Twisted Tour Guide: Vancouver British Columbia

By Marques Vickers

Avoid The Tourist Herds.

What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades?

This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore...the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery.

Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true.

The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and/or sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events. If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tour Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different.

Historic and Frequently Flawed Personalities:
Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson, Henry Ceperley, Mobster Joe Celona, Police Chief Mulligan, Remorseful Killer Joe Gordon, Actor Errol Flynn, Fred Siebolt Hofman and Hitman Serge Robin,

Architecture With A Distinctive Past:
Marine Building, Hastings Mill Store, Lions Gate Bridge, Stanley Park Seawall, Stanley Park Totem Poles, Green Door Restaurant, Fairacres Mansion, Oakalla Institute, Overlynn Mansion, Sam Kee Building, Alexander Street Brothels, Hycroft Mansion and Henry Abbot Home,

Hospitality and Hauntings
Kelly O’Bryan’s, Old Spaghetti Factory, Waterfront Station, 24 Water Street Building, Penthouse Nightclub, The Landing, Vancouver Rowing Club Grounds, Orpheum Theatre, Vogue Theatre, Fairmont Hotel, UBC Former Library and University Ghost Hitchhiker

Legacies and Notorious Events
Great Fire of 1886, Hiram Scurry Family, SS Beaver Shipwreck, Anti-Asian March, IWW Labor Confrontations, Oakalla Prison Escapes, Komagata Maru, 1918 General Strike, President Warren Harding’s Speaking Tour, Ku Klux Klan Headquarters, Battle of Ballantyne Pier, Bloody Sunday Riots, Zoot Suit Riots, SS Green Hill Explosion, 1971 Smoke-In and Riot, Russian Mob versus Hells Angels, APEC 1997 Protests, Castaway Shoes and Feet and 2009 Gang Wars,

Historical Scandals:
Deadman’s Island, Market Alley, Shanghai Alley, Historic Chinatown, Hogan’s Alley, Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, Professional Football and Hockey Riots, BC Penitentiary Riots, William Bennett, Fantasy Gardens Theme Park, Liberal Love Birds, Bingo-Gate, Vancouver Stock Exchange, PacificCats, Casino Gate, E-Pirate Currency, Corporate House Scandal and BridgeMark Financial.

Infamous Killings and Murder
Customs Officer William Hopkinson, Scottish Nursemaid Janet Smith, Stanley Park Babes in the Woods, Danny Brent, Policeman Gordon Sinclair, Pauls Family Triple Killing, Esther Castellani, Kosberg Family Hatchet Murders, Louis Wise, Unsolved Cold Cases, Kristen Gurholt, Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, Serial Killer Robert Pickton, Jimmy and Lily Ming, Sergey Filonov, Wanda Watson, Gladys Wakabayshi, Roger Daggitt, Sheila Henry, Jillian Fuller, Chantel Gillade, Craig Abrahams, Tara Singh Hayer, Ripudaman Singh Malik, Bindy Johal. Richard Chacon, Surrey Six, Gangster Raymond Chao, Ricky Scarpino, Oakridge Mall Execution, Willene Chong and Vladimir Shevalev.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marques Vickers
• Release date: Aug 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005256357

Marques Vickers

Visual Artist, Writer and Photographer Marques Vickers is a California native presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington regions. He was born in 1957 and raised in Vallejo, California. He is a 1979 Business Administration graduate from Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. Following graduation, he became the Public Relations and ultimately Executive Director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce between 1979-84. He subsequently became the Vice President of Sales for AsTRA Tours and Travel in Westwood between 1984-86. Following a one-year residence in Dijon, France where he studied at the University of Bourgogne, he began Marquis Enterprises in 1987. His company operations have included sports apparel exporting, travel and tour operations, wine brokering, publishing, rare book and collectibles reselling. He has established numerous e-commerce, barter exchange and art websites including MarquesV.com, ArtsInAmerica.com, InsiderSeriesBooks.com, DiscountVintages.com and WineScalper.com. Between 2005-2009, he relocated to the Languedoc region of southern France. He concentrated on his painting and sculptural work while restoring two 19th century stone village residences. His figurative painting, photography and sculptural works have been sold and exhibited internationally since 1986. He re-established his Pacific Coast residence in 2009 and has focused his creative productivity on writing and photography. His published works span a diverse variety of subjects including true crime, international travel, California wines, architecture, history, Southern France, Pacific Coast attractions, fiction, auctions, fine art marketing, poetry, fiction and photojournalism. He has two daughters, Charline and Caroline who presently reside in Europe.

