50 amazing photos - with captions - that tell the story of Montreal

October 10, 2017, 11:01 am

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The Toronto Star has provided the Toronto Public Library website with many of its archival photos, which include scads from Montreal, mostly taken between 1930 and 1990.  The Coolopolis interns went through 100 pages to find the best of them.

1  Mama Chikie does her thing at the Coq d'Or as probably the oldest go-go dancer. She has become a Wednesday night institution in the swirl of psychedelic lights as her ample hips sway and her ample elbows jerk to the eardrum-rending rock music on part of stage reserved for her.
Spremo, Boris, 1969

2 Face-off: Yes and No supporters in Montreal confrontation.
Spremo, Boris 1980

3 Arriving at a Montreal court are Gabriel Hudon; Raymond Villeneuve; among 15 key witnesses at reopened inquest in death of army night watchman Wilfred Vicent O'Neill1963

4 Policemen Guard FLQ Terrorist suspects at Inquest into death of bombing victim; But FLQ terrorists aren't the real enemy of confederation in Quebec - they're merely playing tragically with violence. Grant, Frank 1963

5 Hell on wheels: Montreal is hoping to relieve rush-hour congestion with an integrated transit plan including trains; buses and the subway. Motorists are up in arms because they will be saddled with 10 per cent of the tab through higher costs on downtown parking; autoroute tolls; gas and car registration. Spremo, Boris 1967

 6 Delighting 3;500;000 girl-watchers who view the Miss Canada Pageant on television last night; 17-year-old Montreal student Marie Beaulieu who was final winner poses here in the swimsuit portion of last night's contest. Jeff Goode 1968

7 Montreal supermarket cashier Lynne Bourgie passes food items over glass which reads pricing code on each article. The scanner automatically records the prices. One reader wonders what will happen when price changes occur. Do they re-code the items? he asks. Lennon, Frank 1975

8  Cleaning up: Using a snw shovel as a prop; Herbert Lorenzo rests during the clean-up of his brother Helmul's Montreal radio and hi-fi store. Helmut was beaten up when a gang of hoodlums invaded the shop and started stealing $40;000 worth of equipment. The scene was repeated many times in the city as policemen and firemen went on strike. They returned to their jobs early this morning.Dutton, Don 1969

9 Before the fight: Separatist leader Reggie Chartrand; wearing ring Quebec Libre sweater and Raymond Lemieux; in white helmet; head of a group that wants to keep education in the Montreal suburb of St. Leonard French only; lead a march that later erupted into a pitched battle with police last night. Marchers threw Molotov cocktails and stones while police fought back with tear gas and clubs.Pritchard, Garth 1969

10 Cockroaches Crawl around the flat Rene Legault; his wife and their four children occupy in a dilapidated house in Montreal's inner city; but it costs only $58 a month and they can't afford anything better. Only the elder son; Jean; left is employed. The other children are Pierre; 16; Marie-France; 13; Carmen; 18. Bezant, Graham 1970

11 "I myself perhaps don't agree with the action I took. I would like to feel better." Montreal store owner Guy Guilbeault, on shooting an armed robber.
McConnell, Colin 1986

12 Fighting back against Quebec; Jehovah Witnesses are claiming $15;000 damages from the city of Montreal; their lawyer; A. L. Stein; centre discloses. A. Gaskin; left; and R. Guillette face trial in February James, Norman 1945

13 Smiling P.O. Feodorov of Leningrad is en route home aboard Cedar Lake; one of the Canadian-made minesweepers being built at Midland and Penetanguishene. Manned by a Russian crew; the Cedar Lake is now at Montreal on the first leg of the voyage.
Arless, Richard 1945


                                             *** 
This post is brought to you by Kristian Gravenor's Montreal: 375 Tales of Eating, Drinking, Living and Loving, on sale in bookstores and online spring 2017.

                                             *** 

14 Buzz Beurling. Canada's first war-hero history has been written - and by the hero himself in the same hard-hitting manner in which he dealt out sudden death in the skies over France and Malta. Malta Spitfire, published in New York today (Farrar and Rinehart) is the story of Canada's No. 1 ace with the R.A.F. 1943

15 To Satisfy Her Urge to be doing something in Canada's war effort; socially prominent Joan Holland of Montreal has been working for the past year in the British inspection room of a big ammunition plant near that city. Miss Holland rides to work in a limousine; but checks in at the workmen's entrance and punches the time-clock just like any other girl worker. Above is twenty-year-old Joan writing out her bench report at the end of her day's work before she leaves. She helps make field gun cases.1941
\

16 They're capable; these woman; the foremen say. Louise Therriault of Montreal is seen in a bomber cockpit; connecting switch boxes; smiling as she works  James, Norman 1942

17 Handcuffed Hands Raised in the air; these men are some of those arrested after the Glenelg was attacked. Police charged them with trespass. In Montreal; counsel for Canada Steamship Lines said charges of piracy are being considered. The outbreak marks first appearance of R.C.M.P. in dispute between rival unions since navigation opened  1948

18 Eleven Families occupying two blocks of houses in the Montreal suburb of Verdun are staying right in the premises as the buildings are moved to another location. First home being moved; as seen here; houses Mrs. G. Ouellette and her 10 children Graetz Bros 1946

19 Fred Rose; Labor Progressive M.P. for Montreal Cartier; walks up the steps of the court house with his hands in his pockets. He and Sam Carr; National organizer of the Labor Progressive party; were named by Gouzenko as recruiting agents for a spy ring 1946

20 Second of famed quints to marry, Cecile Dionne is shown after she became the bride of Philippe Langlois, a Montreal TV technician, at a small parish church in Corbeil, near North Bay. Cecile had a $10,000 trousseau. About 80 guests, mostly relatives of the young couple. attending the nuptial mass which was followed by a $1,000 reception. The bride drew 'ohs and 'ahs' of admiration as she walked down aisle Teskey, Frank 1957

21 An unknown hoodlum fan in Montreal Forum Saturday night heaved an empty whiskey bottle at Referee King Clancy just as the Detroit - Montreal hockey game finished, and inflicted a severe cut on the hand of an usher. Clancy had just passed through the gate from the ice 1949

22 FLQ Bomb suspects sit in court today surrounded by Montreal and Quebec provincial police. FLQ is a terrorist organization dedicated to the removal of Quebec from Confederation. The suspects for the most part were young and shabbily dressed. They all were in need of haircuts.
Grant, Frank 1963

23 Eating can be as expensive as you care to make it-be it a 50 cent hamburg or a meal in one of the deluxe restaurants. But all have one thing in common they'll put out their best china for you. No paper cups or plates anywhere. Spremo, Boris  1967

24 Some 4;000 men are on the job at expo. Several projects were completed ahead of time.
Spremo, Boris 1966

25 Driving from Toronto to montreal is no problem. For a return trip of $20 you can cruise along Highway 401 in a day.  Spremo, Boris 1967

26 Cooling those 'Expo-Tired' feet. Just the way to cool off tired feet after a trip round Expo -dip them in a pool. From left Tom Brecshel; 12; Debra McConnell; 12; Ruth Haymer; 13; and Charles Kyle; 12; four of the 72-strong Star carriers who visited the fair as prize in circulation contest; really enjoyed themselves - and ended with a good old water fight. Bezant, Graham 1967

27 The miniskirt came to Canada for Expo. Left: two leggy beauties pause for a rest outside the U.K. pavilion. 1967

28 The apartment dweller of the future could find himself in a luxurious room - habitat style. Each Habitat apartment has its own garden and each gets some sun every day. Houses are prefabricated and hoisted into place. Spremo, Boris 1967

29 New shape in shipping is a big square box. First container train from Manchester Liner's Montreal container port arrived yesterday at Canadian National's $1;000;000 Concord express terminal at Keele St. and Highway 7. CN took 182 of the 20-ton containers off the Manchester Challenger. Some 158 were destined for Toronto; 10 for Hamilton; 8 for Winnipeg; 5 for Chicago and 1 for Detroit. The big boxes may revolutionize transport. James, Norman, 1968

30 Montreal's Eddy Agha; lining up shot prior to play; won first four games of Canadian pro snooker championship semi-final last night at Derby Billiards. Lennon, Frank, 1968

31 Children like these two in the slums of Montreal are victims of the violence of social injustice; writes Montreal Professor Fred Knelman. Spremo, Boris, 1968

32 Montreal police found a little time last night between fending off a march by students and militant cab drivers at city hall to give this boy and his wagon safe passage across a street. The demonstrators ran into an impassable array of police and soldiers when they reached the end of their half-mile protest march. Ross, Fred 1969

33 A woman chained to other militant feminists is grabbed by a Montreal policeman during a protest last night against the city's anti-demonstration bylaw. Today police patrolled the Grey Cup parade's route to avert more trouble. Griffin, Doug 1969

34 Clamped In A Headlock by a Montreal policeman who uses a threefoot riot baton to reinforce his grip; a demonstrator is hauled away last night during protest march on McGill University by 6;000 French-Canadian youths. Spremo, Boris 1969

35 Kidnapped diplomat's wife; Mrs. James Cross leaves family home on Montreal's Redpath Cres. in a car with detectives. She was taken to police headquarters to view a line-up of suspects detained by police in raids on known hangouts of separatists in hope she might identify one or more of the four terrorists who abducted her husband. Police said she was unable to single out anyone. Olsen, Bob
1970

36 Cordon: Armed with automatic weapons soldiers move in by buses to cordon off a street near Avenue des Recollets in northern Montreal yesterday. Schoolchildren were evacuated from the area.
Spremo, Boris 1970

37 Clenched fists upraised a group of Montreal students chant FLQ slogans at the Paul Sauve Sports Arena in Montreal last night. About 2;000 turned out for rally in support of the Quebec terrorist group. Bezant, Graham 1970

38 Cleaning up: Using a snw shovel as a prop; Herbert Lorenzo rests during the clean-up of his brother Helmul's Montreal radio and hi-fi store. Helmut was beaten up when a gang of hoodlums invaded the shop and started stealing $40;000 worth of equipment. The scene was repeated many times in the city as policemen and firemen went on strike. They returned to their jobs early this morning. Dutton, Don, 1969

39 Talented fingers. Afro-American talent abounded on the stage of the Town Hall at the St. Lawrence Centre last night; and Beverly Glenn of Montreal was one of the highlights of the evening with her guitar as the Afro-American Progressive Association presented a Black Showcase of entertainment. Variety included the Otu Highlife W'Afrika band. Goode, Jeff, 1970

40 Prime minister Pierre Trudeau and Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa; surrounded by plainclothes security men; leave Notre Dame Church in Montreal after funeral services for Pierre Laporte. Trudeau flew from Ottawa to Montreal by helicopter; escorted by other helicopters; and landed at city hall; just two blocks form the church. Security measures were strict; prompted by police concern that the Front de Liberation du Quebec might attack official mourners.Griffin, Doug 1970

41 She's the winner: Miss Montreal Alouette; Nancy Durrell; lets out a cry of surprise after she was chosen last night as Miss Grey Cup. With her; from left are third-place Miss Hamilton Tiger Cat; Linda Endicott (centre) and second-place Miss Edmonton Eskimo; Anita Urschel. Nancy reigned over the Cup parade. Spremo, Boris, 1970

42 Shrinking birth rate in Quebec threatens French community with a crisis; and is one reason for strident nationalism. French Canadians might even become a minority in Montreal in future years.
Griffin, Doug 1971

43 Montreal welcome. Jubilant Montreal fans express their delight at the return of Team Canada with a welcome that resembled a love-in. Spremo, Boris 1972

44 If you don't insist on crisp lines; elaborate menus and extensive wine lists eating out in Montreal need not be expensive Darrell, Dick 1973

45 Canada - Quebec - Montreal - Subway Darrell, Dick 1973

46 During illegal strike by Montreal firemen last month; the homes of 80 families were gutted despite attempts of civilians to fight the flames. The illegal strike has become almost commonplace; especially in the public sector.Olsen, Bob 1974

47 Latest attempt to make Iacrosse into major attraction gets under way Wednesday with Toronto Tomahawks in Montreal. Promoters feels sport can be sold if presented as a professional game in major league surroundings. All teams in National League are playing in good arenas. Above; during pre-season match; Rochester's Larry McCormack delivers smashing check to 'Hawks' Joe McCrea.
Spremo, Boris 1974

48 Caught in full flight: Montreal Canadien defenceman Pierre Bouchard puts crunch on Buffalo forward Richard Martin at Forum last night. Martin was kept in check throughout the Stanley Cup playoff game and so were his mates as Canadiens roared to 7-0 victory. Buffalo has 2-1 edge with game four tomorrow. Lennon, Frank 1975

49 Across the border the hard way. The Mad Canadian-as Ken Carter, 38, formerly of Montreal, calls himself-plans to jump one mile across the St. Lawrence River on July 4, 1976, in a rocket-powered car. In Toronto to promote the stunt, he said he'd make the crossing from Morrisburg, Ont., to Ogden Island, N.Y. Carter now lives in Florida. Innell, Reg 1975

50 Montreal Mayor Drapeau in Olympic Velodrome: Taiwan issue adds to a host of other woes for the Games. Bezant, Graham 1976

51 Hungry people demanding food. A group of homeless welfare recipients mill around the main gate at Olympic Village yesterday. They arrived in pick-up trucks and demanded to cart away large quantities of food that they claim is being thrown out from Village cafeteria. However; officials turned them away saying that only food thrown away is rotten. Loek, Dick 1976

52 Homeward Bound: A sad memento of his abortve trip to Montreal lying at his feet; Upper Volta cyclist Youssouf Pakmagoo endures a long wait for his plane home last night at Mirabel International Airport. He is amont the 650 atheltes from 30 countries who have been called home in an Olympic boycott inspired by black African nations protesting South Africa's white-supremacist regime.
Olsen, Bob 1976

53 Groceries still delivered Bezant, Graham  1979

54 Victor Davis: Athlete killed by car in Montreal. Goode, Jeff  1984

55 Municipal mirth: Visiting Montreal Mayor Jean Dore (left) and Toronto Mayor Art Eggleton laugh yesterday at Toronto City Hall after a photographer suggested they go to the nearby Peace Garden and arm wrestle. Instead, they discussed how their cities can better co-operate. Cooper, David

1987

56 Backyard: Cohen's house in Montreal is near the Main, a traditional immigrant neighborhood.

Stawicki, Andrew 1988

57 Montreal's hot new singing star; comic/impressionist Andre-Phillippe Gagnon who is making first national concert tour ending at the O'Keefe Centre June 1; scored 9 out of 15 on our quiz.

Dunlop, Alan 1988

58 Victims mourned: Some of an estimated 8;000 visitors file past the coffins of eight of the women murdered at the University of Montreal. Spremo, Boris 1989

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His ex was murdered in Westmount and then he burned to death: Montreal capo Louis Greco

October 14, 2017, 1:21 pm

≫ Next: Westmount don, drunk hangman, Lenny's vista, prison escape by sheets, RIP Kenny, Saputo gas, election prediction - all Montreal stories for a Sunday

≪ Previous: 50 amazing photos - with captions - that tell the story of Montreal

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  Longtime Montreal mob boss Luigi Greco, aka Louis Greco went down in a blaze of glory at age 59, literally becoming a human torch while using gasoline as a solve to lay tiles at his brother's pizza place late at night on Dec. 3, 1972.
  This happened two decades after his ex-wife was shot dead in a murder suicide in front of his son.
   Neither helped in his quest to keep a low profile.
***
  Louis Greco reigned as king of the Montreal underworld from about 1946 to 1972, taking the helm with Frank Petrula after his boss Harry Davis was shot dead on Stanley Street.
  Greco's biggest innovation was helping forge the French Connection, a massive heroin importation system that supplied the injectable opiate to junkies all across North America and later inspired a Gene Hackman action blockbuster.
***
   Greco started in crime after being forced to quit school at the age of 10. He was forced to earn for his family after his dad died while working for the Canadian Pacific Railway, in 1923 as Jerry Prager notes in a useful article.
   Aged 17 in 1930 Greco, was sentenced to 68 days for assault, while his brother Antonio had already been working the world of violent crime for at least six years by then.

