01x02 - The Weight of History

[bunniefuu]

Billionaire Murders...

Barry and Honey Sherman were
found dead inside their home.

The 75-year-old founder of
generic drug company Apotex,

and his 70-year-old wife
were believed to be found

hanging near
their indoor pool.

How could this happen?

Why did this happen?

Sources suggested
the early theory for

investigators is
m*rder-suicide.

The police were, if you'll
pardon the expression,

full of sh*t.

Not one person that knew them
believed for one minute that

it was a m*rder-suicide.

My editor said, "Kevin, I've
got an assignment for you."

I want you to find out
what happened,

and I want you to
find out who did it.

I've got to find out if
the Shermans were

victims of m*rder-suicide.

I'm telling you now,
it's a double m*rder.

We have sufficient
evidence to describe this

as a double homicide.

Then I start thinking, okay,
well, who are their enemies?

This crime just reeks
of somebody they know,

and maybe even someone
very close to them.

Out of the people who are
really close to the Shermans,

who would do that?

Digging into the Sherman
murders is kind of like

trying to pick a
lock that won't open.

The people closest to Barry
and Honey are tight-lipped,

and the Toronto
Police Service,

they're not talking to me.

I didn't really know
what the police had.

I do know, though, the
Toronto Police routinely

want to get judicial
authorization-

a search warrant or a
production order-

to look at information.

This is what's
called an ITO.

The acronym ITO refers to
'Information To Obtain'.

The ITO is the affidavit
that lists the grounds that

the police have.

A judge has to
look at that ITO,

go through it, and see:
Do they have the right to

a person's telephone
records, banking records,

or go into their
underwear drawer?

If you get the ITO,

you get most of the investigation.

And,
I wanted everything.

I want to see where
the mistakes are made,

and you want to put
that on the front page,

so those mistakes
don't happen again.

In Toronto, the central
repository of search warrants

is a grand, old
building called

Toronto's Old City Hall.

I filled out a simple
government form.

A day later, I got
a file number.

But, the search
warrant is sealed,

meaning I can't see it.

When somebody tells me
I can't see something,

it's usually one of the best
days of my life 'cause

I know I'm going to try
and see whatever

they don't want me to see.

Only a judge can
unseal the ITOs.

So, I have no choice:

I've got to challenge
the Toronto Police in court.

We're going to fight it out
in front of the judge,

and a court date has been
set for March, 2018.

But, I'm not gonna sit
around waiting for that.

My ultimate goal is to find
out who k*lled Barry and

Honey Sherman, but I need to
know who they are to see

who might have wanted
to do that to them.

I'm trying to talk to
the Sherman family.

And, I am sending letters and
emails to the four children.

I just want to hear,
for starters,

the story of their parents.

And, I'm not getting
anywhere with the family.

And then two weeks after
our story comes out,

that says the Shermans
were m*rder*d...

one family member,
Kerry Winter,

was in the news because of
some statements

he'd made about
Barry Sherman.

I remember him saying
something that was just so

weird about cutting off
Barry Sherman's head and

rolling it down
the parking lot.

Kerry Winter is one of
Barry Sherman's cousins.

Kerry is the son
of Lou Winter,

who is Barry's uncle.

Barry Sherman's cousins
have been in a massive,

protracted lawsuit that was
started in the mid 2000s,

where the cousins sued
Barry Sherman and Apotex.

The Winter cousins
argue that Barry

screwed them out
of a fortune.

Their dad was Barry's
mentor, they say.

"Our dad's company ended
up in Barry's hands."

Kerry Winter believes that
he and his siblings deserve

a billion dollars from Barry
Sherman, in his words,

"Taking everything from
their father, Lou Winter."

The events that brought
Barry Sherman and

Lou Winter together,
they begin during

Barry's childhood
in Toronto,

where he was
born in 1942.

Barry had a very middle
class upbringing

in the Forest Hill
part of Toronto.

His father was the
president of the

American Zipper
Company in Toronto.

They had quite a
comfortable life.

One day, Barry's dad
went off to work,

and he had a massive
heart attack,

and they were unable
to revive him.

And that just threw the
family into a turmoil.

All of a sudden, Barry's mom
had to take in boarders to

pay for bringing
up the family,

and I think that was one
of the things that prompted

Barry to decide he wanted
to have his own money.

We think of him
today as a genius,

but when he was 9
or 10 years' old,

Barry was often called
'lethargic' by his teachers.

But once he got to
Forest Hill Collegiate,

he found that he was very
good at being tested.

