Max Haines Canadian true crime newspaper columnist and author

On my walk through Pardes Chaim Cemetery in Maple, Ontario, I visited the grave of true crime reporter and author Max Haines.

Max was born in the Maritimes, in Antigonish, Nova Scotia—home of St. Francis Xavier University, a town rich in Catholic history and education. Raised Jewish, Haines worked as a salesman in women’s textiles, and during that time began researching murders from around the world, past and present, purely as a hobby.

After the Toronto Sun launched in 1971, he went to the newsroom with writing samples to pitch the idea for a column. A year later, the Sun gave him a chance, and he called his column “Crime Flashback.” Haines never looked back. Over the next 35 years, he researched more than 2,000 crimes, and Crime Flashback was syndicated across Canada and several Latin and South American countries. At its peak, the column reached more than three million readers each week.

Max Haines, author of 27 true crimes books died in Etobicoke, Ontario on September 30, 2017. He was 86.