On January 18, 6 members of the Blackman family were murdered by their loved one (son, brother, brother in law) Bruce. Bruce had been slipping into psychosis and had shown signs of a total break with reality leading up to the murders. In this episode, we examine this case and hope that by having the conversation, we can provide resources with information about mental illness, discuss warning signs to be aware of, and let anyone experiencing any form of mental illness know that you are not alone.
Bruce Blackman
Mental Health Awareness
Our story today takes place on January 18, 1983 in Coquitlam, British Columbia. We will be discussing mental illness; in this case, we will talk specifically about schizophrenia.
We decided to cover this case now because October 4-10 is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Saturday, October 10th is National World Mental Health Day. According to the NAMI website (National Alliance on Mental Illness), Mental Illness Awareness Week is dedicated to raising awareness around the topic of mental illness.
The website states “We believe that mental health conditions are important to discuss year-round, but highlighting them during Mental Illness Awareness Week provides a dedicated time for mental health advocates across the country to come together as one unified voice.”
We also believe in the importance of discussing mental health and illness and reducing the stigma still present in society today. This week’s case is the exception, not the rule with mental illness and more specifically schizophrenia.
According to an article in Schizophrenia Bulletin, “Persons with schizophrenia are undoubtedly at increased risk of becoming victims of violence in the community setting, with risks up to 14 times the rate of being victimized compared with being arrested as a perpetrator.”
The article goes on to state that despite this fact most of the literature available regarding the association between schizophrenia and violence has focused on perpetration rather than victimization. It’s easy to see how this fact coupled with cases reported in the media would lead to skewed public perception and stigmatization of mental illness. This week it is our hope that by having the conversation, we can provide resources with information about mental illness, discuss warning signs to be aware of, and let you know that you are not alone.
Every single person is affected by mental illness in some way. Tori and I both have and continue to struggle with depression and anxiety. We have taken medication for these issues and are also huge proponents for therapy and learning different coping strategies. We are not ashamed and if you have dealt with any type of mental health issues in any way, you shouldn’t be either.
We are human. All of us. We all struggle. But we want you to know that being a human and all the things that can entail is normal. And should you see any of the warning signs we will discuss in a person you know, please speak up. Get help. If we can have these discussions and normalize them, we can prevent cases like the one we are talking about this week.
Let’s get started.
In the Early morning
It was about 5:30AM when William (not his real name) was boiling water for a morning cup of tea. He couldn’t sleep and had finally decided to get out of bed rather than try to fight it any longer. As the kettle whistled, William pulled it off the burner before it became loud enough to wake his still sleeping family. But the noise didn’t stop. What was that? Was that a person screaming? He looked out his kitchen window to see two shapes in the neighbor’s yard moving around. One looked as if it pushed the other one and he could hear a voice screaming “Help! Help!”
His eyes began to adjust to the darkness outside and the fuzzy shapes started to become more clear. The two shapes looked like men – one larger than the other. The smaller man was barking at the larger to get inside the house, pushing and kicking him as he yelled. And just like that, the two shapes disappeared into the garage.
A strange interaction, especially for 5:30 in the morning, but maybe it was an argument. A family matter. William didn’t want to get involved and make this a bigger deal than it was. Then the man who’d forced the other into the garage came out and retrieved some sort of item. He was wearing a leather jacket, jeans and some sort of head band. He went back into the house with it, like he was on a mission.
Just then, William heard another scream. This was DEFINITELY a scream. No mistaking it this time. He dropped his mug, and it shattered on the floor. Something was happening. Two more figures ran through the yard, one clearly being chased and begging “no, no! Not me!” Then William heard two pops, and the shape that had begged for mercy fell to the ground. William froze and watched in horror as the man dragged the person who had just fallen into the garage. And then, the garage door slowly closed. This was no family argument. William called the police.
RCMP officers arrived at the home in question to find a young man, in his early 20’s wearing a leather jacket, jeans and leather headband wandering around the property. They asked him about the report of gunshots, and he replied that he didn’t know anything about it.