   In 1932 a newspaper described Greco in a blaring headline as a "dangerous criminal," although he was just 18. Greco, along with someone named Max Fishman, was nabbed at Papineau and Beaubien late one night and fined $40 for being out without explanation but Greco resisted arrest and faced harsher punishment.
   One young woman said that Greco had hit her after she turned down his invitation to work as a prostitute in Toronto. Another young man said Greco beat him for refusing to steal a gun. Greco was given six months hard labour.
***
  Greco was arrested a year later after his crew knocked over a Canadian National Bank at St. Viateur and Park on February 28, 1933. They nabbed $86,000 and police recovered all but $4,000 of it when the group was found in Toronto two weeks later. It was his sixth arrest and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He served over 10.
  Local mob kingpin Harry Davis, serving a seven year bid, befriended Greco in prison. The two would later become close associates upon release along with the Ukrainian-Italian Frank Petrula.
***
    Greco made the news again when Clarence John Ford shot at him on Mountain Street on 15 Nov. 1945. Newspapers made a note to mention that Ford was Afro-Canadian, so this might have been a conflict with a dubious character from the places near St. Antoine.
   Ford, who was variously reported as being 19 years old and 32 years old, was charged with attempted murder. Ford couldn't afford a lawyer so Greco offered him one.
   After Davis was shot dead by Louis Bercowitz on Stanley in 1946, Greco's fortunes rose steadily.
   He partnered with Frank Petrula, a tall half-Ukrainian, half-Italian Gary Cooper lookalike, who could switch from charming to violent on a dime, leaving many terrified of him. Petrula lived in a suburban home in Beaconsfield and drove a Cadillac and played the ladies men in clubs around town.
  Greco, meanwhile was far more discreet, living a low-profile life in Westmount.
   RCMP files note that Greco traveled to met international Mafia boss Lucky Luciano in 1951 so his ascent up the ladder was evident.
    Greco frequented the Bonfire Restaurant, a former FDR restaurant, just outside of the Blue Bonnets racetrack on Decarie. The restaurant, of which he was part owner, was described as Mafia headquarters.
**

Greco's ex-wife Berthe was gunned down in Westmount

Maid and murder witness Hainault

   Greco married Berthe Bernard, who was half-Cree and half French Canadian and he fathered Louis Greco Jr. with her. But the two split in early 1951.
   She remarried Raymond Cardis on March 1, 1952, who worked as a toolmaker at Canadian Vickers.
   Cardis had immigrated from France in 1951.
   The two lived at the northeast corner of Dorchester and Clandeboye, second building over, likely the same home that she lived in with Greco previously.
   Cardis got jealous when he heard his wife sweet talking to Greco on the phone.
   Cardis ordered her to phone Greco in front of him to tell him that she'd never return to him. She refused.
   So he shot her dead with a high powered rifle at their apartment at 4069 Dorchester W. in front of the maid Yvonne Hainault, 17, and their two year old child on February 12, 1953.
   She was aged 32.

   (Another high-profiled murder suicide occurred just a few doors down one month earlier, as Bertrand Dussault targeted his clandestine lover Reine Johnson at 4041 Dorchester W. She survived. He didn't. Johnson's husband and two sons all later became Quebec premiers. The buildings were demolished in the early sixties )
   The irony, of course is that Berthe and her family appear to have rejected Greco on the grounds of Greco's intense involvement in crime. Indeed the normal guy she ended up marrying, Cardis, proved more lethal.
***
  Greco got custody of his son, who remained estranged from his mother's relatives.
  Louis Jr. later turned to a life of crime.
  Louis Greco remarried to Doris Gibson and lived with her in the West Island with daughters Camilla and Gina.
   The three were not mentioned as heirs in a lawsuit laid after his death. By that time he lived at 7659 Millet in St. Leonard and spent his days at his brother's restaurant.
 So it's possible that Greco became estranged from his second wife and kids and excluded them all from his will.
** 
   A 1955 incident led to Greco's ascension to the top of the local mob chain.

Frank Petrula with lawyer

   Greco's partner Petrula, who was a well-dressed, big tipper and man about town, and known for running protection and prostitution rackets, disliked a rival named Harry Smith.
   So he dropped by to visit him at the El Morocco, which was still downtown at the time.
   Petrula smacked doorman Ned Roberts, in his fifties, in the head with a gun and got to Smith.
   Petrula and Smith scuffled without conclusion and were separated.
   But Petrula returned the same night with a small army of local boxers, working as muscle for him. They were mostly local African-Canadians, in the form of William "Carfare" Bowman 32, Joseph Chambers, 30, Charlie Chase, 24, Lionel Deare, 34, George Desmond, 29, Ronald Jones 27, and bankrobber Vincent McIntyre 27.
    The gang ransacked the El Morocco and several other places, which led to major headlines and much unwanted police attention.

Greco and Pretula 1950s

   Police raided Petrula's home and his wife offered them a tour, even opening the safe hidden in the bathroom, which revealed a treasure-trove of details of bribery. Much mob cash had been given to Jean Drapeau's mayoralty rivals, it was revealed.
   Louis Greco's name was also found in the documents, so they raided his home and found guns but Greco was only given three days in jail.
**
    Petrula was clearly a headache for Greco and when the federal government came after Petrula for $200,000 in back taxes in October 1956, Greco feared that he might make a deal and rat others out.
   So Petrula disappeared forever on 24 June 1958, with some suspecting that he was drowned in cement in a lake in the Laurentians, while others claimed he was shot dead in the bathroom of a downtown Montreal restaurant.
**

Louis Greco

   Later that year someone shot at Greco's station wagon and Greco's wife reported it to police.
   Greco launched a waiters union in 1960 and gave himself a salary for his efforts.
   He was given eight days in jail for being caught inside at gambling house at 1451 Metcalfe in 1961.
   And guns and drugs were discovered in the dryer in the laundromat of his building at the southwest corner of St. Catherine and Sanguinet around that time.
   The next year he was arrested for stolen goods found at his home. He was known to be close to Carmine Galante, who headed the Bonanno clan of New York City.
   Greco was exposed again on Nov. 26, 1966 when he was nabbed outside a north end cabaret with the who's who of the top mafia who were in town for a meeting involving Cotroni, Violi, Luppino, Sal Bonnano and others.

Vic Cotroni

   Bonanno, from one of the five families of New York, said he was in town to look into his father interests in the Saputo company of which he owned 20 percent according to Joe's memoirs published in 2002.
**
  Around this time Greco agreed to share power with Vic Cotroni, likely due to his reluctance to get involved in a major gang war.
   Greco left the west island to live in St. Leonard, next door to his henchman and top heroin dealer Conrad Bouchard. Bouchard had been an opera singer performing in Vic Cotroni's club when he was cultivated for a life of crime.
   Greco lent his brother Antonio, who was two years his junior, $5,000 to open Gina's Pizzeria at 3212 Jarry East. "My brother lent me $5,000 and he spent his days at my business. I didn't want to kick him out, he was doing god things there," Antonio would later say.
    Antonio hired O.B. Tiles to replace the floors and Orlando Cocco, 48, (9110 Clark) and his brother Bruno (6880 Clark) got to work.
   But Louis Greco burst in and started taking over and
   Orlando Cocco was not impressed with Louis's decision to do his work.
   "Luigi is a good guy but he wanted to do it all by himself because the work done by others was never to his standards. The night of the accident, we were preparing to put down the new tiles when Greco took a spreader from my hand and started doing my job," Orlando later told the fire commissioner during an investigation
    Greco supposedly replaced the varsol they were using with gasoline and the place exploded, causing injuries to all present.
   Greco, who was closest to the explosion, died of burns three days later.
  The Cocco brothers later sued Greco's estate and other owners of Gina's for $232,000 in damages, saying they had suffered serious injuries in the fire. It's unknown what, if anything, they ultimately were awarded. Orlando Cocco died in Chicoutimi in June 1989 aged 68.
   The local Mafia was taken over by Vic Cotroni, who mentored the Ontario-born Calabrian Paolo Violi to become boss. Violi was later wiped out by the Rizzutos, who later suffered a similar fate.

Westmount don, drunk hangman, Lenny's vista, prison escape by sheets, RIP Kenny, Saputo gas, election prediction - all Montreal stories for a Sunday

October 15, 2017, 11:35 am

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   Not many kids have died playing in Montreal churches but this joint near Berri and St. Catherine gobbled up a teen running around on scaffolding in 1877.

Mafia chief in Westmount: Vic Cotroni, top dog of the Montreal Mafia in the mid-1970s lived in this building on Sherbrooke just west of Atwater. That's where he was busted in connection with a 1975 pump and dump stock swindle. 

   Arthur English, aka Arthur Ellis, was Canada's official hangman for many years and was also quite a drunk. One time in 1914 he was busted and fined $5.00 for walking around drunk with a gun. He kept his job.

 Montreal's Lenny Vista, made famous in the song Suzanne by Lenny Cohen, has been souped up with a fun ride in the background.
We propose a new verse to the song.
...and Jesus liked a carousel...
as it brought all of the ups and downs...
And Suzanne took the carousel...
 as her life went round and round
etc.

John Allore's always-fascinating podcast focuses on a fearless prison escape pulled off by Ronald Pouliot, 25, and his brother Mario Pouliot Dec.1974. They tied 48 bedsheets together and smashed through the window of the 11th floor jail of the Parthenais Street prison and simply climbed down. Their mother persuaded to give themselves up because she feared they would be shot dead as escaped convicts.

Thank your local cheese company if it's easy to find a gas station in St. Leonard. The Saputos persuaded authorities to grant family members a series of zoning changes in the area (and one in Boucherville) allowing them to flip the newly-rezoned lands to big oil companies at as much as four times what they paid around 1970-1972 before authorities started asking questions and found a note detailing a $20,000 payment to St. Leonard council. La Presse did some detailed reporting at the time. (As usual the BANQ newspaper search resource proves super handy, plug in terms like saputo and zonage into the bottom box.) The Saputo family went on to invest plenty in the local economy so Coolopolis figures they've paid their debt to society in full.

The flag is at half-mast at Coolopolis offices worldwide for the loss of the great Montrealer Kenny Hamilton, a well-loved singer and musician who lit up the city from the 1960s. Coolopolis was in regular contact with Hamilton, as he was a treasure of Montreal history, sharing stories of nightclubs around town and some of the larger-than-life characters that inhabited them. We shall miss Hamilton and we'll make sure to use every drop of material he shared.

Montreal is having municipal elections next month and Mayor Denis Coderre is trying to win a second term. Will he get it? Coolopolis predicts he will not.

Montreal University Club building put up for sale - club to vacate by Dec. 31

October 19, 2017, 9:25 am

≫ Next: How a Verdun child killer changed policing in Quebec

≪ Previous: Westmount don, drunk hangman, Lenny's vista, prison escape by sheets, RIP Kenny, Saputo gas, election prediction - all Montreal stories for a Sunday

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   The University Club building, a venerable downtown structure sitting just a stone's throw from McGill's Roddick Gates since Dec. 17, 1913, is for sale.
   Club board members passed a pair of resolutions last night at a meeting to decide the fate of the building at 2047 Mansfield.
   The club will leave the building on Dec. 31 and relocate for 2018 at the St. James Club at 1145 Union, just north of Dorchester.
   The University Club might then merge with the St. James Club, or the Mount Royal Club or find another premises for its operations. Those decisions have yet to be taken.
   The University Club building is known for its leather armchairs, brass-topped tables, fireplaces, stained glass windows, creaky old wooden elevator and a grand staircase.
   The provincial government agreed with the club's demand to classify it as a historic monument in 1986, so there's little chance it will be demolished or greatly renovated.
   According to a 2014 article by Robert Wilkins, the club paid $45,100 for the property in 1911 and had a building demolished to create space for the new structure, which was designed by Scottish architect Percy Nobbs, who ran the McGill school of architecture.
   The building was done up in the Georgian style with a limestone facade and redbrick upstairs. It's similar to his work at what's now the McCord Museum. The club mused about moving to another location in 1930 but opted to stick around.
   The club now has about 700 membres.
  

How a Verdun child killer changed policing in Quebec

October 21, 2017, 11:17 am

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   Caroline Finley Windsor 7, was at 30 3rd Ave. in Verdun spending Friday July 27, 1951 at her grandparents house across the street from her home.
   Her grandma Rolande Milmine was visiting grandpa at the Veterans Hospital so her aunt Dorothy instructed her to go play at the neighbour's house while she ran some errands.
    When she returned only Edwin Yule, 23, a man the family occasionally allowed over to eat meals, was there alone.
   When little Caroline asked for her granny, Yule told the child that she was in the living room.
   Yule followed young Caroline, took her by the throat and then proceeded to do what is described as "revolting" things to her.
   He feared she would report him so he decided to end her life. He kicked her in the head and then went to get knives from the kitchen. One broke when he used it on her and then he returned and got another knife and killed the child.
   The blood-soaked Yule then walked to Lasalle Boulevard and told passersby what he had just done. 
   Verdun police officer Walter Daniels was summoned and Yule, not knowing the address of the home, accompanied the officer to the scene of his grisly child murder.
***
   Yule was an orphan committed to an insane asylum at the age of 16. He escaped three times, so he was transferred to an adult insane asylum where he spent five years.
   After Yule killed Caroline Windsor, a judge declared him insane and sent him back to the Protestant insane asylum in Verdun.
   Newspaper reports identified the child's father as Harvey Windsor but his correct name was likely Henry Giles Windsor, a cabinet maker who lived across the street at 163 Third Ave, according to Lovell's directory. Milmine remains a common name in Verdun.
   ***
   Yule returned to prominence 14 years later when he escaped from the asylum in the fall of 1965.
   The event forced police to make a decision.   
   There are two approaches to policing. One is to reassure the public that police are competent, have everything under control and equipped to take care of everything. This approach allows the public to remain calm.
   The other route is to inspire some level of panic, which is handy in increasing police budgets and public status.
    Yale's escape led Quebec police, for the first time, to issue a top 10 Most Wanted list of dangerous criminals to be published in newspapers in September 1965.
  Number one on that Most Wanted list? The five-foot-six, 157 pound Edwin Yale.
   By October 8 1965 the 37-year-old Yale was back in custody after being located in a Montreal restaurant.
   He was never heard from again and if still alive he'd be almost 90.
   Many others on Quebec's first-ever 10 Most Wanted list were swiftly apprehended as well, as an intensified relationship between the public and police began bearing fruits, one which continues to this days with help of such excellent organizations as Info-Crime.
   One tantalizing footnote concerning the name Edwin Yale is made possible through the stupendously amazing BANQ newspaper search engine. (bottom box). In May 1971 a man named Ronald Edwin Juchniewicz of 6805 Viau changed his name to Ronald Edwin Yule. Why someone would choose to name themselves after one of Quebec's most horrific criminals remains a mystery.

