The Esther Castellini Murder Case: Interview with Eve Lazarus // Nathaniel G. Moore

When forty-year-old Esther Castellani died a slow and agonizing death in Vancouver in 1965, the official cause was at first undetermined. The day after Esther's funeral, her husband Rene, packed up his girlfriend, Lolly; his daughter, Jeannine; and Lolly's son, Don, in the company car and took off for Disneyland. If not for the doggedness of the doctor who treated Esther, Rene—then a charismatic and handsome CKNW radio personality—would have been free to marry Lolly, who was the station's pretty twenty-something receptionist. Instead, Rene was charged with capital murder for poisoning his wife with arsenic-laced milkshakes in one of British Columbia's most sensational criminal cases of the century. Nathaniel G. Moore conducted this interview with author Eve Lazarus by email in late 2019.

Nathaniel G. Moore: Canada, like the United States, is completely fascinated by our national shame characters, a term I just invented as a panacea for a term meaning "the complete opposite of a national treasure." What do you think it is for the obsessive podcast-binger, and their predecessors who find gruesome reality-based stories so fascinating?

Eve Lazarus: Humans have always had a fascination for the macabre and the scary. Before podcasts we’d line up for a front row seat at a murder trial or a spot at a public hanging. Personally, I love true crime because it’s such a multi-layered story. You’ve got the story of the victim, the story of the murderer if it’s solved, the police investigation, the forensics, and you’ve got time and place—where did the murder take place and why did it take place—was it premeditated or random? Then you’ve got the social forces that were going on at the time such as a war or depression, and themes such as racism, domestic abuse or gang violence that helped to inform the crime.

NGM: What was the research for Murder by Milkshake like after you knew you were on your way to writing an entire book on the subject?

EL:I spent many hours with Jeannine (who was 11 when her father murdered her mother in 1965) so I could tell the story from her perspective. Many themes started to emerge when I started the research, and I ended up finding some of these threads really fascinating. Some of the ones I explored in a lot of detail were Vancouver in the ‘60sand cultural events like the Beatles concert in August 1964, whereRene was a broadcaster for CKNW and Jeannine and Esther were in the audience. There was arsenic itself, and why it is such a diabolically clever way to kill somebody, the divorce laws at the time which certainly didn’t discourage murdering your spouse, and then there was early coffee house and beatnik culture, street photography, and a really messed up penal system.

NGM: What were your early impressions of the case?

EL: Up until Jeannine was in her early 20s she believed in her father’s innocence. And then she didn’t. Rene Castellani was convicted entirely on circumstantial evidence, and probably because he was having an affair. When I started researching the story, I wasn’t sure that he was guilty. After going through a few piles of court transcripts and interviews from the police investigation, and talking to dozens of people who knew him, there was no doubt in my mind that he was guilty.

NGM: Without getting into too much detail for obvious reasons, were there any legal issues prior to publishing this book?

EL:No. Any time you’re writing non-fiction you have to be really careful that you are portraying the information accurately. I was obsessive about getting all quotes correct and in context, clarifying information with experts, and double sourcing everything I did.

NGM: There's a certain noir vibe to this story. What were some of the more unusual elements you discovered which made you think, 'No one will believe this actually happened ?

EL: First, that Rene was such an over-the-top kind of psychopath. His exploits were so bizarre and brazen—playing the Maharajahof Alleebaba the Bowmac stunt, and taking out a mortgage in his and Lolly’s married name while Esther was still alive—that they often overshadowed the rest of the story. I thought it was important to give Esther back her voice as much as possible, so in some ways, the actual murder played a back seat to the human side of the story.

NGM: What was your relationship with Jeannine Castellani like before the book started? How did you get in touch with her? What is the relationship like now?

EL: Jeannine and her daughter Ashley came to my book launch for Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver’s First Forensic Investigator in 2017. It was held at the Vancouver Police Museum, and we had a cash bar set up in the autopsy suite. So, my first meeting withJeannine was over a glass of wine standing between the true crime exhibit that featured her mother and the morgue where her body was brought after it was exhumed. We arranged to meet the following weekend and after hours of listening to the story from Jeannine’s perspective, I knew I wanted to write the book. We’ve become good friends during the process of writing the book, she has joined me in talks, and I really do believe the book has helped to bring her some closure.

Eve Lazarus is a North Vancouver-based journalist, author and blogger. Her passion for non-traditional history and fascination with murder has led to seven books of nonfiction, including the BC bestsellers Blood, Sweat, and Fear, a 2018 finalist for Best National True Crime book, Arthur Ellis Awards; Cold Case Vancouver, 2016 finalist for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award, BC Book Prizes; and Sensational Vancouver, recipient of a City of Vancouver Heritage Award. Her latest book is Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer, a #1 BC bestseller. Eve teaches nonfiction writing for Simon Fraser University’s continuing education program, and she blogs obsessively at Every Place Has a Story.

Nathaniel G. Moore is the author of Goodbye Horses and a few other books. He’s currently working on a book-length project based on his 2018 long-read in Toronto Life about his grandfather’s cult.

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