York: Berkley, 2004), ISBN 0-425-19640-2.
• Michael Newton, An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers.

Individuals named as victims or involved persons

• Victim: Wayne Mallette (seven-year-old boy).
• Victim: Gary Morris (nine-year-old boy).
• Victim: Carole Voyce (four-year-old girl).
• Victim: Dennis Kerr (psychiatric inmate).
• Charged (originally, for Wayne Mallette): "Ronald Mowatt" (identified only as such).
• Accomplice in Brockville murder: Bruce Hamill.
• Bruce Hamill was described as having killed an elderly Ottawa woman in 1984.