Reeve of Lucan reacts skeptically to Donnelly Book

By George Hutchison of the Free Press

Lucan has heard enough about it, but historian preacher Orlo Miller has written another book about the Donnellys, reviving the controversy over what happened up Biddulph Township way Feb. 4, 1880.

[...] People around Lucan think it’s all old news, according to Reeve Ivan Hearn.

[...] “There have been too many stories, too many writeups,” says the reeve.

[...] Not so, says Mr. Miller and his wife, Maridon, who helped edit his latest work, Death to the Donnellys , a romantic, fictionalized account of the murder of five Donnellys by vigilantes.

Mrs. Miller said she and her husband have received as many as 30 threats over the years, the most recent a few days ago.

“I answered the phone and someone said ‘Miller!’ I told him ‘he’s out of town’ and he said ‘he’s not only out of town. He’s out of tune. They ought to do the same to you as they did to those Donnellys.’”

[...] “It’s one of the remarkable things in Canadian history and criminal history that the victims of the murders became the villains of the piece, the anti-heroes, and the murderers became the heroes."

[...] Mr. Hearn said there have been suggestions in the past that the village should make more out of its historical position as something of a wild west of Canada, perhaps by erecting a cairn.

“Some places in the States would make a real money maker out of it. But we feel we shouldn’t get involved in something like that. [...]