EP 31 – Jan

Summary

Betrayal: Weekly – Episode 31: Jan Canty's Story

Release Date: March 6, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 31 of Betrayal: Weekly, host Andrea Gunning delves into the gripping and heart-wrenching story of Jan Canty. This episode explores Jan's journey from a determined young woman in 1950s Detroit to a homicide survivor grappling with the profound betrayal by her husband, Allen Canty. Through Jan's first-person narrative, listeners witness the unraveling of a seemingly perfect marriage and the devastating aftermath of Allen's double life.

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Early Life and Meeting Allen Canty

Jan Canty's story begins in the vibrant yet tumultuous era of 1950s and 60s Detroit. Growing up amidst social change and active in the women's movement, Jan was determined to forge her own path. Despite her disdain for high school—a period she describes as a "complete waste of time" ([04:12] Jan Canty)—she found her passion later at community college, where a psychology course became a turning point for her aspirations ([05:02]).

Jan's life took a significant turn when she met Allen Canty, an accomplished psychologist who became her mentor and later, her husband. Their relationship blossomed from a professional mentorship to a deeply personal bond. Jan recounts, "[09:14] He was the first person to ever express belief in my goals," highlighting the profound impact Allen had on her self-confidence and academic pursuits.

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Their Marriage and Rising Success

In their marriage, Allen played a pivotal role in Jan's academic and personal growth. He encouraged her to pursue higher education, leading her to earn a master's degree and eventually a PhD in psychology ([13:26] Jan Canty). Allen provided financial support, helping Jan navigate the challenges of student loans and even aiding her daily life by managing household finances ([20:18]).

Their life together was marked by stability and routine. Jan describes her marriage as "steady" and "easy," with both partners deeply engrossed in their professional endeavors ([19:15]). However, beneath this facade of normalcy, signs of Allen's deeper issues began to surface.

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Signs of Trouble and Allen's Disappearance

In 1984, Jan noticed alarming changes in Allen's behavior following his 50th birthday, coinciding with his hospitalization for a mental health crisis ([21:49] Jan Canty). Though he seemed to recover, lingering doubts persisted. The discovery of three unfamiliar dry cigarette butts near their kitchen window ([22:46] Jan Canty) ignited Jan's suspicions of external threats or potential intruders.

Despite Jan's growing anxiety and evidence suggesting someone might be targeting them, Allen dismissed her concerns, leading to increased tension ([24:27] Jan Canty). Her fears were compounded by mysterious nighttime phone calls from an unknown man with a southern drawl ([25:18] Jan Canty), which she later identified as John Fry.

On July 13, 1985, over a week after Allen failed to return home amidst worsening weather conditions, Jan's worst fears materialized. After a particularly distressing morning, Jan realized Allen was missing when she couldn't find him in bed ([27:39]).

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The Investigation and Unveiling the Truth

Jan reported Allen as missing, but initial investigations yielded little. Over the next ten days, media attention intensified, culminating in a meeting with Detective Marlis Landeros ([30:02] Andrea Gunning). The investigation took a dark turn when the police revealed Allen's alleged involvement with two individuals, John Carl Fry Senior and Dawn Marie Spence, bottoming out in the gruesome discovery of Allen's dismembered body ([35:25]).

The identification of Allen's remains confirmed his murder and unveiled a horrific truth: Allen had led a double life. Contrary to Jan's perception of him as a reserved, scholarly man, Allen was deeply entangled in Detroit's red light district, financially supporting multiple women, including Dawn Marie Spence, whom he extorted before ultimately murdering ([43:09]).

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Aftermath and Jan's Path to Healing

The revelation of Allen's true nature left Jan in a state of conflicted grief—mourning the loss of her husband while grappling with the betrayal of his hidden life ([50:56] Jan Canty). Financial ruin followed Allen's deceit, leaving Jan deeply indebted and struggling to survive ([34:26]).

Determined to rebuild her life, Jan distanced herself from Detroit, eventually finding solace and purpose in supporting other homicide survivors. Her journey of healing led her to advocate for those who, like her, were left grappling with the aftermath of betrayal and loss. Jan emphasizes the importance of sharing these stories, stating, "If anything's going to change, we have to put our story out there. Somebody's got to do it" ([52:41]).

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Conclusion

Jan Canty's story is a poignant testament to resilience in the face of unimaginable betrayal. From her early struggles and the transformative influence of Allen Canty to the devastating discovery of his double life and her subsequent path to advocacy, Jan's journey encapsulates the profound impact of trust and deception. Betrayal: Weekly masterfully narrates this tale, offering listeners both a gripping true crime story and a powerful message of healing and support for those affected by similar tragedies.

Notable Quotes:

• "[04:12] Jan Canty: Hated high school with a big passion. Hated it. Capital H. I thought it was a complete waste of time."

• "[09:14] Jan Canty: He was the first person to ever express belief in my goals. The idea that of course you can go to college, of course you can graduate, of course you can do that."

• "[27:56] Jan Canty: I was very defensive, irrationally angry. Like I would get angry at going into the grocery store that they didn't make loaves of bread for one person."

