way. Presently behind bars in a British Columbia prison, Greenidge — who has since changed his name to James Gordon Henry — is by all accounts a model prisoner with a surprisingly high IQ. During his many years in prison, Greenidge hasn’t touched drugs or gotten himself into trouble. He has completed the Intensive Sexual Offender Program, and is known to be helpful and cooperative with staff. Reportedly, he has spent much of his time tutoring other inmates, yet it remains uncertain how many of them, if any, are aware of the staggering, unimaginable brutality he committed in the past.
The crimes perpetrated by Greenidge are not just disturbing, they are truly horrifying — rivalling those committed by the character Jame Gumb, better known as “Buffalo Bill,” in the book and film, The Silence of the Lambs. At least there is some solace to be had in the knowledge that Gumb is fictional; Greenidge is all too real, and considered to be Canada’s first serial killer. His early life — like that of many youngsters who grew up to become pattern killers — was rife with abuse, abandonment, neglect, and a barely contained temper that unexpectedly rose to a boil. At the age of five, Greenidge developed tuberculosis and was sent to a sanatorium, where he was forced to clean toilets. Soon after, he began a pattern of running away and stealing. At one point, he was raised by a strict aunt whose child rearing skills included physical and mental torment. The young Greenidge frequently fled his so-called home, and was sexually abused at reform school.
Over the years, Greenidge’s body grew, and so did his uncontrollable fury. By the age of sixteen he was working as a “hustler,” a male prostitute, and began to demonstrate incredibly violent sexual tendencies. In time, he would blame much of his behaviour on his aunt, who allegedly told him of the dangers of being a male Negro in society, and of the lynchings of young black men that took place in the American South. According to parole records, Greenidge viewed himself as a lonely and isolated individual, a victim of racism — or so he said — and someone who needed to protect himself at any cost. The biggest threats to his life, his aunt told him, came from associating with “white women or homosexuals.” Tragically, Greenidge took her words seriously. In his teens, he was exhibiting a high degree of narcissism and sexual sadism, which he inflicted on girls and boys alike, all of them white. Although still young, his violent, sadistic streak was far from satiated — it was just beginning.
In 1955, Greenidge, then eighteen years old, was sentenced to ten years for viciously attacking and raping a fourteen-year-old girl in Toronto. Examined by psychiatrists at the time, the teenage Greenidge demonstrated a “defect in personality,” was deemed irresponsible, and showed no sign of wanting to reform. A hospital laundry worker, Greenidge was arrested a mere twenty-one hours after the attack, following the announcement of a reward. At the trial, the jury took only one hour and fifteen minutes to reach their verdict of guilty. The pronouncement was not surprising, considering the brutal circumstances of the attack.
In what would amount to the greatest understatement of the judge’s career, Greenidge was told, “I don’t think you are safe to have around.” The young black man showed no signs of remorse, or wanting to reform. The teenaged girl was walking home with a bag of groceries when Greenidge grabbed her, dragging her kicking and screaming down an alleyway. He then proceeded to sexually assault her, choking her at the same time, almost to the point of death. Even veteran police officers, men who had witnessed all kinds of depravity, were thoroughly repulsed by the viciousness of the attack on the helpless girl. All her clothes, right down to her shoes, were ripped from her body, which was left beaten, bloodied, and desecrated. Fortunately, the girl was able to give a remarkably detailed description of her attacker, “a husky Negro,” about five feet eight inches tall, eighteen years of age. At his trial, Greenidge, the one-time art student and church choirboy, complained the confession was beaten out of him at a police station. No one cared to listen.
Tragically, the rape was only the start of Greenidge’s life as a sexual predator and unstoppable violent offender. After his parole in 1960 he was unable to control his rage and continued his pattern of becoming violent in mere moments. In 1965 Greenidge nearly choked a man to death, believing he was responsible for helping to put him behind bars. Characteristic of the viciousness of his attacks, Greenidge beat the man, dragging him one hundred feet into a laneway to continue the assault. He had his hands around the man’s throat when neighbours saw the horrific assault taking place and called the police. In a sickening twist, he almost pummelled the wrong man to death. The mistaken identity assault landed Greenidge in a reformatory for six months, while his victim was sent to hospital to recover from his serious injuries.
Undated photo of convicted killer James Greenidge, who later changed his name to James Gordon Henry. He was first convicted of violent crimes in the fifties, and is presently behind bars in British Columbia for the horrific murder of a young woman in 1981.
Although just in his twenties, Greenidge had spent years of his life in jail and was rarely out on the streets for long before being sent back behind bars. In 1967 he was sentenced to seventeen years for a number of horrific crimes. He nearly killed one man he’d picked up in Toronto’s gay village. Another victim, seventeen-year-old Robert Wayne Mortimore, wasn’t so lucky. Mortimore’s naked, tattooed body was found in a field northeast of Markham, Ontario. The young insurance clerk was reported missing on July 11 by his brother, and his decomposing remains — missing in the heat of summer for over a week — had to be identified through fingerprints and part of a birth certificate found in Greenidge’s car. One of Mortimore’s tattoos said “Born to raise hell,” while another was a dagger, dripping blood. A number of items were missing from the body, including a silver ring with the initials R.M., a second ring with a black stone, a chain with a gold cross, and a pair of blue and white mod-style trousers.
At the time of Mortimore’s murder, Greenidge was already serving time for the attempted murder of a twenty-one-year-old man who he left beaten, naked, and bleeding in a field. The pair, said Greenidge, met at a movie theatre known as a gay pickup place and drove out to the country on a gravel stretch of road to a farmer’s field north of Barrie, Ontario. The man then made the mistake of asking Greenidge for twenty bucks, allegedly for sex. This threw him into a rage. Pouncing on his victim, Greenidge began punching, kicking, and stabbing the man repeatedly in the throat and chest with a penknife. He then bound the man and left him naked, alone, and bleeding to death. Police said that if the man had not been found within a few hours, he surely would have died.
When he was released from prison in 1978, Greenidge changed his name to James Gordon Henry. His name was different, but his sexual rage remained as strong as ever. In Winnipeg he was charged with sodomizing a thirteen-year-old boy, who he then tried to strangle to death with a blanket. The charges against Greenidge were stayed. While out of jail, Greenidge killed his last known victim in 1981. He was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal rape and murder of Elizabeth Fells, a twenty-four-year-old prostitute. Picking up the woman, Greenidge drove her to an isolated spot in the woods north of Vancouver and flew into a rage. Raping the woman, he then stabbed her over and over again, slashing her throat and leaving her barely alive in an isolated area, repeating his unremitting pattern of violence. Somehow, Fells managed to crawl to the side of the Squamish Highway and flagged down a passing car. She died in hospital eight days after her horrifying attack, but lived long enough to give police a detailed description of her attacker: James Henry Greenidge. Her statement helped police capture Greenidge, who was arrested and charged with her murder.
Over the years, many people fell victim to Greenidge’s rage: women, men, and children. They all have one thing in common: they were white, like Richard Hovey and the young man found at Balsam Lake. The lives of these young men were cut tragically short and no one, save for their killer or killers, knows what the last moments of their lives were like, dying naked in an isolated area with no one there to save their lives.
Thanks to the skills of forensic artist Master Corporal Peter Thompson, the remains formerly known as the Balsam Lake Victim finally have a name. On March 9, 2009,