Book preview

TWISTED TOUR GUIDE:

VANCOUVER

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Published by Marques Vickers at Smashwords

Copyright 2022-2023 Marques Vickers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

The Catastrophic Vancouver Fire of 1886

The Curse of the Beaver

Historical Local Paranormal Sightings

Navigating Late Nineteenth Century Racism Against The Black Population

A Literal Description Of A Dormant Island

The Historical Lineage of the Stanley Park Totem Poles

The Green Door Restaurant: The Evolving Hang Out For Dreamers

Bathed in White and Scanning the Horizon

A Vanishing Remnant of Historic Chinatown

Anti-Asian Sentiment and a Violent Eruption

A World Boxing Champion Disdained Unfairly By His Country

Free Speech Orations That Shifted Labor Union Negotiations

A Haunted Treasure Accompanied By A Wife’s Disregarded Instructions

The Chinese Burial Grounds That Spook the Vancouver Rowing Club

A Deplorable Prison Brought Down By Escapes and Riots

An Exquisite Suburban Exclusivity Alternative

Constructing a Lasting International Legacy On A Wager

A Voyage of the Damned Stalled in Coal Harbour

The Revenge For Insider Espionage

Preserving the Vancouver Red-Light District

The Former Cultural Beacon of Hogan’s Alley

The 1918 General Strike: When Local Streets Flowed Red

The Mysterious Death of Scottish Nursemaid Janet K. Smith

Historical Haunting at the University of British Columbia

A Historic American President Visit and Prelude To His Death

Vancouver’s Experiment With The Ku Klux Klan

New Orpheum Theatre: Famed Cross-Dresser and Spiritual Remnants

A Vancouver Public Enemy From An Earlier Gangster Era

The Initial Skyscraper Linking Blueblood Alley with Contemporary High-Rise Affluence

