Police Chief McKinnon's Absence (Part 2) - January 1895

The Hamilton Herald was quick to have an editorial published concerning the Hamilton Police Chief, his absence from duty without leave and his appearance at a Toronto hotel with two ladies:

“If the report  sent out from Toronto regarding the conduct of Hugh McKinnon in Toronto is true, it is quite impossible that Mr. McKinnon should continue to fill the position of Chief of Police of Hamilton.

“We say this with regret, for he is a courteous, obliging, and, in many respects a painstaking and competent official.”¹

¹ “The Chief of Police”

Hamilton Herald.   January 09, 1895.

While the Herald admitted that purely in terms of his work as police chief, Hugh McKinnon was a good man to head the Hamilton force, nevertheless anyone in that position, the Herald editor thought, should “show at least a surface regard for the proprieties of life.’ :

“It is not asked or expected of any chief of police that he shall shut himself up in a case and spend his spare moment s reading Thomas a_Kempis, but the people have a right to demand that he shall conduct himself with proper regard  for the dignity and importance of the position.

“That his name should be publicly associated with a vulgar carousel in which the familiar ingredients of wine and women are generously mixed, is an offence to public morals and public decency that cannot be overlooked, unless he can show, beyond all question of doubt,  that a mistake has been made and that he is guitless.”¹

The editorial then pointed out that the Police Commissioners were about to meet, and suggested that all that could be done, at the moment, was suspend the chief for an unaccountable absence from duty. He should not be further penalized until he had a chance to account for himself

While the Herald was willing to wait until the chief returned to Hamilton and explained his actions, it did so only grudgingly, noting that “if people will do foolish things, they have only themselves to blame if the consequences are unpleasant.”¹

The day after the sensational revelation about the police chief and his lady friends became known, Hamiltonian tongues were wagging incessantly about the matter :

“No subject, since the municipal elections, has been so much talked about as the disappearance of Chief McKinnon and his adventures in Toronto. At every turn persons could be heard discussing the matter and wondering how the escapade would result for Chief McKinnon.

“Matters have been simplified somewhat by the return of the chief to the city.”²

² “The Chief Came Back”

Hamilton Herald.   January 10, 1895.

Chief McKinnon told a midnight train from Toronto to Hamilton, and after disembarking, made his way to the Royal Hotel, rather to his home. It is said that he was ill and unable to leave his room the following morning.

The two young ladies, in question, had returned to Hamilton somewhat earlier, proceeding directly to the home of the older sister at the corner of Barton and Park streets, where a Herald reporter was able to interview them:

“I interviewed both women there yesterday afternoon.

“Mrs. Gould is short and slight, with light, brown hair, large expressive eyes and she was neatly dressed.

“She wore a light fawn tweed dress, with a width of cardinal shot silk around the bottom of the skirt. Her coat was a short brown beaver, with puffed sleeves and a fancy rolling collar, and a becoming black hat sat jauntily on her frizzed hair. A black veil with cardinal spots partially concealed her countenance, and the air of dignity about her added to her fascinating appearance.”²

Mrs. Gould’s younger sister received a shorter account of her appearance:

“Mrs. Gould’s sister, Miss Sanford, is a brunette, but her features are not so refined as those of her sister, and she lacks her dignified and refined appearance.”²

Mrs. Gould voice was sharp and her facial expression angry when she responded to the reporter’s question about McKinnon and the hotel in Toronto. Indignantly, she denied even having been in Toronto. When asked where she had been, she told the reporter that it was nobody’s business. She threatened to make anyone suffer who tried to state that she had been with the police chief in Toronto.

When told that her estranged husband intended to file for divorce, Mrs. Gould welcomed the news :

“She wanted to get a divorce from him anyway. In excited  language, she told what she thought of her husband’s actions and intimated that she had intended for some time to apply for a divorce.”²

Tommy Gould, for his part, had enlisted the services of a private detective and together, he and the detective, had gone to the Grand Union Hotel. There, photographs of both Mrs. Gould and the Hamilton police chief were shown to staff at that hotel. A clerk stated that he was prepared to make an affidavit that both Mrs. Gould and Chief McKinnon  had indeed been at the hotel, together, recently. Examples of Chief McKinnon’s handwriting were presented and several staff at the hotel were of the definite opinion that the handwriting was the same as appeared on the hotel registry when “H. B. Collins, New Haven, Conn.” was written.

After Gould and the detective finished their investigation at the hotel, they looked for and were able to locate the chief in Toronto:

“They shadowed him till the time train arriving here at midnight left Toronto. The chief boarded this train; so did Tommy Gould and both got off at Hamilton.

“Tommy says he followed the chief up Macnab street, and saw him enter the Royal hotel by the Merrick street entrance.”²

The next morning the Herald reporter called at the Royal and had his card taken to McKinnon’s room, but the chief declined to respond to a request for an interview.

The Police Commissioners had scheduled an emergency meeting after the news broke about Chief McKinnon, but decided to postpone it, so that the chief could be given an opportunity to defend his supposed behavior.

The meeting of the Police Commissioners scheduled for the afternoon after McKinnon had arrived back in Hamilton also was postponed. McKinnon sent word that he was suffering from a severe cold and throat trouble and would be unable to attend. He advised that he was being attended by Dr. Rennie.

(To Be Continued)