• "[52:41] Jan Canty: If anything's going to change, we have to put our story out there. Somebody's got to do it."

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Key Takeaways

• Trust and Deception: Jan's story highlights how trust can be deeply fractured by hidden truths and deceit, even from those closest to us.

• Resilience and Advocacy: Despite overwhelming grief and betrayal, Jan's journey underscores the power of resilience and the importance of advocating for others facing similar traumas.

• Impact of Double Lives: Allen Canty's double life serves as a chilling reminder of how appearances can be deceiving, and the dire consequences that can ensue when secrets are kept.

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Betrayal: Weekly continues to shed light on real-life stories of broken trust, offering listeners insightful perspectives on the complexities of human relationships and the aftermath of deception.

Transcript

[Andrea Gunning]

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[Jan Canty]

To New Orleans Bagels New York and for psychics, think California Psychics. You want the best, you go to the best. At California Psychics, home of free spirits.

[Andrea Gunning]

And open minds, we know better than.

[Jan Canty]

Anyone what makes a good psychic. That's why we guarantee if your reading isn't life changing, it's free. Visit californiapsychics.com and experience the joy of certainty. California Psychics that evening, one of the strangest things happened. I looked in the mirror and I said out loud, he's not coming home. And I thought, my God, am I being dramatic? And I dismissed it.

[Andrea Gunning]

I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. This is our last Betrayal Weekly episode for a little while. We'll be back in May with a whole new season of Betrayal. It'll be one story told over multiple weeks, and after that we have more Betrayal Weekly episodes coming. Right now we're actively working on new stories, so if you have a story you'd like to share on the podcast, write to [e-mail] in the meantime, we have some spectacular bonus content, including updates on cases you've heard on Betrayal Weekly. We're also interviewing experts and getting their opinions on the stories you've heard. We can't wait for you to hear what we have. Coming up now onto this week's episode. This is Jan Canty's story. She grew up in Detroit in the 1950s and 60s. It was an era of social change, a time when protests erupted across the country and people demanded equality. It all informed the woman Jan became.

[Jan Canty]

I loved growing up in Detroit. It was a very historical time. I was very active in the women's movement. Even as a teenager, I was in demonstrations. I wanted to make a difference, and I did not want to grow up and be a housewife and have kids. But I lacked role models for how to do that because everybody that I knew that was a woman stayed home and had kids.

[Andrea Gunning]

Jan didn't know what possibilities were out there for her. She loves learning, but she didn't love school.

[Jan Canty]

Hated high school with a big passion. Hated it. Capital H. I thought it was a complete waste of time. I just saw it as babysitting. It turned me off to school, and I said I was never going to set foot in the classroom again.

[Andrea Gunning]

If she could have dropped out of high school, she would have. So college wasn't part of her plan. She didn't even know how to apply.

[Jan Canty]

So I just went from one crap job to another. Didn't like any of them, got really bored. So I kind of started out really floundering, not knowing what I wanted to.

[Andrea Gunning]

Do, looking for a little direction. She gave school one last try. She started taking classes at her local community college. And sure enough, I loved it.

[Jan Canty]

So different than high school.

[Andrea Gunning]

It was at community college that she took her first psychology course. It was a turning point. Working in psychology would mean helping others. Plus, she found it interesting.

[Jan Canty]

To me, there's nothing more basic than thought. They can take away your family, your health, so on, but they can't take away your thought. And that intrigued me. It still does.

[Andrea Gunning]

As she began her studies, she was eager to start a life on her own. So she moved downtown and rented the cheapest place she could find.

[Jan Canty]

My apartment cost me $80 a month. It had rats. It had about six locks on the door. It had no kitchen. It was a hot plate, a bathroom and a bedroom. I remember putting my mattress on the floor away from the window so the gunshots outside wouldn't pierce through the window because there was always gunfire at night. But it was home to me and it was proof that I was on my way.

[Andrea Gunning]

Still, as cheap as it was if she was going to continue to live there, she needed a job. A friend told her about a psychologist who was hiring. He needed help typing up a manuscript. This was right up Jan's alley. So she applied, and soon she got a call asking for an interview. When she pulled up to the office.

[Jan Canty]

Building, I noticed they had to pay for parking. I did not have $2.50 on me to pay for, so I thought, I'm going to have to ask for a loan from my future employer.

[Andrea Gunning]

She went inside and immediately felt like a fish out of water.

[Jan Canty]

It was staggering. It had marble and bronze and 3ft long chandeliers in the corridor and arches and paintings, and you name it. Very, very, very elegant. And so I remember walking through the doors and instantly I felt out of place. I'm like, I don't belong here. This is fancy. I don't have any money. I'm a phony. I was so nervous, and I had on my best clothes, which I bought used. And I remember watching people how they got to the elevator and how they used the buttons so I would know how to do it.

[Andrea Gunning]

But as she got off the elevator, her nerves faded.

[Jan Canty]

When I got off on floor eight, he must have heard the elevator gong. He stuck his head out, way, way down at the end of the hall. He said, oh, I'm down here.

