On Nov. 30, 1983, the burned and bloodied body of George Leeman, a down-and-out plumber, was found in a park in Saint John, New Brunswick. Remarkably, six months later — record timing — Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie, two men from the rough side of the city, were found guilty of Leeman’s murder and sentenced to prison for life in May 1984. The only problem was, they didn’t do it. Gary Dimmock has investigated the case, first with the Telegraph-Journal, and now with the Ottawa Citizen, since 1996. Innocence Canada’s Jerome Kennedy, who was instrumental in getting their convictions quashed, credited Dimmock’s reporting with helping to get Bobby and Wally exonerated in 2024 — 40 years later.

PART ONE

SAINT JOHN, N.B — “People ask me what it’s like to do a life sentence,” says Robert Ma

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