Slimming with electric bandages and plastic wrap - Montreal's weight-loss clinics of the early 1970s

October 23, 2017, 10:34 am

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   A chain of Montreal weight loss clinics sprouted up in the early 1970s across the city, attracting women with the promise of losing weight without need for diet or exercise.
   The Figure Magic chain, which was a knock-off of a trend in the states, made an impressive splash from about 1971 with seven storefronts on the island plus another five elsewhere in Quebec.
   Smaller chains like Therma Slim and Lady Stauffer also contributed to the slimming-without-dieting landscape.
  The chubby women were wrapped in plastic, administered bandaids with a tiny electrical pulse of put on slimming-belt fat jiggling machines made popular in the late 1950s.
   "Lose undesired fat in only 90 minutes without strenuous exercise, strict diet, without expensive pills. You sit on a comfortable couch while the Figure Magic Method does the work for you.. Results guaranteed in writing. Open 10 a.m to 10 p.m."
  The clinics appeared to be thriving for a while, as the chain advertised heavily in local newspapers and enlisted celebrity TV personality Rita Bibeau, voted "Miss Television 1971" as Figure Magic's TV spokesperson in 1971.

   By 1973 the Figure Magic chain boasted 117 salons in an ad, although only it appears their real total was a half dozen in the province with only one left on the island of Montreal.
   The chain was doomed after women complained of false advertising in August 1972, as seven told a judge that they felt duped, with their lawyer claiming that he could have found 100 more with similar grievances.
    One woman said her husband chided her daily about wasting $300 on a system that gave no results. "I don't like to be fished in or taken for a fool. I used the slimming cream they sold me for $30 and I smelled like a snail."

    Another customer said she paid $150 for 10 sessions at the studio in St. Laurent. Employees said she had slimmed, but a friend measured her and said nothing had changed. "My clothes were still just as tight on me." She then went to another Figure Magic and got measured and found herself fatter than when she started. They gave her $75 back.

   As late as March 1973 the Figure Magic chain was boasting another grand opening but by the next month the company was publishing messy ads disassociating itself from its stores. 

   In November 1973 Judge Marcel Beauchemin fined owners Gerard Choquette of LaSalle and Alfred Gregory of Brossard $2,500 each while Richard Hebert was ordered to pay $500. They could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison. 

     La Presse press distanced itself from the chain it once sold ads to in great number by stating that the chain mostly bought ads in the English newspapers.

  Peter Beverly Myers, a 35-year-old Austrlaian who had a Therma Slim spa at Beaver Hall Hill and Dorchester as well as others in Israel, Belgium and Spain, pleaded guilty to defrauding the public of $100,00 and was given a one day sentence and fined $15,000 and deported to England.  

Montreal's spookiest place: Lachine Canal, the watery graveyard, has claimed dozens

October 30, 2017, 10:02 am

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Dozens have drowned in the dark waters of the man-made Lachine Canal since it first flowed in 1825.
    The waters have not spared children or elderly women, as people of all types breathed their last breaths before their bodies were fished out in macabre scenes all too familiar to city-dwellers.
   Many were suicides, others murder victims and many others were people who just drowned after swimming or slipping in fully-clothed.   
   The following is merely a partial list compiled in an effort to remember those who were claimed by what might otherwise seem a benign waterway.
***
22 Sept 1882 John Sullivan died of suicide jumping into the Lachine Canal. He was as drunk who often took refuge in police stations. He was 64
24 Nov 1882 - Newspaper reports that Mrs. Stewart's husband drowned in the canal some time earlier.
21 Aug 1894 Boy named Auger, 9, from St. James Street died drowning while playing and collecting rocks. He tried to reach in. Other kids failed to be able to save him.
28 Nov 1908 - an unknown was fished out.
15 Aug 1908 Henri Chenier, 9 drowned . He was with his brother. His mom was a widow and has five kids.
5 April 1910 Jean Bohrer, 52, chef at the Oxford Cafe was fished out near Cote St. Paul. He disappeared 10 December. He was from New York and lived a 41 Metcalfe.*
21 June 1910 Arthur Sinclair drowned while swimming with a friend, he tried to swim across and stricken by cramps. His friend was unable to save him. He was 28 and worked for the Dominion Wire company.
13 July 1910 Michael Burke, 14, from 9th Avenue in Lachine drowned . He had a leg amputated some time before.
29 Aug 1911 Jean Baptiste Thilby 65, drowned near de Seigneurs. He lived on Delisle.
26 Aug 1912 Adelard Perron, 7, drowned while fishing with friends and two brothers. His . He lived on St. Ferdinand in St. Henri.
9 Dec. 1912 John Harris, 47 of Dominion Wire in Lachine drowned.

William L'Ecuyer

Armand Chretien

13 Nov 1913 Seven workers died when their rowboat drowned. Volunteers picked bodies from the canal. The effort was hindered as neither Lachine or St. Paul considered the accident to be within their boundaries. Lachine said it was three miles from their town and it was property of federal government who had the responsibility of doing the work. Some of the reporting was questionable: "Negro struck boy in face in frantic struggle to secure hold on upturned boat." The ship when down when hit by waves by a passing tugboat. The workers were building new power house of Montreal Light Heat and Power Company at the far end of Cote St. Paul. The workers were hired by subcontractors D.G. Loomis Sons, Dominion Bridge Company and Meade Morrisson, They crossed the canal by rowboat in order to avoid travelling three miles from the bridge on the south side. The project employed 200 to 300 workmen, many Poles, Romanians and Italians and some natives from Kahnawake. The workers rushed to the boat at 5 pm. in order to get home first.

Canal disaster of 1913 claimed at least 7

The boat was crossing when a tugboat of the Sincennes-McNaughton line was steaming to Lachine. the wash caused the smaller ship, already crowded and low in the water, to shift. It had already crossed over halfway. The people on the north side were not there to help the men tossed into the water as they had already left to catch streetcars. The tug boat backed up to help . A.E. Porter, 18 was hit in the face by a "burly negro" while trying to secure a hold on the bottom of the upturned boat." the tug rescued him. "It's thought the negro drowned." The men were dressed in heavy corduroy suits and hob nailed boots. Water was icy and bitterly cold. F.K. Pochler was rescued, he was a good swimmer but said it was impossible to move as limbs were numb and clothes were heavy. he had trouble even grasping the oar tossed into the canal. Ferryman Michael Ruse and his brother George Ruse were drowned, George Ponchuck, Leslie Mesquite, William L'Ecuyer. Management was spared as they generally crossed last. Victims: Armand Chretien, aged 39, of Cadieux (now De Bullion), Leon Humaniuk, 19, of 4 Theatre Lane, Leslie Mesquita, 33, (he's the "negro" referred to earlier) he lived at 147 Lusignan, William L'Ecuyer, 27, married, lived at 88 Quesnel and John Poncruk, of 253 St. Urbain. Others were initially missing, so it's not entirely certain that more didn't die.
14 Nov 1913 Dieudonne Monette, 34 of Beaudoin St, who drowned 3 weeks earlier, was found. He left a widow and two children.
1 Aug 1913 - unidentified man near Black's Bridge, aged around 40
29 July 1913 Napoleon Laurzon, 14 of Rioux Street in St. Henri drowned while swimming near Cote St. Paul.
5 May 1913 Thomas Burgess of Point st Charles drowned.
13 april 1914 R.E. Richardson, engineer working for Grand Truck Railroad fished from the canal
April 1914 Wassil Bokluk, 27, (81 Clark Street) and John O'Neil, 29, of Forfar St who came from the states last fall. Both were working for Dominion Coal.
10 July 1914 Unknown drowned near Charlevoix, thought maybe suicide
18 July 1914 George Greene, 20, drowned swimming. He lived at 1525 Dorchester with friend James Duncan.
17 Aug 1914 John Queen 15, fell in the water and drowned. He lived on Nazareth Street. they were playing on the banks.
16 Aug 1915 Unidentified
21 dec. 1915 John Robert Taylor, 40, drowned on the way to work at Dominion Textile. He lived on Springland and had worked 10 years at the factory.
8 June 1915 Soldier William Walsh, 17, from Duke Street . He had been complaining of fever and dizziness and was thought to have fallen in the water while patrolling as sentinel. He was with the Irish Rangers 55th Battalion.
19 June 1915 Military sentinel Jules Fortin drowned Tuesday night after falling in the water while patrolling the banks. New now the new instructions were to do the thing 100 steps from the water.
5 April 1915 - Unidentified.
25 Aug 1915 unidentified near Wellington bridge.
23 july 1916 Rosario Brunet, 13, of St. Louis street drowned near the reservoir in the Lachine canal. He got cramps while swimming.
15 May 1916 Unidentified body fished out of the canal, probably a worker.
21 aug. 1917 longshoreman Charles Dinelle, 45 of 339 des Carrieres fell into the canal and died.
9 nov. 1917 Body fished out after three months in the water. Mrs. Leduc identified it as her husband. 

15 Nov. 1917 - Sandick Dowey of 581 Wellingon fished out of the canal at Black's Bridge.
1 April 1918 - Nicolas Barry missing since nov 1917 found in the lachine canal He was from Havre de Grace in Newfoundland 41, three brothers living in Montreal and had lived in Montreal for 40 years. he was aged 65.
3 nov 1919 - Omer Secours 112 Ste. Marie fished out of the canal las friday he hadn't been seen since oct 12.
4 June `1924 Walter Rokus 15 (143 Forar) fished from canal at Black's Bridge. He disappeared 23 May while searching for wood on shore..
10 July 1924 George Massinetti, 44 of 265 Maple in Ville St. Pierre drowned Sunday morning.
15 Sept 1924 - Unidentified man about 35
10 June 1925 Unidentified, found near Atwater.
28 April 1926 Tommy Remandini fished from foot of Guy street. He ran away 15 Oct and hadn't been seen csince.
27 July 1928 Man in his forties near des Seigneurs.
4 Aug. 1930 John Linz 40 of 1476 de Bullion found after missing 10 days.
17 Sept 29 Unidentified, fished out near Colborne.
26 May 1930 Louis Henri Cote, 20, fished out in LaSalle. He lived on Ethel in Verdun
4 August 1930 John Linz, 30, of De Bullion fished out by the Verdun police.
20 Oct 1930 Unidentified man with grey hair found near Black's Bridge.
6 August 1931 - 14 month old child was fished from the canal at 7 15 a.m.
17 Aug 1931 Godefroy Lecompte disappeared since 2 or 3 days, was found at about 6 pm dead.
9 Nov 1934 Archibald Gibson war veteran disappeared previous June, identified by John Kimberely Turned out Gibson was alive and well and living in England, so this was someone else.
10 June 1936 Edouard Cote, 17, of 75 A 4th ave. Lachine drowned swimming on a hot day. He was fished out 7 pm by his father who came to help the Lachine police.
10 Aug 1937 Godefroy Lecompte disappeared for two or three days, fished out at 6 pm
28 March 1938 - body fished out Edouard Charbonneau in his fifties. 1018B St. Denis. foot od Des Seigneurs.
16 April 1938 S. Willinson found dead in water. Was partof a Norweigan crew. 35 years old. Accident was from Oct 1937.
21 Nov 1938 Louis Gauthier, 64, of 6231 Dumas fished out. He had been missing eight days. Found by a grey cap floating in the water.
28 March 1938 Edouard Charbonneau of 1018B St. Denis
18 Sept. 1939 unknown body found. at the foot of 12th Ave. A woman in her 40s 2 rings and a watch.
6 Dec 1939 Alex Ragolsky of Welland Ontario fished out. He was just 18. Foot of St. Ambroise Street. He was tryig to jump from the ship to ship. and fell in.
18 Dec. 1939 Col. Georges-Etienne Beauchamp A car was fished out containing his body. He disappeared a month earlier. He lived at 3166 Marcil, was a WWI veteran and was aged 64.
14 April 1938 Eugene Charron, 40, 1120 Hotel de Ville, had been misting several months. Found near Black's Bridge.
3 Aug 1940 near Atwater a soldier was fished out. identity unknown.
21 Aug 1941 - Jean Paul Joannis, 9, of 5341 Eadie died in the canal at 130 pm he was trying to reach a floating tire and fell in.
11 May 1942 Marcel Tessier soldier, 35, living at 2315 St. Patrick was fished out.
8 June 1942 - Henri Hamel, 40, from Mount Royal East. drowned Tuesday afternoon.
24 April 1943 - Frederic - Thomas Watson, 49 of 4541 Earnscliffe. Disappeared last fall. Found near 975 Mill.
27 April 1945 Workers found a body floating. Probasbly there since the previous fall. Unitified but for a few tattoos, including Mother.
4 May 1945 - Bruce Duros, 2, of 593 Notre Dame W was fished out. He drowned Tuesday playing on the pier. The body was found near 42,th ave.
6 Aug 1946 - Andre Dussault, 62 of 551 Chatham. found behind 2050 Notre Dame E.
Sept 1946 - James Bowen, 45 of 5141 Durcoher was fished out near t Canning Street. found at about 8 pm
25 Sept 1946 Unknown, aged around 65th near the Bascule Bridge between VSP and Lasalle. drowned likely a few days earlier.
28 Nov 1946 John Schofield, 4077 Tupper found Cote St Paul. he was in the water about 15 days. Was elderly.
22 April 1947 Alphohnse Chardonnet, 85 Beaudoin in St. Henri, aged 60. found near des Seigneurs.

