Friday, November 28, 1997 — North Shore News - 45
a

SAVING YOU

| Chronicling the Mulli

NV authors
recount local
cop scandal

Deana Lancaster

News Reporter
deana@nsnews.com

VANCOUVER in the
50s: a young, reckless
city run by crooked
politicians and rotten
cops.

Tan Macdonaid and Betty
O'Keefe were there as young
reporters working in the
newsrooms of the cizy’s daily
newspapers, In their book The
Mulligan Affair: Top Cop on
the Take, the pair describe the
scene: “Bootlegging was rani-
pant, and liquor consumption
had become a problem. Any
cab delivered a $4.50 bore
of rye for $6. News stands and
smoke shops were bookie out-
lets. Hookers openly plied the
streets, operating out of
hotels and rooming houses.
Drugs began to take a heavy’
toll.”

And night in the thick of it,

- helping himself to his share of
the proceeds, was Vancouver's
Chief of Police, Walter
Mulligan. The scandal made
headlines across the country
and in parts of the U.S. It was
named Canadian Press story
of the year in 1955.

Newsman Jack Webster

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Photo The Multigan Aftair

IN the foreword to The Mulligan Affair, Top Cop on the Take, newsman Jack Webster called Vancouver Police
Chief Walter Mulligan, shown here in 1949 with an unknown child, “tough, confident, ambitious and backed

was made famous covering
the Tupper inquiry, the seven-
month royal commission
looking into the affair.

For O'Keefe and
Macdonald, who wrote two
earlier books together — The
Klondike’s ‘Dear Little
Nugget’ and Earthquake, Your
Chances, Your Option, Your
Future, the infamous story
was a natural choice for their
third book.

“Tc was a very exciting, col-
orful era,” said O’Keefe, who
now lives in North Vancouver.

Since the war there had
been a steady influx into

by friends in high places. A complex man,” wrote Webster, “Mulligan was, unfortunately, also a crook.” :
: ial COLONY

Vancouver of people and
money, a loosening of restric-
tions and a change in sacial
values.

“There were a lot of prob-
lems with the law,” added
O’Keete.

Much of the corruption
and crime was rooted in those
problems. It was illegal to
drink in a public place, but
not in a private club or beer
parlor. Establishments had to
provide separate entrances for
men and for “Ladies With
Escorts.” Few people respect-
ed or followed what they felt
were “ludicrous regulations.”

As well as the inquiry and
all the players involved, The
Mulligan Affair details the
lives of Vancouver residents in
the °50’s, including where
they went to see and be seen,
who had power and what vas
happening in the city’s news-
rooms. It was the era of the

written word. The Vanconver
Sum and The Vancouver
Province employed about 100
reporters cach and put out
three editions every day.

Included on the roster of

working journalists — were
Simma Holt, Barry Mather,
Jean Howarth, Eric Nicol,

Jack Scott, Paddy Sherman,
Jack Brooks, Doug Collins,
O'Keefe and «

and, of course,
Macdonald.

The pair are already work-
ing on their next collabora-
tion: a book centred
another historic i

B.C."s past.

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