Gilbert Paul Jordan: The Boozing Barber

Gilbert Paul Jordan, born Gilbert Paul Elsie in Vancouver on December 12, 1931, became known as "The Boozing Barber." He was a Canadian serial killer linked to the deaths of between eight and ten women between 1965 and 1988, making him the first Canadian known to use alcohol as a murder weapon.

His criminal record began way back in 1952, and it includes convictions for things like rape, indecent assault, abduction, hit and run, drunk driving, and car theft. In 1976, a Dr. Tibor Bezeredi diagnosed Jordan with an antisocial personality, describing him as someone whose conduct is maladjusted in terms of social behavior, with a disregard for the rights of others, often leading to unlawful activities.

Jordan is thought to have started his serial killing in 1965. His victims were First Nations women, mostly found in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The pattern was typically that he would find women in bars, buy them drinks, or pay them for sex, and then encourage them to drink with him. Once they passed out, he would pour more liquor down their throats. These deaths were often reported as alcohol poisoning, and police didn't pay much attention, partly because some of the victims were struggling with alcoholism. While newspapers often labeled these women as prostitutes, not all of them were involved in prostitution.

He himself was known to drink over 50 ounces of vodka daily. The first known death by alcohol poisoning while with Jordan was in 1965, when a switchboard operator named Ivy Rose was found naked and dead in a Vancouver hotel with a blood alcohol level of 0.51. No charges were filed then.

Court proceedings showed he sought out about 200 women per year for binge-drinking episodes between 1980 and 1988, also seeking sexual gratification. The Crown provided evidence linking him to the deaths of six other First Nations women, including Mary Johnson in 1980, Barbara Paul in 1981, and Mary Johns in 1982, who died in his barbershop with a blood alcohol level of .76. He was only convicted of manslaughter for one woman's death and served nine years of a commuted fifteen-year sentence. Gilbert Paul Jordan died on July 7, 2006, in Victoria, British Columbia.