Every Place Has a Story

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Inspector John Vance

Episode 10: Ruth Cooperman and the Love Drug

by Eve Lazarus on July 19, 2019
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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 were told that his condition was critical. If he did survive, it would be several days before they would be able to interview him.

Crime scene photo. VPD, 1947
Murder or suicide?

At first it looked like a case of severe poisoning. Ruth had baked a cake to celebrate their eight months of marriage, and Vance collected the food, the vomit stained pillow and bedsheet, a bottle of Imperial single malt, a box of Luxury chocolates, and several other items to test back at the lab. When Vance saw that all six chocolates had their bases pushed in, he suspected drugs might be involved.

Ruth and Jack Cooperman’s apartment 1825 West 4th. Eve Lazarus photo, 2017
Poisoned:

Vance began to test for and then eliminate dozens of different drugs and poisons until he could determine cause of death. He discovered that Ruth’s stomach contents and the vomit on the pillow contained Cantharides.

Province, March 10, 1947

She died from an overdose of the drug known on the street as “Spanish Fly.”

Courtesy Tom Carter

Logo Image: Ruth Cooperman’s wedding photo, Vancouver Sun

 Credits:

  • Intro and outro music: Duke Ellington’s St. Louie Toodle
  • Tom Carter
  • Intro: Mark Dunn
  • Words of Jack Cooperman voiced by Matthew Dunn
  • Background track created by Nico Vettese
  • Outro: Audionetwork.com

Sources:

 

Episode 03: The Suspicious Death of Stewart Ashley

by Eve Lazarus on April 12, 2019
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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: The Story of Inspector Vance (Eve Lazarus, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017).  Vance was one of the first forensic scientists in North America, and during his 42-year-career, helped to solve some of the most sensational murders of the 20th Century. Each episode focuses on one of those cases.

Stewart Ashley, 19. Vancouver Sun, April 24,1933

Music Credits:

  • Intro and outro: Duke Ellington’s St. Louie Toodle
  • Background track created by Nico Vettese www.wetalkofdreams.com
  • Voice overs: Mark Dunn

Sources:    Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver’s First Forensic Investigator, by Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017).

Primary source material: Vancouver Sun, Province, Vancouver News Herald, The World; Inquest into the death of Stewart Ashley; and the personal files of Inspector John F.C.B. Vance.

 

 

Blood, Sweat, and Fear: A True Crime Podcast

by Eve Lazarus on March 30, 2019
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I’ve been working on a true crime/history podcast for the last couple of months based on my book Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver’s First Forensic Investigator. My original thought was that it would be a great way to reuse some of the research I do for my books, and it is, but it’s become a bit of an obsession, and I plan to do a future series on Cold Case Vancouver, where I can weave in many of the interviews that I conducted with family, friends, and law enforcement over the years.

Vance in his lab, now the Vancouver Police Museum and Archives building on East Cordova Street.

The learning curve is huge and my podcasts are a work in progress. I’m learning to write for the ear, and I’ve spent dozens of hours watching YouTube videos to teach myself Audacity, the free audio software program, so I can produce the show myself.

12-episodes:

There will be 12 episodes in this first series, published every second Friday. Each one follows a major crime that Vance helped to solve using cutting-edge forensics during his 42-year-career.

Vance’s exploits frequently appeared in “true crime” detective magazines

I’ve tried to show how the social forces of the time impacted the crime. For instance, Vance’s work took him all around the province and up into the Yukon in what is one of the most interesting periods in British Columbia’s history. Vance started work for the city of Vancouver in 1907, four months before anti-Asian riots swept through the city. He worked through the crime-ridden Depression and two world wars, and he was employed by two of the most corrupt police chiefs in the history of the Vancouver Police Department.

Vance’s work turned him into a celebrity, and he became known as the Sherlock Holmes of Canada in the  press.

Much of the information came from the Vancouver Sun, Province, Vancouver News Herald, and the World. Most of the quotes are from Coroner’s Inquests, but the bulk of the information (including the clippings shown in the post)  came from the personal files of Inspector John F.C.B. Vance that were discovered in a garage on Gabriola Island by one of Vance’s grandchildren when I was doing the research for the book in 2016.

The first episode: The Mysterious Disappearance of Clara Millard, takes place in Vancouver in 1914.

 

 

Episode 01: The Mysterious disappearance of Clara Millard

by Eve Lazarus on March 21, 2019
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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 on business in Victoria, and when he returned home his wife Clara was gone.

Vance determined that the blood found in the house was human, and it quickly transpired that on the morning Clara disappeared, Jack got up and made porridge for Clara Millard. Then he killed her, hacked up her body, and burned it in the furnace.

So, why wasn’t he charged with murder?

A sketch artist’s impression of Jack Kong, 16 on trial for murder. Daily Province, May 21, 1914

The stories for this first series are from my book  Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance (Eve Lazarus, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017).  Vance was one of the first forensic scientists in North America, and during his 42-year-career, helped to solve some of the most sensational murders of the 20th Century. Each episode focuses on one of those cases.

Credits:

  • Intro and outro music: Duke Ellington’s St. Louie Toodle
  • Background track created by Nico Vettese www.wetalkofdreams.com
  • Intro and voice overs: Mark Dunn

Thank you to my first listeners for their feedback and support:

  • Mark Dunn
  • Tom Carter
  • Bill Amos
  • Amy Erb

Primary source material:  Vancouver Sun, Province, Vancouver News Herald, The World; Inquest into the death of Clara Millard; and the personal files of Inspector John F.C.B. Vance.

 

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