The house behind him was lit up like a Christmas tree – every light in the house was on, Trace Adkins style. An officer stayed with the man as others approached the house to investigate the report of gunfire. Once inside, officers found the bodies of six people- all dead. As they moved through the home surveying the horrific scene, they received some news on their radio.
“Suspect has just admitted he is the Antichrist, and the world is going to end on the 31st.”
Who was Bruce?
I’m going to start by saying I read the book “A Voice Out of Nowhere,” by Janice Holly Booth for this case. I reviewed other documents and articles as well, but there’s not a ton out there on this case outside of Janice’s book. It’s a great read.
Bruce Blackman was born in 1960 to Richard and Irene Blackman and had 5 siblings. He was also a twin. Bruce and his twin brother Todd were practically opposites. Beginning around middle school, their differences in personality began to show. One notable difference was that Todd kept his hair cut short and valued personal hygiene. Bruce kept his hair long and would go days or a week without showering or changing clothes. Todd excelled in school; learning came naturally to him. Bruce failed most of his classes in 7th grade, and his mother took him to a psychologist to have him evaluated for a learning disability.
While there, they were told that Bruce is a “mirror twin.” The doctor explained that mirror twins is a rare phenomenon among twins where one twin “mirrors” the traits or afflictions of the other. The doctor believed that it was because of this “condition” that Bruce was dyslexic. Todd could read words as they were meant to be read and seen; Bruce saw them reversed, or opposite. He said this can also come in the form of one being right handed, the other left handed, one having issues on the right side of the body, the other the left.
What’s weird is that Todd was born first and much bigger than Bruce- 9lbs, 6oz. Bruce was born second and he was 6lbs. 9oz. Exactly opposite. Just like the doctor said. Bruce decided that this meant that he didn’t have to try to be so much like Todd anymore. He could just be himself- opposite. He could be laid back, stop trying and just coast. He felt that this revelation gave him a purpose, which was to mirror Todd.
He started smoking marijuana only days later, and it became the only way he felt he could numb the pain of being a failure. He dropped out of high school his senior year and by the time he was 22 he was living on his own in an apartment with a roommate and working as a swamper on a garbage truck. His brother Todd had joined the Canadian Armed Forces, and Bruce’s father had urged him to do the same. Fairly quickly, he’d been kicked out for a narcotics possession and then got the garbage man job.
Bruce liked his job. It was pretty easy and straightforward. He did the same thing every day, and he started finding tons of stuff people were throwing out that was still perfectly good. He’d found furniture, vacuum cleaners, and the nicest leather jacket he’d ever owned in the garbage. He even found a Bible once, which he kept. He didn’t grow up in a super religious household, but for some reason the fact that someone had thrown a Bible in the dumpster really bothered him.
The Signs of a break
Bruce’s roommate first started noticing that something wasn’t right with Bruce’s behavior in the fall of 1982. He began noticing that Bruce’s eyes were bloodshot, but he’d been smoking less weed. He didn’t eat for days on end and started “seeing” things that he felt were ominous or scary. Things that his roommate didn’t see. This is when he started to tell his family that the end of the world was coming, and that he received a message from an angel that he needed to “know God.” But for what? To prevent the end? To save his loved ones?
He called his father every day reading passages from the Bible and warning him about the end. His father could only listen, as there was no dissuading Bruce from his belief that the end was coming and he had some special role to play. He was seeing what he thought were “signs” everywhere. Once, he tried to show his brother Todd a cloud that he saw in the shape of a 7-pointed star (which was not there), and when Todd told him that he couldn’t see it, it hit him.
The mirror twin thing. Todd didn’t see the star, which meant it was only for him to see. Because Todd couldn’t see it, it was special just for Bruce. Rather than helping him realize that nobody else could see these “signs” because they weren’t actually there, these experiences only seemed to confirm these feelings. The angel who gave him messages in dreams started talking to him throughout the day as well. Bruce began referring to her as the “white woman.” And Bruce sees everything in opposites now, and the fact that his last name is Blackman felt like another sign. She is God, the White Woman. He is “black man,” therefore he must be the AntiChrist.
