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JoAnn Wilson, 43, was beaten and shot to death January 21st, 1983 in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Her former husband, Colin Thatcher, then 44, was found guilty of first-degree murder and was given a life sentence without the chance of parole for 25 years on November 6th, 1984.

On November 30th, 2006 Thatcher was granted full parole.

Now 68, Colin Thatcher has always maintained his innocence, and despite his years the man has chosen not to put the past behind him.

Thatcher at the Edmonton Institution

Thatcher is currently writing a book about his case and about the Canadian penitentiary system. He is again calling for officials to release what he believes are 3 drawers of material on his case being withheld by Regina City Police.

He wants to include this information in his book, tentatively titled Odyssey: Anatomy of a Frame. It is now 11 chapters long and is expected to be finished in early 2008. And he says refusal by the authorities in Saskatchewan to cooperate is actually inspiring him to complete the book.

Colin Thatcher granted an exclusive interview – his first since being granted parole – to Edmonton radio station 630 CHED's Byron Christopher.

On July 27th, 2007 portions of the interview were aired on CHED during newscasts, on the national Corus Entertainment Charles Adler Show, and in an extended form on the CHED Afternoon News program in addition to a similar broadcast on their sister-station CHQR 77 in Calgary.

The former provincial cabinet minister is also challenging the Director of Public Prosecution in Saskatchewan, Murray Brown, to back up his assertion that his lawyer had full and complete disclosure – all the evidence against him – at the time of his trial.

During the CHED interview, reference was made to correspondence between Thatcher and the Regina City Police and Saskatchewan's Minister of Justice.

To see near full size copies of the original letters, follow this link which opens in a new tab or window.

Part of Thatcher's effort to obtain full disclosure is to clear up issues of what Regina police knew of a long distance phone call he received at the time of JoAnn Wilson's murder and how police handled that part of the investigation.

In an affidivat shown below, a Regina police officer indicates Thatcher informed Lynne Dally of Palm Springs, California about the murder of his former wife. The police officer didn't say how he knew this, leaving speculation that Thatcher's phone had been tapped.

But according to documents, Thatcher said he didn't know about Wilson's murder until a half hour after the call was made. A stamp on the never before seen affidavit bears the words "NOT DISCLOSED."

To see a near full size copy of the affidavit, follow this link which opens in a new tab or window.

For details of what else Thatcher is looking for, see further down this page for a background of his trial.

The interview with Byron Christopher probably came at some risk for Colin Thatcher. The man is still serving a life sentence for murder, and he fears raising the ire of the parole board who can come up with any number of reasons to revoke his freedom, such as claiming he's drinking again.

In the CHED interview, Thatcher admitted that writing the book means reliving the early years of his experience in the justice system. He said the process is emotionally difficult.

"I'm trying not to be bitter, but there are times that I'm afraid some of it does show through. At the moment, I have to say I'm not having a whole lot of fun doing it."

He had harsh words for the Saskatchewan Justice Department.

"They will lie, they will mislead you, they'll actually cheat."

"They had this pile of evidence and they cherry picked what they wanted and the rest that was favourable to me they simply, they simply hid it, or made sure it never, never saw the light of day."

“When they want a conviction, anything goes. Mine was a very high-profile case and they were going to get me come hell or high water, even at the price of hiding evidence that would prove my innocence.”

Thatcher realises he will never be given the opportunity to overturn his conviction, but hopes his book will clear him in the court of public opinion.

Thatcher talked about his days at Edmonton Institution – the "Max" – and what the inmates there taught him.

"There was a code at the Edmonton Max at that time ... that until a guy does something wrong, nothing's going to happen to them. I'm very grateful to them for the help that they gave me to at least show me the ropes of the system so that I was able to survive."

Thatcher never spent a single day in protective custody and made several lasting friendships while serving time at Edmonton Institution.

He called prison "a horrible, horrible place," and said he got through his sentence by minding his own business and never ratting on other inmates.

"I can honestly say that with all the different prisons I was at, never once did I have any concerns about going into that prison wondering if there was somebody that was waiting for me that had a score to settle or grudge against me."

While he was grateful for the experience, at the time his thoughts dwelled solely on how to get out without having somebody chase him.

Pictured above is the inner courtyard of the Edmonton Institution as it appeared in the early 1990s. Thatcher's "B" unit would have been nearly dead center-right in this photograph. Since that time, shrubs have been removed because guests of the facility were thought to be hiding weapons there.

At 68, Thatcher says he is in good health. He attributes this to his time prison because that's where he started working out. Thatcher said he spent a lot of time in the Max's weight room.

"Even at my age, I can do things now that I couldn't do when I was 20, from a physical point of view."

Thatcher now maintains a private life at his family ranch in southern rural Saskatchewan and can't imagine retiring.

"No, I'll die working. I will probably die in a pen sorting cattle or something, and that'll suit me fine to go that way."

He says there is no open hostility shown towards him when he does go out.

