1914-10-07uu

“Andrew Richardson, aged 25 years, and a resident of Guelph, was murdered shortly after 7 o’clock last night, at the Bethel Mission. Five minutes later, Thomas Brown, a man of about 30 years, who was a boarder at the mission, while holding a bloody razor in his hands, was arrested and locked up in the Central police station, which is immediately opposite the Bethel, charged with having committed the crime.”

Hamilton Spectator.    October 7, 1914.

The vicinity of King William and Mary streets in downtown Hamilton was an area where something criminal was happening, or being taken care of. With the city’s main police station on one side of the side, and one of the city’s largest homeless shelters on the other side, it did not take constables very long to arrive when they were needed. Disturbances at the shelter, the Bethel Mission, were not uncommon, but the events of October 6, 1914 were notable as a death resulted.

As told to the Spectator reporter by eye-witnesses and by the police, two men got into a heated dispute over the ownership of a cigarette :

“Both men, it was stated, had been drinking, and when the row started in the men’s sitting room downstairs, several of the boarders present. No special effort was made to stop the trouble as it was not regarded as serious, until, it is alleged, Brown suddenly drew a razor from his pocket and, without a moment’s warning, drew its sharp blade across the back of Richardson’s neck, nearly severing his head from his body.”¹

¹ “Cigaret Cause of a Bloody Murder : Andrew Richardson’s Throat Cut During a Fight at Bethel Mission”

Hamilton Spectator.  October 7, 1914.

Mr. L. Danilels, proprietor of the Bethel Mission, arrived just as Richardson’s body hit the floor. With the assistance of some of the boarders, Richardson was carried across the street into the police station. Although Dr. Hopkins had been summoned, Richardson was dead, having bled to death within minutes of arriving at the police station. As soon as Richardson had been pronounced deceased, Hamilton Police Constable Green went to the mission where he placed Brown under arrest.

Andrew Richardson was not a Hamiltonian and had only been at the Bethe Mission a couple of hours, having walked into the city from Stoney Creek. On the hand, Thomas Brown was well-known to Hamilton police, having been placed in arrest frequently for vagrancy. He had been considered more of a nuisance, than a potentially violent offender.

At a brief appearance at police court where he was indicted for murder, the Spectator reporter noted that “the charge appeared to worry Brown but little, and policemen on station duty said he slept most of the night, and refused to discuss the crime.

“Once when Constable Green entered his cell with a drink of water, Brown mumbled, ‘Is he dead?’ The constable replied in the affirmative and Brown turned over on the wooden cot and prepared to sleep again.”¹

(To Be Continued)