The biological brother of the mass murderer from Nova Scotia told police that he could have grown up to be a murderer if he had been raised in the same environment as Gabriel Wortman.
Jeff Samuelson, Wortman’s younger brother, was adopted by Paul and Evelyn Wortman in the United States more than half a century ago.
“The old man is as dark as Gabriel, um, the apples don’t fall far from the tree,” Samuelson told RCMP Const. Colin Shaw in an interview on April 27, 2020, just published by the Commission on Mass Victims.
“Thank God this apple fell in another country, because that could have been me there if, ah, you know, I had (grown up) in an environment like Gabriel.”
Samuelson, who lived in Central Massachusetts when he spoke to Shaw, said his wife “fell in love” with learning more about his biological parents when he turned 21.
“I was thinking, honey, come on, ah, have it,” he said.
But the court records were “inaccurate, embellished” and contained lies, Samuelson said.
“Under” to find out about the family in Canada
They left a note with the adoption agency in the early to mid-1990s with their contact information if his biological mother came looking to meet her second son.
Then in 2010 he was “blurred” when they received an answer.
“You can’t imagine in 40 years, um, and now you’re going to meet your biological mother,” Samuelson said.
“I had no idea I was going to meet, ah, you still know a completely intact family.”
They continued with the “color” gathering, he said, noting that there was even a newspaper article written about it.
‘drunk love’
“No one is giving up their second child. There is something in this. So at that moment I was so lovingly drunk that I didn’t think about it.
The Wortmans travel from Canada to the United States for the gathering. Their eldest son, who will continue to kill 22 people in Nova Scotia in April 2020, has not been previously informed of the existence of his brother and sister.
“It’s a problem in his life that was a big bomb,” Samuelson said.
The Dartmouth dentist had a terrible upbringing. There is simply no role model in the home, “said the killer’s younger brother.
“His parents in my mind were 13 years old, both of them. Um, obviously they were adults and socially they could interact and things like that are good, but I think behind closed doors it was a level of maturity that, ah, just didn’t develop. ”
“Our worlds were completely different”
Gabriel Wortman was 40 when he learned from his parents that he had a younger brother. “It pretty much broke off their relationship,” Samuelson said. “Obviously, I was just a bystander, ah, of the whole thing, so he had no malice towards me.
Samuelson said he visited his brother at his villa in Portapik in August 2010, where the killings began nearly a decade later.
“We’re pretty close to the same age, but our worlds were completely different,” he said. “Like, Gabriel was making dentures, you know I’m a self-employed carpenter.”
Samuelson and his wife were having fun and going out to eat with their newly discovered brother and sister, he said, noting that they also met Lisa Banfield, his brother’s husband under civil law. “Gabriel and Lisa put on a wig to go out to dinner,” he said. “She obviously wanted to look like someone else.”
Wortman is upset by his parents, his brother said, noting that they spoke on the phone several times before the visit.
“He unloaded a mountain of information about his upbringing, about the old man and his mother,” Samuelson said.
“He just wanted to explode on his childhood and how bad it was.
“No real screaming red flags”
There were no real screaming red flags at the time about what was to come, he said.
“He did show all his weapons, but I’m not impressed with the weapons.”
Wortman also showed him a hand grenade, Samuelson said.
He couldn’t understand why his older brother kept weapons hidden in his villa and nearby garage. “The man was paranoid.”
Samuelson said he learned that his biological father wore a police uniform, as did his son, who wore one during the killings years later while driving a fake RCMP car.
“The parallels are so – so similar,” he said. “The old man had a fetish of wearing a police uniform, as I understand it. Um, he loved it – the old man wore a uniform and went to harass people.
That’s Gabriel Wortman’s upbringing, his brother said. “If your old man has a police uniform, it’s as perverse as I can imagine.
“Forced to shoot my own dog”
Samuelson told police that “Gabriel was forced to shoot his own dog as punishment once” because he did not feed the animal or clean up its waste.
“The punishment from the old man was (he) made his child shoot his dog.”
Wortman shot several dogs during his killings in April 2020.
Paul Wortman told Samuelson that his eldest son no longer needed a blanket around the age of three. “So he burned the damn thing in front of him.”
“The monkey sees the monkey do”
Samuelson said he also learned that his biological father had abused his mother. “The kid grew up watching his mother beat him. So, you know it’s just a monkey, look at the monkey. This child has been poisoned from the beginning, as far as I can see.
Gabriel Wortman is known to have physically abused Banfield, his wife. She told police that the killings in April 2020 were caused by a dispute between them that escalated into violence.
Samuelson told investigators that his biological brother had been at loggerheads over some properties he had named after his father, including at least one in Portapique. He described a meeting in Moncton where I “twisted his father’s arms to sign this” and that “Gabriel was grateful” for his help.
Gabriel Wortman “hated his father,” Samuelson said. “I believe he said he wanted to kill him at some point.
Samuelson felt bad for his brother, who was raised as an only child, and wanted to get to know him better. But that never happened. “I wasn’t looking for a brother, nor was he.”
The two biological brothers “just broke up” after that.
“I always say we’re connected in the same factory, but I went down a different production line,” Samuelson said.
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