What were the people of Hamilton to think? An unidentified torso had been found on the escarpment near one of the most statuesque waterfalls in the city. A landmark now tarnished, for who could brutalize another human so grotesquely? Who was responsible, and who was the victim?
The March 18, 1946 edition of The Globe and Mail reported the following:
Bloody, Armless Shirt Main Identity Clue in Hamilton Torso Case
‘HAMILTON: March 17 (Staff) — A blood-stained, bullet-pierced shirt today became a No. 1 clue in investigations following the finding of the torso of a well-built man on the Mountain Road to Mount Albion Falls, about seven miles southeast of here on Saturday. The shirt was found by a Civic Works Department employee on a patrol of the Ottawa St. mountain road this morning. Arms of the shirt had been cut off, and there were two holes in the body part of the shirt.
The torso, with two bullet holes in the back, was found by five Hamilton school children on a Saturday morning hike. It was capitated and with arms and legs hacked off at the joints. Long underwear, which covered the torso, had the arms and legs cut off.
Det. Albert Chennery turned the shirt over to Provincial Police and it was sent to Toronto for examination in the laboratory of the criminal investigation branch. The shirt bore a laundry mark which police believed might lead to identification of its former owner.
Coroner Dr. Isaac Crack and Inspector A. R. Knight of the Provincial Police said an autopsy will be held tomorrow by Dr. W. J. Deadman, Hamilton pathologist.
Under a Ledge
The children, Fred Weaver, 9, Robert Weaver, 10, James Weaver, 12, David Reid, 11, Faith Reid, found the body about 30 feet from the top of the mountain brow behind and under a moss-covered ledge. It could not be seen from above, but was easily visible to persons passing along the precipitous wooded slope.
Jim Weaver, oldest of the hiking party, sent one or two of the party up to the road, where they stopped an auto in which a man and woman were passing. The man, whose name was not available, climbed down the slope and, after viewing the torso, told his companion to call the police. This she did from a house some distance away.
Sergt. Carl P. Farrow and Provincial Traffic Officers C.E. Parmenter, Leonard Mattick and Leonard Chambers arrived and, after arrangign to send the body to the city morgue at Hamilton General Hospital, proceeded to search the area for the missing parts of the body or other clothing. This search was continued Saturday afternoon without success.
Until the discovery of the shirt, which was buttoned up and apparently had been pulled off the body after the head and arms had been hacked off, it was believed likely that the actual killing was done perhaps many miles from the Hamilton district and the torso ditched in the lonely spot in what Coroner Dr. Crack describes as “a definite attempt to conceal a crime.” The new development, however, has spurred search of the entire area for the missing head, arms and legs.
Bloody Shirt Identity Clue
Dr. Crack said the dismembering was evidently the work of an experienced person. “The torso was that of a well-developed person who had evidently enjoyed good health,” the coroner added. In his opinion, the body was not thrown from an auto; it must have been carried the 30 to 40 feet from the scenic road which follows the escarpment from Hamilton East the seven miles to Mount Albion Falls, to the edge of the embankment. The position of the torso under the ledge indicated also that it had been placed there in an effort at concealment.
Although Inspector Knight had no official statement to make this evening regarding discovery of the shirt, it is presumed efforts are being made to trace the identity of its owner, evidently the slain man, through laundry marks or other features. It is also expected the shirt will be turned over to the O.P.P. Criminal Investigation Branch at Toronto for scientific tests of blood-stains and other marks.
Speculation on Perri
Meanwhile, speculation continued that the crime was a vengeance-killing of some kind and possibly connected with the disappearance of Rocco Perri, one-time self-styled “King of the Bootleggers,” and three other local men in the past two years. “Your guess is as good as mine,” stated Inspector Knight, when questioned regarding the Perri angle. He reminded, however, that the Italian-born Hamiltonian disappeared almost two years ago in April, 1944.’
The Evelyn Dick Files 