Bootleggers, Car Chases and Safecrackers – Second of a 3-part series

September 2, 2021

Part One: Policing the Frontier

This article was done in partnership with the Lac du Bonnet & District Historical Society. It appeared in the September 2, 2021 edition of the Lac du Bonnet Clipper. 

The presence of Mounties and provincial police in Lac du Bonnet forced crime into remote territories, conducted in secret and with some sophistication. Prohibition, implemented in 1916, kept police busy, searching for makers of bootleg liquor even after prohibition ended in Manitoba by 1921.

On December 31, 1928, Sgt. Nicholson, RCMP from Lac du Bonnet, and Constable Watson, MPP out of Beausejour, raided a Molson property in search of an illicit still operation. Sgt. Nicholson was killed during the raid, resulting in a “large posse of mounted and provincial police” arriving in Molson to apprehend the suspect, found hiding in a neighbour’s cellar.

On April 1, 1932, the RCMP absorbed the MPP province wide. Those MPP members who chose to stay were retained at their previous detachments. Duties were unchanged, with the officers continuing to suspect a still operating in the vicinity of Lac du Bonnet, supplying Winnipeg bootleggers.

In July 1934, Constable Stuart, of Lac du Bonnet, and Constable Watson, of Beausejour, walked four miles of muskeg to raid a “fully equipped distillery concealed in the Julius bog, a few miles east of Molson.” Six men, who had carefully covered their movements, were arrested on site and charged. This was “one of the largest stills ever seized” in Manitoba. It required six trucks to transport the tanks, steam boiler, surplus ingredients and mash to Winnipeg.

Throughout the 1930s, the RCMP rented a 7-room house on Lake Avenue, which served as detachment quarters for the one or two members. In 1935, they acquired their first motor car.

By August, while Constable John Batza was on patrol, three boys from the relief camp stole the police car. Constable Batza commandeered a car and driver, pursuing them across the river and into the bush to the North. After twenty miles, Constable Batza tried and failed to board his car, sustaining minor injuries. He later discovered his car crashed into some stumps, though in “working order.” He kept watch on the roadside overnight, then waited at the Winnipeg River bridge the next morning. By noon, he arrested the boys when they tried to cross back to Lac du Bonnet.

In the summer of 1945, the RCMP occupied space over the Red and White store on Park Avenue, before renting detachment quarters at 174 Lake Avenue in October. Their numbers continued to fluctuate between one and two members through 1950.

In December 1953, RCMP investigated two break-ins made by expert safecrackers at the new Hudson’s Bay Co. store. On December 13, the thieves pushed open the back door and used a sledgehammer to chip away at the concrete base of the 600-pound safe, stealing $5,000. Two weeks later, the thieves returned, blowing the door off the new safe with homemade nitroglycerine, grabbing $250. By March 1954, the “safe gang” had robbed ten premises within short drives of Winnipeg, all a week apart. It seems they were never caught.

With the village and surrounding areas connected by road, the Lac du Bonnet RCMP began expanding their patrol borders to cover more territory.

References:

Mark Gaillard, RCMP Historian with the RCMP Heritage Branch

RCMP Archived Annual Reports
https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/lbrr/ctlg/dtls-en.aspx?d=PS&i=42936948

Town of Lac du Bonnet Archives, Plan 3309; Plan 5386

Patrick Madden, Sgt. (RCMP Retired), FRCGS

“Popular Mounted Police Officer Killed in Raid.” Brandon Daily Sun, January 2, 1929.

“Huge Still and 12,000 Gallons of Brew Seized.” Winnipeg Tribune, July 11, 1934.

“Wild Chase and Night Vigil Ends in Boys’ Arrest.” Winnipeg Free Press, August 5, 1935.

“New Buildings, New Businesses, Better Services.” Springfield Leader (Lac du Bonnet, MB), October 2, 1945.

“Burglars Active in Lac du Bonnet During Weekend.” Springfield Leader, December 15, 1953.

“Yeggs Crack Lac du Bonnet Safe 2^nd Time.” Winnipeg Free Press, December 28, 1953.

“Two Weeks, Two Robberies.” Winnipeg Tribune, December 28, 1953.

“Lac du Bonnet HBC Store Lost $250 to Yeggs.” Winnipeg Free Press, December 29, 1953.

“Manitoba Yeggs Get Big Hauls.” Winnipeg Free Press, February 22, 1954.

“Safe Gang’s Last Spree Cost $1,544.” Winnipeg Free Press, March 1, 1954.

“A Brief History of the RCMP in LdB.” Springfield Leader (Lac du Bonnet, MB), March 27, 1973.