In Ontario at the time there
was a standardized test

with highest honours that
were called 'Firsts'.

And Barry came
first place in

14 different tests
across the province.

He was the top student
graduating from

high school in Ontario.

Barry graduates from high
school with his 14 Firsts,

and he needs
a summer job.

He's got to help his mom
put food on the table.

He goes to work for his
mom's brother, Uncle Lou.

Lou Winter was
Kerry Winter's father and,

was one of the
pioneers of generic

pharmaceutical
manufacturing.

Lou Winter has a company
called Empire Labs.

Empire was one of the
first generic firms.

At Empire, Barry does a great
job in his first summer.

And then, he heads off to
the University of Toronto,

taking courses there
in engineering.

He's always coming back
in the summer to

work for Uncle Lou.

He graduates from the
University of Toronto,

top of his class.

He decides he's gonna go
to go to the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology to
become a rocket scientist.

Lou Winter and his wife,
Beverly, are very well-off.

They've got four children,
who are all quite young,

including Kerry Winter.

And then, all of a sudden,
disaster strikes.

At a young age, Lou Winter
dies of an aneurysm...

When Barry is
away at MIT.

Shortly after that,
Lou's wife dies.

And, throws that
family into turmoil.

When Lou and his wife,
Beverly Winter,

died in 1965...

Kerry and his siblings
became orphans.

When Lou and
Beverly died,

they left behind a
sizeable estate.

And, when those four
children would come of age,

they would have
access to that money.

Royal Trust was the executor
appointed to manage

the estate, and that
included Empire Labs.

In 1965, Barry is still a
graduate student at MIT

when he makes a
surprising move.

He was a rocket scientist.

He's not a pharmacist, but
he saw an opportunity.

It spoke to him.

Barry thinks he should make
an attempt to take over

Empire Labs, with the help of
his high school good friend,

Joel Ulster.

So, he's always a scientist,
always trying to discover.

The discovery of space,

and the discovery of
different ways...

to make molecules, and
make formulations work,

it's the same concept.

After graduating
from MIT,

Barry and his
friend, Joel,

borrow $250,000, and they
purchase Empire Labs.

Barry and Joel Ulster
paid $450,000.

250,000 was in cash,
and 200,000 was an

assumption of the company
debt by Barry and Joel.

Kerry and his brothers
were minors at that point.

Barry comes into
Empire Labs.

They realize that the company
is really, really poorly run.

He starts kicking the
tires, looking around,

talking to people.

And one of the things he
looks at is vitamin C tablets.

Because they're being
rejected by pharmacies

because the tablets are
breaking apart.

It's one of the reasons
Empire was

losing so much money.

He doesn't know anything
about how a pill is made.

So, the person
he talks to says,

"You have the active
ingredient that goes into

your vitamin C tablet, and
then you have a bunch of

fillers that makes the
tablets stick together."

So Barry, on his own...

in a small little
part of the lab,

finds that there are many,
many fillers that are

expensive, but
are not required.

And in fact, it's the bad
fillers that are causing the

tablets to break apart.

So, not only
does he produce

vitamin C tablets that
are a lot cheaper,

they don't break apart.

By 1971, Barry has built
Empire Labs into a

thriving company,
turning a healthy profit...

and that's when it
attracts attention from

larger pharmaceutical companies.

Barry Sherman in
1971 gets an offer.

An American firm comes
forward and says,

"We want to buy
the company."

He and Joel
think about it,

and they decide,
"Let's sell."

There should have been a
non-compete clause,

but in a stroke
of brilliance,

Barry decides to work in
some language to make sure

that he can have his
own generic company.

And that's when Barry
Sherman started Apotex.

Barry was so devoted at
building the company.

He grew it from a very
small operation

to a global enterprise.

By the end of the 1980s,
Barry Sherman has

all this money coming
in from Apotex.

He's approaching the
billion-dollar revenue.

That's when Kerry Winter
and his brothers reappear in

Barry's life, and they soon
have some questions about

what happened to their
father's company.

It was not until the 1990s,

that Barry reengaged
with his cousins.

Kerry knew really
nothing of Barry...

knew nothing of Apotex.

Someone who knew his family
suggested that

he and his brothers
reach out for Barry.

Barry wants to
help them out a bit.

He tries to give them jobs.

Barry gives them money.

He gives them support.

Three of the
four siblings-

Dana, Kerry and Jeff-

all had business dealings
with Barry.

In total,
by the year 2000,

Barry has given
the four Winter cousins

about $15 million,
which they've used to

either purchase houses,
cottages, cars.

