“King William street police station’s grim old walls witnessed a remarkable scene last night – the greatest gathering of newspapermen Hamilton has ever known.”
Hamilton Times. March 11 1909.
Wednesday March 11 1909 was a day when the inquest into the death of Ethel Kinrade was the focus of attention by readers of newspapers across Canada and the United States:
“Editors, reporters, illustrators, special correspondents and representatives of all branches of news work were there in scores. They came from Chicago to Montreal and all the cities of importance in this part of the province. There were enough of them to almost fill the inside part of the court room, and they were busy long before the Kinrade inquest opened.”
The rest of the old court room was filled with officials, jurors, witnesses and members of the medical and legal profession, city hall service and others, who had pull enough to get tickets, the number of which the authorities had very wisely limited.”1
1 Hamilton Times March 11 1909.
While access to the police court room had been limited, interest in the proceedings was intense enough that the No. 3 Police station on King William street was besieged by citizens nonetheless:
“The announcement that the general public could not be admitted to the court room had a good effect. There was not a very large crowd of the curious around the police station. Two or three hundred people, mostly young men and boys, assembled around the street door. They began to gather soon after seven o’clock and some of them tried all sorts of pretenses in an endeavor to get in, but with poor success. The crowd watched with eagerness for the arrival of the chief witnesses, while an air of intense expectancy pervaded the court room. The place was rather overcrowded, it being especially noticeable that a number who could have had no business there found their way in.
“In the outside crowd was a number of women. They were lined up on the south side of King William street, opposite the police station entrance.”1
The Times man assigned to cover the inquest had no problem entering the court or getting a good seat to witness and report on everything that happened
“Coroner Anderson was early on the job. He was in the court room at 7:30, and Dr. McNichol, the coroner who began the inquest was there also.
“Professor Clark and Dr. Bruce Smith, the alienists who examined Florence Kinrade on Saturday last and assured the Provincial authorities that she was fit, physically and mentally, to go on the stand and tell her story, were present.
“At five minutes after 8 o’clock Crown Attorney Washington, George Tate Blackstock, who conducted the examination; Thomas Hobson, who appeared at the family’s request, followed by T.L. Kinrade, father of the murdered girl, entered the room. Mr. Kinrade showed signs of the terrible ordeal he has passed through. The lines on his face have deepened, and he looked tired and weary. He stood at the end of the dock for a minute, glanced around the room, scanning the newspaper men at work, and then walked out into an anteroom.
“Before 8:15, however, Coroner Anderson called for order, and P.C. Lyons read he statutory announcement, after which the coroner called the roll. Every Juror answered.
(To Be Continued)
Coroner James Anderson
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