The Guay affair involved another spectacular crime. On September 9, 1949, a plane exploded over Sault-aux-Cochons, a town located at the confluence of little St. Francis River and the St. Lawrence. The plane had been scheduled to leave Montreal for Ancienne-Lorette (a Quebec City suburb) before heading to Baie-Comeau and Sept-Îles. The entire airline crew and all the passengers perished in the explosion, including Rita Morel, the wife of Albert Guay.

The marriage of Albert Guay and Rita Morel was a happy union until the birth of their first and only child, whereupon both embarked on a series of extramarital affairs. After a few stormy attempts at reconciliation, the couple moved back in together. However, Guay was still madly in love with one of his mistresses, Marie-Ange Robitaille. When she dropped him, he promised to leave Rita Morel.

It was during this period (September 1949) that Guay, a watchmaker-jeweller, asked his wife Rita to travel to Baie-Comeau to pick up some jewels. He purchased the plane ticket himself and, in what was a common practice at the time, took out $10,000 worth of life insurance on his wife. Guay had to insist, because Rita balked at making the trip. She finally agreed to do her husband the favour.

Before take-off, Guay, with the help of Généreux Ruest, made a bomb that he hid in a package. He got Marguerite Ruest-Pitre, Généreux's sister, to take the package to the airport in Ancienne-Lorette. When the plane exploded, Guay thought he had killed two birds with one stone: get rid of his wife and pocket the insurance money.

	Debris from an airplane explosion above Sault-aux-Cochons, 1949. [1996-1183]
	© Musée de la civilisation

His plan came apart, though, when witnesses were able to identify Ms. Pitre. An investigation revealed all the events which led to the explosion of the airplane. Albert Guay, Marguerite Ruest-Pitre and Généreux Ruest were convicted of the murder of 23 people and were hung.

		Emission spectrograph manufactured by Bausch & Lomb, c. 1950 (242 [...]
		© Musée de la civilisation

The joint efforts of Dr. Jean-Marie Roussel and chemist Robert Péclet, both with Montreal's Laboratoire de médecine légale et de police technique [Laboratory of forensic medicine and science], made it possible to identify the causes of the explosion. With the help of an emission spectrograph, a device used to record visible spectra on a photographic plate, they were able to identify various substances in the composition of the explosives samples taken at the scene of the crime.

	"Causes célèbres" album showing various cases and lab analyses, 1922-1952. [...]
	© Musée de la civilisation

The case captivated the Quebec public, as evidenced by the photos and newspaper clippings contained in the album "Causes célèbres" of the Laboratoire de médecine légale et de police technique. In addition, Roger Lemelin, author and friend of Guay, turned the story into a novel: "Le crime d'Ovide Plouffe", which was later brought to the screen by filmmaker Denys Arcand.

Source :

• Dollard Dansereau, Causes célèbres du Québec. Les grands procès de l'histoire du Québec. 1990, 227 p.