Stefan Swyryda
Section 1, Lot 1695
Meadowvale Cemetery, Brampton
Expansion of the jail’s main building in 1983 resulted in the removal of the remains of a 37-year-old farm worker, who was convicted of murder and subsequently hanged and interred in the Brampton Jail courtyard on February 11, 1909. He was re-interred in an unmarked grave in Meadowvale Cemetery on August 11, 1983. Stefan Swyryda was convicted of murdering 17-year-old Oloekh Leutik of Austria, in 1908. Both men were itinerant farmers living on a farm in Mississauga. Following the discovery of Leutik’s body, Swyryda, with blood on his clothes and a dollar in his pocket, was arrested for the murder. Apparently, the dollar was one Leutik had earned for the sale of his accordion. After delivering its guilty verdict, the jury at Swyryda’s trial is reported to have asked for clemency in sentencing. The judge evidently didn’t agree. Stefan Swyryda went to the gallows at 8:00 a.m. on February 11, 1909, protesting his innocence to the last. Swyryda’s body was discovered in August of 1983, following a search of the jail yard that included the use of a divining rod.