The History of Gilbert Paul Jordan

  • Abduction

    Police found a five-year-old First Nations girl in his car. Although charged with abduction, Jordan was never convicted. The case ended in a stay of proceedings.
  • Period: to

    Timeline of Events

  • Theft and Sexual Assault

    Jordan lured two women into his car with an invitation to drink. Police charged him with sexual assault and theft. He was convicted on the theft charge, but acquitted of sexual assault.
  • First Murder Victim

    A switchboard operator named Ivy Rose Oswald accompanied Paul on one of his drinking binges. The next day, her nude body was found in a Vancouver hotel room, with a blood alcohol level of 0.51. Oswald’s death was ruled accidental. A few days after her murder, Gilbert Paul Elsie applied to change his name to Gilbert Paul Jordan and was approved.
  • Dangerous Offender

    Jordan was charged with Indecent public acts and ndecent assault. The Crown tried to have him declared a dangerous offender, but Jordan's lawyer intervened, and the request was denied.
  • Abduction

    He abducted a woman from a mental institution. Police charged him on several counts, including kidnapping, and sexual intercourse with a feeble-minded person. He was sentenced to twenty-six months for assault.
  • Examination

    Jordan was examined by Dr. Tibor Bezeredi as part of a court proceeding. Dr. Bezeredi diagnosed Jordan as having an anti-social personality, defined by Dr. Bezeredi as "a person whose conduct is maladjusted in terms of social behaviour; disregard for the rights of others which often results in unlawful activities".
  • Death of three women

    From July 1982 to June 1985, three women were killed as a result of alchohol poisoning at the Slocan Barber Shop (Jordan's barber shop). The coroner ruled all three cases to be accidental because the victims were known alcoholics and prostitutes, who were considered to be at a higher risk for such deaths.
  • Vanessa Lee Buckner

    Jordan came under suspicion he spent the night of October 11 drinking with a female companion by the name of Vanessa Lee Buckner at the Niagara Hotel in Vancouver. Several times, Jordan went out to buy alcohol. At six a.m. on October 12, he left the hotel for the last time. At 7:40 a.m., police received an anonymous phone call. In a room at the Niagara Hotel, they found the naked body of Vanessa Lee Buckner, 27 with a blood alchohol level of 0.91.
  • Edna Shade

    When the nude body of Edna Shade turned up at another hotel fingerprints matched those of Gilbert Paul Jordan. Edna Shade had died of alcohol poisoning. Police placed Jordan under surveillance.
    For eleven days, police watched Jordan. During that time, he took four intended victims to hotel rooms in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Each time, police interrupted the drinking binges.
  • Last Attempted Victim

    Police arrested the Boozing Barber as he was poisoning his last attempted victim. She had lost consciousness. When police entered the room, Jordan was lying on top of her, forcing the contents of a large bottle of vodka down her throat.
  • Back on the streets

    At the age of seventy-two, Jordan was once more a free man. He immediately violated his parole, and was re-arrested at a hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
  • Death

    The Boozing Barber died in Victoria, British Columbia