Danny Brent’s body was found on the tenth green at UBC’s golf course on September 15, 1954. An early edition of the newspaper was stuffed inside his shirt soaked with his blood. There was a half-smoked cigarette inside his shirt where it had dropped from his mouth when he was shot—once in the back and twice in the head with .45-calibre bullets.
This podcast episode is based on original research conducted for my book Cold Case Vancouver: the city’s most baffling unsolved murders
First Gangland Hit:
Danny Brent’s murder was the city’s first gangland hit and it caused a sensation in the press. There was an assortment of sketchy characters—two ex-wives, rumours of a married girlfriend, and a Chicago-based drug syndicate. There were the hired killers from out of town, the attempted murders of two other Vancouver drug lords, and a role for police chief Walter Mulligan, who would be kicked off the force the following year.
On the night of his murder, Danny, 42 had finished his shift at the Press Club, and headed over to the Mayling Supper Club in Chinatown. He parked his red 1950 Meteor convertible—in the parking lot at the back of the building. A witness said he saw Danny leave with a woman and two men through the back door.
Police think Danny slid behind the wheel of his car, lit up a cigarette, and was shot in the back by one of the men. The first bullet pierced his spine at a downward angle and then tore a hole in his liver before it came out his navel. Dr T.R. Harmon, the pathologist, said he could have lived up to half-an-hour.
Drugs found in locker:
Four days after his murder, police opened a locker in the Vancouver Bus Depot and found 30 ounces of heroin with a street value of $175,000. It was quickly apparent that there was more to Danny than a waiter. Either he was killed by a gang trying to take over the heroin industry or murdered by a hit team for an outstanding drug debt.
SHOW NOTES
Sponsor: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours
Intro: Mark Dunn
Music: Andreas Schuld – ‘Waiting for You’
Guest: George Garrett, author of George Garrett Intrepid Reporter
Promo: Blood, Sweat and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance
Post-production: McBride Communications and Media
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