A hair-raising walk in haunted Toronto

An incredible fireball lit up the pre-dawn skies on Dec. 24, 1863. So forceful was the blast of the exploding boiler at the Gooderham and Worts distillery in Toronto’s east end, The Globe reported that not only were chunks of metal “thrown 50 yards away,” but also “stones, weighing from 50 to 100 pounds, were hurled high in the air.” Stones, it should be added, that had previously made up the building’s castle-like walls.

One “unfortunate man,” John Kingston, found “lying amidst the debris” was “so mangled, spattered and disfigured” that he was “scarcely recognizable.” When his wife and sister took their first look at the remains, “their wild shrieks of horror and grief, and their looks of agony and despair, were enough to make strong men weep.”