The city was on edge in the summer of 1945 over what the press dubbed the Flashlight Burglar
Article content
It was all crime all the time in the Sept. 4, 1945, edition of The Vancouver Sun.
Article content
The rest of the world was celebrating the signing of a peace treaty aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay that officially ended the Second World War.
Article content
Article content
But locally, the banner story was that some “nogoodnik” had broken into a Kerrisdale home housing Vancouver’s first major movie star, Yvonne De Carlo.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
“Brazenly risking arrest, Vamcouver’s flashlight burglar paid two visits Monday — only 16 hours apart — to the home of Mrs. K. Ross-Mackenzie, 3330 West 42nd, where screen actress Yvonne De Carlo, her niece, is staying,” reported The Sun.
Article content
Sun Spots
Article content
The first burglary was at 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 3, when the burglar made off with $8 before running away.
Article content
“Vicky, my little dog, wakened me by barking and scratching at my bed, which caused me to yell out and frighten the thief away,” Ross-Mackenzie told The Sun.
Article content
But the flashlight burglar struck a second time that night.
Article content
“The burglar returned at 9:15 p.m., cut the telephone wires and was breaking in through a basement window of the Ross-Mackenzie home when the barking of dogs again drove him away,” said The Sun.
Article content
“Belief held by Mrs. Ross-Mackenzie is that the thief was probably after jewels or money he believed Yvonne had brought with her from Hollywood.”
Article content
Article content
Article content
Both De Carlo and the flashlight burglar were big news in Vancouver at the time. De Carlo had been hyped as “the most beautiful girl in the world” by a Hollywood studio, and starred in the movie Salome, Where She Danced.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
The flashlight burglar was a name given by Vancouver newspapers to one or more thieves who had terrorized the city that summer. They struck at night, used a flashlight, and cut the telephone wires so that homeowners couldn’t call the police for help.
Article content
Read More
-
Crime stories were big in Vancouver in the late 1940s and early 50s. So, in 1950, the Vancouver Sun decided to start its own murder tip line.
-
The Vancouver police went on an anti-vice crusade in January of 1948. And they had no shortage of bookies and bootleggers to try and stamp out.
-
Advertisement 1
Story continues below
Article content
The burglar was very slick. During the first robbery, they had reached across De Carlo’s sleeping cousin to snatch a wallet. The burglar then broke into the living room, when Ross-Mackenzie was awakened by the dog and yelled out.
Article content
“I saw a light, and thought Yvonne had gotten up,” said Ross-Mackenzie. “But then I realized the light was a bright one, and was playing all over the walls, coming up the stairs.”
Article content
De Carlo was sleeping in her room at the time. Her door was closed.
Article content
She had come to Vancouver to celebrate her birthday on Sept. 1. Salome, Where She Danced had opened at the Vogue Theatre on May 9, 1945, and did well financially, if not critically.
Article content
It wasn’t a biblical story, as the name might imply, but a cheesy Wild West film where De Carlo portrayed a voluptuous woman dancing for cowpokes and outlaws.
Article content
“Salome, lure of the west!” read the opening day ad. “Love prize of 1,000 swaggering gunmen from Texas to the Rockies!”
