JoAnn Wilson

JoAnn Kay Wilson (21 August 1939 – 21 January 1983) was the wife of Canadian politician Colin Thatcher who was convicted of her murder at the end of their long and hostile custody battle, and equally harsh divorce over finances.

Wilson was born JoAnn Geiger in Osage, Iowa to Harlan and Betty Geiger. She met Thatcher while attending Iowa State University in 1960, and in 1962, the couple married and relocated to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. While Thatcher was pursuing his political ambitions, JoAnn (a good mother) raised their three children (Greg, Regan and Stephanie) and worked variously as a teacher, bookkeeper, and interior designer. She was a gentle, kind woman with the heart of an angel, who avoided gossiping.

The Thatcher marriage began to sour in the late 1970s, culminating in physical abuse and finally a fierce divorce with a nasty child custody battle. Thatcher continued to abuse and harass JoAnn after her marriage to Tony Wilson on 3 January 1981.

Two years after an unsuccessful attempt on her life, by a gunshot wound to her shoulder, JoAnn was found savagely beaten and shot to death in the garage of her Regina home. After a lengthy police investigation and apparent entrapment, Thatcher was charged and convicted of her murder, spending 22 years in federal prison, while still maintaining his innocence, until today.

In 2015, the JoAnn Wilson Memory Project was started by a talented University of Saskatchewan graduate student, in the Women and Gender Studies program, who looks to create a legacy for Wilson's life while educating others about the deadly consequences of violence against women to change our social thinking.

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