Harry Davis (gangster)

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Harry Davis (born 1898 in Romania,[1] died on July 25, 1946, in Montreal[2]) was a Montreal gangster and the city's last "edge man" (a strictly Montreal term used to signify the go-between for gamblers, politicians and police, the ‘edge’ was the undisputed boss of all vice in the city) [3] back when the ‘Jewish Mafia’ ran the city.[1]

Davis, a Jewish mobster, ran Montreal's underworld for a year before he was shot to death in one of his betting emporiums at 1224

Jewish mobster.[4] Although Montreal was the gambling capital of Canada [5] and known as a ‘wide open city’ across North America,[6] Davis’ death shocked the public. It acted as a wake up call for the masses of society in that it showed them, for the first time in almost a decade, that vice and organized crime in Montreal was real. Public opinion and an increasingly involved press put pressure on the police to begin taking real action against vice within the city.[7]

Morality squad (the police division which was in charge of dealing with institutionalized vice within the city), in order to avoid a judicial inquiry into the matter.[8] Shortly after Taché was fired, Dufresne hired Pacifique "Pax" Plante, a not very well known lawyer, to lead the Morality Squad.[9] Plante would lead a crusade against organized crime and institutionalized vice in Montreal. Even after he was fired from his position as head of the Morality Squad in 1948,[10] he continued to target vice and organized crime through his newspaper column, "Sous le règne de la pègre" in Le Devoir.Plante worked in conjunction with Gérard Pelletier writing daily articles for Le Devoir with the intent to inform and mobilize the public against organized crime.[11] Consequently, his articles drew massive public support and resulted in an increase in public demands to end vice within the city.[11] By 1950 it had become clear that the public were willing to back Plante in his crusade against corruption. In 1950 he teamed up with Jean Drapeau to launch the Caron Inquiry, the city's largest inquiry of the twentieth century on organized crime.[11][relevant?
]

Early life

Harry Davis, a Romanian immigrant, arrived in Montreal in the 1920s.[1] Davis, like most immigrants, was poor and he spent his early years working long hours doing various jobs for cash.[12] By the age of twenty-eight he had saved up enough money to begin investing in cafés and nightclubs.[12] Davis first made his mark in Montreal's underworld when he opened a betting emporium in the heart of the city, at 1224 Stanley Street.[13] Davis’ betting emporium offered blackjack, barbotte (a dice game unique to Quebec), roulette, baccarat, and continental wide horse betting to its visitors.[13] To increase profits, Davis and his colleagues would front gamblers large sums of money with ridiculously high interest rates.[13] Davis soon became the ‘edge man’ in the late 1920s.[13] At the time gambling was illegal,[14] however the edge paid off the police force so that gambling institutions would be able to continue to prosper in Montreal.[15]

Jail Time

Beginning in the early 1930s, several of Montreal's most prominent professional gamblers were believed to be involved in the international

.45 calibre bullets to his head and chest and died almost instantaneously.[17]
Even though there were many witnesses to his assassination, Feigenbaum's killers were never caught. It was never confirmed, but it is suspected that Davis ordered the hit.

Release and death

After serving twelve years of his originally fourteen-year sentence at St-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary, Harry Davis was released from prison in 1945.

book-making parlour, they would first need his approval. All gambling and book-making parlours also had to give a share of their profits (usually around twenty percent) to the "edge" for protection since he would act the negotiator between institutions of vice, politicians and the police.[19] Davis’ quick return to the underworld, and the sense of entitlement he brought with him annoyed members of the Italian and Jewish communities who had taken over the gambling brackets in his absence.[18]

Louis Bercovitch (alias Joe Miller) shot and killed Harry Davis in front of his gambling parlour at 1224 Stanley the afternoon of July 25, 1946.

Montreal Herald) he believed that he'd get a better deal with the law if he went to McCormick first and told his story before surrendering.[21]

Chaos followed the night of Davis's death. Al Palmer, a journalist for the Herald wrote that "the town was bristling with guns. Every available policeman had been called to duty and every mobster in town was on the march."[22] The next day Bercovitch was arrested for Harry Davis’ death after he had told his story to McCormick.[23]

Crackdown on crime

Following Bercovitch's arrest, a large number of subpoenas were issued in the underworld as a result of an increased demand from the public to hold an inquiry on police corruption.[24] Davis’ death served as a wakeup call within society in that it exposed the reality and the scale of corruption and vice in Montreal. Public opinion and an increasingly involved press coerced the police to begin taking real action against vice within the city. The city's vice industry slowed down and became less flamboyant for a short period after Bercovitch's trial. Major barbotte games were moved to the edges of the city, where they’d be able to operate just outside city limits.[25] However, no real change would occur within the city until 1950 with the Caron Inquiry.

