Mathew Charles Lamb

Psychiatric examination

On the morning of 27 June 1966, Lamb appeared without legal counsel at Essex County Magistrate's Court in Windsor, where he was remanded for psychiatric examination.

After dismissing a few more questions as "unimportant", the 18-year-old giggled childishly and said he "needed a lawyer".

After 30 days, on 27 July, the staff at Penetanguishene still deemed him unfit to stand trial, but by 27 August 1966 his state had improved enough for the doctors to allow his return to custody at Windsor. The doctors reported that he could now face the court—they said that the young man was now able to understand what the proceedings against him meant, and capable of working alongside a legal advisor.

However, Nosanchuk was still not certain that he would attempt to defend Lamb on mental grounds. In Ontario at that time, a defendant found not guilty under these terms remained imprisoned indefinitely unless an order for his release came from the province's Executive Council, acting on the advice of a Review Board including a Supreme Court judge. Yaworsky warned Nosanchuk that even if he used an insanity defence and won, Lamb would probably be committed to an institution for the criminally insane for life. It was still possible for the lawyer to approach the prosecution and propose a plea bargain, offering to plead guilty to non-capital murder, which would result in life imprisonment for Lamb but allow a parole hearing after 10 years. In any case, Nosanchuk could not use the case he had prepared unless he first received unequivocal written instruction from his client to plead insanity. Having been given a week by his counsel to consider the matter, Lamb wrote to Nosanchuk that he wished to attempt a mental disorder defence. He made clear his understanding that if he were found not guilty under these terms, the state still had the right to detain him for the rest of his life. the young man's trial for capital murder began on 16 January 1967 at Essex County Courthouse in Windsor. Because of the charge's severity, the case was heard by a judge and jury under the auspices of Ontario's Supreme Court, which chose Justice Alexander Stark to preside.

Defence

The defence began to present its psychiatric evidence on the third day of the trial, 18 January 1967, when Yaworsky was called to testify on Lamb's behalf. Yaworsky recounted in detail his examination of the defendant two days after the shootings; he put weight on the fact that Lamb had laughed while incoherently describing the events of 25 June, and had at one point giggled and exclaimed "poor broad", referring to Edith Chaykoski. So far Lamb had sat through the trial in muted silence, showing no emotion whatsoever, but when Yaworsky mentioned his having "giggled" at this point of the 27 June interview, Lamb did so again in a similar manner. Yaworsky said that he had interviewed Lamb four more times between December 1966 and the trial, and that in these discussions the young man had been able to remember more about the incident; Lamb told Yaworsky that he remembered confronting the people in the street, but that everything had then "felt fuzzy" when he fired the gun.

John Robinson, the governor of Essex County Jail, was then called by the defence. Robinson testified that during Lamb's time in the county jail, his conduct had been impeccable except for an incident five weeks before the trial, on 10 December 1966, when he had, for no apparent reason, gone on what Robinson called a "rampage".

Prosecution

Duchesne now called on Basil Orchard and Wilfred Boothroyd to counter the defence's evidence. Orchard, another doctor from Penetanguishene, testified that Lamb had suddenly abandoned any show of amnesia during an interview in August 1966. He saw no evidence that Lamb was insane and said that he was simply a young man with strong impulses who sometimes could not control them. Boothroyd, of Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, then spoke, arguing that Lamb had been acting out strong feelings of anger and bitterness and fully intended to kill the people he confronted, knowing and understanding what that meant. Lamb, he said, was capable of all kinds of emotion and was perfectly able to understand the nature of what he had done. Justice Stark intervened during Boothroyd's testimony, asking how he could give a reliable opinion on Lamb when he had never examined him. He also remarked that his opinion was contrary to every doctor who had testified so far.

Closing statements

Defence

Nosanchuk gave his final statement to the court first. Speaking for the defence, he reminded the jury that every one of the doctors speaking on Lamb's behalf had originally been engaged by the state and that Yaworsky was the only one not employed in the public sector. He conceded that the defendant's actions were senseless and violent, but stressed that if found not guilty by reason of insanity, Lamb would stay in custody and could be kept in psychiatric care for the rest of his life if necessary. He argued that Lamb's actions on the evening of 25 June 1966 clearly made no sense and asked the jury to carefully consider them: the victims were not known to Lamb; Lamb made no attempt to disguise himself; Lamb acted alone; Lamb had nothing to gain from the act; Lamb inexplicably diverted his fire from the original group to a shadow in a doorway; Lamb then chose another house at random and threatened to kill the occupant, then left without doing anything; Lamb made no attempt to hide the weapon, leaving it in a nearby field where it would surely be found; then, finally, he simply went home to bed as if nothing had happened. Was this, Nosanchuk asked, the behaviour of a premeditated killer, or of a profoundly disturbed young man who did not appreciate what he was doing? |quoted = 1

In response, Duchesne gave what Nosanchuk writes was a "well-reasoned argument", which the jury paid rapt attention to. |quoted = 1

As had been made clear several times before and during the trial, Lamb's court victory did not make him a free man. He was escorted by police back to Penetanguishene and placed in the hospital's maximum security unit at Oak Ridge, where he was to remain indefinitely pending an order from the Ontario Executive Council. Joan Hollobon, the medical editor of the Toronto Globe and Mail, volunteered in 1967 to spend two days at Oak Ridge as if she were a patient, and afterwards heaped praise on the inmates, saying that they were "pioneering a brave and exciting experiment in self-government and self-therapy ... [displaying] individual responsibility, co-operation with colleagues and authority, and acceptance of rules reached by consensus."

