The strange and dark tale of the other Nova Scotian Alexander Keith

While Alexander Keith became famous as a Halifax brewer and politician, his namesake nephew became notorious for his life of deceit and crime.

Alexander Keith Jr. had a long rap sheet, but his biggest crime was an insurance fraud scheme that led to the deaths of dozens of people in an explosion almost 150 years ago in Germany.

"I think of him now as the representative of a certain kind of opportunist who has no conscience and who is willing to carry out the most savage destruction of human life in order to maintain his comforts," said Ann Larabee, author of The Dynamite Fiend: The Chilling Story of Alexander Keith Jr.

Larabee is a professor emeritus of American studies at Michigan State University who specializes in the history of terrorism and the mechanisms of terror. She travelled to Halifax and Germany to research her book. 

Keith Jr. was born in Scotland in 1827, but his family moved to Halifax when he was nine.

Larabee said Keith Jr. managed his uncle's railway project and handled gunpowder distribution.

In 1857, a powder magazine explosion in Halifax, which Keith Jr. was suspected of causing, killed one man and injured 15 others.

Larabee said Keith Jr. was likely involved in a scam, billing for gunpowder at the powder magazine price and obtaining it from cheaper sources. The explosion was probably an intentional act to cover up evidence of the fraud, she said.

During the American Civil War, Keith Jr. smuggled supplies to the Confederacy and later defrauded investors. He frequently used aliases, with William King Thomas being one of the most well known.

Fleeing from those he bilked, he moved from Halifax to New York City, then St. Louis, and finally Highland, Ill., where he met and married Cecelia Paris while living under an assumed name.

Still fearful of being caught, Keith Jr. moved to Germany with his wife. He maintained a lavish lifestyle and spent extravagantly, Larabee said.

As his cash began to run out, she said, Keith Jr. went back to his old ways and plotted to make a lot of money quickly.

He came up with a scheme to ship worthless cargo across the Atlantic after insuring it for a large amount, hoping the insurer did not inspect it.

"His idea was that he would get a time bomb made, he would put it on the ship that was shipping these alleged goods, and the ship would blow up somewhere in the Atlantic, taking everyone on board," Larabee explained.