Angus Van 434574 - Andy Cassidy
 
Climate Change and Melting Ice - Tom W. Parkin
 
Red Dot - Andy Cassidy
 
Sleeping Car Signs - No Author
 
ECP Brakes - Ken Perry
 
Carbody Filters - Andy Cassidy
 
Fraser Mills - Andy Cassidy
 
Great Train Robbery - Jason Marcon

 

OKthePK's website "Last Call" page has appeared weekly over the past few years. Each week a different article told the story of various railway items of interest. While some of the articles were saved they are no longer available online. Many of those about the Canadian Pacific Railway have been compiled here on this page. There is insufficient room to display more than a few Last Call articles per page. As a result, "Canadian Pacific Odds and Ends - Part 17", continues this month with more possible parts to follow as time passes.

Rapido Trains Inc. produces an N scale model of Canadian Pacific Railway's Wide Vision Caboose. Between 1972 and 1981, Canadian Pacific Railway's Angus Shops in Montreal built over 300 modern, wide-vision, cabooses, or vans, and thus gained the nickname "Angus Van". They proved popular with crews but any still in service are now called shoving platforms, or rider cars, in Maintenance of Way (MOW) service. The Angus Van is similar to many other wide-vision cabooses that are commonly seen throughout North America.

Back in April of 2017 it was a nice day out and I was taking a few photos around CP's Mayfair Spur.
 
This is off the CP Westminster Sub at milepost 2.5.
 
The Spur is a Mile long currently, since being truncated short of the old Mayfair Intermodal Terminal which is now an industrial park.

Anyhow, we were up at the End of Line, and I took the first photo looking due North along the three remaining tracks there, plus a few warehouse loading leads.
 
As you can see, there is a CP Van sitting idle down by the one warehouse.
 
That's our subject for this article.

The tracks are just used for MOW equipment for the most part now, a handy place to store stuff.
 
The tracks are in rough shape, and today most of this is overgrown, and flagged off about halfway down.
 
I'd seen this van in our many walks in the area, but was never sure where it came from, or what was going on with it.
 
On this day I decided to check it out.
 
It was mostly intact and wide open.
 
I didn't feel too good about that as this area is frequented by some odd characters that would no doubt mess this van up at the time.

Inside I went, and it was a mess.
 
But hey, the brake gauge and its glass were still there, and not broken!
 
How long can this last?
 
The holder on the wall next to the gauge was for the Lunch Box Radios used by the crew back then.
 
The sink looked to be a one-time nest for some bird, I wasn't messing with any of it.
 
The oil heater was still there, and cupola seats also still there, wow.
 
Took these photos then I got out and left.

I asked around to find out what the deal was with this van, figuring somebody bought it, or had it donated, but I never did find out.
 
Then yes, as I expected, in July 2020, somebody burnt it to the ground right there.
 
I procrastinated getting photos of the burnt hulk, then when I did get around to it, it had been cut up and disposed.

So, no photos of the burnt hulk, but the last photo shows it as I last saw it.
 
The only reminder that it was there was a big black scorch mark on the side of that warehouse, till that got painted over.

In the old days, lake ice was the only way to keep food cool.
 
Its use started with the CPR even before its line was finished through British Columbia in 1885.
 
That era was without refrigeration as we now know it.
 
As inventions advanced, railways adopted them, from ice storage facilities, to designated insulated cars for the transport of fresh produce, to then utilizing mechanical ice production.
 
Finally, air conditioning and deep freezers were invented (including on transport trucks, with which all railways competed for a while).
 
Click on this link to read Tom W. Parkin's latest story about the use of lake ice in the bunkers of railway refrigeration cars.

 
Bye bye FRED.
 
CPKC distributed power trailing units no longer need a FRED (Flashing Rear End Device), or the more properly named Sense and Braking Unit (SBU).
 
In lieu of these, a large red dot appears on the rear of appropriate units, while the rear headlight is switched on and dimmed.
 
According to Wikipedia, the earliest known method showing the position, and completeness of a train, was in England by the Stockton & Darlington Railway in the 1830s.
 
