Sounak Sengupta
The episode titled ‘The Id and the Ego’ of ‘Investigation Discovery’s ‘Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?’ features Jan Canty, a self-built woman who was forced to relocate and change her name following her husband’s death and scandalous affairs in Michigan in the 1980s. After being married to the late Alan Canty for more than a decade, Jan was shocked to learn about the secret double life he led for two years before his death in July 1985. If you are interested to learn more, here’s what we know.
Who is Jan Canty?
Jan Canty grew up in Detroit, Michigan, in the 50s, and had a very happy childhood. On the show, she said she felt safe in her neighborhood and would not have traded her childhood with anybody. However, she claimed she could not discuss her professional ambitions with anybody since all her school counselors advised students to be teachers, nurses, or housewives. But she defied all odds and got accepted into the local Wayne State University around 1972.
She recounted how she resided in a small third-floor studio on Western Boulevard, living off her moderate student grant. While Jan found her university life and coursework exhilarating, she also stated how she had to sleep through gunfires outside her windows every night. In her early teens, she fell in love with Dr. W. Alan Canty, a respected psychologist about 18 years her senior. Jan reminisced how infatuated she was upon meeting the first man she wanted to marry. She said, “He was 18 years older than me, and I was impressed by him.”
Jan used to work for Alan at his office in the Fisher Building, and the two shared a mutual interest in academia which led to their first date. From then onwards, the relationship started budding until she proposed, and they were married on September 26, 1974. The first few years were blissful until Jan began identifying the red flags in Alan’s behavior and treatment of her. She alleged, “He was the kind of man who needed to be the authority; he needed to be Big Daddy. The women he was drawn to, including myself, were women without resources who weren’t very sophisticated.
As per Jan, “Alan wanted to be needed and admired.” After a decade into their marriage, Jan started to realize that something was amiss in her husband’s behavior. She stated, “He started canceling lunch dates with me. He was being evasive and short. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew he was holding something back.” She began to suspect he was either embroiled in some extramarital affair or might have developed a gambling addiction.
In April 1984, her fears came true when she received a frantic phone call from Alan’s mother, alleging that something was wrong with her son. Jan rushed downtown to discover her husband was distraught and erratic and rushed him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with suffering from a psychotic break. Jan recounted, “As I was driving him to the hospital, he was saying nonsensical things like, ‘Have I been bad?’ and ‘Cass Corridor.’ He kept saying, ‘Did I stand tall,’ which is something his mother always said.”
Jan Canty Prefers to Live a Quiet Life Today
Jan’s suspicions were cemented when she cleaned Alan’s office while he was hospitalized. She found tons of unpaid bills, including one hospital insurance bill, and was mystified regarding why they were not paid. However, she decided not to press further, given Alan’s fragile health conditions. Jan recounted how she had a brief telephonic conversation with Alan at around 3:00 pm on July 13, 1985, which was the last time she would hear from him alive.
Alan never came home, and Jan filed a missing person report, only to be called a few days later to Detroit Police Headquarters. The officers told her they had found his torched car in southwest Detroit. They located his scattered body parts a few days later, spread over 250 miles, and the perpetrators, John “Lucky” Fry and Dawn Spens, were soon arrested. It was then that Jan learned her husband of ten years had been leading a secret double life.
Alan used to go to the shady neighborhood of Cass Corridor to solicit sex workers and was smitten with Dawn, who lived with her boyfriend, Lucky. The couple scammed over $100,000 from him in two years, with Dawn making Alan buy her a car and a small furnished apartment in southwest Detroit. The police alleged the couple killed him after Alan had no more money to offer, hypothesizing the murder as “an extortion attempt gone bad.”
However, Lucky claimed he killed him over an argument where he wanted Dawn to stop her drug abuse, but Alan refused to let her do so, fearing she would not be dependent on him anymore. Jan said she believed Lucky’s version and alleged, “He (Alan) needed people to depend on him. That was his nature.” When the case exploded in the media, Jan was forced to relocate and change her name to avoid public scrutiny.
Jan left Michigan in 1990, remarried, adopted two children, and built a successful career. Now in her late 60s, she still refuses to forgive her former late husband and states, “I believe forgiveness needs to be earned. I do not wish to give more to someone who already took too much from me.” Due to her explicit wishes, we do not publish her new name and current address.
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