[Andrea Gunning]

The psychologist's name was Alan Canty. Jan had been expecting a man who matched the building. Someone intimidating, formal, classy. Alan was anything but.

[Jan Canty]

He had a golf shirt on. His pants were too short for his shoes. He was bashful, and he was very welcoming. He laughed easily.

[Andrea Gunning]

The two of them hit it off. Twenty minutes into the interview, Allen offered her the job. But before she left, she had a favor to ask.

[Jan Canty]

On my way out, I said, oh, by the way, can you deduct $2.50 out of my paycheck?

[Andrea Gunning]

Jan explained that she wasn't able to pay the exit fee for the parking lot. Allen just smiled.

[Jan Canty]

He pulled out of his pocket a roll of cash and peeled it off and seemed more than happy to give it to me.

[Andrea Gunning]

In the beginning, Jan and Allen's relationship was strictly professional. After all, he was 18 years older than her. Well educated, he came from a wealthy family. To Jan, Alan was elite and accomplished. He was someone to look up to.

[Jan Canty]

My impression of him was one of respect. Given his station in life, I knew I could learn a lot from him in terms of the field of psychology.

[Andrea Gunning]

Before long, he started treating her to.

[Jan Canty]

Lunch, and I would talk about classes and what I was learning.

[Andrea Gunning]

He wanted to give her advice, to be a mentor.

[Jan Canty]

He was the first person to ever express belief in my goals. The idea that of course you can go to college, of course you can graduate, of course you can do that. I had never had anybody tell me that in my life. It really made a big impression on me. And I was so pleased that he saw potential in me that nobody else acknowledged or validated.

[Andrea Gunning]

He encouraged her to transfer to a four year university and get her bachelor's degree. And he helped her pay for college by promoting her to receptionist.

[Jan Canty]

He gave me a raise and I was so grateful for that because I was really barely paying my own tuition. And one term I had to sell my car to make tuition and I had started to walk to class in those neighborhoods, which was a challenge to get home before dark in the winter.

[Andrea Gunning]

Alan started giving her rides home at the end of the day. He liked looking out for her and she liked being cared for. After a few months, Allen asked her out on a date. It didn't really come as a surprise. Jan knew they had chemistry. For their first date, Allen drove her somewhere she'd never been before.

[Jan Canty]

It looked like a rundown neighborhood and it looked dangerous.

[Andrea Gunning]

As Allen pulled up to a house, Jan thought for a split second that she might have made a terrible mistake.

[Jan Canty]

The windows were boarded up and the grass was overgrown. The only sign was a little tiny yellow and green sign that said lellies. That's it.

[Andrea Gunning]

But as they drove around back, the.

[Jan Canty]

Aroma coming from the kitchen was beyond description. And they had a man with a violin in the parking lot.

[Andrea Gunning]

It was a fancy restaurant, one of the nicest she'd ever been to, and it was hidden almost like a speakeasy. When they stepped inside, the place was decorated with real oil paintings, chandeliers, candles, and even roaming musicians. Jan was wowed.

[Jan Canty]

And we talked and talked and talked until we realized we were taking up too much time. Like, the waiter was kind of like, come on guys, let's have a change over the table.

[Andrea Gunning]

They were enjoying each other's company. Alan wasn't a standout when it came to his looks or his charm. He was shy, awkward even. But Jan felt a real connection with him.

[Jan Canty]

I liked how he treated me with respect and he always helped me with my coat and opened my car door and never interrupted me and was always eager to hear about my day. And he'd ask follow up questions, you know, like, what did you think of that class? And what'd you think of that book? And tell me more about your parents? Or why do you like that singer or whatever it might be.

[Andrea Gunning]

Their attraction was rooted in conversation. Jan had never had a relationship like this before.

[Jan Canty]

I felt very lucky because a lot of my friends were floundering. You know, their idea of a date would be to go to McDonald's and ride up and down Woodward Avenue. And I was like, I'd rather go to the museums. I'd rather have an intellectual discussion.

[Andrea Gunning]

And with Alan, she could. Here was someone on her level. They were spending all day together at work and then going on dates at night. Pretty soon, Jan could picture a real future with him. They'd been dating about six months, and one morning over breakfast, he's very bashful.

[Jan Canty]

And I decided, you know, he's never going to ask me, so I better ask him. So I had a paper calendar in my pocket and I pulled it out, put it on the table, and I said, I think it's about time that we get married. What do you think? And he goes, okay. And I took my calendar out and I took a pen and I stabbed a date. It was a year calendar and it landed on a Saturday in September. And I go, there's our date.

[Andrea Gunning]

They couldn't wait to be married. Just a year into dating, they had a tiny, no frills ceremony.

[Jan Canty]

By the time we got married, I was finishing my bachelor's and he encouraged me to go for my master's degree.

[Andrea Gunning]

When Jan doubted herself, he gave me.

[Jan Canty]

The confidence to go into my master's program. And in the era too, women did not go to graduate school at all.

[Andrea Gunning]

In the early 80s, she started her master's in psychology at the University of Michigan.