This early reference refers to the use of a burning brazier on the rear of a locomotive.
 
It's easy to imagine that the danger represented by this was as significant as the risks it was trying to counter.
 
This evolved into the use of a red tail lamp so signallers working under the absolute block system could ensure that trains were complete when passing their signal box.



 

 

 

 

In September of 2009, CP acquired two train-sets of aluminum rotary-dump coal cars with New York Airbrake Electronically Controlled Brake systems, and equipped ten GE AC4400W locomotives with the required control equipment, then operated them on the export coal loop from mines in southeastern British Columbia to the Roberts Bank rail-to-ship transloading port operated by Westshore Terminals. Here's an excellent overview of ECP control benefits.

As with many introductions of new equipment, especially electronic devices, CP did not provide adequate effective training, and initial challenges were many.

As an event recorder download technician, the two ECP (Electronically Controlled Pneumatic) brake coal trains were made a focus for me as they encountered numerous startup malfunctions, but with no information provided on the ECP equipment, I stayed clear of that to start. As a Locotrol specialist I was soon brought up to speed and requested by road manager Danny Letain to help understand and resolve difficulties encountered during dumping at Roberts Bank.

Two low-tech issues quickly became apparent, ECP cables incorrectly connected, and couplers releasing during the rotary dumping cycle. Cables first, couplers later.

The ability of Golden folks to find new ways to incorrectly connect ECP cables, when the correct way was simple and obvious, frequently amazed me. Almost always, an error did not adversely affect an empty train from Golden to the mines and loaded to Roberts Bank, but the "fun" started with rotary dumping. Job security for me!

Consider basic non-ECP train makeup, typically two units then a block of single-rotary-coupler cars (with a double-rotary-coupler car either first or last), a single midtrain unit, another block same as the first, a single tailend remote, and one SBU (FRED), all with a single 90 psi brake pipe throughout, and with hoses coupled on the same side of the couplers.

Now add an ECP power (230VAC) and communication cable (just two conductors total) from lead unit to SBU, right alongside the brake pipe hoses between cars, and with a physically polarized connector on each cable for right-way-only connections. Simple, essentially no room for error.

But a minor complication was the need for each end of each locomotive to have an ECP cable on both sides of the coupler, to accommodate a train with car rotary couplers either all-leading or all-trailing (regularly reversed to equalize wheel wear patterns). Between the two cable terminal boxes there was a cross-under cable to connect the left box to the right-side cable to allow the left-side cable to be used. Oh boy, two possibilities! Only once, done as a joke perhaps, did I encounter ECP cables crossed over the couplers.

In this first photo, brake pipe hoses and ECP cables between cars are done correctly, with the rotary coupler (A-end was standard) on the left. Essentially perfect.

And if it starts from perfect hose and cable routing, this is what it looks like when the left-side car is rotated (not quite 180 degrees, probably around 165 degrees) by Westshore's dumper 31, just enough free play to avoid cable pull-aparts. I'll have a video of that for you later. Well do I remember the elation felt when a complete train went through the dumper in full Locotrol and without a single problem.

After ECP cables being covered, now it's time to consider couplers. There were four possible normal variations on car orientation, (1) both blocks (ahead and behind mid-train remote) with A-ends (rotary coupler) leading and a double-rotary car at the tailend of each block, (2) both blocks with B-ends leading and a double-rotary at the headend of each block, (3) first block A-end leading with double rotary cars on each side of the mid-train remote with second block B-end leading, and (4) first block B-end leading with a double-rotary car next to lead unit and second block with A-end leading and a double-rotary next to the tailend remote.

Only four ways, that is until Golden Yard folks got inventive and put a spare double-rotary car into the middle of one of the blocks, then the fun began! All would go well on the empties to the mine and loads back to Golden Yard and onward to Roberts Bank, and if the added car was in the same orientation as its block-mates, the only problems arose if the rotary-to-rotary coupling drifted off upright alignment (rare) enroute, or practically guaranteed during dumping, when typically each rotary turned back only halfway, and if lucky, was detected on a pull-by inspection leaving the dumper loop. While there was a provision for temporarily securing (pin through pocket and shank) an unwanted rotary in the upright position, that was either often overlooked or the pin got sheared off during multiple rotary dumping cycles. A half-and-half normal coupling could be returned to normal with a long bar and a skillful engineer to control free slack just right, but often needed a second and preferably hefty person to assist on the end of the bar. Lots of fun!