Kerry said that he became
very close with Barry

during that period, spent a
lot of time at Apotex...

that he was one of the few
people who could just go up

and see Barry without
an appointment.

And, Barry enjoyed spending
time with Kerry in part

because he found
Kerry very amusing.

But Jeff, one of the
four Winter cousins,

he starts doing
some research,

going through the
Royal Trust papers,

and he sees what's called
an 'Option Agreement'.

The Option Agreement,
it was part of

Barry's offer to purchase
Empire Labs in 1967.

And, it concerned the future
of the Winter orphans.

To increase the chances of
having his offer accepted,

Barry included an option in
favour of his cousin, Kerry,

and Kerry's siblings,

that at a certain age-
which was 21-

if they worked for the
company for two years,

they each could
buy 5% of Empire.

Barry was not
concerned about

having to honour
that option.

When Barry sold
the company,

the option in favour of
Kerry and his siblings

expired because
Barry was no longer

the majority owner
of Empire Labs.

The Winter cousins' claim

was based on this
option agreement.

The way they read it
is that Barry had

this company, Empire.

He sold it, but he really
just took that money

to create Apotex.

Kerry felt betrayed, and he
confronted Barry, and said,

"How could you have
done this to me?

You never told me
about the option.

You didn't honour the
promises you made

to the trustee.
You lied to me."

The Winter cousins
argue that there really

is an unbroken
line between

Empire Labs in the 60s,
and Apotex, today.

So, they say that they should
be entitled to one-fifth of

Apotex, which is about
a billion dollars.

Kerry retained counsel to
start a lawsuit against Barry

for failing to
honour the option.

This is a lengthy lawsuit.
It starts in 2007.

And there's a
lot of acrimony.

In Barry's mind,

"I've given you
all $15 million.

I've helped you try and
grow businesses, let's...

get this thing
out of the courts."

Kerry was not
going to do that.

The advances that Barry
made to the three boys

were structured as loans.

Once his cousins commenced
litigation against him,

Barry sold all of the assets
of the loans that

he had made to them,
including homes.

The question is,
would Barry have insisted

on repayment had the
boys not sued Barry?

Kerry felt that the purpose
of the loans were to silence

Kerry in the event that one
day he found out the truth

about the option and
Barry not having made

any provisions for Kerry.

Kerry really is determined
that he is going to

win this lawsuit, and he's
going to force Barry to

hand over a billion dollars.

It's a tough fight,
and it winds

through the courts
for ten years.

Kerry believed in
the court system,

and believed that we
would ultimately settle

or be successful in court.

It actually came to
a head in September,

just before the murders.

A senior judge ruled against
the cousins, and said,

"The case is over.
You're not getting any money."

The courts wiped it away,
basically, and said,

"You're not
getting this."

So, could that set Kerry or
somebody else into a rage?

Possibly.

Kerry did not take it well.

No client would have
taken the dismissal well.

Kerry felt that Barry was
unfair to him, lied to him,

owed him, failed to
acknowledge his late father.

And that made
Kerry very angry.

On December 6, 2017,

that's just 9 days
before the murders,

the court issues Kerry and
his siblings another blow.

There's a cost award
made of $300,000 that

Kerry and his siblings
must pay to Apotex.

This paled in comparison
the amount owing for

the previous judgment
against Kerry by Barry

under those loans for
6, 7, $8 million.

Kerry Winter had just lost
a major case

against Barry Sherman.

He's very,
very upset.

He's got
nowhere else to turn.

And then came Kerry's flurry
of media interviews

in February, 2018.

Now, that's less than two
months after Barry and Honey

are found m*rder*d
at their home.

And Kerry said
in this article,

and I quote: "I would
talk about k*lling Barry,

and it was very graphic.

He would come out of the
parking lot of Apotex,

and I'd be hiding
behind a car,

and I'd just decapitate him.

I wanted to roll his head
down the parking lot,

and I'd sit there and
wait for the police."

Kerry had made such
strong statements

about how he wanted
to k*ll Barry.

It would be crazy if he
wasn't a suspect

or a person of interest.

If it was a TV show,
he would be

one of the prime suspects!

At this point, I'm thinking
I've gotta be talking to

Kerry Winter to find out,

where was he on the night
of the murders?

I track down Kerry Winter,

and he agrees to meet me
for an interview.

When I first met him
in person,

I had asked him a lot of
questions to try and

provoke information
out of him.