9 june 1947 A man fell in to the water near Point St. Charles a team sought him but couldn't find him. Meanwhile an arm was found floating in the water. It wasn't identified.
16 July 1947 - Paul Emile Lalonde, 28 of 3938 Notre Dame West was fished from the canal Sunday. He was a master painted and disappeared July 9 from his home. Some suspicion that he was killed by bandits or thieves.
24 may 1948 Joseph James Clifton, 27 of Granby and Halifax. he had been there several months, worked for Canadian National Steamships.
10 June 1948 - Emile Roy 48 of 810 Ontario E.
19 July 1948 Kaymer, 64 fished out
2 Aug 1948 - Marcel Salvatori, 6, 1403 Wellington drowned in canal trying to get a toy.
2 May 1949 - Bon Paul, 73 of 845 Notre Dame W. .disappeared Thursday and was fished out of the canal two days later.
1 june 1949 Unidentified body fished out near 45 Colborne.
17 June 1949 - Two bodes fished out on the same day. One at 1030 who had fallen in an hour earlier from the Victoria Pier.. Paul Emile Girard 35, of 9 Sherbrooke E. was fished out. Later around 1145, another drowning victim, near the Cote St. Paul Bridge. Maurice Genest, 23, of 3934 Bannantyne.
25 May 1950 Thomas Berube, 42 of 320 Wilibrod in Berdun, he worked for the Transport Ministry. He died near 20th Ave. He fell in in front of an engineer. Someone tossed him a lifesaver but he failed to grasp it.
24 July 1950 Claude Renauld, 18, of 6323 D'Aragon drowned swimming, fished out 9 pm
22 Sept 1950 - A coroners jury decided there wasn't enough evidence to determine whether Mrs. Xavier Caron, 74, whose mutilated body was fished out of the Lachin Canal 20 Aug was assaulted of died of an accident. She left to go to Ste. Anne de Beaupre and got into a taxi to Windsor Station and wasn't seen after.
5 Oct 1950 - Armand Banville, 37 of the Meurlin refugee was fished out he fell in the water near the Victoria Pier. He was fishedout soon after.
31 Oct 1950 - Ralph Loach 64, of 1764 Le Prohon found Oct 28. He was born in England.
24 March 1951 Workers doing maintenance found the body of a man who had been in for over a month. Near McCord Street. He was Henry Stewart Scott, 54 of 1575 Wellington. he likely drowned around 22 Feb.
4 July 1951 - Harry Walker, about 25, found after about 5 days in the water near Black's Bridge
7 July 1951 John Eccles, 55 of 4555 Grand Blvd. apt 15. found near Cote St. Paul
16 July 1951 - Michael Marchuk, 35, of 885 14th Ave. Lachine was fished out at the foot of 18th Ave. near St. Joseph,
30 July 1951 Mrs. M. Murphy 65 of 294 Ann found at the foot of des Seigneurs. She disappeared 13 July -
10 August 1951 Unidentified man, aged about 40 at the foot of McGill Street
13 Aug 1951 - Joseph Lapointe, 43, of 2376 Duvernay drowned near Des Seigneurs.
16 May 1952 Richard Collette, 7, 635 Farm Street found near 990 Mill. He fell in on April 2 tossing stones.
4 Aug. 1952 - William Dickson, 889 Moffat around aged 60, fished out in Cote St.Paul.
March 20, 1953 Jean Pierre Lejour, 11, drowned 24 Jan. near 5022 St. Ambroise. Walter Murdoch of the Berdun police dived i repeatedly trying to save the boy.
29 June 1953 Unidentified man aged about 35.
26 Sept 1953 William J. Bell of Toronto found after falling in the water after visiting his brother in law. His body had been mangled by propellers.
4 Nov 1953 - Alex Galarneau aged about 50 from 97 de Castelneau.
23 March 1954 Unidentified body found nera 3535 St. Patrick
10 April 1954 - Unidentified body found at the foot of Wellington near the Point.
19 May 1954 Unidentified, wearing a blue tie.
28 May 1954 Bernard Lefebvre, 6 livign at 102 St. Augstin, drowned 17 May at the foot of Turgeon
25 Aug 1955 Auguste Babeau, 38 of Laprairei found by maintenance workers. He capsized fishing in Melocheville. His brother was found dead in the waters in Lac St. Louis.
26 Aug 1955 Alderic Leblanc, 45 of 1214 Notre Dame W. fished out near Black's Bridge. he was a caleche driver usually found on Sherbrooke and McGill.
21 Aug 1956 - unknown body found in Ville Lasalle aged 30 - 35 drowned about two or three days earlier.
23 May 1958 - Sante Siccone, 16 of LaTuque found near Cote St. Paul.
15 June 1959 - two unidentified bodies fished out.
15 July 59 Harold Wittington or Wattington, 460 St. Joseph. Had been missing for several weeks
6 April 1960 - Jack Barr who lived in a carbin near the Dominion Bridge factory was fished from the waters.
31 May 1960 unidentified man aged around 35 near des Seigneurs later identified as Napoleon Armstrong, 72, of 4835 Ste. Emile. Had disappeared 25 May.
22 Aug 1960 Romeo Croteau 16 of 386 Sebastopol. drowned while swimmign with 3 friends.
22 June 1961 John Adams, 30 of Lafleche. found near Colborne. fall into the water near the canal. -
April 24, 1962 Gerard Pilon, 43. Lachine police found him.
May 22 1962 John Garland, 58 of 2049 Coleraine.
22 May 1962 Roger Goyette, 7, of 2471 St. Charles didn't return to class Friday and was found dead in the canal Saturday morning.
Aug 2, 1962 - Unidentified man at foot of McGill around 35 years old with a tattoo reading Pauline
Aug 15, 1962 - Emile Lalonde aged about 40 living at 4544 De Lorimier was in water for at least a week.
29 Nov 1962 - Phillip Henry, 74 near St. Patrice Street in Lasalle he lived at 7504 Casgrain. and had gone missing a day earlier.
11 July 1963 Unidentified aged between 25 and 30 tattoo reading Mary
5 Aug 1963 unidetified around 55 years old in the water for many days near Lasalle Coke 570 St. Patrice in LaSalle

13 Aug. 1969

23 Aug 1963 Antoine Couillard 23, near 6th ave. had disappeared four days earlier -
26 Aug 1963 - Alfred Durocher, 57 of 2309 Ryde fished out . missing about one week.
16 March 1965 Mabel Curtis, 69, of 1676 A Grand Trunk. Had gone missing several weeks earlier. She was found 3 pm.
10 Sept 1965 Unidentified woman fished out she was about 20 and stood 5 foot five and was black.
6 Oct 1966 unidentified man fished out near Dominion Sugar
24 Aug 1967 - unidentified body found at foot of 6th ave.
24 Oct 1967 Charles Turcot, 52, a merchant from Mont Laurier shot 5 times and his body found near the bottom of des Seigneurs his car was in the muddy water of the canal - Michel Kontowt was charged.
19 Aug 1968 - body found in water near 4207 St. Ambroise
24 March 1969 Man in his 50s body found at 630 pm near Atwater
6 Aug 1969 Jeanne Bedard 45, of 6830 Monk found near Cote St Paul.
13 Aug 1969 Unidentified man near Charlevoix found at 945 pm
20 May 1971 Unidentified man found near des Seignuers. He stood 5 9 and weighed 160 and had been a long time in the water.

25 June 1971 Paul Emile Menard, 35, found in his car in the water near Lapraire and St. Patrick. He lived at 1740 Roberval and was inside the car. He was in advanced decomposition. He had disappeared 29 April 1970 after driving a friend back from work. He owned an oil delivery business. Two were later arrested and charged with murder.
13 Sept 1972 - Jacques Caron of 1860 Jacques Hertel aged 35 found dead in the canal at 425 St. Patrick
25 Oct 1975 Jean Guy Dubois and Jacques Ouimet manager of Iroquois murdered Guy Fournier of the Hotel Iroquois on Oct 23, 1975. He was fished from the Lachine canal. The duo were found guilty 28 April 1977
20 June 1978 Roger Lachapelle,14, fished out near Olivier where he was fishing with friends. He fell accidentally and didn't know how to swim.
29 Dec 1982 Norman Boyer, 10, drowned while his brother Patrick, 6, was on life support after jumping in to save his older brother near the 6th Ave. bridge.
6 Oct 1984 car went in the water and it wasn't immediately known how many inside.
24 April 1985 A Verdun man in his 40s was found in a Chrysler LeBaron in the waters near 32nd Ave. It was believed to be suicide. Drove fast enough to get 75 feet from the shore. It occured the previous October.
27 Nov 1986 Diver Alain Vienneau drowned working on a clean up operation for Parks Canada.
31 March 1988 unidentified man

April 1985

10 April 1993 unidentified man near 4850 St. Ambroise
3 Nov. 1993 Gabriel Villarosa and Norma Casaclang Villarosa drove into the canal and drowned. Survivors sued the city for $300,000, claiming not enough salt had been put on St. Patrick Street, leading their car to slip into the waters after hitting tree.
15 Nov 1998 -A woman aged 25-30 fished out near Charlevoix
2 July 1999 Clinton Bennett, 6, of Bourget Street was walking along the canal with his friends they left him when it rained. He likely slipped in.
20 July 2007 Melanie Meunier, 27 found near Cote St. Paul. She had gone missing two weeks earlier.

21 Dec. 2010 Matthew Besner, 27, 

Besner

disappeared after dining at the Original restaurant on St. Alexis near Notre Dame and is believed to have fallen through trying to cross over the thin ice. Besner, who worked at an insurance company, had texted his girlfriend at 3 a.m to say he'd be be home soon but was then spotted looking disoriented and asking for directions.
20 June 2011 - a man unidentified, around 25, found dead near des Seigneurs and Wellington
30 June 2014 Man drowned after leaping in near St. Remi at 6 a.m.
29 May 2016 Man, aged 34, fished out of canal near Pitt and St. Patrick after drowning while swimming.

*Addresses prior to 1929 were different than those of today.

NOT DEAD
26 Aug 1936 Joseph Kamitsky 30, of 5282 Ste. Marie Street tried twice to kill himself. He claimed he was just drunk and not suicidal.
10 aug 1937 Helen Deans, 48, fell into Lachine Canal off the Atwater Bridge.Traffic cop Gaston Veillette jumped in and saved her.
3 May 1948 William Sutherginn, 86, was saved by four people after falling in. (saviours were J. King of 204 Coleraine, W.H. Boyle 318 Bourgeois John McKernan 1053 Grand Trunk and John Bryson 1053 Shiller)
17 Aug 1931 Mrs. William Lefebvre 22, of 3065 Albert was saved from drowning by a passerby.

Black Montreal icons: The all-time Top 20

November 10, 2017, 3:32 pm

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1-Jackie Robinson Though in Montreal only a few months, this colour barrier-breaking pioneer taught the world something that residents knew since forever, that Montrealers mostly don't much care who's black or white








2 - Dany Laferrière Fearless, ambitious and energetic journalist who moved from Haiti to Montreal at the age of 23 and mopped floors at Complexe Desjardins before his big breakthrough novel nine years later, How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired. Countless awards followed including become the first Canadian named to the Académie française. Said to still live on St. Hubert just above Ontario.

3- Oscar Peterson 1925-2007 Jazz pianist who electrified the world with his playing, starting at the Alberta Lounge at La Gauche (then Osborne) and Peel. Son of a CPR porter who grew up in Little Burgundy.

4-Rufus Rockhead Enterprising showman ran a famous eponymous-named nightclub for decades at Mountain and St. Antoine, refusing to grease politicians hands with bribes, leading his joint to be unjustly shut down for a long spell. 

5- Percy Rodrigues Doorman at Cafe St. Michel who dabbled in a bit of underworld thuggery before moving to Hollywood and becoming a prominent actor, most notably as a brain surgeon on Peyton Place.

6 - P.K. Subban Montrealers fell in love with this stylish whirly-dervish D-man even before management broke a city's heart by trading him to another NHL team. Subban, it is noted, was raised in Toronto as a Montreal Canadiens fan from an early age.






7- Phil "The Man of Bronze" Edwards  Phil Edwards, born in Guyana, came to Montreal via New York, was a McGill med student who could run fast enough to win five bronze medals for Canada in the '28 Amsterdam, '32 Los Angeles and; '36 Berlin Olympics. The first black to graduate McGill Med school became a doctor at the Royal Victoria hospital where he specialized in tropical diseases. He was also a Captain in World War II, to boot.

8 - Fred Christie When told that blacks won't be served at the tavern in the Montreal forum in 1936, Christie, a chauffeur from Verdun, sued in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. In a great moment of shame for the entire country, the top court in the land sided with the tavern, in a case of retail discrimination that would end up in massive fines it attempted today

9- Kenneth MelvilleJamaican-born McGill Medical school graduate who later headed a department at the university. He is known for his research into adrenaline and stress response among other things. He helped lead historic defence of Fred Christie and was later arrested in New Jersey for refusing to leave a restaurant which declined to serve him on the basis of his skin tone.

10- Shadrach MinkinsSurely the only Montreal barber ever to have a complete history book written about his flight from a ridiculous plan to put him back into slavery in the Boston. He came to Montreal and ran a restaurant and then a barber shop on Mountain Street, until he died in 1875. Montreal was home to 80 blacks when he arrived in 1852. He married a white Irish Montrealer and had children with her.

11- Juanita Westmoreland Traoré  Born in Verdun 1942 from parents from Guyana. Became the first black dean of a Canadian law school, heading the University of Windsor Faculty of Law.

12- Marie-Joseph Angélique early-day runaway slave kickass arsonist burned down the city in 1734. She was executed and many have speculated on her motives since.

13 - Vladimir Guerrero A supernatural athlete who walked like a cat and hammered balls like nobody's business. Lived in Montreal at Lincoln and Guy from 1996 to 2003. 

14 Oliver Jones Top flight jazz pianist of Barbados-heritage, has been tickling the ivories since soon after his birth in 1934, with early-day notoriety at the old Cafe St. Michel on Mountain Street. 

15 Yolande James First black female Quebec MNA who spent a decade in the Charest cabinet in Quebec City from 2004. Tops Coolopolis list of good-looking Quebec politicians in a post that we can no longer locate. 

16 Charlie Chase Champion prizefighter who moonlighted in pimping and acting as a freelance tough guy. Midnight Magazine called him "the king of the pimps" and he was a key player in Frank Petrula's famous 1955 attack on a variety of downtown bars. Managed to win boxing titles as an elderly outsider after release from prison. Spent his later years lonely and estranged from his kids, living in a small apartment near the Cote des Neiges Plaza. (Coolopolis is obviously obsessed with this guy, film script anybody?-Chimples). 

17 Gregory Woolley Top gangster figure in the Hells Angels, which cannot accept him as a member because of racist club policies. Considered a highly-influential individual in the underworld. Many arrests.

18 Juliete Powell Beauty-pageant winner who went on to become a familiar VJ on Musique Plus and then MuchMusic. Moved to Montreal from New York City, as her Wikipedia page repeats three times.

19- Richard LordAttended school at St Leo's in Westmount before getting into Michigan State on a hockey scholarship. They were surprised to learn that their recruit was black. The university, once they learned he was black, proceeded to treat him like anybody else, as he often noted. The irrepressible and always-enthusiastic Lord worked in a variety of high profile jobs, including running the phone system for Expo 67 and working as an immigration court judge before dying in 2014.

20 - Mathieu da Costa Early aide of Samuel de Champlain, worked as a translator with the natives. Little is known about him and although he likely rarely or never set foot in Montreal, he remained a notable figure with various institutions and a stamp named after him.

Others:

Frederick Johnson Queen's Hotel employee, in the 1890s sued a theatre for refusing to honour his ticket in the orchestra section due to his being black. He sued for $500 and won $50.
Tim Raines- HoF baseball player
Andre Dawson - HoF baseball player
Michaëlle Jean - journalist and former Governor General
Gregory Charles - musician
Charlie Biddle - musician 
Kenny Hamilton - musician
Trevor Payne - musician
Rosey Edeh - Olympic medal winner in hurdling
Steve Fletcher - hockey player
Joseph Ducarme - gangster
Lionel Deare - boxer and gangster, shot dead in a bar on St. Antoine
Marlene Jennings - politician 
Peter Anthony Holder - broadcaster 
Will Mastin -jazz musician 
Georges Laracque - hockey player 
Normand Braithwaite - TV personality 
Tim Biakabutuka - NFL football player

Bad News Brown - musician

Patrice Bernier -soccer player

Trevor Williams - basketball player 

Ken Singleton - Baseball player 

Earl Little / Louise Helen Norton Little parents of Malcolm X.

Tyrone Benskin Actor and politician   

Carfare Bowman - Gangster
Tristan Di Lalla - Actor
Félix Auger-Aliassime - tennis player
Francoise Abanda - Tennis player

Tony McKegney Was born in Montreal but moved to Kingston soon after and went on to become the NHL's first black hockey star.

Montreal slavery timeline 

Black slavery was a thing in Montreal as the historian Massicote notes in this timeline.  

1760 slavery existed under the French regime and continued under the British rule. article 47 slaves remain property of their masters 

 1763 - Marie, slave of the Baronesse of Longueuil, marries Jacques Cesar, slave of Ignace Gamelin, in Longueuil 5 Jan.

