On the night of Nov. 3, 1919, a taxi driver named John Rowland (a.k.a. Rolland) was parked at Union Station when a man entered his cab and asked to be driven to Leaside. Within hours, Rowland was dead – having suffered nine knife wounds to the face as well as a slashed throat. The crime, which occurred on Merton St. near the corner of McRae Dr. and Bayview Ave., remains one of the most gruesome in Leaside’s history.
A brutal crime
A Scottish immigrant and Canadian army veteran, Rowland had reportedly been wounded and gassed in France during World War I. Upon returning to Toronto, he purchased a cab and was engaged to be married. A quiet and reserved man, he was well on his way to leading a normal and productive life in post-war Toronto…until disaster hit.
Reports in the Toronto Star, Toronto Telegram and Globe and Mail – as well the Ontario Provincial Police criminal investigation records – show that after driving to Leaside as directed, Rowland was attacked by his passenger, who pulled him into the back seat and repeatedly stabbed him with a knife. While the motive remains unclear, police speculated that the killer was a bootlegger who planned to pick up alcohol he had hidden in Leaside and take it back to Toronto. When Rowland refused to cooperate, he was assaulted.
The cab driver did not immediately die from his wounds. He crawled more than 100 yards across an open field (Leaside was still a rural community then) before collapsing on the porch of Joseph and Grace Turner near Bayview Ave. Despite his injuries, he had strength enough to describe what happened to police, who were quick to arrive at the scene. Rowland told them his assailant was a big man, wore brown clothes and was a foreigner – perhaps a Russian. The police, assisted by Leaside resident Clarence Rundle, then drove the victim to the nearby Davisville Military Hospital, where doctors desperately but unsuccessfully tried to save his life. He died soon after, suffocating on his own blood – nine days short of his 30th birthday.
Reaction and impact
The murder shocked Canada. Newspapers across the country carried the story. Toronto cabbies – who had experienced three other taxi-driver murders in the past few months – refused to drive fares outside city limits after 10 p.m. Leaside was especially traumatized. The Toronto World reported that Leaside women would not leave their houses after dark unless accompanied by a male escort. A Leaside minister – most likely St. Cuthbert’s Canon Lamb – requested more police protection for the community. Leaside residents also demanded better lighting along McRae Dr.
Futile search
Meanwhile, police looked in vain for the killer. They offered a $500 reward for information leading to his arrest. They interviewed area residents. They spoke to Canon Lamb, who helped organize local Boy Scouts to search for the murder weapon – an army jack-knife – which they found near the crime scene. Police also searched the construction camps in Leaside, hoping to find the killer among workers building the Canada Wire and Cable’s factory and employee homes. To no avail.
A coroner’s inquest took place at the end of November, where many people testified, including at least five Leasiders:
- -Joseph Turner and his wife Grace, whose home Rowland crawled to;
- -Leaside Constable L. G. Gardiner, who took Rowland’s dying statement at Turner’s house;
- -Clarence Rundle of 117 Airdrie Rd., who was at Turner’s home when Rowland told his story; and
- -David Bell, the town engineer, who saw Rowland’s unoccupied car near the open field and who lived at the corner of Soudan and Edith (later Bessborough Dr.).
None of the witnesses could provide conclusive information leading to the killer’s identity or capture, forcing the coroner’s jury to determine Rowland had been murdered by “a person or persons unknown.” The jury also concurred with Leaside residents that McRae Dr. was too dark at night and recommended that lights be placed on the road “to make this thoroughfare safer.” The case remains unsolved to this day.
The author would like to thank Tom Rolland, whose great uncle was John Rowland, for providing valuable information for this article.
