John Stolarski’s Old Newspaper Clippings

With the exception of his first two years in the Force, John Stolarski spent his entire career as a RCMP Police Dog Services handler (1961 – 1988).

Throughout this career, John clipped newspaper articles about members who he had worked with.

Despite the fact that John has passed away, his family has agreed for us to re-post these articles for the interest of RCMP Veterans and current members of the Force.

AFTER 29 YEARS WITH RCMP, STAFF SERGEANT SAYS CROOKS AREN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE

photograph of RCMP Staff Sergeant Stewart Hemingway (Reg.#12514). 

Crooks just aren’t what they used to be, according to Staff Sgt. Stewart Churchill Wilson Hemingway (Reg.#12514), who will have completed 29 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan on Nov. 28 when he will retire.

In an interview Friday afternoon, he said that before the anti-safe blowing patrol was initiated in 1941, safe-blowers ‘took pride in their work.  They weren’t hoods, they realized the police had a job to do and they respected us.  We had a mutual understanding.’

The criminal of today had changed, Staff Sgt. Hemingway said, “Now they are sullen, they can’t even live with themselves.”

In 1941, an anti-safe blowing patrol was introduced in the three prairie provinces.  It was the first time the RCMP had made a concentrated effort to stop safe blowing.

Four men and two cars at each sub-division were used solely for patrol purposes.  The men were given special courses in Regina and their jobs were to educate merchants in the use of alarm systems and to keep serial numbers of money.  It was also their job to prevent safe-blowing and when it did occur to catch the crook.

Staff Sgt. Hemingway said that a professional crook could blow a safe open with nitro-glycerin, or “soup,” so perfectly that only the safe door would swing open.

Regina Riot

In 1934, Staff. Sgt. Hemingway joined the RCMP in Regina and trained there for a year.  He said he was still there in 1935 when the Regina riot took place.

Men without jobs and transients began a march on Ottawa, starting in Vancouver. They gained numbers along the way and by the time they reached Regina they were about 2,000 strong.

The RCMP was ordered to dispel them and when they gathered in mobs in downtown Regina, tear gas was used.

Staff Sgt. Hemingway commented, “with the old-fashioned tear gas, we got just as much or more than they did.”

Following his training, the staff sergeant worked on detachments all over the province, including North Battleford, Biggar, Yorktown and other points.

With CID

Staff Sgt. Hemingway was an RCMP plain clothes man from 1941 to 1944.  They were known as CID men and they knew every crook in Western Canada.

In those days the police knew each other personally and had close contact with each other.  It had to be that way in any organization to get good jobs done, he said.

The anti-safe blowing patrol proved so effective that in 1942 the RCMP closed it up because there weren’t any safe-blowers left in the prairie provinces.

The two ‘best men in the business‘ Staff Sgt. Hemingway worked under were Staff Sgt. E.H. Hermann and Sgt. D.J. McComb.

The retiring RCMP officer described Staff Sgt. Hermann as “a real gentleman and a real investigator.”

Sgt. McCombe (Reg.#10294) was in charge of the Melville detachment, the first town the RCMP ever took over under contract.  This was in August 1937.

Those “two outstanding men” taught Staff Sgt. Hemingway much off what he knows today.

After working in Regina, Melfort, and Prince Albert, Staff Sgt. Hemingway was transferred to Saskatoon in 1957.  In 1959 he was promoted to his present rank.

He described the RCMP as “second to none in the world.”

In speaking of criminals and sentences, Staff Sgt. Hemingway said he advocated the Gilbert and Sullivan quote, “The punishment must fit the crime.”  He said when softness became prevalent, then crime was encouraged.

A murder case he worked on himself was that of Fred and Rodney Montgomery, who were convicted of killing Walter Bridges, bank manager, at Blind River, Ont.

A Delisle man tipped off Saskatoon RCMP that two men were working at Delisle who could possibly be the two murderers.  The man was given $2,500 reward because the tip paid off.  Staff Sgt. Hemingway and two other officers went out and caught the father and son slayers about 5 o’clock in the morning.

Staff Sgt. Hemingway lives at 1101 St. Paul’s Place with his wife, Dorothy, and three daughters and a son.  His fourth daughter is married.

He said he plans to take a trip, go hunting and fishing, and sit on his porch and “watch the cars go by.”

NOTE: S/Sgt. Hemingway was one of the seven RCMP members to first serve in the first RCMP municipal detachment – Melfort Detachment.  He retired from the Force on May 23, 1964 and died in a motor vehicle accident on July 29, 1970 in Penticton, BC.

NEW NCO HAS LONG SERVICE

Photograph of RCMP Staff Sergeant Francis O’Donnell (Reg.#14065).

Staff Sergeant Francis Wallace O’Donnell (Reg.#14065), now in his 23rd year of service with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, has been appointed Saskatoon RCMP subdivision non-commissioned officer second in command of the subdivision.

S/Sgt. O’Donnell, patrol sergeant with the subdivision for the last two years, took over duties of the NCO at the end of November from S.C.W. Hemingway, who retired after completion of 29 years service with the Force.  S/Sgt. O’Donnell was promoted at the beginning of November.

He joined the RCMP in Alberta 22 years ago, and spent most of his years with the force in Saskatchewan.

Before his transfer to Saskatoon, he spent two years as NCO ic charge of the Prince Albert detachment, and also worked in other areas of the Prince Albert subdivision for a number of years prior to that appointment.

S/Sgt. O’Donnell is marred and has three children.

NOTE: S/Sgt. O’Donnell retired from the Force on November 24, 1970 with his last posting being Prince Albert.  He passed away on December 13, 1989.  His son Allan O’Donnell (Reg.#31236) also joined the Force on March 4, 1974 and who would later be commissioned.

POLICE LEADER DEAD IN OFFICE

April 6, 1963 – KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – Cpl. Kenneth Tully Frederick Parker( Reg.#14603), 38, head of the RCMP detachment here, was found shot to death behind his locked office door here Saturday night. Foul play is not suspected.

RCMP officials said they thought the shooting was an accident.  Parker was a native of High River, Alta.

RCMP DEATH RULED MISHAP

Photograph of Cst. Kenneth Kornelson (Source: RCMP Quarterly))

Regina – A coroner’s jury Thursday night attached no blame in the swimming pool electrocution of an RCMP recruit but recommended action could be taken to avoid a similar occurrence.

Const. Kenneth G. Kornelson (Reg.#23837), 21, of Deroche, B.C., a recruit training at the RCMP barracks in Regina, was electrocuted in the barracks’ pool May 17.

The jury ruled the electrocution came as a result of a defective underwater floodlight.

“We recommend that the metal floodlight shield be replaced with fibreglass or another similar substance,” the jury said.

NOTE: You can read more about this incident here.