In August 1968, the unit created a "Total Encounter Capsule", which was a windowless, soundproofed room, wide and long, with green-painted walls, a green wall-to-wall mat on the floor and a ceiling containing a one-way mirror. It was empty apart from a sink and lavatory. In one of the earliest uses of videotape in therapy, television cameras were trained through the mirrored ceiling and through holes in the walls. Liquid nourishment was provided through drinking straws that were built into the door. The Capsule's purpose, Barker writes, was to provide "a place of undisturbed security where a small group of patients could focus on issues they felt important enough to warrant the exclusion of the usual physical and psychological distractions." Because Barker believed that they were more inclined to reveal their inner selves if unclothed, the inmates entered the Capsule naked. To further encourage communication, they were administered with LSD-25. The room was lit at all times, making day indistinguishable from night. While members of the programme were inside the Capsule, other patients operated the room and watched over those inside, running the cameras, keeping records and maintaining an appropriate room temperature.

Following his arrival in January 1967, Lamb enthusiastically took part and thrived in Barker's new programmes, becoming, the Montreal Gazette writes, "a model inmate". He became widely respected by his fellow patients and was successfully nominated as the ward's "patient therapist". "He was helpful to the other patients," Barker told the Globe and Mail, "and they looked up to him." Barker and his colleagues were so impressed by the young man's progress that they began to take him to lectures at Ontario Police College in Aylmer, where they introduced him as evidence of rehabilitation's potential. The advisory board's recommendation that Lamb be released was approved by the Ontario Executive Council in early 1973; the board gave him a clean bill of health and said he was no longer dangerous. He resolved to instead tour the world, and to that end left Israel days after arriving,

Military career in Rhodesia

On his way to Australia in October 1973, Lamb stopped off in South Africa and Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe), where he cut his travels short to enlist in the Rhodesian Army. According to Barker, Lamb travelled to Africa with this intention all along. Like most of the foreign volunteers in the Rhodesian forces, Lamb was assigned to the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI), an all-white heliborne commando battalion engaged largely in counter-insurgency operations. He and the other foreign soldiers received the same pay and conditions of service as the Rhodesians they served alongside. Keeping his past a secret, he became a highly regarded and popular member of 3 Commando, RLI, noted for his professionalism and physical fitness. he was conspicuous walking along Ouellette Avenue, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Coincidentally, a funeral procession was being held for Edith Chaykoski's grandmother along that very street at the same time, leading Edith's younger brother Richard to spot Lamb on the pavement. The soldier remained oblivious, but his presence horrified the Chaykoski family. "He had the uniform and looked a little different," Richard told the Windsor Star a year later, "but I never forgot his face." While staying with the Hesketh family, Lamb went to see Barker and told him that serving in the Rhodesian security forces had enriched him personally and made him respect himself for the first time. Because of this he wished to forget about his previous life in Canada; in particular he said he "didn't want it associated with his adopted country".

Lamb was deeply saddened by the bias he perceived the Western media to have against the Rhodesian government and army, but was reportedly conspicuous for leaping to the defence of any black Rhodesians he thought were receiving bad treatment. "He sympathised with the blacks," Barker told the Windsor Star, "but believed that chaos would result if they took over immediately. He used to scrap with other soldiers who treated blacks badly. He was very bright and knew the blacks would eventually take over the country." Wishing to see more action, Lamb requested a posting back to the RLI, which was granted; he rejoined 3 Commando. In late 1976, at the age of 28, he was promoted to lance corporal and took command of a "stick" of four men from 12 Troop, 3 Commando on Fireforce duty on Operation Thrasher, which covered Rhodesia's eastern highlands against guerrilla activity.

In the late afternoon of 7 November 1976, three insurgents from a group of seven were spotted by an Army observation post in the Mutema Tribal Trust Lands, just south-west of Birchenough Bridge in Manicaland province. Fireforce was called up and the Rhodesians readied themselves to fly out by helicopter and engage the guerrillas.

Reactions to death; military funeral and burial

quote=... his comrades gave him a hero's funeral. Back home in Windsor, Ont., however, Lamb was anything but a hero... — Extract from Newsweek article entitled "Rhodesia: The Hero", 13 December 1976 It even caused a heated debate in the Canadian House of Commons over why, considering his personal history in Ontario and subsequent service in the armed forces of a country Canada did not recognize, Lamb had been issued a valid Canadian passport and allowed to renew it on 26 April 1976. The Chaykoski family received the news with some relief, Wanless reported in the Windsor Star, having "lived in terror" The lance-corporal was given what the Windsor Star and Newsweek both described as a "hero's funeral"

Notes and references