21 mai 2008

COFFIN'S MOTHER TESTIFIES BEFORE THE BROSSARD COMMISSION




LA MÈRE DE COFFIN TÉMOIGNE DEVANT LA COMMISSION BROSSARD
WILBERT COFFIN’S MOTHER TESTIFIES BEFORE THE BROSSARD COMMISSION

Inquiry Commission transcripts, volume 30, pages 6240-6243 – 01R-/131_06_1914 -1917

On this second (2nd) of June, Anno Domini nineteen hundred and sixty-four (1964), personally came and appeared at Percé, MRS. ALBERT COFFIN, being called as witness herein, and WHO, having been duly sworn, doth depose and say as follows:
THE SECRETARY OF THE COMMISSION
Q. Your maiden name, please?
A. Jessie Languedoc.
Q. Your husband’s name?
A. Widow of Albert Coffin.
Q. Your age?
A. Seventy-six (76)
Q. Your occupation?
A. Housewife.
Q. Your address?
A. York Centre
Me JULES DESCHÊNES, Q.C., Legal Counsel to the Commission:
Q. Mrs. Coffin, I have only one question to ask from you and I wish to state, before I do, that I am sorry to have to come back over events of so many years ago. I do not want to insist.
There is only one thing, which I would like to know, and I think you are the only person who can give me the information.
I am going to quote to you from a book which was written by Mr. Belliveau[1] and I am going to quote the first paragraph at page 143, which reads as follows:
“In the afternoon and evening before his execution Wilbert Coffin busied himself preparing his will and writing two letters. One was for his family and it bore a secret, something, which they alone may know. The other was to his chaplain. What the letters contain is, of course, known only to recipients.”
Do you know anything about such a letter written by Wilbert Coffin shortly before his death?
A. No, I don’t know anything about it.
Q. You have not received any such letter?
A. No.
Q. And did your husband ever speak to you about such a letter?
A. No. I am quite confident he never received any.
Me Jules Deschênes, Q.C., Legal Counsel to the Commission.
That is all Mrs. Coffin, thank you.
AND FURTHER DEPONENT SAID NOT
[1] John Edward Belliveau, THE COFFIN MURDER, Toronto, 1956.


CANADA INQUIRY COMMISSION
PROVINCE DE QUÉBEC THE COFFIN AFFAIR

PRESENT : THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE ROGER BROSSARD, J.S.C.

On this fifth (5th) day of June, Anno Domini nineteen hundred and sixty-four (1954), personally came and appeared, at Percé,

MRS. ALBERT COFFIN

Being recalled as a witness herein,

BY THE SECRETARY OF THE COMMISSION

THE COURT:
Q, Mr. Hébert has just told us that you have expressed possibly the desire of being heard.
A. Well…
Q. Do you wish to be heard?
A. If you wish to hear what I have to say.
Q. Well, if you wish to be heard, we will hear you.
A. It was me that had gone – it was me that went and saw Mr. Lorne Patterson.
Q. All right. I think that perhaps it would be more regular if Mr. Hébert put questions to you. He knows exactly the points on which you would like to be heard.

MR. JACQUES HÉBERT

Q. Mrs. Coffin, do you remember, or do you recall that, at some time, your son Wilbert gave you some description of a vehicle he would have seen in the bush?
A. It was after he came from up north.
Q. After he came from up north. What do you mean by “up north”?
A. He was up north after he went to Montréal.
Q. Yes, you mean…
A. When he came home from the northern trip, he asked why it was the police wanted to see him about their disappearance of these men and I said that they had said: “he was the last man to see them” and he said: «I was not the last man because,” and he said: «When I left them there was a station wagon there with two Americans in it.
Q. Do you say a jeep or a station-wagon?
A. A station wagon. I made a mistake in speaking – station wagon, he told me.
Q. Do you know, yourself, the difference between a station wagon and a jeep?
A. No, I just merely know the difference between a car and a truck.
Q. And do you recall precisely that he mentioned a station wagon?
A. A station wagon with a home-made box. By “home-made box,” I mean it was not made in a factory.
Q. Home-made box?
A. Of plywood.
Q. Of plywood?
A. By “home-made”, I mean it was not made in a factory.
Q. Now, did you hear any rumour about the existence of this station wagon with the same Americans?
A. We had heard a rumour that such a station wagon had passed through Madeleine. As we know Mr. Lorne Patterson had a garage there, I thought that I had better go out and see him. My daughter and her husband took me out to see him.
THE COURT
Q, When was that?
A. I don’t know the exact date, but it was before the trial in nineteen fifty-four (1954), sometime before the trial.
(TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK)

3 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit...

so, does anyone now what happen to those 2 letters that never got delivered,or where they ever written....

Anonyme a dit...

Very interesting.
Thanks.
Will Neilson, Montreal

Anonyme a dit...

"Do you want to be heard?
-If you wish to hear what I have to say.
-Well, if you want to be heard, we will hear you."
Ces paroles montrent que la Commission cherche la vérité, rien que la vérité, et que Mme Coffin a tout le loisir de dire ce qu'elle pense du déroulement de l'enquête policière et du procès de Percé.
La Commission va jusqu'à laisser Hébert questionner Mme Coffin.
De plus, ne l'oublions pas, les assises de la Commission sont ouvertes au grand public, donc aux nombreux journalistes confrères de Jacques Hébert.
Merci.
André Pronovost