Police Probe of 1937

Police Probe of 1937

In the 2 February 1937 Lethbridge Herald, an advertisement noted:

“Police Investigation
Public Notice
Notice is Hereby Given to all parties interested or whom it may concern as follows:
First – that I, John Alnslee Jackson, a Judge of the District Court of the District of Southern Alberta, have been requested by resolutions of the City Council of the City of Lethbridge to investigate all statements, charges, complaints or matters which shall come or be brought to my notice reflecting in any way upon the integrity of the Police Force of the City of Lethbridge or relating to any malfeasance, breach of trust or other misconduct on the part of any member of the Police Force or Police Commission of the City of Lethbridge….”

The investigation was set to start on February 5 at the Court House and people were asked to submit written notice of the charges or complaints that they intended to bring before the judge.

The investigation would take over a month and when it started Judge Jackson noted that he had charges filed by John Manuel, James Hays, James Bennie and Mrs. Alice Yackulic and asked that anyone else with charges bring them forward to him as soon as possible. To that request to come forward, D.J. Stewart, taxi-driver, said he wished to bring forward his charges verbally.

One charge made was that in the past (under former Chief of Police Harris), there was an unofficial position in the police called Chief Collector of the Hot Stockings and that this person was responsible for ensuring that the police got their cut of the activities.

Other charges were that Chief Harris had raised the “ante” of the cost that bootleggers had to pay for protection. To fight it, the witnesses (Frank Wilmot and John Malako) claimed they had arranged to have two men named by the police commission come to a meeting behind the Plunkett and Savage warehouse where Chief Harris was observed taking money from bootleggers. The men contended that the chief resigned shortly afterwards.

After these stories were shared, Judge Jackson noted that the police commission had been disbanded in 1915 and that no new commission had been reappointed until 1928 under Chief Nicholls. Malako noted at that time that he had no complaints under the police for the past three years (since when he had decided to quit bootlegging) and nothing against the present commission.

Frank Wilmot then contended that the police chief did not run the city but that a man named Walter Bayntun did. Wilmot claimed that if anyone got into trouble, he could take $25 to Bayntun and he would never hear of the problem again.

John Manuel next made a charge “that the police, with the knowledge of the police commission, did permit men to own and run places of vice and prostitution for their personal gain within the city.” (1937 February 19, Lethbridge Herald)

These charges were denied by others. For example, Clarence Foley, taxi driver, whose name was brought up during discussion, said he never paid protection money to the police.

The next area the investigation looked into were Chinese lotteries and whether they were allowed to run in the city under police protection.

Mah Suey stated that he had no knowledge of any money being paid by Chinese lotteries to city officials. His information was supported by Quang Yu who said “he knew everything that went on in Chinatown in the city… [and] that no money had been given the police or any single policeman for allowing Chinese lotteries to be run.” (20 February 1937, Lethbridge Herald). Instaed, Quang Yu continued, there was a rake-off from the games and that money was used for providing food, clothes and shelter for those within the Chinese community. These statements were further supported by Lee Wong, who noted that he had lived in Lethbridge for the past 30 years.

The next complainant was James Hayes who felt the police discriminated against him and wouldn’t support him when he tried to evict people from his boarding house. He said the city solicitor told him it wasn’t the police’s role to help him run his business and that they couldn’t evict someone without a warrant. Hayes also said that the police did nothing when he complained about a fire (saying it was the fire department’s responsibility) and when an occurrence at the Standard Café kept his roomers awake (saying he should take it up with the owner of the restaurant).

On February 22 Walter Bayntun and Mary Hupka were before the investigation.

Bayntun was accused of owning a brothe but claimed that he merely owned it and wasn’t responsible for what the renter did there. An interesting exchange occurred between Bayntun and C.F. Harris, counsel for the complainants. Bayntun ‘denied ever paying money to police for protection and maintained that Mr. Harris should know this as ‘you were my attorney for years’. He declared that he had enver been convicted of selling liquor. ‘My opinion is that you are too smart to be convicted,’ commented Mr. Harris. ‘You helped to make me that way,’ was the reply. He denied collecting money form houses of prostitution on the excuse it was to be used to ‘fix the police.’” (23 February 1937 Lethbridge Herald)

Mary Hupka was there because she was the alleged signer of a cheque to Detective Pat Egan. William Kirkwood, Lethbridge Hotel bartender, alleged to have seen a cheque made out by Pat Egan from Mary Hupka. Mary Hupka shared that she couldn’t have signed a cheque as she had no bank account and denied all knowledge of any cheque.

The cheque had been made out to Pegan for $50 and had a memo Paid in full for protection. Egan said he believed the cheque was a joke and had simply locked it in his desk until today’s proceedings.

Alex Johnston of the Police Commission then took the stand. He noted that the commission had full confidence in Chief Nicholls. He said that the police were aware of the Chinese lotteries but, as the money went to support people during the Great Depression, they had turned a blind eye until the lotteries got too large. He also noted that Charles Hansen had given two police officers $20 as presents. But the police had given the money to the chief who had returned the money to Mr. Hansen. Mr. Johnston also noted that they had checked into Mr. Hayes’ concerns and felt the police had acted properly.

By February 26 all evidence had been submitted.

On March 9, Judge Jackson released his report that exonerated city police. The Judge said that Malako’s charged were due to a “violent imagination.” He noted that the police had difficulties with regards to the gambling charges on account of the difficulty in procuring evidence warranting conviction and were doing what they could. Judge Jackson further stated that Mr. Harris had not been able to prove (with regards to the charges related to prostitution) that there was any blame attached to the police or police commission.

Judge Jackson summed it up that he was unable to reveal anything reflecting badly on the police or the police commission and that the investigation had been useful in quieting rumors that had been prevalent in Lethbridge.

The full 20 page report was submitted to Lethbridge City Council.

The photograph shows Sgt. Thomas Nicholls of the Mounted Police who was Lethbridge police chief in 1937 when the investigation was held.