He stopped sleeping. He stopped eating. He was fueled only by reading the Bible- specifically Revelations 10 and 11.
One night, Bruce’s roommate came home with a friend and found Bruce setting the table for 4 guests. When they asked him what the table was set for, he told them the world was ending that night at 8PM and they all had to be together. He wanted them to call the others in their immediate friend group to come over. They called one of the friends, but he was in for the night and the other was home sick in bed. They thought this would appease him. It’s not possible.
But Bruce demanded they get them over. After arguing for a while, the two friends left. They were hoping Bruce would cool down after they left.
They arrived at another friend’s house only to have Bruce show up shortly after. He had run the 6 blocks to chase them. He was begging again to call the friend who was sick in bed, but everyone refused, saying she had the flu and the world wasn’t going to end. Brokenhearted, Bruce went to leave. When he opened the door he yelled “The beast!” And saw a huge beast with yellow eyes and blood-dripping fangs. His friends tried to convince him he was seeing the neighbor’s dog, not a devil beast. They tried to console him and talk to him to help him calm down, but he ran away.
He told his brother Todd on the phone during this time that he wasn’t eating or sleeping, because the White Woman was going to kill him if he slept. Bruce told him he was seeing messages on the TV that the world was going to end, and he was seeing signs that only he could see. Todd urged him to talk to their father and to try to calm down. That it would all be ok. At work one day, one of Bruce’s coworkers pointed out that an inlet had frozen over saying “I didn’t think salt water could freeze.” Bruce knew that it couldn’t and that this was another sign for him.
He told his roommate one night that he was possessed by the white woman, and that she’d kill him if he went to sleep. He started going on and on about the Bible and his friend said that he couldn’t help him because he didn’t know anything about the Bible. Bruce remembered a Jehovah’s Witness he’d spoken with before, and they decided to call the crisis hotline. A witness came over to talk with him that night, around midnight. Immediately, Bruce told him that he was possessed. The witness called in another witness as backup.
Bruce told them the messenger was talking to him about opposites. His name is blackman, but he’s actually a white man, and he hears the voice of a white woman. The woman tells him that he is God, so he must be the antichrist. He told them the whole Bible was meaningless except Revelations Chapter 10. They explained that you can’t focus on just one part of the Bible, otherwise you lack context and you can’t possibly understand the full meaning. Bruce ignored everything they told him and obsessively talked about the end of the world and barely let them get a word in. They finally called it a night but told Bruce to call anytime to talk. They never heard from him again.
By mid-December, Bruce had become obsessed with the “little book” in Revelations. Bruce decided he had to “eat the little book.” Which for him included semen and menstrual blood. He started masturbating and eating his own semen. He felt this bring him closer to God. His roommate suggested he go stay with a family member to make sure he was eating and sleeping. Bruce thought this was the perfect opportunity for him to convince his family members to “eat their books” as well. He believed that his family members were all part of the signs and that they were part of the apocalypse. So being around them was better anyway. They had to be together.
He started obsessing over numbers. He felt especially drawn to the number seven which appeared in the book of Revelation many times. He thought this was his siblings, but that was only six. He decided one of his sisters must be pregnant, which would make the number seven.
When he stayed with his sister Karon, he asked if she was pregnant, but she wasn’t. Then he asked if she was on her period, which she was. She had to eat her book. So when she was at work, he took one of her used pads and squeezed as much of her blood from it into a cup as he could, a few drops, but that’s all he needed. He added it to the blender with orange juice, 2 pages from his Bible, and 2 packets of chicken soup.
He learned that his sister Angela was pregnant that day when he called her to ask. Nobody knew yet. She hadn’t announced it to anyone. That was the 7 he was looking for.
When Karon got home from work that day, he demanded she drink “her book” when she got home. She didn’t drink much because it tasted horrible, but he felt like she had done what was needed since she got a few sips in. He told Robert (her husband) that he’d made her eat her book and Robert told Karon that Bruce needed help. Karon went to stay with the neighbors while Bruce was there, because now she was afraid of him. Her brother, Bruce, was gone. And she didn’t know who had taken his place.