And then there were some couplers that repetitively unlocked one knuckle when inverted, counting on luck to re-lock by gravity when returned upright. If the indexer mules were on the exit end of the dumper, the train would part at the unlocked coupler on the next move. If the indexer mules were on the entrance end of the dumper (standard in earlier years), normal indexing slack sometimes caused a knuckle to re-lock, but at least as often allowed the unlucky one to be indexed well out of the dumper before actual train separation (and inevitable emergency braking) occurred. Job security again!

Here is the original setup at the entrance ends of the new Westshore dumpers, number 31 for two cars on the water side and number 32 for single cars on the land side, and cable-driven indexing mules.

At the exit end of dumpers 31 (right) and 32 (left), preparations for making dumper 32 capable of two cars at once are underway. Courtesy of a trusting CP roadswitcher crew engineer, I was allowed to spot BNSF 6238's train in dumper 32, good on first try!

With freshly-installed indexers on the exit ends of the dumpers and dumper 32 extended, Westshore's throughput went up. Having essentially free run of the facility as a CP mechanical employee, my photographic opportunities (railway and otherwise) were many.

Once I identified the repetitive cars (their numbers were burned into memory early on), it was simple observation (thank goodness for dust masks at the dumpers) to pinpoint what was happening, and ridiculously simple to overcome it. Scattered around the yard tracks, it was normal after track maintenance activities to see crosstie spike hole wooden plugs all about, and one of them could easily be hammered into the underslung lock-lift lever of a suspect coupler. Perhaps you noticed two peg ends showing in the in-the-dumper photo in part 1 and repeated here.

The local metal-working company, Inter Pacific Services, that contracted many CP facility needs, took a suggestion and provided me a long rod with a holder for the head of a spike-hole peg, so I could install pegs without being between cars myself, and many hours were spent walking ECP trains waiting to dump, with a small sledgehammer, that rod, and pockets full of pegs, and dumper delays were thus eliminated. Since numerous air leaks were detected during those walks, and documented or corrected on the spot, I carried a wad of gladhand gaskets as part of my kit, plus spare knuckle pin cotter keys (and spare pins in my truck). Paid well to walk in the sunshine and fresh sea air and bang wooden pegs into holes, a four-year-old's dream come true.

A coupler that tried to unlock during dumping usually showed up as a partially broken peg, so a lot of my time was spent at the exit end of the dumpers, gathering details for furtherance to Golden Yard carshop folks. They were initially dubious, but soon started coupler internal investigation and repair when confronted (especially with photo evidence) with repeated occasions of the same car's coupler attempting release. All with little wooden pegs, which CP Engineering Services cheerfully supplied a bundle to me from their stock on request. High tech train indeed.

So much for the physical components. Train linking and testing next. That is where the real magic of an ECP system became apparent, looking complicated, but actually easy.

The video shows what is expected of a coal train's brake pipe hoses and ECP brake cables during a normal rotary dumping cycle:

The connectors on the ECP cables were simple and rugged, generally trouble free, and both easily connected and disconnected, but very reliable for staying connected. They were essentially impossible to connect incorrectly.

At the other end of an ECP cable, the End of Car (EOC) connection was a simple setup of three pins into three sockets, polarized, and held in place by a screw-in collar. If excessive lengthwise force was applied to the cable, its end would pull out through the collar, damage-free. New York Airbrake folks put a lot of thought into answering the "what could go wrong with this" question that I have found useful in other endeavours to minimize design shortcomings.
And there was always someone who could find a wrong way to do an obvious job, in this case shortening the essential slack needed for happy rotary dumping. Originally there was only one carabiner on each cable lanyard, soon increased to two to eliminate some pull-apart occurrences. Precision cable slack control was crucial to ECP success.

Wabtec has an web page with more information about each component in the ECP system. Click on the image for deeper details.
 

