Podcast: Blood, Sweat and Fear

Walter Pavlukoff stepped out of his hotel room on August 25, 1947 and joined the PNE parade. Then he robbed a bank and murdered the manager.    PNE Parade On August 25, 1947, 34-year-old Walter Pavlukoff stepped out of his hotel room on East Cordova Street in Vancouver with a luger automatic pistol in his… Continue reading Episode 11: Walter Pavlukoff: Manhunt

On March 9, 1947, Inspector Vance of the Vancouver Police Department was called to an apartment in Kitsilano, Vancouver to check out the suspicious death of Ruth Cooperman. The 17-year-old was found naked and lying dead across her husband’s unconscious body. Jack Cooperman, Ruth’s 27-year-old husband, had been rushed to Vancouver General Hospital, and police… Continue reading Episode 10: Ruth Cooperman and the Love Drug

On February 26, 1947 Vancouver Police officers Charles Boyes and Oliver Ledingham were murdered in a shootout at False Creek Flats. This story is from Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance Fats Robertson: On February 26, 1947, three teenagers planned to rob the Royal Bank at Renfrew and First Avenue in East Vancouver.… Continue reading Episode 09: Shootout at False Creek Flats

In the early hours of May 2, 1945, 23-year-old Olga Hawryluk was found beaten to death and dumped in the waters of English Bay. A soldier was charged with her murder and defended by scrappy East End lawyer Angelo Branca. Blood, Sweat, and Fear’s Inspector Vance handled the forensics. This episode includes an interview with… Continue reading Episode 08: The English Bay Murder

Inspector Vance is called to a crime scene at Merritt, B.C. in 1934. Two police officers are missing, believed murdered and the investigation focuses in on an abandoned Model B Ford and members of the Canford Indian band. The stories for this first series are from my book  Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector… Continue reading Episode 07: Murder at the Canford Indian Reserve

Sidney Colbourne lived in Oak Bay, Victoria, and frequently beat up his wife Vera and their five-year-old daughter. One night, the gun that Sid bought to keep Vera in line, went off and shot him in the head. It was 1938. Vera was put on trial for murder, and Inspector Vance was called in to… Continue reading Episode 06: The Widow

In 1936, Doris Gravlin’s strangled corpse was found on the 7th fairway of the Victoria Golf Course. People soon started reporting sightings of the April ghost. According to local legend, if a couple saw her, they would immediately break up, and her ghost wouldn’t leave until her son was told the truth about her murder.… Continue reading Episode 05: The April Ghost

By the 1930s, Inspector Vance had become a familiar face at crime scenes and was often called to testify in court because of his knowledge of forensics. In fact, his skills and analytic abilities were so effective that in 1934 there were seven attempts on his life—including a car bomb—and for a time he and… Continue reading Episode 04: Lay Off or We’ll Bump You Off

 On April 13, 1933, 19-year-old Stewart Ashley went to work out at the YMCA in downtown Vancouver. He didn’t come home. A short time later, a ransom note arrived. It said: “Get $5,000 by April 20 or your son will die.” The stories for this first series are from my book  Blood, Sweat, and Fear:… Continue reading Episode 03: The Suspicious Death of Stewart Ashley

The murder of Naokichi Watanabe in 1931 exposed an insurance scam, the murder of up to 20 people, a Japanese hitman, and was eventually linked to an assassination ring operating out of a house on East Cordova Street, Vancouver. The stories for this first series are from my book  Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of… Continue reading Episode 02: The Murder Factory

 The first time Inspector Vance was called to work on a police investigation was when Clara Millard went missing from her West End home in 1914. Charles and Clara Millard lived in Vancouver’s West End with their 16-year-old Chinese houseboy, Jack Kong. Charles who was an executive with the Canadian Pacific Railway, was away… Continue reading Episode 01: The Mysterious disappearance of Clara Millard