[Jan Canty]

I loved it so much, I did not even want to go home after class was over. I loved everything about it. I loved the old, old, old libraries. Oh, it was breathtaking.

[Andrea Gunning]

During this time, Alan wanted to move into a bigger home in a more affluent neighborhood.

[Jan Canty]

He wanted to have us have our own house together. And I said, I have nothing to bring to the table. Nothing. I mean, you could put everything I had in my trunk.

[Andrea Gunning]

And that's exactly what she did. Jan packed up her pillow, clock radio, and a suitcase of clothes, and she moved in with Alan.

[Jan Canty]

And we moved into this six bedroom, six bathroom house.

[Andrea Gunning]

The new home he'd bought for them was a Tudor revival mansion in one of the most exclusive suburbs of Detroit.

[Jan Canty]

It was like a public building. It was so big.

[Andrea Gunning]

When Jan agreed to move in with him, she only asked for one thing.

[Jan Canty]

I said, what's important to me is if I can take one of the bedrooms and turn it into a dissertation room. He got me an electric typewriter with a little exchange ball so he could change the fonts and he got me that. He got me a bookshelf and a lamp and he bought me a coffee mug that he found someplace where on the inside, if you look at it down at the bottom, there's somebody looks like they're mountain climbing up the side of the cup on the inside. And he called it a struggle cup. And he goes, when you get discouraged, look in your struggle cup and remind yourself a day at a time, you're gonna do it, you're gonna finish. You have what it takes.

[Andrea Gunning]

In a little over a year, Allen helped transform Jan's life. Before she'd met him, she was broken, living in a rundown apartment, searching for direction. Now she was on the path towards becoming a psychologist and she had a beautiful home in a wealthy neighborhood. At the time she was grateful, but looking back now, she sees it all a little differently.

[Jan Canty]

He liked rescuing damsels in distress, which I did not understand at the time. That's his pattern.

[Andrea Gunning]

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[Jan Canty]

Oh my God, the hours you put In, I mean, 70 hour work weeks were not unheard of. And he was very considerate about me coming home and going right up to my room and just working on my dissertation.

[Andrea Gunning]

Alan wasn't exactly the romantic type, but life with him was steady, easy.

[Jan Canty]

I felt special, I felt lucky. I felt like I had gotten the jackpot. We had a routine. We'd either have breakfast together or go out to eat. He liked to order the newspaper and read it at night. We would have dinner at a prompt time because he often worked in the evenings in his home office and I would be doing homework. It was comfortable.

[Andrea Gunning]

Becoming a psychologist was Jan's sole focus.

[Jan Canty]

We got to the point when I was finishing my doctorate, he said, you know, we really ought to furnish the living room. We've been in this house for years. And I go, oh yeah, that's a good idea. Like I never noticed it.

[Andrea Gunning]

Alan took care of her.

[Jan Canty]

He took care of the bills, income taxes, et cetera, et cetera. He managed 100% of it and I was fine with that. I was just glad not to have one more thing on my plate. So we never argued over money. I never worried about it.

[Andrea Gunning]

They stuck to the same old routine as the years ticked by. Then, in 1984, 10 years into their marriage, Jan noticed a change in Allen. It started in November when she traveled to Arizona to be with her parents, she'd come down with Mano. So she went to recover where it was warmer.

[Jan Canty]

That coincidentally happened to fall on his 50th birthday that night. I remember it was his birthday and I felt like crap and I had such a raging, raw, sore throat. But I set my alarm and got up and called him at 11 o'clock and sang him Happy Birthday. And he started tearing up. I thought it was because he was worried about me and my health.

[Andrea Gunning]

She stayed in Arizona for three weeks. When Jan got better and returned to Michigan, Allen seemed disturbed. He was panicked. She'd never seen him like this before. And he continued to spiral downward for months. And By May of 1985, they decided to admit him to a psychiatric hospital for a few weeks of intensive mental health care.

[Jan Canty]

And he kept saying to me at the hospital when I was in the process of getting him hospitalized, you're pure as snow. Pure as snow, pure as snow.

[Andrea Gunning]

What did that mean? The phrase didn't make any sense to Jan. Throughout Alan's stay in the psych hospital.

[Jan Canty]

He kept repeating words, saying things like, purest snow, I'm so bad. Birthday, dawn, money, pure as snow. I'm so bad I need to stand tall. And I just thought, this is just craziness speaking.

[Andrea Gunning]

He was having a psychotic break. Eventually he was released from the hospital and he seemed much better. But Jan couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right. And that feeling only grew as spring turned to summer. One day, Jan was gardening out back.

[Jan Canty]

And I went back there to trim the lilac bush. And this is after days of rain. And I noticed three dry cigarette butts on the ground in the mud near our kitchen window. And that set off a big red flag because they were dry, which meant they were recent.

[Andrea Gunning]

It was a small detail, but one that didn't sit right with her. Neither she or Allen smoked, and they didn't have a gardener or a housekeeper, so that meant someone had been standing outside her kitchen window smoking. Jan imagined a stranger just lurking in her backyard, watching her through the window. She checked every room in the house, in the basement, all around the perimeter. No one was there. Allen was at work, so she left him a message at his office, but he never returned her call.