A very comprehensive, 60 page document, but well illustrated photographically, is a FRA evaluation which describes the ECP initializing, sequencing, and run modes on a very small test train much better than anything I can compile.

Meanwhile, in a locomotive cab, the Train Situation Indicator (TSI) displays the condition of the ECP Brake cars. In this photo the display shows the ECP Brake system sequencing in progress. I have no photo showing a successful sequencing as photos were usually taken while waiting during the sequencing when a problem was likely to occur or something would go awry.

ECP equipped trains, instead of the standard SBU (Sense and Braking Unit also known as a FRED, Flashing Rear End Device), also used a special ECP SBU with all the regular SBU functions. They were powered from the 230 VAC trainline cable and communicated to the headend over the same cable. A continuity-loss function would promptly bring the train to a stop if the tailend signal was lost.

The photo shows an incorrectly installed SBU. At least two ECP locomotives had couplers with casting holes too small to permit the SBU jaws to properly engage for full seating, so my photo was used to prompt Golden to change those couplers for ones with standard openings. Regardless, the ECP SBU still did its job.

When I took this photo in 2017 these SD40-2's were basically on the way out, but since then a change of mind in management has seen a number of them rebuilt, with most being used in work Train service.
 
This unit was resting at MacAulay, mile 112.4 of the CP Cascade Sub, with a grain train.
 
Likely waiting to get a green light out of the Coquitlam Yard to go into Vancouver.
 
This location is also the junction to the CP Westminster Sub, which is the track closest.
 
The shot prompted a question from one of the guys as to the purpose of the four openings in the carbody doors between the CP Rail lettering and the Multimark.
 
Looking at my photos, you can see those openings have carbody filters in place.
 
The reason is this locomotive, and a number of others in this class, have been modified to work in Snowplow Service.
 
Basically, when plowing snow, the Inertial Air Filters (right behind the cab) can get plugged with blowing snow.
 
This starves the engine and blocks cooling air for the Electrical System including the Alternators and Traction Motors.
 
To overcome this, we weld a steel plate over the Inertials, as can be seen in my photo just behind the cab.
 
Then a large opening is cut through the inside bulkhead wall that separates the Engine Compartment from the AR10 Alternator/Engine air Filter Compartment.
 
You can't see that here, but it allows air to come in from the engine compartment.
 
Since there are normally no carbody openings on these units, some need to be cut, so air can get in.
 
Thus, the filters applied as per the photo.
 
This air inlet location is not prone to plugging, and the air goes past the warm engine and into the Alternator compartment to satisfy the locomotive's needs.
 
The only downside to this setup is when the engine decides to leak oil, or has crappy exhaust manifold gaskets, that leak smoke and crap inside.
 
Then the whole Alternator compartment can turn into an black oily mess.
 
And...  this has happened many times.
 

Located in historic Maillardville, British Columbia, which is now part of Coquitlam, the old Canadian Pacific Fraser Mills Station lies next to Heritage Square.
 
It is now a small, really small, railway museum originally maintained by the Pacific Coast Division of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association (CRHA).
 
Part of their display is old CP caboose number 434553, that they repainted back in 2012.
 
At that time I sent out a few shots of it.
 
The first shot in this set is one from that time so you can see how it looked back then.
 
Many of you will know we had a freak wind and rain storm here on Saturday afternoon that knocked down a million trees around Vancouver.
 
Lots of power outages.
 
Anyhow, one of the victims of the carnage was caboose 434533.
 
However, it looks a lot worse that it is, as the van has sustained little if any damage that I could see.
 
Nonetheless, it looks bad from a distance.
 
You be the judge.
 
I'm sure they'll have it all cleaned up in no time.
 
If you look at the first shot from 2012, it's the tree on the left behind the van.
 
The "Canada Western Lumber Co. Ltd." sign didn't fare too well though.
 
Today the city runs the museum and owns the caboose.
 
The Pacific Coast Division of the CRHA had to give up stewardship of the place a few years back.
 
Andy Cassidy.

See more in the article about Fraser Mills Station.

