Midnight Massacre: The Donnelly Murders (2005)

February 3rd, 1880. Lucan, Ontario. On a brutally cold night, a horrific plot is about to be executed. Using darkness to conceal their movements, a secret society made up of locals converges on the Donnelly homestead. Many are disguised to conceal their identities. In a savage attack, all four family members at home are cruelly bludgeoned to death, their bodies left to be discovered amongst the smoldering remains of the farmhouse. The mob then continues to another farm where in cold blood they shoot and kill yet another member of the Donnelly family. In the ensuing investigation, two eyewitnesses to this massacre testify in two of the most sensational trials in Canadian history. Yet, no one is ever found guilty and there are no convictions made. Against overwhelming evidence, the people arrested for this mass murder walk free. How could this have happened? 125 years later, cold case detective Michael Boyd attempts to reconstruct the events and answer questions about what really occurred that fateful night and why no one was brought to justice. Using modern ballistic testing and scientific content analysis this case is examined deeper than ever before.