Remembering Our Dead

Lisa Janna Black

Lisa was hit 20 times with a hammer by her roommate Synthia Kavanagh.

Kavanaugh (who was also a trans woman) also stuck a knife into one of Black's eyes. Brian Inch was also reported as beating and stabbing Black.

On March 2, 1987, police received a call for help at Northcote Avenue. They arrived to find Lisa Janet Black (aka [deadname]), dying. Twenty-three-year-old Black died in hospital just two hours later of head injuries. Black also worked as a [sex worker] in Parkdale. She had contacted police just hours before being killed, saying a “john” had robbed her and stolen her money and identification.

It took police four months to arrest Synthia Anne Kavanagh (aka [deadname] Chaperon), 25, of St. Patrick Street. She was charged with first-degree murder on July 31, 1987. Police also arrested Brian Thomas Inch, 35, of Eastern Avenue on August 28, 1987.

Kavanagh and Black were roommates, both working in the Parkdale area. During interviews with homicide detectives, Kavanagh said she murdered Black with a hammer and a knife. She built up her courage to commit the murder by drinking beer and taking tranquilizers with Inch before eventually hitting her in the head repeatedly with a hammer and plunging a knife into her eye. Kavanagh blamed an unnamed person who put a .38 gun in her mouth and told her to retrieve $700,000 in cocaine and jewellery stolen by Black. She was told “either you get that back or you kill (Black)”, and Kavanagh decided it was easier to kill her friend.

Toronto police said that until her spontaneous video-taped confession, Kavanagh was considered a witness and not a suspect. Inch was in the apartment and was treated as a witness after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

Witness Crystal Anderson, Inch’s lover, told homicide investigators Black was killed for informing on Anderson and Kavanagh implicating them in a robbery. Charges were dropped when Black failed to show up for court. Anderson’s taped interview was played in court, saying Inch was an active participant in the murder and stabbed Black in the heart. Anderson was in prison for burglary and possession of stolen property when she testified, and said that she was now in danger because she was a “rat.”

Inch refused to testify at Kavanagh’s trial, and had already been sentenced to seven years. Kavanagh recanted her confession during the trial, saying another person killed Black while she waited in the kitchen. She maintained her innocence even after the trial. Kavanagh was found guilty of second-degree murder in May, 1989, and sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 15 years. Although the trial judge recommended a women’s prison, Corrections Canada placed her in a men’s penitentiary.

Note that some sources list Lisa's full name was Lisa Janet Black.

http://students673.ucr.edu/docsserver/lgbt/trans_remembrance_display_posters.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavanagh_v._Canada_(Attorney_General)

https://transgenderinmate.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post.html

https://transgenderarchives.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/lisa-janet-black/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0

Report added: 24 Feb 2019. Last updated: 7 Mar 2026

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