Right away, Kerry tells me
his theory about

Barry and Honey's deaths.

Kerry believes that this
is a m*rder-suicide, and...

he says that when he first
learned of the murders,

he thought to himself,
"Well, he finally did it.

He k*lled the b*tch."
Those are Kerry's words.

Kerry tells the story of many
years ago when he came in to

visit Barry, and they
were just talking,

sh**ting the sh*t.

And Barry, out of the blue,
asked him if

he could arrange the m*rder
of Honey Sherman.

In fact, just before
our interview,

Kerry tells the
story on television.

Kerry Winter
spilled it all out.

When he did the interview,

I couldn't believe what he
was saying in there.

Kerry thinks the Toronto
police and the politicians in

Canada have conspired
together to cover this up so

that Barry's legacy is not
tarnished by a m*rder-suicide.

I don't know if Kerry truly
believes this conspiracy

theory, or if maybe he's
trying to deflect suspicion

after the public statements
he's made about

wanting to k*ll Barry.
I ask Kerry,

"Where were you on the
night of the murders?"

Kerry says, "Kevin, I was
nowhere near the

Sherman home the
night of the murders."

He says, "I'm a recovering
drug ab*ser.

I have all sorts of
troubles in my past.

I'm at a 12-step
meeting that night."

He says, "Talk to some of
the people that were there,"

and he puts me in
touch with them.

And they say, "Yeah,
he was he was there."

I then say to Kerry, "Okay,
so you're at the meeting.

Meeting ends at,
say, 9 or 10.

What do you do?"

He said, "Kevin, I went
home to my house.

I watched television.
I called my girlfriend.

I went to sleep.

I got up 6 am,
I work in construction,

I went to work."

Kerry is interviewed
by the Toronto police

a month and a bit
after the bodies are found.

He said the police
took his phone,

they looked through it,

he gave them his alibi,
never heard from them again.

And, as far as I know,
that investigation

of Kerry Winter didn't
turn up anything.

I did go and check his
address to see if

a search warrant had
been done on it.

I didn't get a
return on that so,

that suggests to me that the
police may have thought

he was a suspect, but not
pursued it any further.

They never
searched his house.

I couldn't figure out if
he'd watched television,

but I was able to
substantiate everything else

about that night.

I felt that Kerry
could not pull it off.

I just didn't think
that he could

do something
like that and...

maintain his composure.

To me, he was just being
too public about

his desire to m*rder Barry,

to have possibly m*rder*d
Barry and Honey.

I decide: I don't
think Kerry did this.

Still, Kerry's fantasy about
wanting to k*ll Barry

remains part of
the public record.

Well, it's not that
complicated, actually.

He was angry at Barry, and
he wanted everyone to know

what Barry had
done to him.

And from one perspective,

that's understandable to
want to vent and

tell people that
you've been hurt.

He just chose the wrong
forum in which to do it,

which didn't serve
his interests well.

There is something
childlike and

innocent about
Kerry, generally.

He's a harmless person.

I also have to consider
if there could be

any truth at all

to Kerry's belief that Barry
wanted Honey dead.

Kerry was a
colourful character

who made him laugh.

And, I think Kerry was
talking about

having some underworld
connections that I think

Kerry was probably
making up.

I think Barry probably would
have said, just for fun,

"Could you hire a
hitman to k*ll anybody?

For example, could you
k*ll my wife?"

And, that's where I think
that came from.

I don't think there
was any truth to

Barry wanting
to k*ll Honey.

While I was
investigating Kerry,

I was preparing to go to
court with the Toronto police

to unseal information.

I'm trying to figure out...

what the police know, and
what they're looking for.

For Kevin to be in a
court and act as...

an attorney, I've never
seen a reporter do that.

Not, not for
The New York Times and

not for The London Times.
I've never seen it.

Prior to the Sherman case,
I had done a couple of

other ITO cases and,
I think it took me,

in total time in court,
an hour and a half to get

literally about a thousand
pages of ITOs

completely unsealed.

Going into the Sherman case,
I thought it was a slam dunk.

Three months after
the Sherman murders,

I make my first court
appearance to

challenge the seal
on the warrants.

In this city, in this province,
in this country,

the police tell you nothing.

They keep a very tight fist
on all their information.

I think Kevin really
exemplifies the role that

journalists can play in
revealing truths that those

in positions of authority
might not want us to know.

The Supreme Court said
journalists should be

entitled to get these ITOs
once they've been served.

This is kind of a big deal,

going into Justice Pringle's
courthouse.