"In my home area where I am, I've had virtually no negativity," he said. "Now, I'm not saying that it's not there, but none of it has surfaced to my face, anyway."

Still Thatcher maintains his guard, prepared to deal with unexpected confrontation.

"Any time I go somewhere, I'm always ready to leave. I never go to a place where I don't drive myself because I want to have the keys to my vehicle so that if I have to leave, I can leave in a hurry."

The only trouble Thatcher has had is dealing with the amount of technological change during the last two decades. Debit machine cards, the internet and e-mail offer the man daily challenge.

When asked what he missed most, Thatcher said it was his freedom.

"I envied people that were sitting at home and had the option of walking down to a convenience store if they wished. You can't imagine what having no freedom is like until you don't have it."

He drives himself here and there, and while he can come and go on a moment's notice, he never forgets that he's on parole.

His greatest regret?

"I should never have gone into politics, I should have stayed right on the ranch."

Official reaction to Thatcher's claim was nearly predictable.

Murray Brown, Saskatchewan's director of public prosecutions, stated in a recent interview that Thatcher's defence lawyers got full disclosure. When contacted in the wake of the interview he called the man's claims "nonsense."

"He's writing a book," Brown said. "He needs to fluff up some publicity."

Before the Stinchcombe decision several years after Thatcher's trial, full disclosure – the sharing of all evidence against an individual – was not a legal requirement.

Thatcher suggested that if Saskatchewan did give him full disclosure, they could prove it by releasing the material now.

"It's a way to get some publicity, to make a claim like that, but it's nonsense," Brown said.

News of the 630 CHED interview with Colin Thatcher hit media wire services on the day of its broadcast, July 27th.

The Saskatoon Star Phoenix and the Regina Leader Post ran the story on their front pages the next day.

The story also found a place on the pages of cbc.ca, canoe.ca, macleans.ca, Prime Time Crime, Wikipedia, the Victoria Times Columnist, the Vancouver Sun, the Calgary Herald, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Ottawa Citizen, the National Post, the Globe and Mail, the Windsor Star, the Guelph Mercury, the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal, and the Nova Scotia Chronicle-Herald. Most stories credited both 630 CHED and reporter Byron Christopher.

Missing from this list are the Edmonton Journal, the Edmonton Sun and four Edmonton television outlets.

Despite the fact Thatcher spent ten years in the Edmonton Max and that the story was broken by a local reporter, no Edmonton media outlet, apart from CHED and sister-stations CHQT Cool 880 and CISN-FM , has made reference to the story.

Update: On August 1st, 2007 the Thatcher story was mentioned in the Edmonton Journal's Culture Venting column. Two Journal readers "broke" the story for the paper with their comments.

Also, the Edmonton Journal failed to reprint a story first carried by their CanWest MediaWorks sister publication, the National Post, critiquing the use of the "Mr. Big" sting operation. On August 18th, 2007 the Post reported a film was being made about the technique and the article referenced the arrests of Dennis Cheeseman and Shawn Hennessey in connection with James Roszko's ambush of four RCMP officers near Mayerthorpe, Alberta.

CTV NewsNet began airing a segment late on July 28th, and the Thatcher story was featured about halfway through that night's CTV National News with Sandie Renaldo. The reporter was Jill Macyshon.

"One of Canada's most famous killers, last year Colin Thatcher told a parole board all he wants now is peace – intent on living far away from the glare of the media, here, on his family's ranch near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan."

"During one parole hearing Colin Thatcher said he feared being stalked by reporters. Funny then that he has chosen a path that will push him right back into the spotlight: Colin Thatcher is writing a book."

Thatcher still fears being stalked by reporters and has turned down numerous requests from national media over the years. Given the treatment he felt he had received in their reporting, there was no reason why the man should surrender to further vilification.

Funny then indeed that Thatcher gave his first post-prison interview to a local reporter from Edmonton, a man who hadn't judged him in previous reports and who let him have his say in a lengthy broadcast.

CTV National News offered two screen shots taken without accreditation from this website, The Last Link on the Left, as evidence that Thatcher's request for disclosure was being denied.

CTV also aired a statement made by Regina Police Service spokesman Elizabeth Popowich which seemed to indicate less-than-full disclosure was accepted policy.

"Police reports and information given to us often contains confidential information belonging to many other individuals and so we don't release."

The news program contacted Garrett Wilson who wrote a book on Thatcher. On camera Wilson said Thatcher is a headline seeker who craves attention (but Wilson didn't explain why the man has only granted a single interview in the eight months since being released on full parole).

Wilson said he doesn't believe the book will be published.

"There will no book for the reason that all the evidence pointing to Colin Thatcher's innocence can be put on the back of a postcard."

"All the evidence pointing to his guilt would fill a small library and does."

Garrett wrote the book Deny, Deny, Deny: The Rise and Fall of Colin Thatcher.

The question of whether Thatcher's book will be published and has its author's desired effect will be answered in the future.

