Use of the Army Mine Detector for the Recovery of Bullets
| Date | 01 April 1947 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4702000212 |
| Published date | 01 April 1947 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
in the form of new legislation, new and improved roads and extended
police activities, must soon be made in an effort to reduce our appalling
figures.
The
apathy of the general public is illustrated by the fact that
when 33 people were killed in the Bolton football tragedy a wave of
horror swept over the country.
In
September, 1946, 373 persons were
killed on our roads, yet such tragedies arouse hardly a comment.
The
important point to be brought home to every clear thinking citizen is
that we are all in
this-motorists
and their passengers, cyclists and
pedestrians alike. None can escape his responsibility and each must
play his part if success is to be achieved.
Use of the
Army
Mine Detector for the
Recovery of Bullets
Re murders
of
boys in Winnipeg during 1946 by unknown pervert using
pistol, and recovery
of
bullets
DEAR
SIR,--The Winnipeg City Police, during the past year, have
used an Army mine detector with great success in two murder cases,
which are still unsolved at the moment of writing.
The
Chief Constable
was very impressed with the work of the mine detector in finding
these bullets, which linked the two crimes together conclusively.
Prior to the advent of the Mine Detector it would have been almost
impossible to have recovered these bullets.
The
first murder, on January 4th, that of a thirteen-year-old
schoolboy going home after dark, took place in a large coalyard, covering
about an acre of ground. There was considerable snow in the yard,
quantities of sawdust, and little heaps of coal dust, besides the usual
coal heaps, and pens, mostly full of coal. Several freight cars were
standing in the yard. Using members of the Police Department who
had recently returned from active service, and who had had long war
experience in this work, after three days' search the Police recovered
a bullet, which had gone clean through the fleshy part of the boy's
body.
That
established the fact that the weapon was what is known
as a 9 mm. Browning Auto-loading pistol, made especially for the
Canadian Army during World War
II.
A loaded cartridge of the same
ammunition was alsofound in the heaps of waste, and two empty brass
cartridges.
The
murderer fired a second shot through the boy's brain,
but this particular bullet was not found.
On September rSth another thirteen-year-old boy going home
from a Boy Scouts' Rally was murdered not far from his home. He
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