What does it take to escape a life of crime? Two journalists dive deep into the worlds of gang violence and the courtroom of public opinion, revealing unsettling truths about justice, identity and redemption. Anaïs Renevier‘s The Alice Crimmins Case, explores a case that still haunts American justice, the disappearance in 1965 Queens of two children led to their mother’s condemnation not just in court, but in the unforgiving court of public opinion when a woman’s appearance, sexuality and defiance of social norms transformed her from grieving mother to presumed murderer. Peter Edwards has made a career exploring criminal underworlds and the organised crime cartels that cause chaos and harm, most recently in The Wolf Pack. What drives and binds these societies, and what is the cost for those who want to escape?
Moderated by Lisa Fitterman.
Renevier’s appearance is supported by Institut français du Canada.
New York, Summer of 1965. Two children disappear . . .
Joined by award-winning Mexican journalist Luis Nájera, leading organized-crime author Peter Edwards introduces a motley assortment of millennial bikers, gangsters and Mafia whose bloody trail of murders and schemes gone wrong led to the arrival in Canada of the world's most dangerous criminal organizations: the drug cartels of Mexico.
A man watching the Euro Cup on a restaurant patio is shot dead on a busy Sunday afternoon in Toronto. Another dies in a sidewalk ambush just outside a bustling college campus.
Peter Edwards is the organized-crime beat reporter for the Toronto Star and the bestselling author of seventeen non-fiction books and one young adult novel. His works have been published in four languages.
Anaïs Renevier is a French independent journalist and true crime writer. She regularly travels across the United States on investigative assignments, telling the country’s story from the perspective of those living at its margins.
Sun, June 29, 2025
A book signing will follow this event
Emmanuel College, Room 119
75 Queen's Park Crescent, Toronto, ON
