Standing in the same spot two brothers were hung exactly 90 years ago to the minute was an experience a group of paranormal investigators will never forget. On Sept. 23, 1936, at 1 a.m., Arthur and Daniel Bannister were hung with their backs to each other at the Dorchester Jail in Dorchester, N.B. The brothers were convicted of murdering three members of a Moncton-area family in January of that year during a botched kidnapping scheme and extortion attempt. It’s believed their mother, May, was the mastermind behind the plot. Their execution was the last double hanging in the province’s history and the crime made headlines across Canada. A four-person team from Maritime Paranormal spent two nights inside the jail, now a bed and breakfast and tour site, for a full paranormal investigation. “The first night was a little slow, but then the second night, it really ramped up,” said founder and lead paranormal investigator Conor Stiles. Paranormal investigator Kristie Plewright said things were calm without much activity on the first night. “But then last night we felt a burst of energy running through the building around one o’clock in the morning. It was pretty intense,” said Plewright. “One of our team, she was almost in tears at one point.” The Dorchester Jail is owned by Bill Steele and Natasha Marsh, who are no strangers to playing host to paranormal groups. “We’ve had probably close to 50 teams in the last nine, almost ten years that we’ve been here. We’ve also had 14 paranormal television shows filmed here in the jail since we’ve owned it as well,” said Marsh. “The interest is definitely there.” Stiles said the group were upstairs where the hangings took place and they heard a train go by right at 1 a.m. Stiles, Plewright, Ben Ainsley and Mandy Parson then went downstairs where the bodies would have been hanging through a hole in the floor on death row. “And the energy just shifted. It was very intense, emotional,” said Stiles. “It was a very cool experience.” Marsh said her and Steele have seen a rise in interest in “dark tourism” over the past decade or so, but realize it’s not for everybody. “A lot of people enjoy and are open to the kind of the darker side of history that maybe not everyone is into or interested in and we’re happy to share that with those that are interested,” said Marsh. It’s not just the early morning of Sept. 23 when the energy in the building can be felt, she said. “It’s actually a few days before and a few days after. You see a kind of an influx and an energy shift throughout the building. It’s not necessarily nasty or dark or anything, but you definitely feel a sense of shifting in the building,” said Marsh. After they were pronounced dead, the Bannister boys were placed together in a single pine coffin. The same ropes used to hang the brothers lowered their coffin into the ground. The Bannisters are buried on the jail grounds and Marsh has a rough idea where they are. “We’ve actually been told there could be possibly up to 27 men buried in the backyard, not just Arthur and Daniel. But in the future, we do plan to locate everybody using ground penetrating radar. That way we can find them without disrupting anybody,” said Marsh. Stiles founded Maritime Paranormal in 2024 to cover the dark and rich history of the Maritimes. On Tuesday, the morning of the anniversary, the men on the team slept in solitary confinement while the women bunked down on death row. They had a competition to see who could stay in their cells the longest. “The girls won,” said Plewright. As for Marsh, she sleeps in the jail every night with her family, something she’s gotten used to, mostly. “It has it’s eerie moments, definitely,” Marsh said. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
