Husband tells of life on lam
Wife hid from U.S. justice for 15 years
Even though she had evaded capture for 15 years, setting up a new life — and new identity — in rural Manitoba, American fugitive Jean Terese Keating at times wondered when authorities might show up on the farm she shared with her Canadian common-law husband, Leonard McPherson.
“Are they comin’ or what?” Keating, accused of causing a fatal crash in Oregon in 1997, would say.
Last week, authorities announced that 54-yearold Keating’s run from the law had ended after RCMP received a tip that a woman had been overheard at a local bar boasting about her flight from justice in the U.S. Keating is back behind bars in Oregon awaiting trial.
Speaking publicly for the first time, McPherson, 65, who admits he could face criminal charges for aiding Keating, told Postmedia News he has no regrets about cohabiting with a woman on the lam, insisting that Oregon prosecutors were “bullies” and police had their facts wrong. And, besides, he was head-overheels in love.
“I don’t regret what I did. I hope Jean doesn’t either,” he said by phone.
McPherson said he and Keating first locked eyes at a bar in Clackamas County in Oregon, in February 1997. McPherson, an electrician in heavy industry, was in the midst of a three-year work stint in the state.
“She picked me up in a bar one night,” said McPherson, who summed up Keating’s personality as “domineering.”
Two months later, on a Sunday afternoon, a terrible collision occurred on a stretch of Interstate 5. A vehicle driven by 65-year-old Jewel Oline Anderson was side-swiped by another car, police said, causing Anderson to lose control and collide with an oncoming car. Anderson, a great-grandmother on her way to church, died at the scene.
Crash investigators alleged that Keating was the driver who caused the crash, and a grand jury indicted her in Linn County on first-degree manslaughter, drunk-driving and reckless-driving charges.
But in March 1998, with a trial pending, Keating’s lawyer reported that he had lost contact with her. The court issued a bench warrant for her arrest.
According to McPherson, his work stint had come to an end the month before and Keating decided to cross the border — her two children, then ages one and three, in tow — to be with him in Manitoba.
McPherson declined to say how she crossed the border or whether he had any role in the planning but defended her decision to flee the U.S.
When prosecutors are bullying you, “What do you do? You run,” he said.
Plus, he said, Keating couldn’t take the chance of being hauled off to prison for 10 years.
“A mother with two kids needs a chance to raise them,” he said.
Lisa White, a Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman, said Tuesday it is still unclear how Keating crossed the border.
The couple and the two children settled in a rented farm just outside of Minnedosa, Man., where McPherson was born and raised. The town of 2,500, about two hours west of Winnipeg, boasts that it is the province’s “most beautiful.”
While McPherson continued to work — for a time, he travelled to and from oilfields in Fort McMurray and at another point, he worked on the Keystone Pipeline in Manitoba — Keating tended the farm and raised the children.
“She was a damn good mother and a damn good wife,” he said.
Several residents of Minnedosa and the nearby village of Clanwilliam were very skittish about talking about Keating this week, but this much they shared: Keating was known by townsfolk as “Jean McPherson.” She was a “friendly” and “happy-go-lucky” gal, who could be seen puttering around town, dropping in at this store or that. On occasion, she’d visit the bar at the Minnedosa Inn, where she’d grab a sandwich and have a chat with other patrons.
She did have run-ins with the law in Canada, however, including a conviction for impaired driving.
Hardware store owner Kathy Lane told the Statesman Journal newspaper in Oregon that Keating would come into the store smelling of booze.
McPherson insists that for 15 years, he and Keating didn’t tell a soul about Keating’s past run in with the law in Oregon. McPherson didn’t even tell his brother who lived 50 kilometres away. Keating didn’t dare write letters to her two sisters back in the U.S., for fear of getting caught. The children knew they were from Oregon but not much more.
But authorities said it was loose lips that led to Keating’s capture.
RCMP in Manitoba said they received a tip that a woman at a bar had talked about getting away with a fatal crash in the U.S. several years earlier. The tip was passed along to an investigator with the RCMP’s Red River Integrated Border Enforcement Team. Authorities confirmed that the woman who everyone in town knew as “Jean McPherson” was not a Canadian citizen.
Her fingerprints were compared with those of Jean Keating in Oregon and confirmed to be a match.
In early April, CBSA inland enforcement officers swooped in on the family farm and arrested Keating. She was kept in detention until June, when she was deported back to the U.S.
When Oregon police officials announced last week that Keating was back in custody, Anderson’s family issued a statement, saying they were “thankful that, finally, after 16 years of her running, hiding and torment, our families will have some closure.”
Anderson’s daughter, Linda, had from time to time searched for clues to Keating’s whereabouts using ancestry.com and other websites, according to the Oregonian newspaper.
At Keating’s court appearance Friday, where a judge set her bail amount at $5 million, Lisa Anderson described Keating as having a “smirky grin” on her face, the newspaper reported.
Back in Manitoba, residents said even though they had grown accustomed to American draft dodgers escaping to Canada over the years, news of Keating’s arrest was still shocking.
“A lot of people were surprised she was wanted on all these charges in the States,” said Brion Pollon, a municipal councillor in the area.
McPherson, who is barred from communicating with Keating, said he feels sorry for the Anderson family’s loss.
“I’m sorry this lady passed away. When you lose a mother, it is very hard. When you lose a mother in an accident, it’s harder,” he said.
But McPherson maintains Keating is innocent of the charges. He also finds farfetched the allegation that Keating’s mutterings at a bar somehow led to her capture.
“It’s a nice story to make the RCMP look good,” he said.
He believes Keating’s daughter’s application earlier this year for a new U.S. government ID card is what likely tipped off authorities to Keating’s location.
Whatever it was, Keating’s children are “unlikely” to be able to fully understand their mother’s decision to flee to Canada 15 years ago, McPherson acknowledged.
Asked if he ever had any thoughts about turning Keating over to the authorities, McPherson didn’t hesitate with his reply.
“Guess you’ve never been in love.”