On Saturday, 18 Aug 1928, residents of the Nickel District picked up their copy of the local newspaper and were immediately shocked by what they saw. Blaring from its front page in large type, the banner headline read, "BANDITS ROB MAIL CAR AND SLAY FARMER" followed by the subheading, "BOARD TRAIN AT ROMFORD AND LOOT BAGS, WITH CLERKS AT GUN'S POINT FOR THREE HOURS."

Reporters from across Ontario headed north (or south, as the case may be) to report on the tantalizing details of the story, which had just played out along a 100 mile stretch of railway south of the Town of Sudbury.

It included all of the elements necessary to engross readers, a train robbery, a car chase, a gunfight, and a murder.

Masked Men Board the Train

The melodrama began shortly after midnight at Romford Junction, which was located on Regional Road 67, just west of Coniston, when two masked and armed men climbed aboard an eastbound transcontinental train of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This area was the railway point of contact between the east-west transcontinental railway that blazed its way through the area in 1883 and the more recently built "Toronto Branch".

In fact, for a time this stop along the railway was much more important than nearby Coniston.
 

During the mail exchange, two men entered the mail car and confronted the three clerks working there. After ordering the clerks to stand in the corner with their backs to the interior of the car, the two bandits proceeded to tear open all of the registered mail and stuffed those containing money and other valuables into their pockets.

It was reported (unofficially) on the day of the robbery that two money packets had cleared through the Sudbury Post Office, both originating from banks, one at Sault Ste. Marie and the other Thessalon. Though the amount of the shipments was not known, authorities privately whispered amongst themselves that had the hold-up occurred on any other night than Friday the "pickings" probably would have been richer. All that was officially reported to be on the car was regular mail from the Sudbury post office and about two dozen registered packages.

"Our three mall clerks were held with their backs to the wall of the car while three bandits looted the mails," said A.M. Gibson, district superintendent of Railway Mail Services after he had received a report of the robbery upon the arrival of the train at Toronto.

He was unable to state the amount taken, though the department was conducting a thorough investigation. He also stated the men in charge of the mail car were not armed.

Clearly, the thieves had acquainted themselves with the mailing system and awaited their opportunity. This train (known as No. 4) only ever made two stops between Sudbury and Parry Sound. The first was at Romford Junction, always a few minutes after midnight, to receive running orders, and the second, at Byng Inlet, for water and coal. Mail from Sudbury to Coniston on No. 4 would be transferred at Romford, and it was during this time that the gunmen jumped aboard.

Quiet Crime

The robbery was not detected until the train reached Parry Sound when three other mail clerks boarded the car to report for duty. At this point, brakeman Alfred Armstrong noticed two men jump off the train. The robbery had been pulled off so quietly the passengers on the train knew nothing about it.

"Was there a robbery?" asked one passenger who was interviewed upon arrival. He laughed in derision, thinking that the reporter was joking with him. He could not believe that there had been a robbery. "If there was a hold-up, no time was lost. We came right through and everybody was asleep," he finished, while walking away clearly only half-convinced.

Other passengers were also unaware that anything was wrong and everybody was said to have slept peacefully throughout the hold-up. The train's conductor refused to discuss the robbery beyond saying he had known nothing of it until it had been completed.

The Murder

Points all along the line were immediately notified by dispatcher R.J. O'Neill in Sudbury. An effort was even made via Capreol on the CNR to rouse the station agent at nearby Waubamik, and while it failed, he was awakened by the sound of revolver shots related to the same incident.

Shortly after 03:00 the stillness of the night around the Laird home in Parry Sound was interrupted by attempts to start the vehicle in the driveway. As the car roared away, a sleepy Haughton Laird awoke his elder brother, Walter, to inform him that the blue Buick coupe belonging to their visiting brother-in-law, Lee Lyman, had just been stolen.

The two brothers quickly persuaded Harold Rolland, a boarder, to help in pursuing the stolen Buick using his own vehicle.

Ten miles outside of Parry Sound, the road (now Highway 124) curved sharply at Waubamik. Here, the pursuers found the Buick with its headlights turned off, seemingly abandoned in a ditch. The driver had apparently failed to round the curve and the vehicle crossed the opposing lane to rest on the far side of the road.

