TYRIE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-04 published
LEA,
John
E.
At his home on Wednesday, February 27, 2003. John
LEA of Marmora
in his 89th year. Husband of the late Kathleen
LEA.
Father of
Phyllis TYRIE and her husband Brian, Markham; Nora
ADAM/ADAMS and
her husband Bruce, Sharon and John H.
LEA,
Toronto.
Grandfather
of Debbie and Jeff; Ron and Ursula, Troy and Stephanie, Scott,
Donna, Michelle. Great grandfather of four. Will be sadly missed
by Linda and many loved Friends. A memorial service will be held
at St. Paul's Anglican Church, Marmora on Saturday, June 14,
2003, at 11 a.m. followed by interment in Stirling Cemetery.
Donations St. Paul's Anglican Church, Marmora would be appreciated.
Arrangements by McConnell Funeral Home, Marmora (613) 472-2531.
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TYRRELL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-16 published
TYRRELL,
John
William ''Jack''
It is with great sadness that we announce Jack's death at the
Humber River Regional Hospital, Church Site, on Friday, June
27, 2003. Jack died peacefully after a lengthy illness, at the
age of 73. Beloved husband of Linda for 25 years. Predeceased
by his parents William and Mary Ellen
TYRRELL and his sister
Joyce Beverly
TYRRELL. Dear son-in-law of Paula
MORGAN, brother-in-law
of Gary MORGAN and Kathleen
MORGAN, and uncle of Evan
MORGAN.
A memorial service will be held at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church,
230 St. Clair Avenue West, on Thursday, July 24, 2003 at 11 o'clock.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Jack's memory to
Home Dialysis Unit, Humber River Regional Hospital, Church Site,
200 Church Street, Weston, Ontario M9N 1N8, c/o Dr. A.
PIERRATOS
or a charity of your choice. The family wish to thank the Home
Dialysis Team and staff on Tower 6 at the Humber River Regional
Hospital, Church Site, for their excellent care.
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TYRRELL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-13 published
Jim NOBLE: 1924 - 2003
Toronto beat cop who went on to become a deputy chief was 'one
of the most highly respected operatives in the history of Canadian
justice'
By Bill GLADSTONE
Special to The Globe and Mail Wednesday, August
13, 2003 - Page R5
He was a gentleman cop who rose through the ranks of the Toronto
police force to become deputy chief. Jim
NOBLE, who devoted 37
years to Canadian law enforcement, has died at the age of 78.
Mr. NOBLE's career was marked by an almost continuous advancement
through the ranks. As a divisional detective, he worked on a
gamut of crimes that included "housebreaking, frauds, sex offenses,
robberies -- a little bit of everything," he once explained.
Later promoted to the homicide squad, he investigated more than
100 murders. He was known for his painstaking legwork, his meticulous
attention to detail and his uncanny ability to weave an assortment
of disparate clues into what he once called "a nice rope of circumstantial
evidence."
He eventually headed the homicide squad, where up-and-coming
detectives like Julian
FANTINO, the current police chief, worked
under his command.
"He was one of the most highly respected homicide investigators
that the Toronto Police Service ever had," Mr.
FANTINO said.
"I always found him to be of impeccable integrity and a man of
very strong character and loyalty to the profession."
"He was one of the guys that knew all the answers,"said Walter
TYRRELL, a retired deputy chief who also once worked in homicide
under Mr. NOBLE's command. "If you needed advice, Jim was the
guy you would go to."
Mr. NOBLE was promoted to inspector in 1973, staff superintendant
in 1974 and deputy chief in 1977. He retired in 1984 with 61
letters of commendation in his file.
Besides homicide investigation, he was an expert on deportation
and extradition and lectured on those subjects at police colleges.
An outspoken critic of what he saw as an overly-liberal legal
system that put the rights of criminals above those of law-abiding
citizens, he once penned an article titled "The Pampered Criminal."
Convinced that the immigration department was equally soft on
criminals, he helped spurred the government into tightening up
the process by which criminals are deported.
"He was really upset with the system," said his former partner,
Jack FOSTER, a retired staff sergeant from the detective branch.
"He felt they were too soft on immigrants. We'd go to all the
trouble of a deportation hearing, they'd escort a guy over to
the United States, and within an hour he'd be back on our side
again."