[Jan Canty]

He came home from work, and I was livid that he had never called me. And he was patronizing, and he said, well, what do we need to do? Do we need to get you a dog? Would that make you feel better? I said, what would make me feel better? Is if you returned my phone call. Something is amiss. Can't you feel it? You don't find cigarette butts out there. Something is a myth. And he just started laughing like, oh, you're so cute. Oh, that infuriated me. You don't dismiss somebody who's got genuine reasons to be worried.

[Andrea Gunning]

Was someone casing the house and planning to rob them? Her mind went to dark places.

[Jan Canty]

My way of handling stress is to do tasks to get busy. And so after this incident, I decided to catalog every single thing in our house. How many towels did we own? Where was our insurance policy? And put it in a photo album so that if somebody was going to rob us, because that's what I thought was happening, I could say to the insurance company, this is what we have. Here's proof of our belongings.

[Andrea Gunning]

Then one day I went to go.

[Jan Canty]

Write a thank you note to somebody and I reached up in the closet shelf above my head to pull out where I thought was where we put the thank you notes and realized that photo album had been missing. And I knew for sure that's where it should be because I was the only one that dealt with it.

[Andrea Gunning]

She confronted Allen about it and he.

[Jan Canty]

Goes, what is with you? I took it to work. I was bragging about you. You don't get it. I thought it was a great idea. And he went out to his car and he got it and brought it back in to show me. And it smelled like cigarettes.

[Andrea Gunning]

Allen explained that he wanted to show his colleagues this album. He didn't understand Jan's concern. Even with this explanation, she still felt uneasy.

[Jan Canty]

Especially when we started having hang up calls in the middle of the night. A couple of the first ones, I grabbed the phone and it was always the same man. He had a southern draw, he sounded like he was drunk, and he was always asking for some person.

[Andrea Gunning]

Jan didn't know who he was asking for, but every few days, this man would call back in the middle of the night.

[Jan Canty]

And every time I said it was the wrong number and I hung up.

[Andrea Gunning]

But nothing was more unsettling than what happened. One evening in the beginning of July.

[Jan Canty]

I was driving along Fox Canal on a stormy, foggy night, and this car was following me, speeding up and then backing off, speeding up and then backing off. And I'm like, what the heck? And we turned the corner onto my side street, and I knew that area very well. And I knew that there was a dip in the road where it turned. And so when I got close by, I turned off my lights and sped up as Fast as I dared do it, drive and turn left into my driveway and left onto the grass behind the hedgehog. Just sat there. And sure enough, I watched them come by. They stopped at every driveway on our side street and they even stopped at my driveway. But they didn't see me and they drove on.

[Andrea Gunning]

If one of these things had happened, sure, she could have chalked it up to paranoia. But the cigarettes, the photo album, the hang up calls, being followed, something was off and Alan wasn't taking it seriously.

[Jan Canty]

Al blew it off. You don't know that they were following you. Yeah, they were following me. He was always belittling me when it came to issues of safety because he wasn't bothered by any of that.

[Andrea Gunning]

Then on July 13, 1985, Alan didn't come home for dinner at his usual time.

[Jan Canty]

It was a very stormy day. We lost power. It was hail, rain, wind. So I wasn't totally shocked when he didn't arrive promptly, although that was his pattern because of the weather. And I figured the roads were probably impassable. But by 11:00 that night, I get concerned. And this is before cell phone. So there was no way to check where he was. And one of the strangest things happened that evening. My anxiety was escalating and I was pacing. I walked into his home office and he had a bathroom attached to it. And I looked in the mirror and I said out loud, he's dead. He's not coming home. And as soon as I said those words, I'm like, what the heck? It was like my voice but not my thoughts. And I thought, my God, am I being dramatic? This is stress speaking. Of course he's going to be home. And I dismissed it.

[Andrea Gunning]

Jan woke up the next morning without Alan in bed beside her. He had still not returned. She called friends and family and co workers of his. No one had seen him. So after 24 hours she reported him missing.

[Jan Canty]

But nothing came of it that day or the next day. For the next day or the next day.

[Andrea Gunning]

With each day she grew more and more panicked. He could have been in a car accident or a carjacking. He could have been mugged or kidnapped. After all, it was Detroit. In the 80s.

[Jan Canty]

Crime in Detroit was at an all time high at that point in history. The statistics were at that time that a car was stolen every 13 seconds. You heard sirens day and night. We were working in an area that was high crime, so it would not be unthinkable that he was a victim of a crime.

[Andrea Gunning]

Jan needed support. Her parents flew in from Arizona to be with her. But they weren't the only ones at her door.

[Jan Canty]

On about this third day of him being gone, the media descended and they never let up at all. They were intrusive, they were relentless. They made it a living hell for me. Nonetheless, we had to get the word out. So they did. It was on the news every time I turned around.

[Andrea Gunning]

Jan waited. A week went by, then eight days and nine days.

