The Community EditionTHE LIFE, DEATH AND DISAPPEARANCE OF REGGIE WHITE
The story of Reginald “Reggie” White is as close to a real-life ghost story as possible in the Waterloo Region.
White was the last man to be executed in Waterloo Region, hanged on Apr. 25, 1940, for a brutal double murder that shocked the community, a strange mix of crime, courage and local legend that proves local history isn’t always dry.
Born in England in 1904, Reggie White moved to Hespeler and lived a modest life as a farmhand.
Local historian Lary Turner, Chair of the Townline Community Organization and Hespeler Heritage Centre, remembers that people who knew White described him as “mentally a little slow,” but he was also remembered for a remarkable act of bravery—saving the sheriff’s son from drowning in the Mill Pond. That moment earned him local admiration and a brief flicker of hero status.
In fall 1939, White committed one of the bloodiest crimes in the Waterloo Region’s history. He murdered John Milroy, an elderly farmer, and Milroy’s blind sister, Annie, with an axe in their rural home near Branchton Rd.
The motive remains a mystery since White offered no explanation. The crime scene was chilling—both victims found in the parlor, bloodied and lifeless, with a table set for lunch still untouched.
The investigation didn’t take long. White had been seen near the Milroy property and was later linked to their stolen car, which had turned up abandoned in the Bechtel bush near Hespeler.
He stayed calm during the trial, offered no defense, and remained silent as Justice James Makins sentenced him to death. The jury took just over three hours to reach a guilty verdict.
White was executed at the Kitchener courthouse jail, and his body was reportedly buried in the central courtyard, along with the bodies of James Allison and Stoyko Boyeff, two other condemned men who had been hanged at the jail.
But here’s where things get weird—decades later, when the site was being prepped for redevelopment, archaeologists were brought in to locate and rehome the remains of the three executed men. They found James Allison and Stoyko Boyeff. But Reggie White? No trace.
Multiple digs, advanced testing, and expert teams could not locate their grave. And because Ontario law treats any site believed to contain human remains as a cemetery, the land couldn’t be fully developed.
Building within 15 feet of a suspected grave requires a formal burial site for investigation.
So a decades-old mystery is still affecting what can be built downtown.
Local lore has filled in some blanks.
According to Lary Turner, two senior members of the Centre’s Board who went to school with White shared a story passed down through the community. They claimed White’s family retrieved his body after the burial, had it cremated and scattered his ashes on a small island in the Mill Pond behind their home. Turner says the island was kept neat for years, decorated with a small wooden cannon and a flagpole.
“I cannot authenticate the urban legend as being true,” Turner admits, “but I have personally seen the island so decorated many decades ago.”
The Reggie White story is one of those stories people whisper about.
Out of respect for his family, it was not talked about much at the time. But over the years, the story has become something of a local legend.
White’s tale is full of contradictions: a man who saved a life, then took two; a community that mourned both the victims and the shame of the execution; and a quirky twist that still affects what can be built downtown.
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