Deadly shootout drew thousands to Quartier des spectacles site
Montreal’s
shiny, new Quartier des spectacles was once the site of one of the more notorious murders of the Edwardian period. At a spot about halfway up the splendid walkway that forms the Quartier’s centrepiece, a half-crazed desperado with a reputation for a vile temper shot and killed Constable George D. Shea of the Montreal Police Force.
The Gazette reported in its April 7, 1908, edition that only the day before the killing there had been a fierce disagreement between one John Dillon (also known at the time as James Smith) and his boarding house landlady, mrs. B. Pritchard of 34 Mance St. Dillon, who had been drinking heavily that Monday morning, threatened the woman with a shotgun, so frightening her that she called the police. Their intervention, which involved Montreal’s Fire Brigade as well, lasted a little over five hours.
When Constables T. O’Shaughnessy and Joseph Foucault first arrived from a nearby police precinct, Dillon opened fire with double-barrelled shotgun fire. Foucault was struck, though not seriously injured. O’Shaughnessy sent in for reinforcements.
The extra officers arrived about 5 p.m. By then Dillon had barricaded himself in his boarding house room and was firing wildly from its window into the street below. One of those shots struck and killed Const. Shea.
Another shot badly wounded Detective Chief Silas Huntingdon Carpenter, who spent nearly six weeks in the hospital recovering.
While about 5,000 curious onlookers watched, the shaky standoff between Dillon and the police went on for several more hours. Apparently Dillon showed himself at the window many times during the siege, and according to one newspaper report, “could have been picked off with a good shot” by any of the officers below. But despite the loss of their comrade, the police didn’t want to go that way, not at first anyway.
Later, firefighters tried to force Dillon out by directing a powerful stream of water into his room, a not uncommon tactic at the time. Eventually, as darkness fell, Const. Patrick Dooner and three other policemen entered the building from the rear, confronted Dillon in his room, and shot him. Dillon survived the bullet, however, and was taken to the General Hospital, then on what is now René Lévesque Blvd. near St. Laurent Blvd.
What prompted Dillon’s violent outburst is not known although rumours abounded that Mrs. Pritchard, a widow, had spurned his frequent advances. The couple had been spotted several times by various people in the streets of Montreal.
Dillon, a bookkeeper by trade, had been in Montreal since 1896 and was wellknown throughout the city for his for immaculate dress and manner.
The few who knew him well were not surprised by his violence. “He was subject to fits of what then seemed to us to be insanity,” said John B. Sutherland, general manager of a booksellers’ com- pany for whom Dillon had worked from time to time. “They would come suddenly at intervals. When he had had any liquor he would simply go crazy, and I am certain from what I know of the man that when he did the shooting in Montreal he was altogether out of his senses.”
Over time, Dillon recovered f rom his wounds and 17 months later he was found guilty of the murder of Shea and was sentenced to be hanged. However, on Nov. 19, 1909, the very day of his scheduled execution, Dillon received a pardon. He died a model prisoner in July 1910, at St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary. Often ill, he spent his final year reading and doing whatever work was requested of him by the authorities. He never once spoke about the crime he had committed.
As was the policy at the time, Shea’s young widow and mother of their infant child was given a one-time payment $1,000 by the Police Benevolent Society.
Ironically, Shea’s badge number was 191 and the previous holder of that pin number, Const. John O’Connell, was also killed while on duty, although in O’Connell’s case accidentally.
In that regard, the Montreal Star had perhaps understated in an editorial the day after the 1908 tragedy: “We do not always appreciate the risks which the police and the firemen take in our behalf, and all as a part of the day’s work.”