By this time, the three men had armed themselves respectively with a jack handle, a wrench, and a large spring, in anticipation of a possible confrontation with the car thief. The pursuers (who had overshot the vehicle by 75 yards and had to turn around) returned to the stolen car to discover a scene they had not anticipated.

The Buick's headlights were now on and in the glaring brightness a local farmer, Claude Jackson, was struggling to pull the car free with a horse. His father, Thomas, was pushing the vehicle from behind, while a third man was behind the steering wheel gunning the engine.
 

Claude Jackson, in an interview with The Star newspaper the same day, gave the following account of what lead up to this moment and what happened next.

"We heard someone knocking at the door at about four o'clock this morning. My father went to the door. There was a foreigner there. He said that his car was stuck in the ditch down on the highway and asked father if he would pull him out. He offered him a lot of money but did not say how much."

"My father agreed to do it and called me. We went out and hitched up the horses and went down to where the car was. It was stuck fast in the ditch. There was just one man with the car."

"We were starting to hitch up to pull the car out, when another car came tearing up the highway with three men in it. As soon as they saw us, they started yelling and pulled up. In this car were the Laird brothers and another man I did not know. Walter Laird leaped out of the car. He said, That is stolen.

"As he jumped, he was holding a monkey wrench in his hand. When the foreigner saw the other car stopping, he pulled out a gun. Laird yelled, don't shoot!, but the foreigner ran behind the car in the ditch and opened fire at once. My father was standing between the car in the ditch and the car that had just pulled up.

"The first shot struck him full in the throat. He staggered a few steps and then fell to the ground. I ran over to him. He was dead. By this time, everyone was yelling and all was confusion. The foreigner kept on firing. The second bullet went through Laird's arm, but he did not stop. All men jumped for the foreigner. They showed plenty of pluck. Another bullet tore through the hand of one of them."

"The men were right on top of the robber now. Laird reached him first and struck him a blow with the monkey wrench. The robber fell to the ground with the three of them on top of him. Another blow with the wrench knocked him senseless."

"They held the foreigner on the ground and then one of the men went for the Provincial Police at McKellar. They came out at once and handcuffed the man. He looked sullen and swore a lot but said little else."

Jackson said that upon searching the car thief, they found a large roll of bills in his pocket. He believed that there was about $1,800 in all.

Police Look for Leads

The captured robber was brought back under heavy police guard to Parry Sound. He told them that his name was John (Jan) Borowski and he had been born in Poland, although he had been in Canada for almost 15 years.

About a week earlier, he said, he had left Toronto to work as a carpenter at Bala, Ontario. He claimed that he had been in Parry Sound for about two days and was walking towards North Bay when two men, a mustachioed Swede and a clean-shaven Italian, picked him up in a Buick.

In his version of events, Borowski stated that the Swede was driving too fast and that he ditched the car. This man sent him to the farmhouse to get help and gave him the gun and four ammunition clips in case he ran into trouble.

The prisoner said the $1,805 in cash and the other items in his pockets, which police later linked to the train robbery, had been on the front seat when he returned to the vehicle with the farmer and his son.

More than a dozen provincial constables, drawn from as far away as Sudbury, were ordered to the Jackson farm when it was realized that the train robbery and the shooting were connected. The constables scoured the bush with citizen volunteers and roadblocks were set up on all roads out of the area.

By Sunday night, all of the cells in the Parry Sound jail were filled with drifters who had been arrested on charges of vagrancy and trespassing. It became so crowded that cots were placed in the corridors. Every single one was interrogated about the train robbery, but police were reluctant to release any of them, out of fear that they would immediately return to the railway tracks and hinder the search.

The OPP stated at the time, "We are handicapped in our search because we have absolutely no description of the men to go by other than the few rather vague generalities given to us by Borowski after his arrest. We will make an effort to pick a trail which may lead us to the place where they may be hiding and we will keep a sharp lookout for any place where the mail car loot might be cashed."

