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18 vintage photos from downtown Montreal taken in 1969 - when school was a riot
These delicious, newly-rediscovered photos shot at Mackay and Demaisonneuve in late-January/early-Februay 1969 were recently posted by Robert Wilkins, author of the excellent Montreal 1909. They...
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Indoor parking lots - remembering Montrealers who died where cars park
Movies suggest that indoor parking garages are wild places inhabited by villains lurking villainously behind pillars and are home to high-speed car races featuring rubber-burning three-lane skids....
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Lilian Herscovitch and Sylvia Duffy - pretty brunettes became armed robbers...
Photoshop re-enactment Sylvia Duffy, 28 of 6420 Somerled apt 401 and Lillian Hearn Herscovitch, 30, of 5300 Walkley apt 203 considered themselves in great need of cash after a restaurant they were...
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In praise of the pimp and other columns and articles I wrote
Countless articles and columns I wrote about Montreal between 1999 and 2011 have disappeared into online ether. So here in no particular order, or theme, or quality are a few that I found on an old...
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Danny Paul - a mother on her son sucked into the murderous world of the...
Danny Paul, from Point St. Charles, was born in 1969 and died 26 years later in a particularly noteworthy fashion as a combatant in the biker war. His death was devastating for his mother who...
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Cigarette fires -the overlooked upside of the decline in smoking
The decline in smoking - down over half from just a few years ago - has saved countless lives in Montreal but not only in the way you might think. The Grim Reaper is being turned back as people...
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When rats attack - a history of rodents biting Montrealers
Tues. 18 Oct 1881 A three-year-old child of Mrs. Stainesley, who resides on Dalhouse street, while asleep last night, was severely bitten by rats. Two of the fingers on the right hand were badly...
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Crimping Montreal-style - rather than forcing men to be sailors, Montrealers...
For generations men had to worry about being kidnapped and forced to work on ships. Crimping was the term employed for trapping someone into such service. Crimping was a serious issue in Montreal...
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French only marginally more powerful than English in Montreal: study
English, in spite of laws discouraging and banning its use in Quebec, is almost at an even strength as French in Montreal, according to a study conducted by Kai Chan, a Distinguished Fellow at the...
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Synchronicity: Montrealer witnesses public suicide of man who killed his dad...
Ronald Olszewski in collage Synchronicity is a fancy term for "spooky coincidence" and Coolopolis has been anxious to use it since we learned it two weeks ago. One of Montreal's all-time...
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David S. Wells: The Montreal adult magazine publisher who died behind bars
The splashiest documentary to zoom out of Montreal featured a character whose subsequent fate would have shocked people, had they ever heard about it. David S. Wells served as the perfect villain...
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The Montreal priest and cop who helped out with a big mail truck robbery
Sgt Gerard Proulx covers his face in court12 June 1964 Quebec bank robbers were heroes battling the oppressive English moneyed class, according to a narrative advanced by people like separatist...
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St Lawrence River in springtime, a poetic tribute from 1876
The river was enchained in its mute abyss. The winter, with its long and cold nights, had covered it with a heavy network of ice. But at the rising of the bright spring day, the river seems to...
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Photos and stories: Aussie Whiting, the stowaway drifter who became...
Aussie Whiting (1925-1989) came to Montreal as a stowaway drifter and after many struggles, became a newspaper photographer and the stuff of legend. Aussie Whiting, along with Pulse News TV cameraman...
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Park Extension - 65 photos from the past that will haunt your dreams in the...
1Mrs. Pinkerton on Jean Talon, 1954."Join the mighty throng going to the opening of The North End Suburb" read the first-findable mention of Park Extension, in 1908, known at the time as Park Avenue...
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Montreal's greatest day - 15 photos of the number one day in city history
The greatest day that ever happened in Montreal took place on May 7, 1945. After five miserable years of seeing the best and brightest killed in Europe and beyond, Montreal was finally woken from the...
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Help solve this shocking Montreal crime from 1979 - warning: not for the...
Coolopolis is sharing the following personal essay with the permission of its writer, a former Montrealer from Point St. Charles, in order to help shed light on - and possibly even solve - the...
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Progress shock - surprises await you if you're coming to Montreal after a...
The Big Wheel - Jesus at the harbor, the wistful vista of a church near the river, as seen from Notre Dame, a view described in Lenny Cohen's Suzanne, has been altered by a festive wheel in the old...
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Courtroom shocker after father-of-nine killed by streetcar between Montreal...
Crushed under the metal wheels of a streetcar between Montreal West and Ville St. Pierre. Tomasso Pellegrino, 44, died by broken skull, killed by Montreal streetcar. His grisly death led to an...
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10 true things about Montreal that we don't want to admit
Montrealers got ugly. Montrealers once dazzled with their beauty, grace and je ne sais quoi. Montreal long attracted the genetic elite of every Quebec village, as rural beauties bused into the big...
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