Ides 6: Rademüller’s Refusal

The legend of Toronto’s first unsolved murder goes something like this:

J.P. Rademüller was the keeper of the lighthouse at Gibraltar Point. He also happened to be a supplier of an illicit ale that was reputed to be a “very potent brew.” One frosty winter night in 1815, a group of drunken “hooch hunters” – soldiers from Fort York – showed up at Rademüller’s lighthouse, demanding his famous suds. Rademüller refused them, and he was never seen again. The day after his disappearance, when police investigated the lighthouse, a blood smear was discovered on one of its wooden steps. Later, a human skeleton was discovered not far from the site. It is said that Rademüller’s ghost haunts the lighthouse to this very day.

Thanks to Matt Hawkins for sharing one of Toronto’s first ghost stories, and inspiring our own ‘very potent brew’