[Jan Canty]

And then the 10th day I got a phone call early on a Sunday morning from a Detective Marlis Landeros. She asked me to meet her down at the police headquarters.

[Andrea Gunning]

The detective was outside the building waiting for her when she arrived. They went up in the elevator.

[Jan Canty]

We got off on floor five, which was homicide, and I was called into the office of the inspector Gil Hill. It was very short meeting. He said, we have reason to believe your husband's been murdered, but we don't have his body yet. And I suggest you go home and check your finances because we've been told that he's been handing out a lot of cash down on Cass Quarter, which is the red light district of Detroit.

[Andrea Gunning]

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[Jan Canty]

He's got the wrong guy. No, this can't be. He doesn't know my husband. My husband is somebody who reads the newspaper every day. He's always home at a certain time when he says he's going to be home. He's not a ladies man. He doesn't dress to kill. He doesn't do drugs. He doesn't gamble. He's got the wrong guy. There's got to be another explanation. And the fact that he didn't have a body lent itself to my argument that they had the wrong guy.

[Andrea Gunning]

Jan was incredulous. But with no other leads, she took the detective's advice to take a look at Allen's finances.

[Jan Canty]

Everywhere I looked, we were in the red. I mean, irs, house payments, office payments. There was no savings account. There was no life insurance policy. There was nothing. It turns out when I totaled it up in $1985, I was $30,000 in debt and I had no income to speak of because I had just finished my training.

[Andrea Gunning]

A few days later, as she was still making sense of the finances, she got another call from the police. They had more intel and they said.

[Jan Canty]

He'S been keeping company with John Carl Fry Senior and Dawn Marie Spence on Casper Street. And they looked at me to see my reaction, and I'm like, okay. Like it might as well have been Greek. I don't know them. That was the first I'd heard of them.

[Andrea Gunning]

Then the police revealed, we have found.

[Jan Canty]

His body and we need you to identify him.

[Andrea Gunning]

The detective explained to Jan that they would need to go to the morgue.

[Jan Canty]

On the way over there. In her very professional and caring way, she did her darndest to prepare me to see him in an altered state because he had been buried in a bog for 10 days in three different places.

[Andrea Gunning]

His body had been dismembered.

[Jan Canty]

Some of his body parts were left on the freeway. I didn't have to identify those. What I had to identify was his head. My dad said, you can't do this by yourself. I'm going to go with you. And I said, dad, this isn't your problem. This is my problem. But I could not stand. I could literally not stand. It felt like my legs were made out of Silly Putty.

[Andrea Gunning]

The detective held her up on one side as her dad held her up on the other. The experience was incredibly traumatic. Jan can't even remember who was in the room.

[Jan Canty]

I do remember Detective Landero st. Telling me, all you have to do is say yes or no. That's it, and we're out of here. And when they put his head in a table, I couldn't speak. And I closed my eyes. And she was very patient. And then she asked me yes or no. He didn't have his glasses on, but his hair looked the same. And his eyelashes and his eyebrows looked the same. When I said yes, I was sure it was him.

[Andrea Gunning]

The detective snuck Jan out the back. Camera crews were waiting for her out front. The story had become national news. On the way home from the morgue, Jan lay down in the back of the police car. Jan could no longer deny the reality. Her husband was dead and he was murdered by people she'd never heard of. And who were these people? Well, they were still at large.

[Jan Canty]

There was an APB for their whereabouts, and they started having their faces plastered in the news.

[Andrea Gunning]

Jan didn't want to look at the tv, but her dad insisted.

[Jan Canty]

He said, I want you to know their faces. I don't think they're on their way to our house. But you're out and about in the community. I want you to be able to identify them if you ever see them. And your first obligation is to call 911 than me, in that order. So that's the first I knew of their faces and connected them with their name.

[Andrea Gunning]

Their names were John Carl Fry Senior and Dawn Marie Spence. As Jan watched the news, she found out for the first time who these people were. Dawn was a sex worker, and John was her boyfriend. The media ran with the story of a wealthy psychologist being sucked into a dark love triangle. But could that be true? Jan still couldn't fathom it.

[Jan Canty]

And I'm still like Al. That doesn't make sense. I just couldn't wrap my head around it. It was so unlike him.

[Andrea Gunning]

The man she knew was quiet, intellectual, earnest. Someone who'd get wrapped up in a world like this was a different Alan Canty entirely. Jan barely had the basic facts of the case. She didn't even know how Allan met these people and what their relationship really was. But she didn't have the time to look for answers.

[Jan Canty]

I had so many more urgent, immediate things on my plate. I was worried about the IRS selling my house. If I had aids, I was going through AIDS testing. I had no time to wonder and think about, what did he do? What did he say? Where did he go? That was a low priority. I was worried about my own safety.

[Andrea Gunning]

After all, she had been followed. The fear and stress were taking a massive toll on her.

[Jan Canty]

I wasn't sleeping. I went into permanent menopause. I was physically sick. I lost a lot of my hair. I lost a lot of weight.

