Apple Podcasts<\/strong>: E<\/a>pisode Four – Star Cursed Love <\/a>
Schedule<\/strong>: Tuesday, Thursday<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Muriel, Neil Mackay was a child of immigrants. His parents were both Scots, refugees from the Highland Clearances<\/a> that saw vast swaths of Scotland brutally converted into sheep grazing. The people working those lands had to go. Neil Mackay\u2019s parents were among them, originally settling in Glasgow, a major seaport. But they kept going. And say what you will about immigrants, there\u2019s a difference between those who only go so far and those who keep going. The latter are often more motivated, more resourceful, more determined to succeed. The others sometimes felt more cursed than blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neil\u2019s parents met in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that wind and often ice-covered city on the Canadian prairie. The weather can be unforgivable and, soon enough, the newlyweds \u2013 Hector and Marianne — had seen enough. They fled the blizzards of Manitoba for the sunny promise of Los Angeles. Neil was but six months old. And this is where we slide into\u2026 More troubled — maybe even cursed — waters.<\/p>\n\n\n It was there, in Los Angeles — in what is now a convergence of the Santa Anna and Long Beach freeways — that Neil Sutherland Mackay experienced a life-changing event. The date was August 28, 1928. His father, Hector, who was working as a telephone cable hand, was involved in an automobile accident. Although details are scant, it appears that he was in a one-vehicle accident. Hitting, perhaps, a building or a tree or other immovable object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The official report describes the impact on Neil\u2019s father as follows: \u201cCrushing in of front of skull. Auto accident \u2013 driving own car.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The accident site was Ford Ranch, California, in the valley near Pico Rivera. Hector was immediately taken to Murphy Memorial Hospital, where he died five hours later. Hector, his wife and their two children \u2013 Neil now had a younger sister, Carolina \u2013 had been in the promised land all of five years. And now they were without their chief breadwinner. The promised land now appeared unremittingly cursed.<\/p>\n\n\n The bad news quickly made its way to Winnipeg, where it reached Neil Mackay\u2019s grandmother. The Winnipeg Evening Tribune<\/em> soon carried the story. \u201cHector Mackay, aged 39 years, former well-known resident of the city, where he was employed for a number of years by the Canadian National Railways shops at Transcona, was killed instantly Tuesday in an automobile accident at Los Angeles, California.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The “instantly” part is debatable; the only place that description occurs is in the Winnipeg Evening Tribune<\/em>. It hardly matters. Hector Mackay was undeniably dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then, a day later, there was news that Mrs. Neil Sutherland, accompanied by her daughter Neilina, was on her way to Los Angeles for the funeral. Yes. Neil Mackay’s maternal grandmother was on the way. She apparently took the train to Vancouver, B.C. and then down the West Coast. She was the woman who soon became notorious for shutting off the Mackay\u2019s water, albeit during a time of regional water shortages. Not just any water shortages. For several years the Los Angeles newspapers had been filled with lurid headlines. If you’ve seen the movie Chinatown<\/a>, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cLos Angeles aqueduct dynamited.\u201d \u201cDynamiters hunted by city police.\u201d \u201cPlan to arrest Owens Gang.\u201d \u201cAqueduct guards asked.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Those details notwithstanding — they’re hard to process when you’re only five — Neil Mackay came to hate his grandmother. But those indignities were insignificant compared to the trauma that accompanied Hector Mackay\u2019s death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The trauma of that event \u2013 when Neil was five years old \u2013 is significant. Traumatic memories persist. Studies show memories all the way back to age two for a sibling birth or personal hospitalization. And from age three for a death in the family. So yeah. It came as little surprise that Neil Mackay would write the following — almost fifty years later:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am far from being an expert in many areas but from my own personal experience I know how it feels to lose a parent. My father was unexpectedly killed in an automobile mishap when I was approximately five years old. I still have clear and unpleasant memories surrounding my father’s death but I do have the fondest remembrances or him. [\u2026]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neil S. Mackay in court documents addressing the impact of Muriel’s death on Scotty Mackay (October 1976)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Indeed, let\u2019s also remember that “[Neil] always missed his father,” according to one of his longtime friends. And then, when his mother remarried, he “gained” a stepfather who “was not kind to him\u201d according to one friend, who added, \u201cLet’s say the discipline was brutal.” The beatings were never far behind with that railroad boss stepfather, who took the family to a godforsaken railroad town called Yermo, California, smack in the Mohave desert.