She is the judge who has
seen all of the ITOs,

all the warrants,
all the production orders,

and she's sealed them.

The legal test in a case
like this is quite simple,

the Toronto police have
to show two things:

One, that this is an active
and ongoing investigation-

it's not a cold case.
And two,

that to release the
information in these ITOs,

would somehow-
in layman's terms-

screw up their investigation.

I get there and,
I expected, foolishly,

the judge to hand
over everything to me.

But, it's an
adversarial situation

because she's
saying no.

Detective Constable
Dennis Yim,

who at the time was
quite new to homicide,

he's the one who
swears the ITO.

It actually doesn't occur to me
at the time that I would

have the right to
cross-examine him.

I haven't done anything
to penetrate

the police veil here.
So, first strike against me.

I do get something
out of this, though.

The judge decides to
release to me

what are called the face
pages of the warrants.

And she says I can come back
to court every six months.

The Toronto Police
were very upset.

They thought she would
keep everything sealed.

From that, I get the grounds
for the investigation in the

early days, confirming that
police were focused on

Honey being m*rder*d
by Barry Sherman.

There was definitely a
sense of what and

how did the police
go so wrong here?

It took a journalist to,
to come in here and...

reveal what had
really happened.

And, what were, what
were the police doing?

What I'm trying to do
is just establish

certain pieces
of information.

I'm playing
the long game.

I know I'm going to come
back to that in the future,

but I'm going to
need more ammunition.

Because I know that money is
often a motive for m*rder...

I thought, who knows,

I might find something
in the estate files.

I wanted to see
the Sherman will.

Almost all wills in
Canada are public.

You can go and find
out what's in them,

and that's as it should be.

It usually takes months for
an estate to enter the courts.

So, I kept checking
the court computer

to see if it was passed.

And one day in
July of 2018,

I saw their names and
their court file.

But when I request access to
the file, I get a surprise.

The clerk says, "I'm sorry,
Mr. Donovan,

there is a protective order
on this file." She said,

"It just means you can't
see this." And I said,

"Well, who made this
protective order?

Why can't I see their will
and their estate files?"

And she said, "I can't
even tell you that."

I go back to The Star,
I talk to my lawyer there.

I say, you know, "What do
you think I should do?"

And he said, "Why don't you
challenge this one, too?"

In this case,
the family asked for

Barry and Honey's will
to be sealed.

Why would the family
want it sealed?

So, I work up an affidavit
saying what I've done and

what I'm not
allowed to see.

And, then eventually,
there's a court hearing

scheduled in
July of 2018.

I arrive in court
ready to argue my case,

only to find a team of
Sherman lawyers waiting.

There's a justice in his
magnificent robes

sitting up there.

The Shermans had so
many lawyers there.

I felt a little bit like David
going up against Goliath.

The lawyer for the Shermans
stands up, and says,

"Your Honour, there's a
really good reason

why this must be sealed.

The people who will manage
the estate, and the heirs,

whoever gets all of Barry
and Honey's money

would be subject to
kidnaping and violence

if this information
got out."

I'd like to know a
bit more about this

concern of kidnaping
and violence.

Who are the Shermans
worried about?

And maybe there's
something in that document.

I'm also thinking maybe
the Toronto Police

have filed a document in
support of this to try and

stop this information
from getting out.

So, I've got a lot of
pieces of the puzzle there.

There has to be some driving
logic by the police as to

why they didn't want this
document to be public.

Was that part of a
concern by the police...

that if you unseal the will,
then a judge may be more

inclined just to unseal
other stuff in the case.

Who knows?

What I did is just try and
frame this tightly to say

that we want access to
the Sherman estate because

there's a public's right
to know in this case.

I leave that hearing actually
thinking the judge is

going to rule in my favour.

A couple of days later,
his judgment is issued.

I've lost: He's sealing
the entire file.

Right away, I start working
with The Star's legal team to

appeal the ruling to a
higher court. Meanwhile,

I'm uncovering more
information about

Barry and Honey's
life together.

It seems that, unlike
their heirs and executors,

they had no concerns about
their own personal security.

Typically, if you're
talking about billionaires,

they have a number of
layers of security

on their residences.

And the idea that you
have that much money...

basically makes
you a target.

Everybody knew, when you
knocked at their door,

Barry or Honey
could answer.

That's not security.

The Shermans do
have an alarm,

and they do lock their doors,
but not all the time.

It's like, "We're not going
to be bothered with that.

We don't really
care about that."

And they just let it go.

To get into the Sherman
House is not that difficult.

