Emanuel Jaques Courtroom Sketch

Back in 1977, I was living in Toronto, Canada and beginning my career as an illustrator. I took the occasional job as a courtroom artist for local newspapers and television. The tragic story of the murder of shoeshine boy Emanuel Jaques has been the basis of novels, short stories, a documentary, a play, songs and even a children’s book on the dangers of abduction. His torture and killing, over a 12-hour period, above a seedy Toronto body rub parlor outraged citizens who demanded change to Toronto’s Yonge Street strip, which by 1977 resembled New York’s grimy 42nd Street with its many X-rated movie theaters, massage parlors, porn shops and prostitutes.

I sat in the courtroom and drew the scene for a few weeks and published the drawings in the Toronto Globe and Mail, including this one above of the four defendants. The forensic examination on Emanuel’s body revealed he’d been sexually abused, with the autopsy report of Dr. Francis MacDonald stating ligature marks and bruising on his neck were a sign of strangulation, with drowning being the cause of death. Needle marks were found in his arms where the killers injected him with some substance, and tears in his rectum were further evidence of rape. Read more if you dare.

Needless to say, I was disgusted, burned out and eventually ‘escaped’ to Florida to recover.