The sisters talked and found a psychiatrist to evaluate Bruce. During this time, Bruce started making some strange calls; records show he called the Canadian Department of National Defence and tried to call the Pope in Rome and Poland.
The psychiatrist came to Karon and Robert’s house to evaluate Bruce. He was rambling about the Bible and how many candles a certain church used- was it 6 or 7? He demanded someone call the church to confirm- he just knew it would be 7. They got off the phone and told him it was 6. He said “that’s ok. That makes sense. One of us is dead. 6 living.” He went on and on, telling the psychiatrist that he was possessed by the Devil, he was the AntiChrist, he was hearing voices from a woman, he was trapped in time… but the psychiatrist said he didn’t believe Bruce was violent. He gave him a tranquilizer shot and encouraged Bruce’s father to have him evaluated in the clinic that week and gave him a committal form signed so that if they had to force Bruce to be committed they had the paperwork necessary. He also gave them a prescription for an oral tranquilizer to take daily.
3 days later, Bruce showed up to his sister Angela’s house at 5:30AM, and she woke up to him standing over her bed. She lived over 400 miles away. He asked to stay with her. She was shocked to find him there and knew there was something going on with him, but she wasn’t afraid. She trusted Bruce. He had always been laid back and a good person.
By this time she was about halfway through her pregnancy. Her husband Fred was a little nervous to leave Angela home alone with Bruce given the way he’d made his appearance without any announcement, but Angela was not worried in the least. Fred went to work and Angela said she felt like having an omelette for breakfast. Bruce offered to make it for her.
She took a couple bites and couldn’t finish it. She thought maybe the eggs had gone bad. She gave the rest to her dog. That afternoon, the dog wouldn’t wake up from his nap. Angela and Fred tried to get him up for a walk, but he just ran into the wall and fell over. Angela felt a little strange too. Fred asked Bruce if he knew what was going on and he said “the dog wasn’t supposed to eat the pills, Angela. You were.”
After some prodding, Fred and Angela learned that Bruce crushed up 7 of his tranquilizer pills into Angela’s omelette, because God told him to prevent the baby from doing something. He didn’t specify, but he obviously was trying to terminate the pregnancy. Luckily, the dog, Angela, and the baby survived.
The terrifying morning
Bruce continued to see Dr. Jefson for appointments, and he told Bruce he was getting better, just stay on the meds. During this time, Bruce got accepted into a millwright program about 400 miles away from home. His father had applied for him years earlier, and the acceptance came in the middle of all this. Bruce knew it meant the world to his father, so he quit his job and agreed to go take the course. He had become gaunt. People described him as looking skeletal, hadn’t washed his hair in God knows how long, and still wasn’t sleeping.
His mother Irene visited Dr. Jefson alone to vent about the frustration and stress of it all. Then Bruce’s dad called to let him know that Bruce was again not sleeping, he was talking about the Bible again… he wasn’t sure if he was taking his medicine as directed… This was 8 days before the massacre.
Dr. Jefson strongly urged everyone in the family that he spoke with- including Bruce- that this was NOT the right time for him to go to Nelson for the apprenticeship. He knew that a big change like this could increase Bruce’s anxiety and make his symptoms worse. He left for Nelson and the morning after he arrived at his dorm, he flew back to Vancouver. The voices were telling him things like “the gap is narrowing, you’re running out of time, you are Satan, you are Zeus… kill your family.”
On January 17, 1983 Bruce’s father called Dr. Jefson to let him know that Bruce had come home and was not well. Dr. Jefson urged him to bring Bruce to the hospital to be committed and evaluated. His father said he’d take him in the morning. Before bed that night, Bruce went into his brother Ricky’s room to talk with him about the end of the world. Ricky ignored him and didn’t want to hear it… but as he got ready for bed he saw Bruce hide something under his bed. When Bruce left, he looked for himself. It was a hunting knife. Ricky became frightened. He told his father who said that he’d stay up all night with Bruce, not to worry. They were going to visit the doctor in the morning anyway.