Honey often left
the side door open.

So, there are times that
that door is unlocked.

From the start of
my investigation,

I was hearing a
lot about Barry,

but very little about Honey.

Why did Honey die?

Did she have to be
out of the way?

I had to find out...

Who was Honey Sherman?

Discovering the public Honey,
that was the first step.

And that was Honey
the philanthropist.

Honey was a leader within
the Jewish community.

Her main projects were United
Jewish Appeal Federation.

She worked with groups like
the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

I can't even count the number
of boards that she worked on.

I first met Honey Sherman
when she became

very active in the
Baycrest Centre.

I'm the Vice Chairman
of Baycrest.

Baycrest started about
100 years ago as

the Jewish home
for the aged.

We happened to be on one of
the committees at Baycrest,

and she was outgoing,

very positive in her
outlook on things.

She didn't pull her punches.

She got right to the point.

When she was fundraising,
her whole being was there.

You just knew if
Honey's there,

she's going to ask you
to cough up and

help out with the cause.

It was difficult
to say no to Honey.

She was going morning,
noon, and night.

Whether it was for something
that she had initiated and

was raising money for, or
if it was someone she knew,

a friend or somebody who
supported her in an event,

she showed up.

Barry wasn't...

a social butterfly.

He wasn't a person
that liked big crowds.

And for Honey,
that came natural.

And, God bless her,
she was everywhere.

She was exhausting.

Barry,
he was the brains.

She was the heart.

Honey was the extrovert for
the philanthropic work.

Based on her
philanthropy alone,

Honey was a genuine source
for good in Toronto.

When I spoke to people,
I would ask them

questions about
Honey's past.

Honey has a very different
start of her life than Barry.

Her parents were both
survivors of the Holocaust.

They were imprisoned in a
sl*ve labour camp

by the Nazis in Poland.

And somehow managed to
survive the Second World w*r.

When they're liberated,
they're taken to a

displaced persons camp
in Austria in 1947,

and that's where
Honey's born.

Her given name at birth
is Anna- Anna Reich-

daughter of Naftuli
and Helen Reich.

To survive sl*ve labour camps
that the Nazis had,

the way that Naftuli
and Helen did,

they must have been
incredibly strong.

And, they transmitted that
to their daughter, Honey.

I am the son of a
Holocaust survivor...

and I know many
children of survivors,

of which Honey
was one...

who were brought up, literally,

in the shadow of the
kingdom of death.

We all come from families
that have been traumatized.

I know that the trauma
has affected me.

It angered me,
it motivated me.

There has been a lot of
research around

Holocaust survivors and
post-traumatic effects.

There are resiliencies
that can emerge

out of traumatic experiences.

Survivors, after the w*r,
were really looking to

rebuild...
rebuild life,

rebuild family, rebuild
the community.

Honey's parents were
taken in by aid groups.

And eventually
came to Canada.

An aid worker suggests, "Why
don't you settle in Toronto?

There's a pretty big
Jewish community,"

and that's where she
ends up living.

So, I spoke with a
lifelong friend of Honey's,

and got a sense of the
dynamics between

Honey and her parents.

Her mother was described
as being very critical.

Was said to have very
high expectations.

Her father was
described as

being very, very immersed...

in the w*r, which he may
have been really struggling,

like many do, to make
meaning of

these traumatic experiences.

Honey and her sister,
Mary, as children

were very, very close.

Part of that, I think,
grew out of

their mother's being very
tough on both kids.

They were under the
instructions of their parents

who had been
deprived of so much

during the w*r to
be very careful.

Don't spend too much money.

Don't buy fancy clothes.

And so, that really
informed Honey's life.

When you come from the
world, from the Holocaust,

the drive, the ambition
is to be successful.

Honey does well
in high school.

She enters teachers'
college, does well.

She is also somebody who

really wants to
have friends.

She worked at Mount Sinai
Hospital in Toronto,

and was a candy striper,
which is a volunteer person.

Through a friend
at the hospital,

she meets Barry who's
rapidly becoming a force

in generic pharmaceuticals.

In 1971,
they marry.

Barry and Honey soon become
known for their philanthropy.

They both wanted to build
a company, and make money,

and give money away
to their community.

It can be common for
descendants of Holocaust

survivors to make meaning of
their parents' experiences.

So, we may even look to
Honey's philanthropy

as a way to...

give back, and maybe even
as a way to never forget.

For her, it's about
saving people.

It's about helping people.

It's about paying it forward.

