Vancouver history

Murder by Milkshake Part 1

by Eve Lazarus on September 24, 2021

In 1965, Rene Castellani, a 40-year-old radio personality decided to murder his wife Esther with arsenic-laced milkshakes so could marry Lolly, CKNW’s 25-year-old receptionist. The couple had an 11-year-old daughter called Jeannine, who became the collateral damage in one of the most sensational murder cases of the 20th century.

This podcast episode is based on my book Murder by Milkshake: an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic and a charismatic killer

Audio clips from CKNW’s Owl Prowl, 1961.

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Tags 2092 West 42nd Street, CKNW, Debbie Miller, Don Miller, Esther Castellani, Jeannine Castellani, murder by milkshake, Rene Castellani, Vancouver Police Museum and Archives

Remembering Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 3

by Eve Lazarus on September 17, 2021

On April 28, 1947, Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 3 took off from Lethbridge, Alberta on a routine flight to Vancouver. It never arrived.

Rice Lake:

A couple of Sundays ago, my friend Virginia and I went for a walk around North Vancouver’s Rice Lake. We stopped to pay our respects at the two boulders near the entrance.

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Tags A.A. Stewart, Anatasia Lesiuk, Captain W.G. Pike, Cecil Nugent, Clarence Reaper, David Vance, Helen Saisbury, James Hugh Woolf, Jane Warren, Lance Millor, Margaret Hamblin, Margaret Trerise, Marjorie Nugent, Trans-Canada Airlines, Victor Armand, W. Robson

The PNE Prize Home: Party Like it’s 1957!

by Eve Lazarus on September 4, 2021

In 1957, the PNE prize home, at 1,444 square feet, was one and a half times the size of a normal house.

Story from: Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the city’s hidden history

1957:

In 1957, things were a lot less complicated. People went out to movies and drank Nescafe in the kitchen.

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Tags 6517 Lougheed Highway Burnaby, Pacific National Exhibition, PNE Prize Home

Ten Things You Won’t See at the PNE This Year

by Eve Lazarus on August 21, 2021

The first PNE was in 1910, and, not surprising, a lot of things have changed since then. Some things will be missed and others not so much. Here are 10 things you won’t be seeing this year.

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

1. A brill trolley bus

Unless it’s taken out of a transit museum, you won’t be taking a brill trolley bus to the fair.

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The Man who Blew up the Courthouse Lion

by Eve Lazarus on August 6, 2021

It’s been nearly 75 years, but I’m confident that the mystery of who blew up one of the courthouse lions in 1942 has now been solved. No one will be charged for this crime, but it’s thanks to a reader—we’ll call him Dave. It was his grandfather who made a bang loud enough that Vancouverites thought the Japanese were invading the city.

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Tags Carl Schmidt, Devonshire Apartment Hotel, Georgia Hotel, Hotel Vancouver, Inspector JFCB Vance, Vancouver Courthouse, Vancouver Police Department

Russian Freighter Collides with BC Ferry

by Eve Lazarus on July 24, 2021

On August 2, 1970 three people died when Russian freighter Sergey Yesenin collided with BC ferry the Queen of Victoria in Active Pass. The freighter’s steel bow sliced through the ferry almost cutting it in half.

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

Active Pass:

One of the highlights of taking a BC Ferry from Vancouver to Victoria is Active Pass, that narrow channel of water that runs through the Gulf Islands.

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Tags Active Pass, Ann Hammond, Captain James Pollock, David G Crabbe, Peter Hammond, Queen of Victoria, Sergey Yesenin, Sheila Mae Taylor

Fraser Wilson and the (mostly) Working Man’s Mural

by Eve Lazarus on July 10, 2021

Looking at the outside of the plain two-storey building at Victoria Drive and Truimph Street, you’d never guess that Fraser Wilson’s mural runs the full length of a 25-metre wall. The building is the home of the Maritime Labour Centre, and Fraser Wilson painted the mural in 1947.

Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

Cartoonist:

Wilson was a bit of a rabble rouser.

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Tags 339 West Pender Street, BC Labour Heritage, Boilermakers Hall, Fraser Wilson, Maritime Labour Centre, Newspaper Guild, Pender Auditorium, Vancouver Sun

The Evolution of Devonian Harbour Park

by Eve Lazarus on June 26, 2021

The name of the 11-acre green space at the entrance to Stanley Park known as Devonian Harbour Park has nothing to do with its indigenous history, the land’s connection to the Kanakas, the buildings that once dotted its landscape or Vancouver. The park was named after the Calgary-based Devonian Group of Charitable Foundations which forked over $600,000 to develop the site to its present look in 1983.

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Tags Bruce Stewart, Denman Arena, Denman Auditorium, Devonian Harbour Park, Kanakas, Mayor Tom Campbell, Stanley Park, Stuart Building, Vancouver Exposed

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