The answer to the present-day mystery of why Edmonton became a black hole regarding the news of Thatcher's book may lie in the muddle of pack journalism and poor judgement, the result of concentrated media ownership and reduced newsroom numbers. Or maybe it is a case of wounded pride.

The Thatcher interview was the second major story 630 CHED broke in a week, the result of relationships their reporter has developed over years.

On July 24th oil-patch 'activist' Weibo Ludwig contacted Christopher to tell him he had been charged with aggravated assault following an altercation with several oil-company people near his property in northwestern Alberta. The rest of the Edmonton media then played catch up with the story after CHED had scooped the market.

Three days later, CHED scored another exclusive with the Thatcher interview. But instead of contacting CHED to use and quote from their material (as news outlets across Canada did), local media coverage of the announcement was conspicuous by its complete absence.

Luckily for Edmontonians, the CTV National Network is broadcast in the area. Readers of local newspapers were less fortunate.


JoAnn Wilson	JoAnn Wilson	Colin Thatcher 1984	Ross Thatcher	Colin Thatcher ca. 2000

Arrested in May of 1984, Colin Thatcher saw only the inside of prison walls until he was granted day parole in May 2006.

His appeals ran out in May 1987, and his first attempt at early parole was rejected in 1999. Four years later a similar request was denied. When granted full parole, it was with the unusual condition that he report any romantic relationships to authorities.

Since his release, Thatcher attended a Saskatchewan Legislature ceremony held December 18th, 2006 to honour former Premiers of the province (Colin's father Ross was premier from 1964 to 1971). But other than an occasional appearance at a Roughriders football game, Thatcher has rarely strayed from his family farm.

In the time since his full parole, Thatcher has begun working on a book that he describes as a critical look at the Canadian penitentiary system. It will no doubt include the ten years he spent at the Edmonton Institution maximum security facility.

He has also been working on getting full disclosure from Regina City Police and Saskatchewan Crown prosecutors.

Thatcher maintains police and the Crown withheld evidence, both from his defence lawyer Gerry Allbright (now a Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench justice) and the courts. He feels that had this evidence been entered into his trial he would have been acquitted.

As it was, it took a jury four days of deliberation to find him guilty. Jurors were faced with the challenge that either Thatcher killed his ex-wife, had someone do it for him or was innocent. Thatcher's defence had to eliminate two of those three scenarios to prove his innocence, not one of just two scenarios as is the case in a conventional charge to a jury.

Defence lawyer Allbright once said, "The Crown had two half-baked theories and, since they couldn't prove either one, they threw the two together and came up with an either/or situation."

The unusual charge faced by the jury in R. v. Thatcher now holds a place on the curricula of Canadian law schools.

Thatcher was once told by a cop that police have 3 cabinet drawers full of "stuff" that was not submitted to the court process. The "stuff" could refer to telephone records that could substantiate Thatcher's claim he was at home at the time of JoAnn Wilson's murder.

The material could reveal whether informants were paid or had outstanding charges against them reduced or withdrawn.

The information could shed light on the confusion over the colour of the .357 Smith & Wesson magnum thought to be used in the crime; was it stainless steel as a gun dealer described it, or blue as a police informant once characterised it?

And the withheld evidence could also shed light on the true owner of the car Thatcher had supposedly used on the night of the murder (the vehicle eventually became a Moose Jaw taxi cab after blood was washed out of it by one of the police informants).

Beginning in March 2007, Thatcher began writing to the Regina City Police and Saskatchewan's Minister of Justice, seeking access to the material he feels they possess.

Both Regina City Police and Saskatchewan's Minister of Justice refused the access to evidence sought by Thatcher.

To see copies of the original letters, follow this link which opens in a new tab or window.

As further developments in the matter of Colin Thatcher take place, this page will be updated.

To learn more of the original murder case and police investigation, there are a number of resources that can be drawn upon.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Archives hosts an excerpt of the network's news program The National as broadcast on the night JoAnn Wilson's body was found. Of interest is the police sketch of a suspect which looks nothing like Thatcher (and the generous amount of hair Peter Mansbridge once possessed).

The CBC also maintains an in depth profile of the Colin Thatcher case, complete with a timeline.

Also on the internet is CourtTV's Crime Library feature A Marriage Gone Wrong, written by Rachael Bell, which serves as an excellent overview of the matter.

For further study several books have been published about Thatcher and the trial. They can be found in bookstores and in local libraries.

A Canadian Tragedy, JoAnn & Colin Thatcher: A Story of Love and Hate by Maggie Siggins,
Deny, Deny, Deny: The Rise and Fall of Colin Thatcher by Garrett Wilson and Lesley Wilson (no relation to the deceased or each other) and
Not Above The Law: The Tragic Story of JoAnn Wilson and Colin Thatcher by Heather Bird.

The Siggins book was the basis for the 1989 CBC-TV movie Love and Hate: The Story of Colin and Joanne Thatcher [sic], which won five Gemini Awards.

deadmonton 1983 - colin thatcher