The Jewish Mafia in Montreal 1930s-1940s

Like other ethnic groups within the city, notably the Italians and later on the Irish, Eastern European Jews were prominent members of Montreal's underworld. Prior to the takeover of Montreal's vice rackets by members of the Italian-American mafia in the early 1950s, many of the city's gambling and bookmaking operations were run by Jewish syndicates during the 1930s and 1940s.[19] It was the Eastern European Jewish immigrants who arrived in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as their offspring, who were the city's major bookmakers, loan sharks, illegal gambling house operators and, to a lesser degree, drug dealers.[1] Although Jews played a prominent role in the city's gambling and bookmaking institutions, it's important to keep in mind that gambling was by no means accepted throughout the Jewish Community.

Further reading

  • Brodeur, Magaly. "Vice et corruption à Montreal: 1892-1971". Quebec : Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2011.
  • De Champlain, Pierre. Le crime organisé à Montréal, 1940-1980. Hull: Éditions Asticou, 1986.
  • Morton, Suzanne. At odds: gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.
  • O’Connor, D’Arcy. Montreal's Irish Mafia : the true story of the infamous West End Gang. Etobicoke,: John Wiley & Sons Canada, 2011.
  • Palmer, Al. "Montreal Confidential: The Low down on the Big Town!" Montreal: Véhicule Press,2009.
  • Plante, Pacifique «Enquête sur la moralité.» Interview by Judith Jasmin. Les Archives de Radio-Canada,October 25, 1954. [1][permanent dead link].
  • Schneider, Stephen. Iced: the story of organized crime in Canada. Mississauga: Wiley, 2009.
  • Weintraub, William."City Unique:Montreal days and nights in the 1940s and '50s". Toronto: Toronto: McClelland & Stewart,1996.

References

  1. ^ a b c d D’Arcy O’Connor, Montreal’s Irish Mafia: the True Story of the Infamous West End Gang(Mississauga: John Wiley and Sons ,2011),33.
  2. ^ a b L.W. Conroy, "Gambler is Slain in Uptown ‘Book’: Ex-Convict Falls in Own Stanley Street Establishment in Early Evening," The Montreal Gazette, July 26, 1946.
  3. ^ Al Palmer, "Montreal Confidential: The Low down on the Big Town" (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2009), 24.
  4. ^ a b c Suzanne Morton, "At odds : gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969" (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 158.
  5. ^ Magaly Brodeur, Vice et corruption à Montreal: 1892-1970 (Quebec : Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2011),30.
  6. ^ Nancy Marrelli, "Stepping out : the golden age of Montreal night clubs, 1925-1955" (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2004), 30.
  7. ^ Pierre de Champlain, "Le crime organisé à Montréal, 1940-1980" (Hull: Éditions Asticou, 1986),42.
  8. ^ William Weintraub, "City Unique,: Montreal days and nights in the 1940s and ‘50s" (Toronto: Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996), 72.
  9. ^ William Weintraub, "City Unique,: Montreal days and nights in the 1940s and ‘50s" (Toronto: Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996), 72,73.
  10. ^ Pierre de Champlain, "Le crime organisé à Montréal, 1940-1980" (Hull: Éditions Asticou, 1986),49, 50,80.
  11. ^ a b c Magaly Brodeur, Vice et corruption à Montreal: 1892-1970 (Quebec : Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2011),48.
  12. ^ a b J.E. Thomson, " Immigrant Boy’s Night Life Career Lead to Narcotics, Prison, Racketeering." The Montreal Gazette, July 26, 1946.
  13. ^ a b c d D’Arcy O’Connor, "Montreal’s Irish Mafia: the True Story of the Infamous West End Gang"(Mississauga: John Wiley and Sons ,2011),34.
  14. ^ Magaly Brodeur, Vice et corruption à Montreal: 1892-1970 (Quebec : Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2011),2.
  15. ^ William Weintraub, "City Unique,: Montreal days and nights in the 1940s and ‘50s" (Toronto: Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996), 59-87.
  16. ^ Suzanne Morton, "At odds : gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969" (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 145.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l D’Arcy O’Connor, "Montreal’s Irish Mafia: the True Story of the Infamous West End Gang"(Mississauga: John Wiley and Sons ,2011),35.
  18. ^ a b c D’Arcy O’Connor, "Montreal’s Irish Mafia: the True Story of the Infamous West End Gang" (Mississauga: John Wiley and Sons ,2011),36.
  19. ^ a b Stephen Scneider, "Iced: the story of organized crime in Canada" (Mississauga: Wiley, 2009), 240.
  20. ^ a b Suzanne Morton, "At odds : gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969" (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 159.
  21. ^ Al Palmer, "Confidential: The Low down on the Big Town!" (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2009), 25-26.
  22. ^ Al Palmer, "Confidential: The Low down on the Big Town!" (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2009), 26.
  23. ^ Al Palmer, "Confidential: The Low down on the Big Town!" (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2009), 28.
  24. ^ Pierre de Champlain, "Le crime organisé à Montréal, 1940-1980" (Hull: Éditions Asticou, 1986),37.
  25. ^ Al Palmer, "Confidential: The Low down on the Big Town!" (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2009), 29.
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