by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Ever sense that there’s a whole world of activity beneath the surface of what’s apparent? Us news reporters are here to uncover that world for you, as well as expose corrupt politicians, rat out biker bosses and generally serve and protect society from total anarchy. And then we go for lunch. Such is the frustration at getting the secret facts that I sometimes wonder if us media folk don’t actually harm things by offering a false sense of security against well-hidden injustice.

So many mysteries, so little time. These are some of the local mysteries that itch me like a tick on my shins. I mention these because, with the help of readers or a bit of testimony from a properly placed source, they could be solved.

Ira Einhorn’s Montreal connection. In 1979, Philadelphia’s lefty loudmouth and mystic man Ira Einhorn was found at home with the body of his girlfriend stuck in a trunk. It seemed impossible that such a sanctimonious high-profile do-gooder could possibly be involved in such infamy. So unsuspected was Einhorn that cops had waited 18 months before searching his apartment for the girlfriend gone missing. One might assume that cops finding your dead lover hidden in your apartment might get you locked up, but Einhorn had friendly witnesses who seemed to agree that the CIA had planted the body to discredit his heroic efforts to discredit the establishment.

So a judge, quite incredibly, allowed Einhorn out on $4,000 (U.S.) bond. The cash was doled out by high-powered Montreal socialite Barbara Bronfman, whose former husband Charles is about as big as businessmen get. Einhorn snuck up to Montreal and lived undercover here in 1981 before eventually skedaddling to Europe where he, rather amazingly, lived unmolested for 20 years and successfully battled many extradition attempts. He was tried in absentia and found guilty and eventually forced behind bars in the States.

Nowadays, dark conspiracy theories litter the Internet, speculating on why members of Canada’s top business family might have aided and abetted a guy who murdered his girlfriend. Edgar and Barbara split long ago and I haven’t bumped into Barbara on the charity ball circuit, but if I do, I’ll ask her about it.

Air Canada’s role in the AIDS crisis Gaetan Dugas would have been 50 this year, had the Air Canada steward not died of AIDS in 1984. So Dugas never knew that he’d get the rap for being the Typhoid Mary of the modern era. According to And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts - a respected AIDS authority who was later felled by the malady himself - Dugas contracted the killer bug in 1981 in Paris. He then almost single-handedly brought it over here, reportedly being to blame for 40 of the first 248 reported cases in North America.

Depending on which account you believe, Dugas - who boasted having 250 sex partners per year - either totally abstained from sex after being diagnosed, or else would proudly announce to his lovers that he had infected them during the post-coital pillow talk. Many of those who could answer are dead, but surely others lurk around with the knowledge of Dugas’ role in the health epidemic.

Montreal’s Vampire Rapist Wayne Clifford Boden seems to have incurred little outrage, considering that he was one of the city’s worst-ever sex criminals. At the root of his misdeeds was his breast-biting fetish. Boden explained that he inadvertently put his hand on the neck of his female friends as he bit, which caused the demise of Montrealers Norma Vaillancourt, a 21-year-old teacher, Shirley Audette, jewellery store clerk Marielle Archambault and Jean Wray from 1968 to 1970. Boden moved to Calgary, killed a woman using the same m.o. and was caught soon after, as experts matched his teeth marks to the bites found on the women’s bodies. None of his victims were drunk or stoned, and few struggled prior to being strangled. Boden served a life sentence after confessing to the murders… all except one. Strangely, Boden always denied killing Vaillancourt. :

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