Midnight - April 18, 1958
ANOTHER MIDNIGHT SURVEY
BLOOD AND BOOZE FLOW IN MONTREAL'S WEST END
A young NDG athlete almost lost the sight of his eye after being slugged viciously by a gang of tough teenagers.
The son of a prominent Town of Mount Royal resident was knocked to the pavement and his head split open so badly that he looked as if he had been "scalped."
Sixteen-year-old boys staggering around the streets dead drunk, 14-year-old girls sinning in parks and lanes, men and women being molested, beaten robbed in the worst in Montreal's West End in many years.
And parents, authorities and the staid resident s of the area seem to be oblivious of what is happening.
EXTENSIVE SURVEY
MIDNIGHT reporters covered various restaurants, corner stores and taverns in the Wets End during the last few weeks and they saw some signs of savagery which would really shock the parents of some of these precious "little ones."
The YMCA in NDG is invariably the centre of one or two brawls a week. Recently one young man threatened a number of his friends with a vicious-looking knife, roaring, "make a move in my direction and I'll cut you to ribbons."
A fist fight on the corner of Hampton and Sherbrooke involving five boys and two girls on March 29th went on without interruption for ten minutes. Passers-by were terrified at the curses and threats that were being freely exchanged between the combatants. A resident of a nearby apartment house called the police but half an hour later they were still not at the scene.
CHENOY BOYS
A great many of the youths go to Chenoy Boys restaurant in Snowdon and despite the presence of a large "bouncer" on certain nights there have been a number of viscous fights.
As long as the battles take place outside the store, the management has no control and not much interest. Blood, bruises, ripped clothes have all been part of the battle scene.
Another center for these young ruffians is the Barclay-Cote des Neiges area with the bowling alley on Barclay and the pool room on Goyer St., the biggest hang-outs. The pool room has only been open a short time but already there have been more than minor disturbance on several occasions. Teenagers can be seen every Friday night here and at the bowling alley, and during the later hours often cause quite a few rhubarbs.
On warm days these same youngsters can be seen in the park on Cote de Neiges. More than one major incident has been developed in this park, particularly at night
TAVERN FIGHT
The tavern at 5018 Decarie was the scene of a particularly vicious fight on Saturday, April 5th.
Four youths - they appeared to be from 16 to 17 years of age - were drinking together and obviously in an advanced state of intoxication.
Management and waiters, either out of fear or other reasons, continued serving the "children".
Suddenly a quarrel broke out. The four youngsters then started tussling with each other. Two of the group are from well-known and respected NDG families, and one is from Hampstead.
The other patrons sitting around in the tavern made no attempt to stop the fight and obviously the waiters followed the lead of one of the tray-toters who said: "I do not want to have my head broken open."
SMASH CHAIRS
One of the young men picked up a chair, smashed it and used apart in an attempt to bludgeon another youngster. The blows were flying thick and fast. Curses, screams, and sounds of flesh being struck reverberated around the tavern. The one young man grabbed a bottle and went after a another youth. He aimed at his eyes, missed and gashed open his cheek.
Someone finally called the police.
Traffic passing along the street stopped as motorists head the smashing of furniture and sounds of a struggle.
OFF TO HOSPITAL
As if by magic the gash in the youths ace, the blood pouring out cased an end to the quarrel between the two drunken friends. They staggered out through the door onto the street.
(transcript semi-illegible from here below)
They then took one look at the foursome and drove off
"For God's sake get him to a hospital before he bleeds to death," said one youngster as he dragged open the door of the car of a passing motorist. In fear the driver ...
Eighteen minutes after the call to the cops they managed to get to the tavern which is only a few blocks from the police station. By this time the only signs of the battle were some stains on the tavern floor. any damaged furniture had been removed and the management said they had a bit of trouble but the..
POLICE HELPLESS
"We cannot patrol such places like taverns or restaurants. That is not one of our duties. We know that fights break out and too many young people in the Wets End are getting drunk but we only step in when we get a complaint," Stated a NDG police officer. The City Councillors have been trying to get a larger force for the West End but so far have not been successful. now it is important to realize a lot of these troubles youth come from places like Town of Mount Royal, Hampstead, St. Laurent and elsewhere and are not all from NDG."
ANOTHER MIDNIGHT SURVEY
BLOOD AND BOOZE FLOW IN MONTREAL'S WEST END
 |
| Typical dress of West End's tougher element |
The son of a prominent Town of Mount Royal resident was knocked to the pavement and his head split open so badly that he looked as if he had been "scalped."
Sixteen-year-old boys staggering around the streets dead drunk, 14-year-old girls sinning in parks and lanes, men and women being molested, beaten robbed in the worst in Montreal's West End in many years.
And parents, authorities and the staid resident s of the area seem to be oblivious of what is happening.
EXTENSIVE SURVEY
MIDNIGHT reporters covered various restaurants, corner stores and taverns in the Wets End during the last few weeks and they saw some signs of savagery which would really shock the parents of some of these precious "little ones."
The YMCA in NDG is invariably the centre of one or two brawls a week. Recently one young man threatened a number of his friends with a vicious-looking knife, roaring, "make a move in my direction and I'll cut you to ribbons."
 |
| Woman slugged while passers-by stare |
CHENOY BOYS
A great many of the youths go to Chenoy Boys restaurant in Snowdon and despite the presence of a large "bouncer" on certain nights there have been a number of viscous fights.
As long as the battles take place outside the store, the management has no control and not much interest. Blood, bruises, ripped clothes have all been part of the battle scene.