The Battle of Ballantyne Pier: Defining Vancouver’s Labor Union History

Unemployment Riots and the Climatic Bloody Sunday

The Lady in Red and Opulence Sustained

Zoot Suit Riots of 1944 and Forerunner of Student Activism

A Cargo Of Overproof Whisky and Explosive Contents

The Stanley Park Babes in the Woods Murders

A Petty Gangster Meets His Maker and a Higher Level of Corruption

Police Chief Mulligan’s Corruption Inquiry

A Bank Robber and Police Killer’s Lament On His Doomed Lifestyle

Pauls Family Triple Murder and Confusing Motive

A Bridge Construction Disaster Resulting In A Memorial Rename

The Legendary Final Visit and Genitalia of Actor Errol Flynn

Breaking Windows and the Hearts of Vancouver Hockey Fans

Tainted Milkshakes and a Prominent Descent From the Heights

A Family Killing and Redemptive Hiring At Children’s Hospital

Louise Wise’s Murder: Missing Evidence Thwarts A Second Chance Investigation

A 1971 Smoke-In and Ensuing Riot That Shifted Perceptions Regarding Cannabis

An Emerging Poetic Voice Silenced Upon Elevating From the Underbrush

Cold Cases: Conventional Lives Abruptly Severed and Nearly Forgotten

British Columbia Penitentiary: An Absence of Nostalgia Towards A Hellhole

William Richards Bennett: A Teflon Politician Evades A Public Boondoggle

A Cruel Late Night Eviction and Soulless Murder of Kristen Gurholt

The Rising Stardom and Abrupt Killing of Dorothy Stratten

Robert Pickton: The Pig Farming Serial Killer

A Couple’s Kidnapping and Senseless Strangulation

Gang Warfare: Russian Mob Versus Hell Angels: The Price of a Drug Rip-off

Fred Siebolt Hofman: A Deceptive Conman Taints Three Continents

A Heritage Home’s Legacy That Superseded The Murder Inside

A Conflict of Interest Sale That Brought Down A British Columbia Premier

The Seething Rage and Revenge of Jean Ann James Towards Her Husband’s Mistress

Serge Robin: A Cruel Demise For A Hardened Hitman

An Unsolved Beating and Suffocation Death Within Domestic Confines

A Concealing Fire Screening a Heinous Murder

The Liberal Lovebirds and Their Stunted National Ambitions

An Unfortunate Selection Derailing A Vulnerable Lifestyle

Discount Cocaine Trafficking Stimulates a Death Sentence

Bingo-Gate and the Fall of a British Colombia Premier

APEC 1997: The Conflict Between Free Speech and Public Relations

Publishing A Truth At The Expense of Your Life

Bindy Johal: An Unmerited Punjabi Gangster Hero and His Legacy of Violence

Vancouver Stock Exchange: Center of a Scam Universe

PacificCats: The Boats That Wouldn’t Financially Float

Casino-Gate and The Three-Times-You’re Out Party Consequences

Richard Chacon: A Freakish Gunshot Killing After Hours

The Castaway Feet Flowing Along The Strait of Georgia Currents

The Surrey Six Drug Execution

The Week of the Long Knives and Future Full Disclosure

Living At An Accelerated and Illusionary Pace and Dying Messy

A Shopping Mall Killing Lengthening A Vicious Dead End Cycle

An Arsonist’s Chain of Fires and An Incidental Murder

The Gangland Warfare of 2009: A Year of Living Dangerously

Deprived of His Ferrari, Murder Becomes The Next Alternative

The E-Pirate Currency Money Laundering Fiasco

Concealing Offshore Wealth and The Heightening Risks of Exposure

An Insider Stock Tale Resembling A Shell Game

About The Author

SOURCES AND ARCHIVES SOURCED

VancouverSun.com, VancouverPoliceMuseum.ca, The Province Newspaper, Flash Tabloid, Maclean’s Magazine, CBC.ca, Wikipedia.org, Ilwu.org, BCMag.ca, TheCanadianEncyclopedia.ca, BIV.com, WebSleuths.com, VPDColdCases.ca, Karen-Magil.blogspot.com, EveLazarus.com, NationalPost.com, BurnabyNow.com, BurnabyBeacon.com, DailyHive.com, GoDutch.com, PressReader.com, Gastown.org, TimesColonist.com, Facebook.com, RealCombatMedia.com, ForbiddenVancouver.ca, TheTrueCrimeFiles.com, TheCanadianEncyclopedia.ca, OnlineLibrary.Wiley.com, PastTenseVancouver.wordpress.com, Suncruisermedia.com, VancouverIsAwesome.com, HatOnDog.Medium.com, Weedmaps.com, PlacesThatMatter.ca, Libredd.it, AmysCrypt.com, Globalnews.ca, HistoricPlaces.ca, GhostofVancouver.com, 604Now.com, TravelTriangle.com, Straight.com, ABCBookWorld.com, Investopedia.com, TrueCrimeLibrary.com, Cowichanvalleycitizen.com, TheStar.com, InkstoneNews.com, WashingtonPost.com, Biographi.ca, The Notorious Bacon Brothers: Inside Gang Warfare on Vancouver Streets by Jerry Langton, Montreal Gazette, Stockhouse.com, Hell To Pay: Hells Angels vs. The Million-Dollar Rat by Neal Hall, TheCultureTrip.com, Gangstersout.blogspot.com, BC.CTVNews.ca, Shrineodreams.wordpress.com, Britannica.com, Amok.Fandom.com, BCCondosandHomes.com, CanadaHistory.ca and Archive.iww.org

Photography shot during 2022. Some of the locations may have altered with time and ownership changes. Many of the locations are still privately inhabited. Please don’t disturb the residents.

TWISTED TOUR GUIDE TO VANCOUVER

Avoid The Tourist Herds.

What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades?

This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore…the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery.

Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The profiled cast of characters feature saints and sinners (with emphasis towards the latter).

Notorious crimes, murders, accidental deaths, suicides, kidnappings, vice and scandal are captivating human interest tales. Paranormal activity in the aftermath is common.

The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events.

If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tourist Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different. You will never imagine or scrutinize the Vancouver Metropolitan area through rose tinted glasses again.

The Catastrophic Vancouver Fire of 1886

Sections Near Hastings, Cambie and Cordova Streets, Vancouver

Hastings Mill Store, 1575 Alma Street, Vancouver

In approximately 45 minutes, the newly incorporated town of Vancouver was doomed towards destruction. On June 13, 1886, two land clearing fires were set on the eastern and western periphery of the town. The blazes had been preceded by three weeks of abnormally late spring heat. An offshore breeze made conditions ripe for disaster.

The first fire was set on the eastern land set aside for the future western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The second fire began at the west end of the city near the present intersection of Cambie and Cordova Streets. The terrain there was being cleared to enable further city expansion.

The two fires fanned by the dangerous winds converged uncontrollably towards the center of town. The city shoreline added additional peril with sawmills processing logged trees for milling. The ancient cedar, hemlock and douglas fir wood chips created flammable mounds that sometimes reached the height of three-story buildings.

Once both blazes spread out of control, a fire alarm, the bronze bell of St. James Church was rang to alert the populace. The warning was too late for advance escape preparations. The swiftness of the fire prompted terrified residents to hurriedly bundle all their possessions that they could carry down Water Street to flee the encroaching path. Many leaped into the waters of Burrard Inlet with the flames closing fast. Some climbed aboard boats moored at the Hastings Mill Wharf.