1763 to 1769 Lachine parish register records slave child baptisms.

1778 Montreal Gazette read: "the widow Dufy Desaulniers promises a reward of six dollars to whoever can return her escaped slave. "She is 35 years old and wears an Indian dress."

1780 Patrick Lanigan sells Nemo, a slave, to John Mittelberger, for 60 Louis.

1784 First census of slaves in Quebec: 304 blacks of both sexes. 212 of them  Montreal and 88 in Quebec City.

1785 20 Jan. Slaves Francis and Jane marry at Christ Church. They belong to Colonel Campbell.

1785 9 March Sarah, a black slave is sold by James Morison to Hugh Charles Lepallieur, greffier de la cours de plaidoyers communs.

1785 1 April Elizah Cady of New York sells four black slaves to William Ward of Vermont. Tobi, 24, Joseph, 20, Sarah, 19 and a 6 month old child for 250 Louis and 26 April he sells all but Joseph to William Campbell for $425 .Two weeks later he sells them to Dr. Charles Blake for $300. 

1785 5 Sept Charlotte, 18, sold by Marie Joseph Deguire to Jacob Scheiffelin, auctioneer, for 21 louis. She had been brought from Upper Canada in 1776. She had already survived smallpox and measles, which increased her value. 

1786 22 Jan. Thomas York marries Margaret McCloud at Christ Church - both slaves.

1787 17 March Rose, 14, sold for 40 louis Sam Mix sells her to Louis Gauthier, a tanner of faubourg St. Laurent.

1789 6 June - Charles Lepallieur sells Sarah to James Morrison. for 36 louis. Lepallieur had purchased her four years earlier. Morrison then sells her to Joseph Andrews for 50 louis. 

1790 - Antoine, 8 years old, sold by Oliver Hasting to Chas Boucher of Boucherville. 

1791 9 sept. Rose, 19, sold by William Mathews at auction. Lambert Saint Omer buys her for 38 louis. She previously belonged to S. Mix.

1792 - P.L. Panet , in the first Canadian parliamentary session, proposes abolition of slavery. nothing comes of it.

1793 upper Canada legislature adopts a law to end the importation of slaves and declares those slaves born in the country be freed at the age of 25.

1794  12 May Jacques 21-year-old slave, freed by Francois Noucher de la Periere and Marie Pecaudy de Contrecoeur, his wife. Conditions are tied to his release from slavery. 

1795 15 Dec. Prince, 18, a mulatto, sold for 50 lous by Francois Dumoilin of Bout de L'ile to Myer Michaels, merchant.

1796 16 Jan. Rose, sold by P. Byrne to Simon Meloche, 360 chelins.

1796 3 Sept. Jack, a black slave, sold by J.A. Grey to John Shuter, merchant. Gray had inherited him from his the widow Fleming one year earlier. Shuter promises Jack ot free him in six yearsif he serves him faithfully. On 2 Nov. 1803 he fulfills his promise and Jack is freed.

1796 13 Sept Jean louis, 27, a mulatto, 5 foot 10 sold for 1,300 chelins. R.B. Routier sells them to Louis Charles Boucher, solicitor general. Routier said he bought the two at the island of St. Dominique.

1796 23 Nov. Cesar, freed slave from Connecticut hired for 10 years as domestic at Dr. John Aussem's place in st Antoine district. He paid 30 louis cash up front. Aussem in return gets right to sell his domestic's services other next two years.

1797 25 may Marie Catherine Tessier, widow of Antoine Janisse frees slave Marie-Antoine de Pade, squaw, 23. She recognizes services rendered and gives her a trousseau.

1796 25 Aug.Manuel, 33, sold by painter-gilder Thomas Blaney to Thomas John Sullivan, Montreal hotellier. Price 36 louis, in payments of 3 louis per month. Sullivan promises to free him in five years if he's faithful worker.

1797 22 nov 1797 - Ledy, 26, mulatto, given as part of payment by George Westfall to Richard Dillon, owner of the Montreal Hotel. She works for Dillon until Westfall's payments are paid off.

1797 Joseph Papineau, MP for Montreal and notary, submits a demand from Montreal citizens to abolish slavery  

1802 3 Jan Niagara Herald publishes an ad advertising the sale of an 18 year old negro

1803 Chief Justice Osgood of Montreal declares slavery is incompatible with Canadian law.

1833 16 may M.Stanley, representing Lord Grey, presents a bill in England to abolish slavery in the colonies. An identical law was adopted in Canada same year.

---

Tavern king Joseph Beaudry's bloody Montreal drinking empire and how it culminated in his son's death

November 11, 2017, 2:00 pm

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 Peter Murphy managed the Texas Tavern, one of over 30 establishments owned by Joseph Beaudry, who had spent 45 years expanding his Montreal booze empire.

   Murphy came to work at the Texas Tavern at 970 Decarie (now the Tequila Bar) on Saturday September 27 and never left. After the doors closed he stayed all night and did line after line of cocaine.
   When Joseph's son Renald Beaudry came in on Sunday morning he found an addled Murphy still sniffing the white powder.
    Beaudry was unimpressed, conflict ensued and Murphy ended up stabbing his boss Beaudry, 62, and leaving his body in the freezer.
   Losing his son was a bitter loss for the senior Beaudry but it was not such an unusual event in the larger scheme of things, as his bars had seen copious bloodshed over the years.
   Beaudry was a supervisor at Dow Brewery who sold an apartment building he owned in order to open his first bar, the Villeray Tavern at St. Denis and Villeray in 1943.

A timeline of some of the nastier moments in Beaudry's bar empire

29 June 1985 Four are shot dead at J.J. Bar at 3270 Jean Talon E. One of the victims was a girl on her first day on the job. Her father was a janitor who had worked for Beaudry for 30 years and asked Beaudry to hire his daughter. Beaudry was so upset that he sold the place at a $30,000 loss. Beaudry's son Reynald had once been beaten and robbed of the night's take at the J.J. by three thugs, in an attack that left him so badly injured that he had to wear a brace for 15 years after.
19 Feb. 1975 Seventeen guns were seized at the P'tit Ritz, which by then was managed by Renald Enterprises of Fabreville, indicating that Joe Beaudry's son was running the place.
21 Jan. 1975 Thirteen people at Beaudry's Gargantua bar, which included a stripper or two as entertainment, died in a fire set by Richard Blass and Fernand Beaudet.
29 Dec. 1973 Enzo Porco shoots Karol Brousseau, hitting him in the left ear at the Temporel
Bar at 3765 Villeray. The gun blockeda fter the firs tshot (Browning 9mm with 14 bullets).
20 Sept. 1972 Bernard Trudeau was shot and injured at the Brazil Cafe at 2017 Frontenac, formerly known as the Havana Cafe.
25 Sept 1967 - Two masked and armed men robbed a tavern and its six clinets of $500, taking the contents of the cash from barman Malcolm Ashton.
8 May 1967 Barman shoots wanted felon Andre Filion, 24, in the leg at the Boudoir du Nord at 8145 St. Denis. Filion had tried to start fights and got angry when the manager asked him to leave.
29 Dec. 1966 Two armed thieves robbed the Belmont Tavern at 1401 of $10,500. They drove off towards the Victoria Bridge.
27 Sept. 1965 Denise Houle, 26, was shot outside Beaudry's P'tit Ritz at Prefontaine and St. Catherine. Houle was an off-duty stripper who lived upstairs from the place. Andre "Coco" Gendron fired the shots from a window across the street at 1416 Prefontaine. Police came to his $12-per-week apartment and shot him dead.
9 Dec 1963  George Barry of Geenfield Park was beaten and robbed in the bathroom of the Belmont on Wellington. The thieves took $67.
9 Oct 1962 Fire strikes the Havana Cafe after a period which saw thugs battle it out in a series of encounters.
 9 June 1961 - Lionel Desjardins, whose main job was to mop floors overnight at the Taverne du Nord at 552 Jarry E., was busted for cleaning out the safe of over $4,000. Beaudry owned the tavern, along with "seven or eight others" and also had an interest in many other establishments at the time.

Chez Roger Bar Salon, 2300 Beaubien E. - still in business
Disco 970, 970 Decarie St. Laurent
Belmont Bar Salon 1401 Wellington Point St. Charles
Boudoir du Nord 8145 St. Denis
Villeray Bar Salon 7659 St.. Denis
Capidor Bar Salon 2256 Henri Bourassa
 Bar des Copains 4557 Notre Dame W
Houde Bar Salon 2321 St. james W
lasalle Bar Salone 598 St. Joseph Lachine
St. Michel Bar Salon 5301 St. Lawrence - became Le Set and is now Chez Serge
Temporel Bar Salon 3765 Villeray E.
Gargantua 1369 Beaubien E. Upper duplex has been residential for a long time.
All American Bar and Grill 1255 Dorch. W - long demolished for an office tower
P'tit Ritz Cafe 1405 Prefontaine -closed around 2007 and converted to housing.
Cartier Bar and Lounge 173 Cartier Poitne Claire
Dino's Restasurnat 7905 St. Denis
J.J. Pub 3270 Jean Talon E.
Havana Cafe 2017 Frontenac - now a fruit store
Montmarte Cafe 1417 St. Lawrence
Baby Face 1235 Dorchester W
Cafe An Ro 1127 Notre Dame Lachine
50 Steak House 50 Central Street ALacalle
Texas Tavern 970 Decarie, St. Laurent
Tavern des Copains, 4553 Notre Dame W.
 Taverne Ritz 3151 St. Catherine E. -remained a bar until around 2010, now  residential
Belhumeur Taverne 1951 Ontqaro E = building either rebuilt or radically renovated, bar long gone.
Foyer inn 11632 Gouin E. RDP
Chez Maurie Tavern 600 St. joseph Lachine
Taverne du Centre Sportif 4940 Hochelaga - now Badminton Quebec HQ.
 Cafe de L'union Tavern 2450 St. Catherine E
Pigale Club 1059 Beaver Hall Hill
Cafe de l'est 4558 Notre Dame E.

Montreal Twitter Power Rankings - Who are Montreal's top tweeters?

November 14, 2017, 12:22 pm

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#1 Genie Bouchard 1,520,000 Every woman wants to be her, every man wants to be with her. She proves that you can still get lousy at what you do and have a ton of fun.

The fall at the end is SO dramatic lol pic.twitter.com/j3Mdw2IrNz

— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) November 8, 2017

#2 Roberto Luongo 794,000 St. Leonard-raised NHL goalie hasn't lived in this burg for quite some time but never pollutes his feed with boring content.

You know the boys have confidence in your goaltending skills when 3 guys line up to block a shot.....🚨🥅🚨 pic.twitter.com/Q5QfxrDnsm

— Strombone (@strombone1) September 18, 2017

#3 Sami Zayn 937,000 Wrestler We don't know too much about this guy but he's definitely happening.

In Chile, I'm Paul McCartney. pic.twitter.com/l6LY1oalIt

— Sami Zayn (@SamiZayn) October 21, 2017

#4 Jay Baruchel 314,000 Gains points for having NDG in his name. Loses points for moving away from Montreal. Gains points for tweeting a lot about his cat and replying to notes and following Coolopolis.

I will endeavour to remind myself more often that my cat is just a cat, and not actually some sort of magical toy come to life!

— Jay Baruchel (@BaruchelNDG) September 25, 2017

#5 Xavier Dolan 243,000 The actor/director looks like a sort of ..uh.. intense person but his feed sometimes sheds light on a lighter side.

EDITING : pic.twitter.com/6pyBEHsfrt

— Xavier Dolan (@XDolan) October 16, 2017

#6 Sugar Sammy299,000 Mostly just boring publicity stuff but occasionally a fun moment peeks through.

I went to visit my Doctor at @Cardiogenix Medical Centre last week, here’s my very “tranquille” public service announcement… pic.twitter.com/y7B1UkfxnZ

— Sugar Sammy (@sugarsammy) September 19, 2017

#7 Denis Coderre 310,000 Perhaps Montreal's all-time most famous tweet was when the then-mayor urged the Montreal Canadiens to send veteran forward David Desharnais to the minors.

Allo? Un billet simple pour Hamilton pour David Desharnais svp.... #HabsDC

— DenisCoderre (@DenisCoderre) November 11, 2013

#8 Martha Wainwright 11,000 Mostly just boring concert promos and zero content about her hometown but her cheeky bio is an eye-catcher. "Mostly known for being a bloody motherfucking asshole, I'm also known for interpretive dance when it's not called for."

#9 Bianca Beauchamp model 145,000 Why resist?

@Regrann from @rubberdom - Epic #SheGlory of @biancabeauchampmodel on a motorcycle ? at... https://t.co/KjGCNzXAvtpic.twitter.com/fyggHI9Yl3

— Bianca Beauchamp (@biancabeauchamp) November 8, 2017

10 Jojo Savard 179 The queen of astrology hasn't got many followers in spite of her efforts. Click her and give her a hand's up.

This week’ inspiring message of the stars to create miracles in your life.: https://t.co/48ji0uEcTe via @YouTubehttps://t.co/xTMbP71GUC

— JoJo Savard (@jojosavard) November 12, 2017

  ***       

It's the craziest, funniest, scariest and most insightful book ever written about Montreal. Absolute must-reading! Kristian Gravenor's Montreal: 375 Tales of Eating, Drinking, Living and Loving, order your paper copy here now.

                                              *** 

Others by follower totals

Justin Trudeau 3,800,000
William Shatner 2,560,000 - responds to folks who write him. Not really a Montreal guy now.

A car or plane is always best. https://t.co/S05kNfQpdH

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) November 14, 2017

Arcade Fire 1,020,000 (Win Butler 27,700 singer).


Grimes celebrity DJ 728,000

the ants infested my granola so i ate them. they had no taste

— Grimes (@Grimezsz) November 3, 2017

Guy Lepage 431,000
Carey Price 366,000.

Steven Pinker cognitive scientist at Harvard 351,000

Corneille 293,000

Jon Lajoie 253,000

Jeff Stinco guitarist 139,000

Gilles Duceppe 126,000

Geoff Molson 118,000

Mitsou - singer turned radio personality 118,000

Francois Gagnon 105,000
Rufus Wainwright singer 96,300

Karl Wolf singer 76,200

Jonathan Drouin hockey player 75,400

Pierre Karl Peladeau CEO 67,100

Martin Brodeur retired hockey player 63,200

Julie Payette Governor General 58,200

Ben Mulroney TV personality 56,000

Roch Voisine  singer 51,000.

Evan Goldbergscript writer 42,700

Caroline Rhea TV personality 36,400

Sam Roberts Band33,100

Bruny Surin  retired sprinter 31,000

Greg Rusedski tennis player from West Island who renounced residency 28,900

Yannik Bisson actor 27,000
Adam Gopnik 25,000
Jacques Villeneuve car racer 25,000

Andre Pratte editorialist 23.5k.

Melissa Auf der Maur musician 17,400 

Terry Mosher 12,300 cartoonist

Gregory Charles musician 7,500...

Steven Cojocaru fashion journalist 8,200..
Jack Todd sports writer 7,500
Simple Plan band 6,517
Mado Lamotte drag queen 5,300

Gino Vanelli musician 4060 ..

Mary Pierce retired tennis player born in Montreal but raised in the USA 4,900...

