Here is a lovely photo of a couple who met in Viger Square and wandered east until he murdered her at Notre Dame and Hickson. The man killed the woman and hung around only because he was too drunk to move according to the article from 1954 in Allo Police.
He was Leo Poitras, 51, she was Raymonde Rousseau. She lived at Dorchester and St. Elizabeth, he at 1002 St. Dominique, so they were practically neighbours.
Poitras had been committing various crimes since his teens and had been suspected of committing a terrible murder in Calgary. The Allo Police was less than a year old when they covered this story.
Has always been a rundown, gritty, unsafe area. Dickson Street was where the Montreal Locomotive Works plant was located. Interesting about the English kids in that area finding the body, would be easier to find a corpse today than an English kid in that area.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered how Allo Police or Photo Police would get a hold of those stories or pictures? Did they have a squad of photohogs wandering around? Were they affiliated to every gang known and unknown? Were they buying them from people?
ReplyDeleteYou certainly seem to have an affinity for the morbid and the gruesome. How do you sleep at night?
ReplyDeleteLet me guess: you once applied for a position as city coroner? ;-)
I've written a feature or two about the Quebec crime press and the idea was that the cops wanted crime to be high profile so that the public would want a big police budget. But somehow - probably thanks to complaints & the charter of rights, etc - they've stopped allowing easy access to crime scenes. The reporters would just follow around on their scanners as they do today. Maybe they had good relationships with cops.
ReplyDeleteGood line Wayne. It's not only that there are no English kids in the East End, there are no kids anywhere in Quebec. People (like you?) have failed to procreate!
ReplyDeleteI'd rather still be able to take the Route 22. Notre Dame East streetcar, travel down to Dickson St., and find a brand-new steam locomotive built at MLW, under steam and all ready to go to work as in those days of greater optimism, regardless of the outcome to mere drunken mortals.
ReplyDeleteMaybe NOT having kids, in the East End of Montreal, or many places elsewhere, is not a bad idea after all.
The loss of steam locomotives, and street cars, for that matter, is a tragedy no matter where, for those who saw and worked with them.
Montreal East was once the Industrial Heart of Montreal, Canada, and the World.
Don't blame the Almighty, what have WE wrought?
Thank You, Sir!
Fuck, I’ll never forget when, as a kid, on a newstand, there was the cover page of ”Bobo Police” with a story of a couple who fed their kid to their german shepherd dog, complete with pictures of the kid with his arms cut-off.
ReplyDeleteallo police! the cool is reaching new lows. love this rag. seriously.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to Leo Poitras?
ReplyDeleteLoving the occasional Coolopolis sleaze, keep'em comin Kristian!
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