Windermere Basin Park sits under the Burlington Skyway, a quiet refuge amid the calamity and blur of traffic bound for Toronto and Niagara.
Besides dog walkers, locals and birdwatchers, it is largely unknown.
It is where the remains of murder victim Jammar Allison, 26, were found.
Allison vanished from the parking lot of Rexdale Blvd. eatery Da House of Jerk on June 1, 2018 when he was violently abducted by three men.
At the time of his disappearance, an underworld war was raging in southern Ontario with a bloody back and forth that may have only ended with Mob boss Pat Musitano getting whacked last summer.
Why dump Allison’s body in the weeds of the park?
“Who knows why? It’s out of the way and a lot of my fellow officers didn’t know where it was either,” Hamilton Police Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk told the Toronto Sun.
Filled with tall grass, it is “secluded” and whoever left Allison’s body would “have to have knowledge of the park,” Bereziuk said.
In recent years, traditional organized crime have outsourced their killing to street gangs. Clean hands are happy hands.
With the city’s long history of underworld intrigue, that begs the question: Was Allison dumped in Hamilton for a reason? Like a frisky cat dumping a bird at his owner’s feet to show what a good boy he is?
“That theory is as good as the next,” Bereziuk said. “Certainly, right now there’s nothing definitive.”
The soccer-loving Allison, a young father, wasn’t exactly squeaky clean.
He had been arrested in a massive March 2017 crack cocaine bust in Thunder Bay but Toronto detectives pooh-poohed any connection to his kidnapping 15 months later.
In addition, at the time of his death, he had been trying to get an apparel business off the ground.
“Was it over his new business? Was it over drugs? Or was it something else?” Beruziuk said.
That “something else” may have been an underworld settling of accounts. At this point, it isn’t clear if Allison had even the most remote connection to gangland machinations.
But Bereziuk conceded, it remains a possibility.
Police have identified the remains of murder victim Jammar Allison.
From southern Ontario to Mexico, scores of bodies have hit the pavement in connection to the fight for the rich rackets here.
Of the trio suspected of killing Mob scion Angelo “Big Ang” Musitano in 2017, only one is believed to be still alive.
At least 10 Mob-connected people were slain in the ensuing bloodshed, including at least one innocent woman, which the Mob does not take kindly to. No civilians in the morgue, please.
Allison’s remains began turning up with a single bone discovered by a citizen walking in the park in October 2019. A year later, more remains were found in another area of the park.
After the first find, boffins at the Centre of Forensic Sciences couldn’t identify the unfortunate victim. Recent testing confirmed the remains were those of Allison.
His three kidnappers, who fled in a black Dodge Caravan, were only described as Black.
A van suspected in the June 1, 2018 abduction of Jammar Allison at Humberwood and Rexdale Blvds.
For decades, traditional organized crime has loomed like a dark spectre over Hamilton. Some of that reputation has been deserved, much of it hasn’t.
But it is what it is.
There has been no shortage of jokes about how many bodies wearing cement shoes are in the bottom of Hamilton Harbour.
That’s local lore. The mysterious murder of Jammar Allison is here, right now and quite possibly the latest salvo in an endless drama.
And bloodshed is always the star.
Hamilton Police are urging anyone with information to call 905-546-2288 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.
Please share this
No comments:
Post a Comment