Romeo Dallaire former military figure 3,500

Amazing Montreal website allows you to compare today's view to 1947

November 18, 2017, 12:47 pm

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  Watch the video about the amazing website that allows you to fly over Montreal from above in 1947

                                      ***       
It's the craziest, funniest, scariest and most insightful book ever written about Montreal. Absolute must-reading! Kristian Gravenor's Montreal: 375 Tales of Eating, Drinking, Living and Loving, order your paper copy here now.

Slitkin & Slotkin: Montreal's most Damon Runyonesque bar: Montreal 375 Tales book excerpt

November 20, 2017, 8:23 am

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A downtown saloon was home to some of Montreal's most colourful characters of the postwar period. Drop on it to the legendary and bizarre Slitkin and Slotkin on the north side of Dorch just west of Peel through this passage excerpted from my new book Montreal 375 Tales.

                                      ***       
It's the craziest, funniest, scariest and most insightful book ever written about Montreal. Absolute must-reading! Kristian Gravenor's Montreal: 375 Tales of Eating, Drinking, Living and Loving, order your paper copy here now.

                                              *** 

Montreal's East End Gang - heartless Dubois misfits shaped a brutal era in Montreal

November 22, 2017, 11:02 am

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East End criminals from the 1970s were entirely unlike their well-publicized West End Gang counterparts but the two sides cooperated on various criminal endeavors in a relationship that has gone largely unexplored.
   Unlike their chatty and charming largely-Irish West End counterparts, the French-speaking East-siders tended to be brutish and vulgar, although Big Robert Poirier was seen in the vein of Dickie Lavoie,  as an oxymoronic lovable killer.

Lavoie

   Donald Lavoie and Alain Charron were frequently in the West End Gang's sphere.
    Charron, born in 1949 in Trois Pistoles, was slight of build, standing just 5'7" and weighing 140 lbs into his thirties.
     Lavoie, raised as an orphan in Chicoutimi, was also an angry small man and both partook in copious amounts of cocaine and alcohol. One witness interviewed by Coolopolis recalls Lavoie hitting his girlfriend at a restaurant with no apparent consequence.
***

Charron

   Simard and Lavoie soldiered for the Dubois Gang, which had roots in St. Henri but expanded east after their relationship with the Mafia disintegrated in 1971.
   Charron and Lavoie met regularly with West End Gang members such as Big John Slawvey in places like the Cafe de l'Est, Smitty's and Bar Robert. (All three profiled in Montreal 375 Tales.)
   The precise nature of Slawvey's business activities with the duo likely involved cocaine and theft. Slawvey, an experienced killer, inexplicably held the violent vulgarians in high regard, often noting that they were very serious, ruthless guys.
   Police claim that the Dubois gang was behind over five dozen murders over a 14-year span from 1968, including a dozen who were killed for fear that they might testify against them. The Dubois' feud with the upstart McSweens led them to shoot four dead in a nightclub on the south shore in 1975.
***
   Much light was shed on the gang thanks to Donald Lavoie turning police informant, including one fiasco which saw Charron misplace his gun in a Quebec City nightclub in 1978 on the way trying to kill Jean Carreau, who they thought needed to be erased as a possible hostile witness.
    Lavoie and Charron arrived at a cottage in Lake Beauport rented by Diane Larose, who was also later murdered.     

victim Carreau

   An unsuspecting Carreau showed up at the cottage and Lavoie and Charron and a third man jumped him.
   Carreau fought back until Lavoie finally slit his throat.
   The killers feared neighbours might be suspicious of the corpse exiting the house, so they chopped it up and put it on a sled.
   They covered the sled and Larose sat atop of Carreau's dismembered corpse to ease suspicions as it scooted by on the snow. The killers buried Carreau's remains but animals later dug it up. Police were unable to officially identify the remains as those of Carreau.
***
     In another famous case from June 1971 Lavoie and his brother Carl threatened Laurier Gatien, who owned the Montreal Tavern on St. Lawrence.
   The brothers demanded protection  money.
   The ritual was that a gang member would come in and order a "special Labatt 50" which was code to bring the envelope with the extortion cash.
   Gatien turned them down flat.
   The brothers suggested Gatien read the newspaper the next day.
   Gatien opened the paper to read that Louis Fournier,43, the owner of the country music cafe Jan Lou at 1203 St. Lawrence, just 800 feet from his tavern, had been killed along with his organist Robert Beaupre, 33.
   Donald Lavoie was tried and acquitted of killing Fournier and Beaupre.
   Gatien continued to refuse to pay extortion and the Dubois gang hired someone to shoot at him in June 1972.
   Gatien caught him by the collar and beat him until he confessed to taking $300 for the deed.
   In March 1973 three armed gunmen came in to scare Gatien but he had an M-1 machine gun and they fled. In June 1975 the gang attempted to place explosives in Gatien's car but didn't have time to complete the job.
   Gatien was also shot in the shoulder walking home another time.
   Verreault once refused to pay for his beer and then tossed a knife at Gatien. It got stuck in the fridge door.
   The gang smashed Gatien's his place a few times and throttled him until a regular patron intervened. The attackers were arrested but freed the next day.
   Gatien then got police protection from Det. Sgt. Leo Ducharme.
   Gatien's son died of a heart attack in August 1973. Gatien suspected that the Dubois gang had him killed somehow.
   Dubeau, Michel Verreault and Yvon Doucet sent the grieving father flowers with the message "I hope you dug a hole deep enough for a second dog."
    Verreault returned to the bar and held a knife to Gatien's throat soon after but police burst in and stopped him. The gang threatened to kill Gatien if he testified against them. Verreault was sentenced to 12 year in prison for that and other crimes.
    The Dubois gang collected extortion cash and controlled drugs and prostitutes from the following bars among others: La Tour, Bellevue Tavern, Le Plateau Tavern, Saguenay Bar, l'Hosti'd Place bar and the La Grande disco.
***
   Lavoie also told a court that Claude Dubeau, 32, invited him to a threesome with his 19-year-old girlfriend Micheline Sylvestre in 1974. Dubeau fetched a fishing knife and stabbed her a few times. "There's another who'll never talk to Grimard Poirier!" he said after doing the deed.
   Lavoie and Dubeau, along with Real Levesque and Gilles Leblanc, who both later died in a car crash, then buried the body in a field.
   Dubeau was charged with the murder in 1981.
    A decade earlier Dubeau managed to wrest control of the drug trade from St. Louis Square from the Devils Disciples, who had been ravaged by an internal dispute that saw about two dozen killed.
***
   The Dubois-vs-Mafia conflict saw another fiery omment when Richard Desormiers, 25, (who married Frank Cotroni's sister), shot Lionel Corbeil, 29,  dead outside the A and P Tavern at 3163 Fleury E. (now Bistro Fleury) in February 1972. In fact five people shot Corbeil after a fight inside the drinking establishment. Desormier was the only one charged but he was acquitted.
   The next July Donald Lavoie shot Desormiers dead in the Mon Pays Cabaret at 10192 St. Michel. He also shot manager Jacques-Andre Bourassa dead by mistake in the shooting of July 20, 1973.            Later Lavoie felt insulted when someone in his circle noted that cops had chalked the killing up to "a bunch of punks."

Humans facing extinction: how Montreal can save humanity by reversing plummeting sperm counts

November 27, 2017, 12:02 pm

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Humans are on the brink of extinction, as tragically-ignored studies on fertility have repeatedly confirmed.
   Coolopolis naturally begs the obvious question: how can Montreal make money off this crisis?
   Male sperm rates have fallen through the floor and if the trend continues, there will be no more babies born, as too few miscroscopic little guys are swimming to that egg.
   The causes of this demise of human capability range from too much estrogen-like substance in the water supply - caused by plastics and urine from women who take birth control pills, to sporting too-tight underwear.
   Montreal is perfectly placed to become the world capital to study and reverse this decline.
 
Montreal has:

• A United Nations Environment Duty Station, which could be expanded to oversee this crisis
• Expertise in water systems at McGill University's Macdonald Campus.
• The world's largest wastewater treatment plant

   Quebec would also be wise to override Canada's misguided ban on the sale of sperm, which is a recent contrivance and inspired by a woman weeping in front of a committee. She considered it tragic that she didn't know who her biological father was. The new rules devastated the local fertility industry.
    Montreal could then improve its water filtration system to truly zap the estrogen contaminants. Montreal has been proactive in cleansing the water that goes downriver in recent times.
   Montreal needs now to double-filter the local drinking water to see if a truly-pristine source can result in increased sperm count in the local population.
    Quebec could also ban any pesticide suspected of disrupting fertility. This wouldn't be much of an issue as Quebec's farms are mostly rocks and pig farms.
   Regulating imported fruit and vegetable would be a larger task.
   Other measures could be considered, such as discouraging birth control pills or establishing special methods of disposing of the pills and the urine of the women who have ingested it.
   

Molson ditches Montreal - beer pipeline over the St. Lawrence envisaged

November 28, 2017, 1:38 pm

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    Time to crack open some Molsons and sink some boats, boys. (Is that a Westmount saying? - Chimples)
    Molson's Brewery which has called Montreal home since 1786, is shipping out of Notre Dame and Papineau with its 1,000 employees.
   Oh and it's also taking $1.7 million it pays to the city in taxes each year.
   So unless condos or some other lucrative taxpaying business occupies the abandoned site, the lost cash will have to come from our pockets.
   Longueuil's gain is Montreal's loss however and fine living is always available on the south shore.
   The only upside is that the move opens the door to the possible building of the world's longest beer pipeline, which would span about 15 km from around the St. Hubert airport to downtown Montreal.
   The new Jacques Cartier Bridge could easily be modified to allow for the sudsy flow.
   The current longest beer pipeline, in Bruges, Belgium, was built last year and measures only 3.2 kilometres in length.
   

---

Montreal's Top 10 flashiest drug lords - all time power rankings

November 29, 2017, 1:56 pm

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   Druglords sport fancy suits, drive souped up sports cars and spread a trail of cash wherever they go.
  Here are the best of the best when it comes to Montreal druglords who lived up to those standards.
1 - Ernesto Guillermo Francisco Barretto-Morales, aka Tito Pacheco Tito Pacheco "Incredible clothes, alligator shoes, a gold watch with diamonds in it. He could pick up any woman. Nobody beat Tito."

Son of a Peruvian diplomat who first dabbled in cocaine in the early 1970s in Miami when the drug was still rare. Bought supply from WEG boss Dunie Ryan and proceeded to enlist a top lawyer and various other unlikely bluebloods into his web of underlings.  When not traveling in a rented limo, he motored around town in a $82,000 Porsche Targa and had a red telephone that cost him $15,000. He was a regular at Le Prive and the Saga Disco* on Bishop and Le Prive where he befriended barmaid Francine Brisebois who became his wife in Baie Durfe and stood by his side until she killed herself in Lima Peru in 2011. (Pacheco was charged with her murder but acquitted). Pacheco's imported unrefined leaves and processed them in local labs, but the quest for discreetly acquiring  chemicals required in their processing being the tricky part. He dressed flashy at all times, often in red. One day wearing red suit yellow socks pink boxing boots a friend asked if he is a coke dealer "would I look this obvious?" as an excellent 1986 profile by Dan Burke recounts. He narrowly escaped prosecution by fleeing the country and still lives in Peru where he was convicted of other crimes recently.

2- Lucien Rivard 1914-2002 Heroin kingpin who escaped prison in 1965 by saying he had to water the rink. It was springtime and well over freezing. Rivard confessed to friends that he paid the guards off, a source tells Coolopolis. Lived in Cuba for a while and endured constant police surveillance. Helped establish the French Connection heroin ring. Featured in thousands of radio, TV and newspaper reports over the years.





3-Jimmy Cournoyer Born 1970 behind bars since 2012. Started by moving marijuana through Kahnawake and then trucked
and flew BC marijuana to Quebec and built fancy grow-ops and later an Ecstasy lab. pals with Georges St. Pierre and Leonard Di Caprio. Brazilian model girlfriend. Biker bosses and Capo Vito Rizzuto on the speed dial. Drove a $2 million Bugatti Veyron. Raised affluent in Laval. Father left when he was 16 and he stayed with mom Linda Bremner. Dad went broke and the family became threadbare.  St. Pierre vouched for his character and the hell-of-a-guy defence is believed to have knocked some time off his sentence.

4- Daniel Muir Owned a $2 million house in Mount St. Hilaire and three Mercedes Benz.
Axed to death in early Dec 2004 by a pair attackers without masks near the Hotel de la Montagne on Mountain at 9:45 one evening after leaving Wanda's strip club. He was 41. Crime reporter Richard Desamrais happened to see it - "I'll never forget seeing a forehead smashed with an axe" he said. Muir was initially arrested in 1992 with 2. 6 kg of cocaine and 8.2 kg of hash. He had such faith in his tarot reader that he paid for her house in Laval, bought her a Jeep Liberty and paid her to come to Cancun. Muir was duped out of over $100 million that he gave to Cambodians Sy Veng Chun and Leng Ky Lech to launder. They were convicted of money laundering in 2014. 

5- Daniel Serero born 1957 busted 1996. Said to have led a gang of 34 and sought control of the West End Gang after the arrest of Allan Ross. Traveled in a black Mercedes, wore lots of gold, flashed cash, owned a piece of a downtown nightclub.








6- Matt Garner  Weed dealer was raised in Dorion, moved to St. Henri where he used his marijuana cash to fund big-name hip hops shows including Rick Ross, Method Man and Busta Rhymes, his apartment became a magnet for local talent which he attempted to promote. "Matt made people feel like we could be Toronto or New York City, or Los Angeles, every city's rap dream," said music journalist Darcy MacDonald, a close observer of Garner's efforts.
Garner promoted the image of living large. He was burned to death, along with Einik Gitelman, in his apartment on St. Remi on Nov 11, 2011. The horrific double murder remains unsolved.



7- Paul Cotroni - Frank Cotroni's second son sported a giant floating diamond ring that was later stolen in an armed robbery at a cafe in St Leonard. He had his Corvette cut in half lengthwise and widened, so nobody in the world could say that had the same car. He is believed to have burned down the Oscar nightclub and adjacent buildings on Robert in St. Leonard in 1992 because management fired his girlfriend Michele Veilleux, 24. He was killed by ht man Paul Gallant in August 1998 (one 29 Gallant killed between 78 and 2003).

8- John Griffin An unappreciated fashion innovator attempted to bring his Italian-inspired styles to the Irish hoods that moved in his circle. "He'd come in the bar looking like The Mask. And ask 'don't you know who I am?'" said one insider. He was sentenced for the murder of Denis Poirier, 38 in 2003. He was 45 at the time. Three years later his brother Richard, 41, also similarly stylistically inclined, was shot dead with 50 Mafia bullets at 2:30 am on a Wednesday morning on the lawn of his home at Rosedale and Terrebonne in NDG.

9- Elizabeth BarrerFashionably beguiling nightclubista was involved in marijuana trafficking around Decarie Blvd. while on the lam from the states. She was shot dead in 2014 after meeting up with another motorist in a quiet section of Lachine. A friend tells Coolopolis that Barrer was a nice person who didn't sell drugs other than marijuana.








10 - Ducarme Joseph Thuggish street boss wasn't much of a fashion plate but his wife owned a fashion boutique called Flawnego, where killers attempted to take him down and ended up shooting innocent people dead. Joseph is suspected of being involved in the murder of Capo Vito Rizzuto's son Nick on Upper Lachine in NDG. Joseph was gunned down dead August 1, 2014. He was 46.