<\/p>\n\n\n All of which takes us to a question perhaps at the heart of this marriage between two opposites. Is there something deeper. The dad tragedy? Maybe? Yeah, definitely. They both had one. They both lost one. Love cursed. Maybe double cursed. But let\u2019s not be foolish. Love is a tricky thing. A vibe, a look, a je ne sais quoi<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n That said, by the time Neil Mackay met Muriel, he had seemingly moved on. Having arrived in Alaska in 1951 \u2013 three years before Emil Pfeil\u2019s death \u2013 he almost seamlessly transitioned from bank Vice President and owner of a funeral home, to a legal practice and then on to\u2026 property development. It was during this latter phase that he went into partnership with Muriel\u2019s family. They became so intertwined that a 1965 lawsuit names Mackay as both a co-defendant with the Pfeil\u2019s and\u2026 as their attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us also point out that by the time Neil Mackay started flirting with Muriel Pfeil, Barbara Hayes Mackay \u2013 his childhood sweetheart and longtime bride \u2013 had become his \u201clong suffering wife.\u201d That revelation comes from none other than Barbara\u2019s sister-in-law. According to a 1987 police report, Mackay\u2019s sister-in-law told APD Investigator Joseph Austin that, “NEIL and BARBARA had trouble in their marriage because MACKAY was a heavy drinker. She said they had no real marriage for a long time.” So… Cursed. Again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a temptation to call the Muriel-Neil relationship a rebound affair. The kind where the pain of the last relationship is hastily traded for the shine of something new. Except… Muriel didn’t seem to be on the rebound from anything. And Neil… Well, let’s talk about Barbara. Truth told, she remained in Neil’s life for all his days. He depended on her in ways no one could replace. Think: irreplaceable business associate. Trusted partner. Yeah. There was something strange and powerful between those two. It just wasn’t marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kill Brother, Kill Sister<\/strong><\/em> is available at Amazon<\/a>, Barnes & Noble<\/a> and other fine bookstores (paperback and ebook).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Copyright Leland E. Hale (2026<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kill Brother, Kill Sister: Episode Four: Neil Mackay Podcast: Episode Four – Star Cursed LoveApple Podcasts: Episode Four – Star…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,138,130,131,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alaskas-worst-unsolved-mass-murder","category-kill-brother-kill-sister","category-muriel-pfeil","category-neil-mackay","category-robert-pfeil"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"cursed\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/mackay-residence-lng-bch-santa-anna-freeways-commerce-ca.png\")
(Red Marker; Courtesy Google Maps)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"cursed\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/Former-Winnipeg-Man-Killed-Winnipeg-Tribune-aug-31-1928.png\")
<\/a>Bad News Travels<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Grandma On The Way<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/Los_Angeles_Evening_Post_Record_1924_06_24-crop.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Evil Stepfather<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"cursed\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/yermo-california-rail-cars.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/Funeral-Home-Anchorage_Daily_Times_1955-05-14_7.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nIt's worth noting that Muriel graduated high school in 1953. And, as mentioned elsewhere in these pages, she was featured in multiple news pieces. Not just during high school days, but afterwards, like this headshot from her European stay. Did Neil Mackay see them? <\/pre>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/Roll-Never-Taken-Anchorage_Daily_Times_1958-07-14-fix.png\")
Rebound Relationship<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe Book: Kill Brother, Kill Sister<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n