At 4:45AM, Bruce called his sister Bobi. He told her something was happening, he had a knife, and to come over immediately with Karon but not to bring Bobi’s husband John. Bobi called Dr. Jefson who told her not to go and to call the police. She said no, and that she didn’t want to upset her father. She would let him know what happened after she got there. The voices were relentless. Telling Bruce to kill his family. God needed them. He had to send them to God.
Bruce had taken all the family’s guns from the safe in the basement earlier that evening and had them ready for the massacre. He went downstairs, picked up a rifle and prepared for what had to happen. He walked upstairs and saw his father who held his hands up and yelled “Bruce! Don’t!”
Bruce fired the gun.
The shot went through his father’s palm and into his cheek. He staggered forward, begging for his life. Bruce shot again and missed. He steadied himself and shot three more times until his father was dead.
Ricky had heard the shot and ran to the noise. He saw his father on the ground in a pool of blood. He turned his head to the left and saw Bruce holding a gun, he shot it. Ricky turned to run and Bruce followed. He shot again, this time hitting his brother who fell to the ground.
Irene awoke to the noises upstairs in her bed. She yelled down “Honey?” to her husband. She started to get out of bed to see what was happening downstairs. Bruce heard her voice and ran up the stairs 2 at a time. She opened the door, and she started to run from him. He shot her in the back. She fell backward and tried to say something, but she wasn’t forming words. He shot her once more in the head.
He went back downstairs and dragged his father and Ricky into the basement. He tried to clean up the blood, but there was so much of it. Mary on the bus had said there wouldn’t be.
Then he heard the car pull into the driveway, Karon and Bobi. Karon called to them to go ahead, that her shoe was coming off, and she had to fix it. They’d brought John. Bruce snuck out of the house and into the garage behind Karon as she adjusted her shoe. She turned to look at him and said “Bruce?” He shot her in the head once. John was still in the garage and pleaded with Bruce to stop this, to give him the gun. He tried to shoot John but missed. John ran out of the garage into the yard. John was yelling for help as he tried to get away. Bruce aimed again and fired, this time hitting John who fell to the ground.
This was where the neighbor heard the man yelling “get in the house!” Bruce forced John inside. He told him that he was the devil- John that is- and that he told them not to bring him, but that if he was there it must mean he was supposed to die too. He shot John in the face and head over and over, a total of 6 times, but he was still breathing. He found a hammer and raised it, smashing John’s face over and over until he was no longer recognizable.
Bobi had gone inside the house during this time and saw the blood. She heard her husband yelling and had run outside as well. She saw Bruce attacking her husband with a hammer and begged him to stop, even putting her hands over his face to provide a barrier. He struck one of her fingers. She turned to run and he chased her. He shot her twice. She fell to the ground. He dragged her into the garage and dropped her once inside, letting her skull crack against the concrete.
He went inside and passed by Karon who was still breathing. He shot her again. He heard John gurgle again and hit him a few more times with the hammer. Then Bobi gasped, struggling to breathe. He hit her with the hammer as well.
His job was almost done. He still had to get close enough to Angela and Todd to finish the job, but the police arrived and Bruce was arrested.
The aftermath
Bruce was sent to Riverview, a mental institution where he received around the clock care. He was initially found unfit to stand trial, but in April 1983 he was deemed fit as he continued to improve and in November of 1983 his trial began. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was committed to the Forensic Psychiatric Institute in British Columbia, where the jury believed he would be held the rest of his life.
After this, laws concerning those found not guilty by reason of insanity changed and mentally ill people with no propensity for violence were being released. Years later, Bruce made the list. In 1993, government officials helped Bruce Blackman change his name as he prepared for release from his institution. He was released in 1995 and given absolute discharge, meaning he is no longer monitored by a facility and was released back into the community. His whereabouts are unknown. There were so many times that Bruce could have been committed, by the family or the psychiatrist, but he wasn’t, and 7 lives could have been saved.
