Murder story is author’s case file

Crime stories tend to have a headline-length lifespan. They occur, the media coverage is saturating, there’s a glare of public speculation — then interest evaporates.

But not for those directly involved, or even the peripheral actors. People connected with a serious crime might always feel its shadow.

“Death at the Harbourview Cafe” is Fred Humber’s first book, and it’s about such a circumstance.

“It was conceived and researched to finally give relief to those who are left and to enlighten our youth about this historic event ... Just what were the answers to the many lingering questions? The mission was to find the truth: not to assign blame, but to restore the event to its rightful place in the history of both Newfoundland and Labrador and the RCMP.”

To Humber, these slayings are inextricably linked, not just to a place but also a phase of life — becoming a teenager when the term itself was young. And a favourite hangout was The Harbourside Cafe.

“After school and early after supper, they streamed in with their friends, anxious to pump loose change into the jukebox and buy Coca-cola and chips and burgers. (They played songs by) Bobby Darin, Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison. The café was humming. There were none of today’s recreational drugs, and very little drinking. Officially, Jim served no liquor or beer, since his was an unlicensed establishment. Haig Ale was as close as it came to booze. Its alcohol content was so minimal it was classed as a soft drink.”

None of them had much money, but that didn’t matter.

“It was a time of freedom, not riches.”

Botwood, although a small Newfoundland town, was quite cosmopolitan thanks to being an export point for Grand Falls pulp and paper and Buchans ore, and even had its own airport. Hearsey, the café waitress, was engaged to a Norwegian. And the community included some from China. (This book adds to the record of the Chinese in Newfoundland, including lots of family photos.)

In May 1931, Jim Ling disembarked in Vancouver. Chinese immigrants came under great suspicion and like Ling, on the train to Halifax, were guarded and not allowed out at any station. Newfoundland, where Ling arrived by ferry, was not much kinder. They were further subject to a head tax, and for decades no Chinese women were allowed at all. Nonetheless the Chinese came, working in the businesses open to them, sending money to their families home, and dreaming of the day they will be reunited.

Ling had a wife and son, and their plan at first was that he would find work, come back to visit them every year or so, and when he had enough fortune and position, they would join him. By July Ling was in Botwood, and in business. There was already a strong, loyal and successful network of Chinese people in Newfoundland. They helped each other out entrepreneurially and emotionally, a buttress against isolation and loneliness. Not that Ling didn’t make friends in Botwood, where he ran the Harbourview Cafe. He was amiable, a spiffy dresser, had a sense of humour, and, even as he learned English, enjoyed explaining Chinese culture. But more than occasionally he also displayed a short fuse, was prone to bleak depressions, and would sometimes shut the café and hide from company for several days.

And then he suffered a terrible blow. His wife, followed by his son, died. Ling took the news very hard.

But he did recover, continued to run his café, and in 1952 became a Canadian citizen. And then he decided to adopt a son from China.

This would give him a family, and one traditional to him: he would in time choose this young man’s wife, and then would have grandchildren. In January 1956, Wah Kent Tom, who would be known as Ken, arrived in Botwood

Unfortunately, instead of the harmonious and, to Ling, even more important, filial, relationship anticipated, there was friction and antagonism.

Ken did not respect Ling, he did not do the work expected of him; the two men just didn’t like each other. From the start the arrangement was an accident waiting to happen, but what did eventually transpire was one of the most serious crimes in Newfoundland, and one that troubled the population and especially that young generation in Botwood.

Humber’s book is packed with historic details, including Appendices that run from A to S, compiled from RCMP investigative files and archival correspondence. There are some problems with the writing. There are many conversations decades old that are presented as verbatim. And the narrative is somewhat disjointed and jumpy. But there can’t be a more thoroughly researched look into this shocking misdeed. The author has been beguiled by the subject for years and this is his case file.