Another center for these young ruffians is the Barclay-Cote des Neiges area with the bowling alley on Barclay and the pool room on Goyer St., the biggest hang-outs. The pool room has only been open a short time but already there have been more than minor disturbance on several occasions. Teenagers can be seen every Friday night here and at the bowling alley, and during the later hours often cause quite a few rhubarbs.
On warm days these same youngsters can be seen in the park on Cote de Neiges. More than one major incident has been developed in this park, particularly at night
TAVERN FIGHT
The tavern at 5018 Decarie was the scene of a particularly vicious fight on Saturday, April 5th.
 |
| Leather jacketed motorcyclists - a common sight |
Management and waiters, either out of fear or other reasons, continued serving the "children".
Suddenly a quarrel broke out. The four youngsters then started tussling with each other. Two of the group are from well-known and respected NDG families, and one is from Hampstead.
The other patrons sitting around in the tavern made no attempt to stop the fight and obviously the waiters followed the lead of one of the tray-toters who said: "I do not want to have my head broken open."SMASH CHAIRS
One of the young men picked up a chair, smashed it and used apart in an attempt to bludgeon another youngster. The blows were flying thick and fast. Curses, screams, and sounds of flesh being struck reverberated around the tavern. The one young man grabbed a bottle and went after a another youth. He aimed at his eyes, missed and gashed open his cheek.
Someone finally called the police.
Traffic passing along the street stopped as motorists head the smashing of furniture and sounds of a struggle.
OFF TO HOSPITAL
As if by magic the gash in the youths ace, the blood pouring out cased an end to the quarrel between the two drunken friends. They staggered out through the door onto the street.
(transcript semi-illegible from here below)
They then took one look at the foursome and drove off
"For God's sake get him to a hospital before he bleeds to death," said one youngster as he dragged open the door of the car of a passing motorist. In fear the driver ...
Eighteen minutes after the call to the cops they managed to get to the tavern which is only a few blocks from the police station. By this time the only signs of the battle were some stains on the tavern floor. any damaged furniture had been removed and the management said they had a bit of trouble but the..
POLICE HELPLESS
"We cannot patrol such places like taverns or restaurants. That is not one of our duties. We know that fights break out and too many young people in the Wets End are getting drunk but we only step in when we get a complaint," Stated a NDG police officer. The City Councillors have been trying to get a larger force for the West End but so far have not been successful. now it is important to realize a lot of these troubles youth come from places like Town of Mount Royal, Hampstead, St. Laurent and elsewhere and are not all from NDG."
Where was that pool room on Goyer Avenue?
ReplyDeleteUnless it was obscurely listed or somehow omitted from the Lovell's directories of that era, I will assume that it was in fact located on an adjacent street since Goyer is virtually all tacky residential, post-war-built housing except for a few commercial establishments near the corners of Wilderton and Cote des Neiges Road.
As for "the bowling alley on Barclay", Lovell's likewise has no listing for it there, but as the article mentions "the park on Cote des Neiges" nearby, it must therefore refer to the former alley then downstairs at 3449 Appleton where today the MultiCaf food bank exists across from Kent Park where many deadbeats hang out--they having replaced the nasty drunken delinquents of the late '50s, those scarred and battered survivors of whom will now be in their 70s and collecting their pension and/or welfare cheques.
Yes, the N.D.G. Y.M.C.A. is still at 4335 Hampton Avenue and 5018 Decarie remains a seedy-looking address which over the years has had its venue changed many times. Not sure who owns that particular block of Decarie from Queen Mary south to Wellsteed today, but it has always been an unsightly blight on the neighbourhood and certainly not helped of course by its decreased property value following the excavation and construction of the Decarie Depressway from 1964-1967.
As I've noted before in other sections of your blog, the newspapers will sometimes deliberately mis-identify precise locations and address numbers of crimes or criminals partly to discourage morbidly-inclined "sightseers" or perhaps simply to be vague about certain districts which might then unfairly receive critical media reports.
After all, who would have thought that N.D.G. or Cote des Neiges would ever be considered "rough neighbourhoods" similar to those other, poorer parts of the city which are generally well-known for criminality. Only Walkley Avenue seems to have had a bad reputation from its inception, although it may very well have improved somewhat in recent years.
Scanning through the Gazette of the mid-50s one can find many articles about leather-jacketted youths emulating what they saw in such films as "The Wild One" (1953) and "The Blackboard Jungle" (1955) and congregating on certain street corners in Rosemount, Ahuntsic, St. Henri, Point St. Charles, etc.; teenagers in those districts often having no convenient facilities to let off steam.
To be sure, juvenile behaviour and criminality will continue to exist in various forms everywhere, yet as comedian George Carlin once humorously suggested, all of that changed considerably when marijuana became more widely available (that ludicrous "Reefer Madness" film notwithstanding!).
Would our otherwise savage youths prefer to lay about stoned than get drunk and fight?
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ReplyDeleteAn interesting time period for which I wished I had lived through...atleast in a dreamlike temporary reality..
ReplyDeleteAnd ofcourse the gradual evolving trend to the sixties....lol
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe first of a five-part series about Montreal's "Black Jacketeers" juvenile gangs began on page 17 of the Jan. 31, 1956 issue of the Montreal Gazette.
ReplyDeleteThis series, along with some adjoining, relevant articles portray a truly fascinating expose of who these youths were, where they congregated, their motives, what they said in interviews and how the police and the then relatively meager social services of the day dealt with them.