It's important to know
Honey and Barry weren't

just generous with the
Jewish community.

They were generous
across the board.

In my reporting on this case,
one of the things about Honey

that really stands out
is she's tough as nails.

She had so many
different ailments.

People called her the
'Bionic Woman' because

she had so many operations
done on her,

and she just came back
stronger every time.

Ah, ah! Now,
when we were all-

so we thought that

we would do something
in case of the weather,

or what have you.

So, I have us prepared
for any game that we have.

I don't know how
she did it...

because she had a lot
of physical challenges.

She had back issues.
She had cancer.

Honey had multiple
joints replaced,

so like knee replacements.

Multiple surgeries on
feet, elbow, whatnot.

But she really enjoyed
to play tennis and golf.

For all the people we've
interviewed for this

documentary, there are
still many who were

reluctant to
appear on camera.

This person, wants
their identity shielded.

Honey and I met through
a co-worker of mine,

who thought that the
services I provide

would be really
useful to her.

So, weekly, I would spend
about 2 to 3 hours with Honey.

Getting to Honey's close
friends was much more

challenging than
getting to Barry's.

There was a reluctance to

paint their good friend as
a normal person.

But Honey's a human being,
and she has her flaws.

So, the thing with Honey was
as abrasive and direct

as she could be-
I appreciate honesty,

I appreciate directness,

as long as it's delivered
in a nice way.

I've spoken to a few
people who weren't friends,

but had dealings with Honey.

And they, without exception,

say they weren't
impressed at first.

They thought,
"This is tough."

The more I hear about
this side of Honey,

the more I wonder if,

like Barry, she also
made enemies.

When I first met Honey,
I did not like her.

I had an agency for
nannies and housekeepers...

years and years ago,

when they first moved
into the house.

And a friend of Honey's took
me over there to meet

with her to, you know,
go through the house,

see what she needed, and...

she wasn't happy about it,
because it was like it was

my fault that she was looking
for somebody to help out.

I didn't like her,
and I'm not...

so good at hiding
my feelings.

So, I was like,
"Why am I here?

Why did this friend think
this was a good idea?"

I heard that she was
really tough on people,

could be mean to
waiters and waitresses.

That was one of the knocks
against Honey Sherman.

In the few times
we were in public,

I didn't love how
she spoke to people.

To people she didn't know,
or that she didn't have a

relationship with,
she yelled a lot,

and she just kind of
spoke as though

she had no time for them.

With each new person I speak
with about the Shermans,

Honey is revealed more and
more as a complex woman.

She definitely
had her guard up.

She was not one
to trust people.

To be a child of a
Holocaust survivor,

the ones that I've met...

have...

trauma in their childhood.

And I was told by friends of
mine that they were

raised to not trust
people so easily.

It would be very challenging
to understand Honey,

separate from her context
of being the descendant of

Holocaust survivors.

Later on, I realized that
Honey's tough shell was

all bravado, and she was
not the person who...

I first met,
those first few minutes.

Once she felt comfortable,
her guard would go down and

she was...
funny and nice and

had no side to her then.

I liked her for
the reason that

she was so open
and honest.

For a billionaire, one of the
more surprising aspects of

Honey's character
involved her habits

when it came to money.

She had a lot of
nice things,

but she also had
shorts that she had

had for 25 years,
and that she would

sew up when they had
holes in them.

For Honey Sherman, frugality
was, was everything.

She loved collecting hotel
body lotions and hand lotions.

That's not what you think
a billionaire would do.

You would be like, oh, you
must have had zero money

at some point in your life
because no one who

grew up in affluence
acts like this, at all.

You can afford to buy new
shorts, but you don't.

At the same time, Honey had
closets full of luxury items.

Honey loved her
purses and her shoes.

She had a closet of clothes, and
then she had a lot of jewelry.

There was one time I was
telling her about this event

I was going to,
and she's like,

"Oh, I have the perfect
thing for you."

And she handed me something,
I'm like,

"Is this $10,000
or is this $6?

'Cause, just give me the
fake version of this.

I can't be taking a real
diamond necklace out."

She was just very caring,
and also wanted me to

look nice, and cared about
how I presented myself.

Her whole life was a
juxtaposition of

her past and her current.

That was how she
wore her wealth.

It's clear to me that
Honey was a complicated,

generous woman for whom
the past was very present.

But what remains
a mystery

is why she was k*lled
alongside Barry.

In September 2018,

there are a lot of
unanswered questions as I

return to Justice Pringle's
court to try again

to unseal the police investigation.