[Andrea Gunning]

Allen had led a double life, one she still didn't have a clear picture of. She was deeply betrayed, but she was also grieving.

[Jan Canty]

I was very defensive, irrationally angry. Like I would get angry at going into the grocery store that they didn't make loaves of bread for one person. I was looking for things to get angry about. Somebody opened the door for me. I'm like, what do they think I'm week? They got to open the door for me. I didn't maybe say anything to him, but internally, I was very angry all the time.

[Andrea Gunning]

With Allan dead, there was nowhere for her anger to go. He couldn't answer for what he'd done. And to make matters worse, Allan had kept financial secrets. Big ones.

[Jan Canty]

I got handed a bill for $37,000 he owed for back rent. He'd taken out personal loans. He'd forged my name. I was so broke, I didn't know how I was going to get through the winter. I turned down the heat so much that I had frozen pipes. I started eating less. I conserved my trips to the store. I walked when I could. I sold off everything I could. His car parts, jewelry, furniture, books. One night, I was by myself as usual, and it was a peaceful night. I was sitting by the fire at my house. The room was empty. There wasn't a stick of furniture in there because I'd sold it all. And I remember thinking, somehow, some way, I'm going to make this a positive. I don't know how, I don't know when. But I do know why. Because if I don't, it'll crumble me.

[Andrea Gunning]

It took two years for Jan to get on steady ground after Allen was murdered. And during that time, she was still unaware of who her husband really was and what he had truly done. Then in 1987, Jan got approached by a reporter. He was writing a book about Allen's case. At first, Jan tried to shut the book down. She didn't need anyone showing up on her doorstep again digging up old wounds.

[Jan Canty]

I didn't want to speak with him, I didn't want anything to do with it. And I went to my attorney about it and he goes, you can't stop it. He's writing it based on public records and in fact there's a reason you should cooperate with them. And I go, what's that? And he said, you're going to learn things that you need to know. He's going to have the time, he's going to have the answers. And if you don't get the answers, you'll always wonder. So I'd suggest you meet with them.

[Andrea Gunning]

So she did. And through the reporter's findings, the other Alan Canty finally revealed himself. Here's what she learned.

[Jan Canty]

Throughout our marriage he had women on the side and every single one of them was in need financially. He had offered to put up some in their own apartments. He had offered to pay the tuition of others. He paid the medical bills of some and even visited them in the hospital. There was never a time when he was the person I thought he was.

[Andrea Gunning]

All those late nights that he was working, he was really with these women. It was like he had a pathological desire to save women in need. So when his mother gave Alan $500 for his 50th birthday, he took that.

[Jan Canty]

Money and spent it on Dawn. That's the first time he met her.

[Andrea Gunning]

This was when Jan was sick with mono and resting at her parents place in Arizona. Jan thought back to that birthday call when Allen started to cry. Originally she thought it was out of concern for her health.

[Jan Canty]

I think instead it was a little pang of guilt but was short lived.

[Andrea Gunning]

The guilt apparently subsided and Allen continued to spend time in the red light district where he met Don. There he wasn't the sheepish guy Jan had known. Even smaller details didn't square up with what she knew about him. For one thing, she discovered he was.

[Jan Canty]

A very good pool player and he would challenge people playing pool, which I can't even picture him in a bar, let alone playing pool.

[Andrea Gunning]

The other Allen spent his nights with Don at bars and the reporter told Jan something that changed her understanding of the whole dynamic. Before Alan died, he'd been hanging out with Don and John for nine months. For most of that time, Alan wasn't paying Don for sex.

[Jan Canty]

They stopped having sex. They only had sex the first two months.

[Andrea Gunning]

So what was the point of their relationship? Could it be drugs? The reporter turned to Jan for an answer, and in her gut she knew it was an addiction of a different kind. An addiction to being needed.

[Jan Canty]

So this was like a guarantee, you know, if I'm. If I'm going to surround myself with people who need me financially, I have a guarantee of an audience. I have a guarantee of a partner. They're not going to leave me.

[Andrea Gunning]

He liked having a captive audience.

[Jan Canty]

He would go over there and read the paper and bring them breakfast, and they'd sit and listen with boredom to his stories.

[Andrea Gunning]

Of course, Don and John got something out of this relationship, too. They were in it for money. Jan was able to figure out just how much Alan had given them.

[Jan Canty]

It was 150 grand.

[Andrea Gunning]

In today's money, that's nearly $440,000.

[Jan Canty]

And that doesn't include the cars he bought them, the rent he paid, the meals he paid for.

[Andrea Gunning]

He also bought them heroin.

[Jan Canty]

He would take them on drug runs for them. And I think that was his making sure they were going to be dependent upon him.

[Andrea Gunning]

This was Alan's M.O. he got people to need him. But this time, Alan was mixed up with some very dangerous people.

[Jan Canty]

I mean, even among other criminals, John was feared. That's how vicious he was.

[Andrea Gunning]

Remember those phone calls Jan got in the middle of the night? The ones from the man with the Southern accent?

[Jan Canty]

That was John Fry.

