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Logophobia
When the first policewoman was hired by the city police, the chief issued an order that there was to be no more foul language in reports so as to not offend the woman.A very colorful cop named Sam Donaghey covered a fight outside the Coffee Cup Inn one night...He wrote, observing the chief‘s edict, that the fight began when one combatant told the other “to go and partake of sexual delights with himself.”. Another cop wrote that during a safecracking, the thief had “excruciated” himself on the floor.
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Calling Card
The superintendent of detectives looked angry when I checked in with him one morning...what’s the problem I asked...
This, he exclaimed, pushing one of my “Eddie Keen Journal Reporter” cards across at me...It had been found on top of a safe blown the night before.
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Entrapment
The chief called me in one day, looked very angry... when I inquired, he reached into his desk, and pushed an envelope across..."What’s this you little SOB?” It was a City of Edmonton police dept. envelope. I had used it to send 10 sold Irish Lottery tickets to an address in Montreal...In those day, a round up of lottery ticket sellers was akin to today’s roundup of drug dealers...In fact I had written a story about 231 people charged in one province wide round up of such felons... I had received an envelope at the Journal with the tickets and simply sold them to staff...the chief called in the deputy, what should we do...well I was charged with the crime of illegal sale of lottery tickets...my day in court produce much hilarity except I took it quite seriously..I was fined $10....Years later, Bill Newbigging, who worked with me on the police beat and eventually became publisher of the Journal, was having a drink at the Greenbrier with an RCMP undercover cop.He asked Bill how I had made out on the lottery case.He then revealed I had been set up and mailed the tickets directly to an undercover cop in Montreal.
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