Excerpt from Sensational Vancouver
When I write a history book there’s always one character that really captures my attention. In At Home with History it was Alvo von Alvensleben. In Sensational Victoria it was Spoony Sundher, and in Sensational Vancouver, it’s Vancouver City Police Detective Joe Ricci—a kick-arse cop from the old school. I got to know Joe really well through his daughter who lives in the home he built in 1922, through the boxes of newspaper clippings, letters and photos that she saved, and from the testimony he gave at the Lennie Commission—one of the many inquiries into police corruption that took place last century.
Joe was the first Italian to join the force. He was hired in 1912 because of his contacts within the close knit Italian community, his knowledge of the Black Hand (a sort of early version of the Mafia) and his ability, often with his partner Donald Sinclair, to bring in the bad guys. Ricci and Sinclair were on the scene at the 1917 shoot-out in Strathcona when Police Chief Malcolm Maclennan was murdered with a shotgun blast to the face.
Those were the days when police didn’t worry too much about procedure, warrants and other legal niceties. In fact, more often than not Ricci and Sinclair took to opium dens with axes, fired their service weapons at fleeing bad guys and brought in the evidence – whether it was illegal stills during Prohibition or millions of dollars worth of drugs squirreled away in the secret compartments of buildings.
A few years after he left the police force, Joe opened up a club right next door to the station. Everyone was welcome from Joe Celona, King of the bawdy houses to Angelo Branca Supreme Court judge to Jack Webster, reporter, as well as any cop who wanted a drink. He told a newspaper reporter at the time that he no longer had any interest in chasing bad guys. “I’ve had a bellyful of police work and criminals,” he said. “The crooks are too dumb today to make it worthwhile.”
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