I go into the next hearing,

Justice Pringle
says to me in court,

"Would you like to
cross-examine Detective Yim?"

And, I say, "Yes,
I would, your Honour."

This is my first time cross
- examining a homicide detective

on a witness stand, but
I'm standing there,

and as my fledgling
legal career proceeds,

I'm always thinking,
I'm not a lawyer.

I hope I don't screw up.

I ask Detective Yim about
the timing of the

police interview with
Dr. David Chiasson,

the forensic pathologist
whose autopsy concluded

that the Shermans
were m*rder*d.

I say to Detective Yim,
"My understanding is that

the only reason that you
interviewed Dr. Chiasson is

because we put his name in
The Toronto Star."

He won't answer
that question,

and he's objecting.
The crown objects.

And Justice Pringle says,
"We can't let him answer that

question because that
would go against the

sealing order
that is in place."

I've learned from sources
that Toronto police waited a

full month to view security
footage of the Apotex lobby...

video that might reveal
persons of interest

in the days surrounding
the murders.

I'm also asking Detective Yim
about how the Toronto police

were so slow to
get the footage of

Apotex security cameras.

You know, what do the
cameras look like there?

Was there somebody there?

You have to do a full court
press for about a week

to collect all that.

And it didn't strike me that
hardly any of that was done.

I'm told that revealing
information about Apotex

security cameras
would somehow

compromise the
police investigation.

The third piece of
information that

I put to Detective Yim is...

what I had just learned
from Barry and

Honey Sherman's
personal trainer.

That morning, of the
day they were k*lled,

she trained them.
She'd gone to their house,

she's picking up weights,
she's touching things.

And, I learned from her the
Toronto Police had just

gone to her house to
collect the DNA.

That's 9 months later.

The police don't collect
DNA evidence from

people who would
naturally be in the

Sherman home,
for 9 months.

Why is that important?

They need to
exclude people.

The personal trainer,
the cook, the cleaner,

the gardener,
people who would be

in a home for
good reasons.

And then, what's left
over could be the k*ller.

When you ask them and you
say, "Why did you wait

8, 9 months to do the
DNA exclusion?"

And their answer?

"We're not telling you."

I cross-examine
Detective Yim and get

little, tiny bits of
information from him,

akin to a legal striptease.

You're trying to peel back
the onion and get

more information to be
successful down the line.

A few days later,
I publish a story

about how the
Toronto Police

have botched this investigation

from the very start.

I'm also learning more
about Barry's empire,

beyond Apotex.

Barry was the
quintessential entrepreneur.

So, it's not like
his investments

were only in pharma.

They were all over the place.

There was a myriad
of companies.

I heard about gold
and silver mines,

and natural products,
and a coffee company.

Barry had an appetite for risk,
outside of Apotex,

where he did business
with all kinds of guys,

some of them
perhaps scoundrels.

Among Barry's more
controversial business

partners is a name that
pops up repeatedly:

Frank D'Angelo.

You could not
imagine two

more different
individuals than

Barry Sherman- very
conservative scientist-

and Frank D'Angelo,
who you might think has

walked out of a movie about
being a tough guy.

Many people that knew Barry
found it kind of

an unusual thing that
a guy like Barry

was hanging around with
Frank D'Angelo.

They did not like
Frank D'Angelo.

The children did not
like Frank D'Angelo.

Barry was always
at the office.

And so, you know,
when Frank was there,

I couldn't even close my
door to not listen because

it would permeate through
the shared wall.

What I heard is
verbal abuse.

And, Barry took it for
years and years and years.

Is Frank a kind of guy...

that, based on this
relationship with Barry,

could commit such a
brutal, personal, hateful,

and vengeful crime?

Next time, on
Billionaire Murders...

Barry was like the
brother I never had.

Jonathan complains
that Frank D'Angelo

is a terrible businessman.

I knew when Frank was at
Apotex because the

shouting matches that
they would get into.

Jonathan writes an email
to his three sisters.

And Barry said,
"Look, see,

he's trying to take
over my empire."

The police failed to
properly examine and

assess the crime scene.

The Urban Explorer went
into the Sherman home,

and saw things that
look like evidence.

The house at 50 Old Colony
Road in North York

once stood as a
symbol of success.

The children said they
didn't want it there anymore.

There are family photographs
all over the walls.

But the walls
were coming down.

Our officers did
not drop the ball.

You don't arrest
people if, in fact,

you don't have any
physical evidence.

What I'm trying to show

is that this is
becoming a cold case.