And axe murderers
Brings back a lost world, reminding troublemakers that somebody always knows
The informant said “he can give us names, dates, times, places and method( s) of perverting Canadians and turning them into sympathizers, if not downright communist.” The hitch? He wanted to get paid for his information.
There were many Sun sleuths looking to track down the red menace.
The file contained a newspaper clipping from the B. C. Communist newspaper, the Pacific Tribune, with the hand- written note “File under Communists, local, Webster.”
Presumably this is journalistic legend Jack Webster, who was a Sun writer before he switched to TV and radio.
Another note reads “Van Peace Assembly,” to which Webster has added: “This looks a bit pink — is it?”
Most of the files deal with crimes and corruption. There was a file on Vancouver’s notorious 1950s police chief Walter Mulligan, who left town amid a sensational public inquiry alleging the cops were on the take from bookies and bootleggers. Right behind it was a file on the Vancouver “police situation” in 1954.
Alas, there was nothing all that revelatory in either. But there was some fabulous stuff in a group of letters piled up at the back of the drawer.
Crime stories were the bread and butter of Vancouver newspapers in the late 1940s and early 1950s, so The Sun decided to up the ante by starting its own crime tip line, “Somebody Knows.”
Readers who sent in tips could claim up to $ 10,000 in reward money if it
Crime stories were the bread and butter of Vancouver newspapers in the late 1940s and early 1950s, so The Sun decided to up the ante by starting its own crime tip line, ‘ Somebody Knows.’ Readers who sent in tips could claim up to $ 10,000 in reward money if it led to a conviction. They were also guaranteed anonymity.
led to a conviction. They were also guaranteed anonymity; the tips were unsigned, but the sender could be identified by writing down a secret number.
The paper primed the pump for the tip line by printing a list of unsolved murders. The most famous at the time was Jenny Conroy, a 23- year- old who was “found slain in bush beside the road on Third Street, not far from Capilano View Cemetery [ in West Vancouver] on Dec. 28, 1944.”
Conroy’s death was six years old by the time “Somebody Knows” got underway. But the letters rolled in. ( I’ve deleted the names of the accused, lest anyone be slandered.)
“Investigate [ so- and- so], Miss Conroy’s father’s cross shift, North Van Ferries,” read one letter.
Another implored the authorities to check men on leave from Comox air force base at the time of the Conroy killing, because the letter- writer had picked one up in his car and he acted suspicious: “Based on his reaction to conversation re murder — [ he] jumped out of [ the] car and faded in the dark.”
One of the most animated letters pointed the finger at a “gambler and a pimp” who “used to carry a gun” and “was well acquainted with the murdered woman in the fall of 1944.” According to the note, the man went by many aliases.
Another letter aimed to solve the murder of taxi driver Reg Price in 1945, although it was scant on details. The writer’s poor spelling also made the letter seem like it was written in code.
“On the Erley morning of Oct. 1 45, 4: 15 a. m. I rapped on the dor 721 Nelson Sports Centere. Got in, bought one glas brandy,” the letter began. Before too long, a man arrived “wering brown lether leggings abd lether coat. Full red- ruddi face about 5.7.
“Says Bartender to him, what kept you so long? Somting go wrong? No – he won’t bother us no more. Says bartender, did you come bak on street car? No! Walked all the waye. No one saw me. Says bartender, have a drink. Hi had 3. Hi then handed something over, saying — put that away.”
Why did it take the tipster five years to tell anybody his story? Maybe he didn’t want to tell the cops they he had been at a bootlegger’s — hard liquor wasn’t legally sold in B. C. bars until 1953, and you still can’t order a drink at 4: 15 a. m.
My favourite letter came from the east Van waterfront, down by the Princeton Hotel.
“For your information in 1947 I was attacked by a man who was bootlegging at that time in the 1800 block Powell. He hit me on the head with an axe and attempted to murder me. Two friends who were with me also were badly cut. However we got the axe away. He also has a record for an attack in Alberta.
“I read in your newspaper about the murder of the man in Oct. of last year who was murdered with an axe I found not far from [ the bootlegger’s] place.”
Incredibly, the writer admitted “I never reported our attack to the police because we were drinking at the time.”