Blood in the Water: A True Story of Small-Town Revenge

In June 2013, three citizens of a small Cape Breton town murdered their neighbor, Phillip Boudreau. Two Landry cousins and skipper Dwayne Samson (husband to a Landry daughter) saw Boudreau in his boat, about to vandalize their lobster traps. Like so many times before, Boudreau was about to cost them thousands of dollars out of their seasonal livelihood. One man took out a rifle and fired four shots at Boudreau and his boat. To finish the job, they rammed their own larger boat over the top of his, then completed the day's fishing. Boudreau's body was never found.

Boudreau was a Cape Breton original -- a resourceful small-time criminal who had unnerved and entertained the community for two decades, and spent nearly half his adult life in prison. He was funny and frightening. He would taunt his victims, and threaten them with arson if they reported him. Meanwhile the police and fishing officers were frustrated, and hobbled by shrinking budgets. Boudreau seemed a miscreant who would plague the village forever. Was the Boudreau killing a direct reaction to credible threats that the authorities were powerless to neutralize?