[Andrea Gunning]

Allen had lied and said he was a widower. So when John called the house and heard Allen's wife on the line, he was surprised. Then he got an idea. He could use that information to extort Allen to threaten his wife in exchange for more and more money. And they drained him dry.

[Jan Canty]

When he ran out of money, they lost patience with him. They had no interest in him and decided, at least John decided, best thing to do was just to kill him, get him out of their hair.

[Andrea Gunning]

Near the end, Alan started to see the writing on the wall.

[Jan Canty]

He was running out of money to give them. He realized that John had been calling our house and hanging up. Things were coming to a head, and I think he'd be compensated.

[Andrea Gunning]

That led to Allen's psychotic break, or what Jan had thought was a psychotic break. She remembered that phrase Allen kept repeating when he was in the hospital.

[Jan Canty]

You're pure as snow. Pure as snow. Pure as snow. And I think in his mind at that point in time, he was seeing dawn and me as very different people.

[Andrea Gunning]

To Allan, Jan and Dawn were Total opposites. Jan was the woman he transformed into something good and clean and pure. Don brought out his dark side. But when Jan learned more about Dawn's backstory, it resonated with her.

[Jan Canty]

Dawn came from an abusive household and she did not have a good self esteem. I mean, she quit school a month before she graduated high school and she was nominated valedictorian instead. She threw all of that away, left the suburbs to go downtown and met up with John. And her life took a turn for the worse.

[Andrea Gunning]

After that, Jan learned of at least four other women he supported financially. Jan herself had been that young woman with a lot of potential and no direction to go in. When she met Allen, her life changed too.

[Jan Canty]

In a way, that was the old me. I mean, I had nothing when I met him. And he was saying, I'll pay your tuition, just like he said it to them.

[Andrea Gunning]

And now, for the first time, she saw their relationship through his eyes.

[Jan Canty]

It explained to me his attraction to me, you know, that I was a project. I was a challenge to be fixed, to be provided for. I was a good prop, someone he could perform for with his knowledge and his money. And I sat and ate it all up. I was a willing participant.

[Andrea Gunning]

It's a strange feeling, especially considering that Allen helped her achieve so many dreams.

[Jan Canty]

I will always be grateful for what he gave me. I don't mean just financially, but the encouragement. He was instrumental in getting me on my path. And I don't think I would have done it without him.

[Andrea Gunning]

The very things she loved about Alan were the ones that destroyed him and destroyed her life. John Fry was eventually convicted of murder and the mutilation of a body. He served the rest of his life in prison. Dawn served 10 months plus three years probation for her role in the crime. As for Jan, she wanted to get out of Detroit.

[Jan Canty]

Once I left Detroit and paid off the bills and got away from the media and got away from the police, I felt like I could start to reinvent my life.

[Andrea Gunning]

She's lived many lives since that time. She's taught and practiced psychology, traveled the world, gotten remarried. Still, she couldn't leave what happened with Alan behind completely. She continued to think about the man he'd been as both a victim and a perpetrator.

[Jan Canty]

What that did was end up in conflicted grief. You have dueling emotions. There's a part of you that's like the typical grief, you know, those loss and. And sadness than missing a person. But the other side of it is relief.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dealing with this complicated grief and trauma made it hard for Jan to connect with people who could possibly understand what she'd gone through. But eventually she found community in other homicide survivors.

[Jan Canty]

A homicide survivor is someone who is grieving over the homicide of a loved one. It's somebody who's left with the aftermath of murder. And the reason we don't know of that term is I don't think it's projected much. In true crime, the focus is on the perpetrator and the deed, a little bit on the victim, and we're in the background and nobody cares. I mean, it's like they think if we get the perpetrator conviction convicted, that that's the end of the story. And I'm like, oh, if you only knew.

[Andrea Gunning]

Knowing people who shared even parts of her own experience gave her a deep sense of belonging.

[Jan Canty]

Now I hold that as near and dear to my heart. The people I have met, the stories I have heard, it's so healing. It was like the missing piece.

[Andrea Gunning]

Supporting and advocating for homicide survivors has become Jan's mission in life. We end all of our episodes with the same question. Why do you want to tell your story?

[Jan Canty]

If you think about most movies dealing with homicide, the family of the victim is either never shown or they're grieving in the corner, wringing their hands, and that's the end of them. There's not any curiosity about it. And the fact of the matter is anybody listening could be a part of our club. Homicide cuts across all racial lines. Age, economic, geographic, you name it. Nobody is immune. And if anything's going to change, we have to put our story out there. Somebody's got to do it.

[Andrea Gunning]

If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team, email [e-mail] that's betrayalpodmail.com and be sure to follow us on Instagram. Betrayalpod. We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcast Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with Iheart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison. Hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. This episode was written and produced by Caitlin golden and Monique Laborer with additional production by Ben Federman. Associate producers are Kristin Melchiori and Kaitlyn Golden. Our I heart team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krynchek. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Del Vecchio. Additional editing support from Tanner Robbins Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Baines Music library provided by My Music and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. When you haven't found love, it can.

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[Andrea Gunning]

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