*where Guy Lafleur was partying in 1981 before dozing off at the wheel and almost dying on the way home) 

Montreal crew pulls off major bank heist, scores cash and misery: an inside, exclusive look into the great heist of 1958

December 4, 2017, 1:14 pm

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Samson, Yacknin, Stepanoff

   The Brockville Savings and Trust robbery of 3 May, 1958, was an epic heist that saw authorities opt to enrich  the thieves by cashing their stolen bonds, as we reveal for the first time today thanks to an exclusive insider account obtained by Coolopolis.
  More on that below. First, the basics.
  Five men entered the side door of the Fulford Building near the Brockville Courthouse and tore apart four layers of brick and half an inch of tempered steel plate with sledgehammers, chisels, drills and blow torches.
   The theft was initially estimated at $3.5 million, then $7 million, then $10 million but the true figure cannot be known because owners of the 36 safety deposit boxes surely exaggerated the value of their loss.
***

Martin

   The crew included:

Rene Martin, 23. He dropped his bank book, complete with full name at address at the scene and was rounded up in Montreal within 48 hours. He was convicted on 19 November and sentenced to 14 years and served eight. He refused to name his accomplices. They were never
***
   Giuseppe "Pep" Cotroni, born 1920, was sufficiently well-known to be invited to the Alapachin mafia meeting in November 14, 1957, as Montreal mob representative along with Luigi Grego. It turned into a fiasco as 60 were arrested and many others fled.

Cotroni

   Seven months after the Brockville heist, on
8 Dec. 1958 some of Cotroni's friends and employees from the Bonfire Restaurant dropped into his cottage in St. Adele where he weekended.. Ernest Costello, 40, of Ste. Adele.

  Cotroni poured them some anisette and they drank it back. Ernest Costello, 40, was paralyzed after drinking it. The others initially thought he was clowning around but he died in hospital a few hours later.
  Gaston Savard and Cotroni also survived, as their sips were smaller. Someone had broken in and poured strychnine into the bottle, surely in an attempt to kill Pep Cotroni.
   More on the possible poisoner below.

Robert

  In November 1959 Cotroni was sentenced to ten years in prison and fined $88.000 after undercover agents purchased heroin from him and Rene Robert.
   Cotroni was sentenced to an additional seven years for the stolen bonds from Brockville.
   Cotroni was finally released freed from prison in 1971 and died without further arrest in 1979.
***
 René Robert, who worked for Cotroni as a waiter, was nailed for both the heroin and the bonds on July 28, 1958 and was sentenced to prison.
***

Peter "The Russian" Stepanoff, born in 1919, is believed to have organized the Brockville heist. He was never charged in connection with the theft but ended up doing plenty of prison time for other affairs nonetheless.
   Stepanoff first came to prominence in 1946 as part of a crew of eight that knocked over a bank in New Richmond Gaspe, subsequently burning much of the bonds in an oven to avoid getting caught.
   By 1958 he owned the semi-fancy Ontario Spagetti House with Pep Cotroni and Philippi Pandolfi at 297 Ontario East, which was around until at least 1970.

Galarneau

    Authorities mused about classifying Stepanoff as a habitual offender in May 1959. He had been living at 3615 Ridgewood at the time.

    Stepanoff, then 40, was also tried for a heist $890,000 at the First Trust Company at 44 James in St. Catharines Ontario that took place, once again involving blow torches, between 30 January and 3 February 1959.  Moses Yacknin, 40, (of 4446 Wilson) and Henri Samson, 45, were both arrested along with him in Montreal in February 1959.  Accomplice Raymond Galarneau, then 19, testified that Stepanoff brought a big pile of papers to Yanknin at his store at 1830 Ontario. Galarneau, 21, however, went back on his story in an attempt to exonerate Stepanoff and was sentenced for a stiff five years for perjury in November 1959.
   In June 1960 Stepanoff was sentenced to eight years after being caught with $9,000 of the bonds from the St. Catharines heist.
   Stepanoff was later caught with 200 morphine pills in his glove compartment but Cecile Gauthier, 45, said that she put them there to frame him in spite for breaking up with him. He was sentenced to seven yersr in 1968 for heroin in Toronto and fell off the radar thereafter.

***
 Kenneth "China Boy" Winford (1925-1959) Winford had been targeted outside his Lincoln stret apartment July 1955, on the same night somebody shot at two Toronto gangsters at Stanley and St. Catherine. Winford was kept in protective custody after that while awaiting trial for burgling the home of Claude Deangelis.
   Ten months after the heist, specifically on March 18 1959, he was blasted with two bullets in the chest and one in the stomach at Piedmont, about 12 minutes south of where Cotroni had a cottage. He died four days later in hospital in March 1959. One newspaper suggested that it might have been retribution for the poisoning at Cotroni's place.  Police cryptically said that Winford was a victim of his own ambitions.
***
   And now for another perspective on the thefts, as written in an unpublished manuscript by Philip "Pip" Caddell, who died in 2005. It has been shared by his son Andrew.

   In May of 1958, a robbery occurred in Brockville Trust and Savings, a small company that Montreal Trust had just acquired as part of a minor expansion.  It might not seem like much, but Brockville, a small city on the shores of Lake Ontario near Kingston, was the home of many very wealthy people.  There were several millionaires, not the least of which was he Fulford family, who made “Dr. Williams Pink Pills for Pale People,” which claimed to cure everything. I always got a laugh out of the name.  I think Mother sometimes bought them for us when we were sick, although I doubt she put much stock in them.  It did make the Fulford family, and Brockville, quite rich.
   So, rather than this being a small town bank with not much inside, this bank was brimming with riches. Millions of dollars, in a little bank in a small town. And clearly the thieves knew what they were doing.
   To give them credit, the robbers had been quite ingenious: they did not go in the front door and just rob the place while everyone was there.  Instead, they rented a building adjacent to the Trust Company and tunnelled into the bank through the basement, where the vault was located.  It took them a good part of the weekend. They then emptied the contents of the vault -  valuables, cash, and millions of dollars of stocks and bonds -  and hightailed it out of there without any being aware, until, Monday morning when the theft was discovered and an accounting revealed that it had been Canada’s largest-ever robbery, at $3.7 million dollars. This at a time when a good meal in a fine restaurant cost about $5, and an expensive car was $4,000. So it was a lot of money.
   The first break came when a bank book was discovered on the bank floor.  It belonged to a fellow who was associated with the Montreal Mafia.  He was cornered and arrested. It did not seem as if he was the key in the operation, though, which appeared to have been planned and executed by some of the top people in organized crime in Montreal.  And although there was an enormous theft of cash and valuables, there were also securities – stocks, bonds and treasury bills –  that could be easily traced.
   When the dust settled, the people in our security section at Montreal Trust knew what to do.  They would make an offer to recover the securities, using a go-between to provide cash in return for the stolen securities.  The cash would be paid on the basis of about 10 cents on the dollar, so no one would lose any money, not even the thieves, once the insurance company had paid for them.  It seemed like an unfair arrangement, as crime should not pay, but the thieves had the Trust Company over a barrel.  The securities were worth a lot of money to their owners and to the company, although not that much to those who took them, as they could be traced.  So we wanted them back and they were willing to give them up.
   There would be an operation, organized with the insurance company, to retrieve the outstanding securities.  And I was asked to work with the people doing the retrieval operation. My boss, Lorne Ashton, approached me and said he had recommended me because he felt I was the best person for the job, and he trusted me implicitly. He suggested there would be recognition by the company if I did well in this task.
   As he explained it, I was to be the go-between, as I was not a police officer, but rather an employee of the company.  And I was clearly, at 5 feet 8 and 150 pounds, not going to overwhelm any heavyset criminal! The other reason I was chosen was that it had only been a decade or so since I had been an officer in the Army.  They needed someone who could fire a gun if necessary, and who could follow orders to the “T.”  They did not want someone who would get nervous or not follow through. As well, I was new and very eager to make sure those upstairs, especially Lorne Ashton, realized how much I wanted this job.  I had to feed my family.
   The first thing I was asked to do was to take firearms training, as to do this job, I would be asked to carry a gun.  So, each Tuesday night, I would go to the Montreal police firing range and practice my marksmanship.  I would stand at one end of the range and fire at a target about 50 feet away with a 38 calibre Smith and Wesson revolver, the standard police issue.  The target was a bullseye, printed in black and white on a piece of paper about two feet by two feet. At first, I remembered why I had always hated shooting a revolver, especially over a rifle: the recoil was enormous. My aim was terrible, and I really felt I would have a better chance of hitting the target by throwing the gun at it.        The first night I came home with a very sore shoulder, and I had to have liniment spread over my arm and back.
   As the training sessions went on, my aim got better, and I would bring the target sheets home to show Duckie and the kids. She knew what was going on, as we talked about everything, and so was somewhat worried.  The children, who were still pretty young,   had no idea why I was training to shoot a revolver.  I said it was for sport, because I had always enjoyed shooting in the Army, which was not necessarily true.  I liked shooting a rifle, and always had, but I could do without the PIAT gun, and Tommy-guns were so terribly inaccurate, they were a waste of time.  As for revolvers, in wartime they were not much use unless you were almost face to face.  And you might as well be dead in that situation. So although my aim was pretty good, I did not expect or intend to have to use my gun.
   So, I was ready to take on this task, and while still working, and learning the job of personnel officer, the work to retrieve the securities began.
My role was to drop off money in return for the stolen securities.  It could happen at any time of the day or night, and it could be anywhere in the city, although it was invariably downtown.  Those scenes you see in the movies, of exchanges in open fields in the dead of night, are a little far-fetched.     There were a couple of situations like that for me, but most occurred on city streets, where a briefcase or a container held the securities.
    It was almost tedious in some ways, as I would be asked to take a satchel of money to a drop-off point, and leave it, while picking up the container or briefcase that had been left behind.  It could be a back alley or a blind street, or behind a building in the area near the old Montreal Trust building down on Place d’Armes, in Old Montreal.
   I was carrying my revolver as insurance in case something went wrong, or if someone decided they could rob me without making the payoff.  But to their credit, the guys we were dealing with were businessmen – they knew it was not in their interest to botch an operation that was giving them money for paper that was essentially worthless to them.
   The fellow who was coordinating the operation was an expert in organized crime from New York, who had done this sort of thing before and was seen as an “honest broker” by both the insurance companies and Montreal Trust.  He would get a call at the office on the sixth floor where he worked in the Trust Company building and I was sent out with my satchel to gather the next bunch of securities.
   One day, he was looking at the scrapbooks of photos he had assembled of the people he calculated were in on the robbery.  Many were key players in organized crime in Montreal and elsewhere, so they were pretty tough, and had a reputation for being ruthless. He asked me if I wanted to see who we were dealing with.  I answered, “Are you kidding? If I knew what these mugs looked like, all I would have to do is look at one of them sideways and my life would not be worth a plugged nickel!”  He had to agree, so I never knew who it was I was the “go-between” with.
   One day, I was waiting for the call to come, that there was to be a “package” picked up in the downtown area near the Trust Company.  The pick-up was to be around noon, and it was around 11:30. I was very hungry, and so I decided to slip out for a sandwich before reporting to get my satchel, my orders and my revolver from the boss man on the sixth floor.  When I came back to my desk in the personnel department, I got an urgent call.  It was the fellow upstairs.
  “Did you go out just a few minutes ago?”
  “Yes, I went out to get a sandwich. I was famished.”   
  “Well, don’t every do that again without telling me.”
  “Why not?” I asked. I could see something was troubling him.
  “Well, it is obvious they have you staked out.  We just got a call asking why you were going out 20 minutes early. The other side was suspicious we were trying to pull a fast one.  They nearly got nervous and called off the exchange.”
   So, they had our building staked out.  More than likely they had rented an office overlooking Place d’Armes and were watching my every movement, which did not make me feel too good.  It did make me feel I had made the right choice in not looking at their photographs.
   As it was, I never went out for a sandwich at noon again while I was involved with the retrieval operation.  And I wondered who, among the crowds among the bankers and the shoppers on St. James and Place d’Armes, were the “businessmen” that I was exchanging cash for paper with.  After several months of this, the operation was wrapped up, and the vast majority of the securities were recovered.  I went back to working full-time as personnel officer, and gave back my revolver.  There were no more Tuesday night sessions at the firing range, although my aim was getting better.  In a short time, I received a promotion to Personnel Manager, which I think was a reward for having made that sacrifice.  I showed that I was willing to do what was required to serve the company, and my boss, Lorne Ashton, recognized that and rewarded me. 
   There was an interesting epilogue to this story a number of years later.
Montreal Trust had moved from the office at Place d’Armes to the new Place Ville Marie in the centre of Montreal.  I received a call from our securities fellows on the main floor, and was asked to come down to see them.  It had to do with the Brockville robbery, I was told.  I had not thought about it for quite a while, but I was the resident expert on what had happened, as I was closest to the investigation.
   When I came down, I found a few of our lads sitting with a fellow who could only be described as a tradesman, as he was dressed in workboots, a heavy coat, work shirt, dirty trousers, and a wool cap.  He had with him some of the securities that appeared to be from the Brockville robbery.  The problem was that these securities, although quite clearly from the same batch as those stolen, were not listed as stolen in the special inventory that had been taken.
   It turned out that this fellow was building a house Victor Cotroni, the reputed “Godfather” of the Montreal Mafia, and he had paid him in securities.  We began to ask this fellow some questions.
  “How does Mr. Cotroni pay you,” we asked.
   He replied, in a very matter-of-fact way, “Mr. Cotroni has a big box of these bills in his basement, and he pulls them out and gives them to me.”
   One of our fellows had a thought:  “Does Mr. Cotroni do anything before he gives these bills to you?” he asked.
  “Yes, he looks in a little book and checks the numbers on the bills and then he gives them to me.”
  “Does he do this with anyone else that you know?”
  “Yes, with all the contractors working on the construction.” 
   You could have knocked our lads over with a feather.  The “little book” was a very precious item.       When the inventory was taken of the bonds, stocks and treasury bills that had been stolen in 1958, a small “top secret” book was distributed to bank executives, securities specialists and police across the country and the States.
   The book listed the securities that were stolen by number and lot, so that the listing might be “Royal Bank Securities, serial number 101-200.”  But if the serial numbers of 1-100 were not listed, they were presumed not to be stolen.  Given the thousands of securities lost, the inventory was not perfect, and there were more than likely some that escaped scrutiny.  In checking the book, “Vic” Cotroni was making sure he was giving out securities that were not considered stolen, but were actually part of the haul from the Brockville robbery. 
   So it was that by bribery or theft the inventory book had fallen into the hands of the head of the most notorious crime syndicate in Montreal, and eastern North America.  And he was using it to pay off contractors in the construction of his house, and there was not much we could do about it, as there was no proof they were stolen.  We told this contractor that he should take cash from Mr. Cotroni from now on, and we kept an eye out for any more of the “phantom” securities.
   There had been some indication a few years before, that the hand of organized crime had been involved in the Brockville robbery.  In May of 1960, one of the Cotroni gang was jailed for seven years for being found with stolen bonds, which had been taken during the Brockville Trustaand  Savings robbery in 1958.
   At the time, the word came out that the robbery had been the act of one of Cotroni's main lieutenants, Peter "The Russian" Stepanoff, who had enormous skills as a safecracker, and was very adept with explosives.
   These skills were put to use again in 1961, with one of the other members of the Cotroni gang, when a branch of the City and District Savings Bank in west end Montreal was tunneled into over a weekend and the safe blown.
   Unfortunately for them, the neighbours heard the tunneling and the explosion and thought something was up.  And that was the first time Frank Cotroni ever went to jail.  I imagine the money gave organized crime in Montreal a solid footing for the “work” it would do in the 1960s: drugs, loan sharking, numbers rackets and prostitution.
   And through it all, there were many murders, or as the press called them “settling of accounts.”
   I always tried to look back on those times and laugh, and I enjoyed telling the story about the contractor.  There were lots of stories that came out of that dangerous operation.  But I came out of it unscathed: my luck held up once again.