Here in the Sudbury area, a Swedish man by the name of John Holm was picked up by guards at Burwash riding north on a CNR flat car. He answered the general description given to the police of one of the fugitive bandits in terms of his build and clothing. Holm claimed, however, that he had stolen a ride from Toronto and described the place where he had been staying on the Friday of the robbery. His story was checked by Toronto police who were satisfied that the man was innocent and had no connection with the crime.
 

Trial and Execution

The trial of Borowski opened in the Parry Sound courthouse on the morning of Tuesday, 25 Sep 1928, with a request from his lawyer, John Roland Hett, petitioning for an adjournment of at least a month, or the relocation of the proceedings to another court.

His main reason for this request, among many others, was the fact that his client had been moved to Toronto's Don Jail after his preliminary hearing, this made attorney-client interactions difficult.

Fearing that John Borowski might attempt a jailbreak, he had been transferred from Parry Sound jail to Don Jail by the OPP. This move was made on the authority of the OPP's deputy commissioner who stated that it was done as a safeguard against escape as Burowski had been characterized to be "a sullen type of man and a desperate character."

After his lawyer's attempt at an adjournment was turned down by the judge, Borowski was ushered into the courtroom. Standing in the dock, he stoically entered a plea of "not guilty" to the charge of murder.

The newspapers reported that the defence planned to call 11 witnesses. The following day, when the trial continued, Borowski ended up being the only defence witness called, and he stuck to the same story he had told since the beginning.

"After I went and got the two Jacksons and the horse, the two fellows had disappeared, and when I called no one answered. As I got into the car to help get it out of the ditch, I found a roll of money and some jewelry and put them in my pocket.

"As they were trying to get the car out, four men came up. One of them asked me if I needed help. I said no sir and then one of them jumped on the running board and said hands up. I put up my hands and got out of the car, on the left side, and saw one of the fellows coming around the front of the car, and then somebody shot and hit me in the finger.

"Then I fired four shots, the first one by accident. The second I fired towards the man who was coming around the front of the car. The third hit the young boy, and I fired a fourth into the road as I lay on the ground with one of the fellows on top of me.

"If I had been going to shoot somebody. I would have shot the fellows who were after me, and not the man who was being my friend."

Crown Attorney Walter Haight spent a good deal of time during his cross-examination delving into the prisoner's background, often drawing evasive answers in return. Haight presented a poster describing Borowski as a wanted man, but the prisoner refused to admit that the images on the poster were of him.

Fingerprints sent to the United States by the OPP showed Borowski (using aliases Stanley Zinwz or John Bryda) had served a three-year term for burglary in New York before being released in 1920. He had then been sentenced to five to seven years of imprisonment in Pennsylvania for assault and battery with intent to kill, but had escaped in July 1926.

Following his cross-examination, Haight called the three mail car clerks to refute Borowski's claim that he had been in Parry Sound when the robbery had been carried out. All three men swore that Borowski had appeared in the mail car at Romford Junction and left when it arrived in Parry Sound.

On the morning of 27 Sep 1928, after final summations were made, the jury retired at 12:30 and returned to the courtroom just under three hours later. While Borowski had sat dispassionately throughout the trial, he showed the first sign of emotion while standing in the dock as the jury foreman read out the verdict of guilty.

When asked by Justice Wright if he had anything to say, Borowski made several unsuccessful attempts to speak after wiping away tears. He then said in a low voice, I believe I have got no justice. I am not guilty of this charge."

Justice Wright then pronounced the sentence that Borowski was to be executed for his crime.

On 7 Dec 1928, at the Parry Sound Jail, the snow was falling, and the wind whipped up as a small gathering awaited for Borowski to appear with his escort. Upon his appearance, he ascended the stairs of the gallows. A short eight seconds later, with the noose around his neck, he fell through the trap door.

The jail surgeon pronounced that death had been instantaneous.

And what about the money and the mysterious accomplice? Besides the $1,800 in Borowski's possession, the only proceeds from the crime that materialized was a single $100 Canadian war bond that someone tried to cash in Detroit in 1928. The bulk of the loot has never been recovered and no additional person was ever charged with the crime.

John Borowski took his secrets with him to his grave.