Born in Whiteabbey, near Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1924,
James Melvyn
NOBLE came to Canada with his family at the age
of four and grew up in a working-class neighbourhood on Toronto's
Shaw Street. After grade 12 he entered the Royal Canadian Air
Force and earned his pilot's wings, but, to his immense disappointment,
he never served overseas. Leaving the Royal Canadian Air Force
in 1946, he began looking for "something with a little bit of
action, a little bit of excitement." When his father, a carpenter,
suggested that he apply for a position with the police department,
the 22-year-old laughed -- hard -- but agreed to talk to a friend
of his father's who was a police inspector. After two lengthy
discussions, Mr.
NOBLE was ready to "give it a try."
For six months he pounded a beat in a police uniform. Then, paired
with a partner in a patrol car, he worked a graveyard shift and
became familiar with the "usual cases -- fights on the streets,
drunks, domestics, robberies." Often, after an overnight shift,
he would be obliged to make an appearance in court the next day.
Promoted to detective in 1957 and to the homicide squad in 1961,
he once explained that he'd watch for certain telltale signs
in an accused upon introducing himself as a police detective:
"a darting of the eyes, the mouth becomes dry and there's a wetting
of the lips, a throbbing of the artery in the neck. The person
gets pale, he's trembling."
He was often amazed at how readily criminals, once apprehended,
will confess their misdeeds. "There's almost a compulsion of
people to confess, especially in murder cases," he once said.
"It makes them feel that they have salved their conscience to
some degree by telling about it."
In one of many infamous cases that he handled,
NOBLE solved the
murder of an 89-year-old female doctor, Rowena
HUME, who was
viciously beaten to death by a derelict who had stayed at a Salvation
Army shelter and whom she had hired to do a few odd jobs. Two
days after the murder, having followed a series of clues, Mr.
NOBLE nabbed the suspect on a downtown street; the man blurted
out a confession almost instantly. Mr.
NOBLE was also part of
the gruesome homicide investigation involving the notorious Evelyn
DICK of Hamilton, Ontario
Mr. FOSTER, who was paired with Mr.
NOBLE for about eight years,
recalled that though he took his job very seriously, he also
"had a good sense of humour -- he enjoyed a good laugh."
On one occasion, after a painstaking, six-month investigation
into a complex case of insurance fraud, the duo were finally
ready to collar the perpetrator, a well-known socialite named
Irene.
"I remember Jim and me driving up Yonge Street to make the final
arrest, and he was singing, 'Irene, Goodnight, Irene,' " Mr.
FOSTER recalled. Irene, needless to say, was convicted.
For all of Mr.
NOBLE's acumen as an investigator, however, not
all of his professional faculties were in operation the day he
and Mr. FOSTER visited a Yonge Street ladies' wear shop to check
into a routine fraud. Getting back into the patrol car, Mr.
NOBLE
commented on how attractive he had found the store manager and
that he wished he could get to know her better.
"But she's probably married," he lamented.
"Jim, what kind of detective are you?" Mr.
FOSTER said. "Didn't
you notice that she's got no wedding ring on her finger?"
"No, I didn't. I guess I was too busy taking notes."
Mr. FOSTER insisted that Mr.
NOBLE, then 35 and single, make
the requisite follow-up call on his own. He did, and he and the
store manager, Barbara, were married in 1961.
Although he could play rough when the situation demanded, Mr.
NOBLE was known as an impeccable gentleman and a guardian of
old-fashioned standards and family values.
He once upbraided some bikers for using profanity in the presence
of their girlfriends; the biker girls explained they weren't
typical ladies but seemed touched by his courtesy all the same.
According to his daughter, Elaine
NOBLE Tames, Jim
NOBLE rarely
spoke about his professional life at home.
"Being in a house with two ladies, the typical gentleman side
of him would say, 'That's not the sort of thing to discuss with
your wife and daughter,' " she said.
Mr. NOBLE was the subject of a cover story in Toronto Life magazine
in 1972 that used him as a prism through which to view the entire
police force. The article described him as "gentle, thoughtful
and courteous," and noted that, except in target practice, he
had never fired the snubnosed Smith and Wesson.38 revolver that
he wore on his right hip.
American authors Bruce Henderson and Sam Summerlin devoted a
chapter to him in their 1976 book The Super Sleuths, and described
him as "one of the most highly respected operatives in the history
of Canadian justice."
"He was the embodiment of professionalism in everything he did,
and that was the standard to which he held other people," Mr.
FANTINO said.
Jim NOBLE died in Toronto on July 15, leaving his wife
Barbara,
daughter Elaine and sister Pat
WILKINSON, all of Toronto.
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