THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Public Library is digging into the city’s dark past with its new event series focused on true crime.
The first session was held at the Waverley branch on Oct. 1 and about 15 people attended.
The event, named Thunder Bay Confidential True Crime Files, was put on by the library’s research department as a way to share true crime stories from the city’s past.
“A lot of people do obituaries looking at genealogy, but the other thing that people gravitate towards is true crime and accidents, for some reason. Don’t ask me why, they just do, so we’re trying to implement true crime into our programming,” Derek Gradner, research department library technician, told Newswatch.
The evening’s investigative narratives uncovered tales staged around the medical profession.
“Tonight’s program is medical themed, so it’s two incidents that took place in the city of Thunder Bay, having to do with doctors. So, the first one is pretty standard, but the second one, we’re gonna try something a little bit different. We’re going to do a choose your own adventure type story,” Gradner said.
One such case took place in Nipigon in 1960, Inga Santala, the wife of former Coun. Oliver Santala poured acid on a local doctor, E.R. Somerleigh, who was also a town councillor at the time.
Santala blamed Somerleigh after her daughter fell ill with pneumonia and passed away.
She was sentenced to nine years in prison for the crime, but library staff uncovered that she did not serve her full sentence.
It is not known how long she spent in prison, but they do know that upon release, she worked as a cook at the Scandinavian Home Society, otherwise known as The Scand, and the Hoito restaurant in the 1970s.
Thunder Bay Confidential True Crime Files will have another event at the Mary J.L Black Library on Oct. 7 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