An estimated 1,000 buildings were destroyed and only three would remain unharmed. One of the surviving structures was the Hastings Mill Store that was later relocated to Alma Street. Twenty-eight people would officially be recorded as dead. The figure was larger. Some victims were consumed by flames to an unidentifiable state.

In what may seem a climatic rescue movie scenario, communities from the Squamish Nation paddled dozens of canoes from their North Vancouver settlement. They picked up victims floating upon the waters of the Burrard Inlet.

In the aftermath, the damage and wood debris would be cleared and the reconstruction begun almost immediately. Residents camped out in temporary white canvas tents. A relief fund was established to assist the city and one of their first purchases became a fire engine.

Bylaws were immediately passed limiting new construction material to brick or stone. Within six months, over 500 building had been rebuilt. The St. James bronze bell that saved innumerable lives was melted into alloy by the intensity of the flames. It remains on exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver.

The population of Vancouver would expand after the disaster from a few hundred before the fire to 2,000 within a year. Six years later, over 13,000 residents inhabited the city. Today over 2.5 million people live within the metropolitan region.

The Curse of the Beaver

Stanley Park Seawall Under Lion’s Gate Bridge, Vancouver

On July 26, 1888, the S.S. Beaver shipwrecked near the current Stanley Park Seawall below the Lions Gate Bridge. The cause of the ship crashing into the rocks was a combination of the notorious turbulent waters and a reportedly drunken crew. The Beaver had a varied service career being employed during the gold rush and servicing the fur trade. The Royal Navy used the vessel to survey the British Columbia coastline.

During the final years before its wreckage, it was used as a tugboat for the lumber and coal industries. In 1892, the staggering carcass was run into by another ship plunging it to the bottom of the sea.

The cursed location of the original wreckage became a deadly vortex for swimmers during the 1910s. Dozens drowned due to the choppy and icy waters into the depths below. There remain reports that on frigid, foggy nights, the S.S. Beaver lingers as a manned silhouetted shadow tempting fresh casualties.

Historical Local Paranormal Sightings

Kelly O’Bryan’s Restaurant, 800 Columbia Street, New Westminster

Old Spaghetti Factory, 53 Water Street, Vancouver

Waterfront Station, 601 West Cordova Street, Vancouver

24-28 Water Street Building, 24 Water Street, Vancouver

Penthouse Nightclub, 1019 Seymour Street, Vancouver

Spiritual apparitions and paranormal activity often evolve into normal and accepted occurrences within older buildings. Historical traumas tend to provide circumstantial motivation for haunting. The most reliable witnesses towards unexplained presences are often residents, employees and/or individuals spending extensive time inside. Their narratives may sometimes stretch believability, but a frequency and diversity of sources cannot be casually dismissed.

Within the Vancouver Metropolitan area, multiple eyewitnesses have identified haunted buildings. They include:

Kelly O’Bryan’s Restaurant

A former railroad station constructed in 1893, the building formerly housed the popular Keg Steakhouse for four decades. The current owner of Kelly’s, Reg Henry, worked at the Keg during the 1970s while a student at the University of British Columbia. Reported ghost gatherings and disembodied voices have been overheard in the basement. None of the overheard spiritual conversations have been credited with providing fortuitous advice for the horse racing circuit or winning lottery number picks.

Old Spaghetti Factory

Once you’ve acclimated yourself to the Victorian brothel decor, supernatural acceptance from an earlier era becomes elemental. The building was constructed in 1912 and was formerly called the Malkin Warehouse. The business specialized in the wholesale grocery trade. Proprietor William Harold Malkin was the mayor of Vancouver during the Great Depression, a stressful era of local history.

The most consistent sighting inside has been a blonde little boy wearing blue overalls crouching under one of the booths with his arms around his knees. His forte has become identified as shifting chairs, books and cutlery. He is kept periodic company by a tram conductor, another boy who bends cutlery and a girl with a balloon.

Waterfront Station

Sprits cannot subsist on restaurant haunting alone. Waterfront Station was built by the Pacific Railway in 1915. Thousands have passed through its portals and a few have made the station their permanent habitation. Commuters and travelers have attested to viewing numerous spirit forms wandering the halls. Fortunately the lost souls are no longer obliged to meet pressing time deadlines demanded by train schedules.

Station security guards are the most documented source of observing the loitering souls. One steadfastly claimed in print to have witnessed a woman who was robed in a red flapper style dress dancing alone to jazz on the building’s west side. Another guard viewed a woman glowing in phosphorus white.

The first sighting vanished when approached. The second woman reached out towards the guard in desperation. The guard fled.

Additional security guard related tales include a haunted station kitchen, mysterious