Jürgen Vogt's never-before-seen photos of early 1970s Crescent Street shine light on joyous era of bar patronage

December 5, 2017, 9:05 pm

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   Certain Montreal bars were once magnets for bright people who formed lifelong bonds and great memories over stubbies. Those include the Boiler Room, on Crescent which lasted from about 1969 to 1973 and was later taken over by an expanded Sir Winston Churchill Pub.
   The great portrait photographer Jürgen Vogt, who lived in Montreal from 1967 to 1973, recently shared these photos with well-loved journalist and longtime Montreal bartender and actor Terry Haig.
1

Photo taken at The Boiler Room Feb 13, 1973

  Joseph Mark Glazner writes: The Boiler Room and the Pub from 1969 to 1973 was one of the most interesting places I had ever been. I say was because they often seemed like two different worlds--a Manhattan-like bar alive with celebrities, money, and hopefuls on one side, and a gritty mix of young artists, writers, musicians, dancers, actors, students, and gangsters--two different worlds but connected by a passage way in back that let anyone move freely between these two worlds. I am sure that Johnny Vago went on to greater success but to me these two rooms were like magic anytime or the day or night. The crowds changed from day to day but there would always be people I knew whenever I passed through.
2

 Peter MacNeill

4

5

 Likely Daniele Couvreur, Harry Losko, Donald Monson (left back row)

6

 Lynne McKinley
7

8

 Ty - remembered as a gentle spirit. Died living in Le Havre Nova Scotia.The Great Boilerr Room Christmas Pageant Dec. 18, 1971
9

 Gine Dines Holness, a lawyer in Boston. Smart and sweet, according to Haig.

10

The Great Boiler Room Christmas Pageant Dec. 18, 1971

11

The Great Boiler Room Christmas Pageant Dec. 18, 1971

12

The Great Boiler Room Christmas Pageant Dec. 18, 1971

14

The Great Boiler Room Christmas Pageant Dec. 18, 1971

15

The Great Boiler Room Christmas Pageant Dec. 18, 1971

16

The Great Boiler Room Christmas Pageant Dec. 18, 1971

17

John Lord Boiler Room Dec. 18, 1971  - was also an accountant

18

 Mike Foster in St. Armand Quebec April 20, 1971. His sister Pat Foster acted a little in Hollywood and was as model living on Columbia in Montreal, working for the Connie Brown modeling agency.

19

Alan Altimus

20

 Barbara Vesay or Barbara Vise.

21

22

 Boiler Room - Daniel Couvert on the left. (possible Helene De Montigny Alan Altimas, passed away many years ago as a cfhef in Toronto, )

23

Patty Learn from the Sir Winston's Pub

24

Daniel Couvert

25

Peter MacNeill at left

26

Stephen Borsuk
**

others shred by others

27

John Ford smoking at the priests pool in the seminary on Sherbrooke near Atwater. 

28

Barbeau and Tiggy Black at Boiler room. Said to be a good guy who later ran into hard times.

29

Terry Heffernan

30

 Bemn on pedestral photo courtesy Tiggy Black


31

 David Kerr on left, became subeditor at Hong Kong stanard and died a few year ago. BVicky Davies, Barbara Vise, Terry Heffernan, Donigan Cummings.

32

 Poet Raymond Fraser, now in NB. Ran a literary magazine. Gave a poetry reading at the Boiler Room. Othres: Bryan McCarthyur, Ron Lee, Willie Dunn, Graham McKeen and Manuel Betanzos,-Santos. Others: Richard Hess, Alan Altimas, Helene De Montigny, sculpr Daniel Couvreur who turned old movie theatre into his studio, then moved on to the main he shared with randy made sculptures out ofgreen garbage bags, 71, then had an issue using his hands.  Artist Robert John, did kids drawings later.

33

Heather Black at Sir Winston Churchilll public photo by Taylor Smith.

Rick Blue notes that "most of the Boiler Room regulars eventually migrated to The Rainbow Bar and Grill on Stanley Street. Names that I remember are Ian "Tif" Ferguson, Bobby Gavaric, Nicky Barker and Elaine Pigeon."

More from Mark Glazner:
The Boiler Room Bust-Up
Excerpt from unpublished manuscript McLuhan’s Bastards and the Last Secret of the Vietnam War

A few nights after I returned to Montreal and to my usual haunts on Crescent Street, I found myself in the Boiler Room on a standing-room-only night, nudging my way through the crowd, looking for familiar faces when I heard a woman calling my name.
   Turning in the direction of a voice I didn’t recognize, I was astonished to see it was Sandy—astonished because it was the first time I had ever heard her speak and even more astounded because she knew my name. [Not her real name]
   She was wearing a beaded cloth headband and beaming at me like we were best friends.
   She was at the table near the back of the bar on a bench against the wall. Boyd, the drug dealer, was sitting beside her with his arm draped over her shoulder leaning against her as if trying to physically restrain her from moving away. She sat straight in her seat. Opposite them, another couple was just leaving the table. [Boyd, not his real name, was a draft resister and wannabe writer]
   Sandy invited me to sit down. The waiter arrived, and I ordered a Molson's.
“I was hoping I'd see you. You haven’t been around in weeks,” Sandy told me, words spilling out in a soft pleasant voice, eyes sparkling.
   Pleasantly surprised that she had even noticed me, I told her about my trip to Vancouver.
   Boyd seemed uncomfortable that Sandy was paying any attention to me.
   “I know all about Vancouver,” Boyd cut in, giving me the evil eye and giving her a big cocky grin.     “I'll take you there if you want. We could go right now.”
   Sandy smiled politely.
   At the same time a very annoying, loud brassy, short, often angry, often drunk dark-haired woman named Rose [not her real name] wandered over with a beer glass in her hand and sat down in the seat beside me and across from Boyd. She immediately started talking loudly and angrily to the guy on her other side of the space between our table and the next table to her right. The waiter returned then and placed my bottle and glass down on the table between Rose and me, and took Rose's order, also a Molson's, before scampering off.
   The beer in the Boiler Room was only served by the quart in big brown bowling-pin-sized bottles with glasses on the side.
   I was glad the waiter had left my bottle and glass on my right between Rose and me. It set up a mini-wall between us, which was good since I had once accidentally sat down next to Rose in the Pub and had been snarled and snapped at for no reason.
   I turned my attention again to Sandy to continue our conversation.
   Boyd gave me a narrow-eyed, cold look, and tightened his arm around her, whispering things in her ear while she and I talked. He pretended to be completely oblivious to the attention she was giving me, but I sensed he was seething.
   Boyd finally got tired of trying to distract Sandy and instead began to talk to the guy on the other side of Rose, giving me a chance to ask Sandy, “How long have you been going with Boyd?”
   “I’m not going with him. We're just on a date,” she said in a voice low enough so only I could hear.
   Everything about her body language told me she didn't want to be there with him. But did that mean she wanted to be with me? Or was I just a convenient and momentary escape?
   To my right, I could hear Rose arguing heatedly with Boyd and the guy on the other side of her.
   I caught a few words here and there like “phony” and “pretending” and “up tight” being thrown back and forth among the three. By then, Rose had finished off her quart bottle of beer, and the waiter had taken the empty away, leaving only my three-quarters-full bottle on the table between Rose and me.
   Sandy was telling me about her nursing training when I heard Rose for the second time telling Boyd he was a “damned phony,” and he told her, “Go fuck yourself.”
   With a grin, Boyd turned to Sandy and made his near fatal mistake. He pretended to whisper but said loud enough to be heard by everyone around us, “I hate dogs.” Boyd then faced Rose and made barking sounds before turning away toward Sandy, hoping for a laugh. Sandy looked horrified.
Rose just sat there for a second or two staring through half-lidded eyes at Boyd.
   Then, in a movement so quick that I could do nothing to stop it, she reached with her right hand across her chest, grabbed the neck of my beer bottle, lifted it over her head, and smashed it down on top of Boyd's head.
   The bottle literally exploded against Boyd's skull with a loud boom that made me think of a cherry bomb or shotgun exploding. For a second a giant whitish-yellow cloud of beer and foam the size of a watermelon enveloped Boyd's head, before showering down a torrent of suds and broken glass on his shoulders, the table, and everything and everyone around us.
   For a second, I wasn’t sure if the bottle or Boyd's head had exploded.
   Everyone in the bar heard the explosion. It was that loud. Everyone except Rose froze. She jumped to her feet and ran out the door before anyone could even take it all in.
   The Boiler Room fell dead quiet—something that I had never heard before.
   Remarkably, Boyd didn't seem to be hurt. But he was definitely shaken.
   Waiters converged on the table. Sandy checked for early signs of a concussion. He seemed to be all right. Nevertheless she insisted on taking him by cab to the hospital’s emergency room. They insisted on going alone.
   I left by myself, wondering how the evening might have ended if Rose hadn’t intervened.

Oddballs: Montreal's all time power rankings

December 13, 2017, 9:17 am

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≪ Previous: Jürgen Vogt's never-before-seen photos of early 1970s Crescent Street shine light on joyous era of bar patronage

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#1 The Great Antonio (1925-2003) Nobody pulls buses with chains around downtown streets anymore. Such a loss. The Great One was known for sitting around places like the donut shop at Guy and St. Catherine selling big oversized self-glorifying postcards but also guested on Johnny Carson and had a role in the film Quest for Fire, (1981), feats he managed while simultaneously being penniless and unwashed.

#2 Le Pape de Verdun The Pope of Verdun, Andre Brabant. This soft-spoken ornately-clad weirdo would stroll around and bless people on Wellington Street and would sometimes guest on French talk radio shows. He collected welfare, ran for municipal office and said he'd been to the moon. He died in 1994.



#3Bill Lee A successful starting pitcher who ate marijuana pancakes, negotiated his own contracts, called one manager a "gerbil" and went on strike to protest the release of a teammate, leading to his own expulsion from major leagues.

                                      ***       
It's the craziest, funniest, scariest and most insightful book ever written about Montreal. Absolute must-reading! Kristian Gravenor's Montreal: 375 Tales of Eating, Drinking, Living and Loving, order your paper copy here now. Available also at Paragraphe Books at 2220 McGill College and Librarie du Vieux Bouc at 3615 Ontario and 2884 Masson.

                                   ***       



#4 Armand Vaillancourt Sculptor on Esplanade gained first notoriety by turning a tree on Hutchinson into a sculpture and ever since has hauled off various junk he finds into his overcrowded yard to re-purpose into art.

# 5 Renetsens (pronounced Renaissance) nightclub hero and "tall lanky junkie"was a Foufounes dancefloor fixture staring heroically and pointing at the lights. He'd use the women's washroom and was once seen French kissing a dog. He endured polio as a child, and once had an after hours bar in around 1986 and later a restaurant on Park before dying young of AIDS.





#6 Giant Jean Ferre, aka Andre the Giant, lived in Montreal from 1971 to 1973 to advance his wrestling career and kept a restaurant on Mackay even after he left.  Said eventually to become the second most recognizable figure in the world. Drank copious amounts of booze, 117 beers in one sitting.



#7 Marie Lynn Levesque sported sexy clothing while running her Gaiety depanneur in Laval from about 1986 to 1988 and likely beyond.

#8 Maureen Marolly, from Pakistan, had a home full of Christian icons that would inexplicably get covered in oil all day long. It started in 1994.




#9 Rael, French racing car driver got kidnapped by aliens and moved to the Montreal-area to start a UFO-worshiping religion.


#10 Al Palmer wrote newspaper columns in an otherwise-dull Montreal Gazette relentlessly praising seductive showgirls and championing nightclubs which offered such entertainment. "There is no substitution for a pretty girl""All those pretty girls, hoo boy!" Penned the novel Sugar Puss on Dorchester Street and Montreal Confidential (1950) in which he offered tips on where to purchase cocaine and explains that it's "not addictive."



#11 Claude Gagnon Montreal was a restless place with in the 1980s and 1990s where the ambitious aimed to make a buck through wacky inventions and sexy car washes, so this party-down preacher barely fit the bill by purchasing an old Protestant church on Papineau in 1980 and launching his Temple du Reveil, claiming to have almost 2,000 followers in Canada for a while. He danced and sang plenty.



#12  Ignatius Timoty Trebisch-Lincoln lived in Montreal 1900-1903.He was born Jewish but spent his time in Montreal trying to get Jews to become Presbyterians. He became a British MP and then moved to Asia and became a Buddhist monk, all the while engaging in various spying and counter-spying stuff.

#13 Victoria Anvari Hyper-politicized McGill Biology department employee was fired in 1981 and took to standing on the concourse outside of the MacLennan Library at McGill loudly offering pro-Albanian Communist slogans and newspapers to all passersby. 

#14 Dr. Louis Jacques ran a convent on Amherst after 1885 decorated with skulls chains and scourges in which cheerful teenage female devotees slept in coffins and were whipped frequently. (Read the full story about Jacques - and many others - in Montreal 375 Tales)

#15 Artist Monty Cantsin, aka, Istvan Kantor, launched his Neoist creed in Montreal in the 1980s and went on to undertake various stunts, such as launching his own blood onto other people's paintings and signing his name to other people's artwork. Now lives in Toronto.

#16 Yvan Vernchuck, a 53-year-old Russian, became known for sleeping in freezing caves on Mount Royal, clad only in his underwear in 1938.

#17 Francis Tumblety humbly sported a pith helmet and medals when he arrived in Montreal in 1957. Sold abortion pills and showed off his collection of female body parts.








#18 Maurice GirouardAttracted people to his temple in Ste. Marthe sur le Lac in 1986 by telling them his religious statues wept tears of blood.
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Montreal 375 Tales: How to buy this new and sensational history of Montreal

December 20, 2017, 12:09 pm

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   Don't miss your chance to snap up my definitive history of Montreal, available now on Amazon and a growing list of bookstores.
   It's a 350-page beast complete with a fat chapter on Montreal's most notable bars, others on Montreal restaurants, hotels, venues, along with chapters on sports/recreation, odd moments, retail, geography and transportation.
  It's definitive, authoritative, and exposes Montreal's crazy and often-jawdropping past.
  The Odd moments chapter alone is worth the price of the book, with plenty of sex cults and other nonsense.
  Buy it off of Amazon, in paper or e-book form.
   Or snap it up at Paragraph on McGill College Ave. or one of the wtwo Au Vieux Bouc outlets on the east side.
   It took a lifetime to assemble and two years to write.

Reviews include:

• "An interesting read which provides readers with the history of Montreal. Great description and anecdotes make you feel like you were there!"
• "If the gods created people so they'd have something to talk about, Kristian Gravenor's Montreal (2017) makes it clear that Canadians created Montrealers so they'd have something to talk about."

   The Amazon link: 

   Paragraph Books at 2220 McGill College
   Librairie Au Vieux Bouc at 2884 Masson and 3615 Ontario)