Johnny Copp
Toronto Daily Star, December 1 1933
The December 1 1933 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained this photograph of a young man who had been shot by a burglar.
The caption stated that young Mr. Copp had a fighting chance of recovery, but unfortunately he did not survive. Three days later, the Daily Star reported that a $5000 reward had been offered for information on his killer:
Very little was known about the killer - which is why the reward was so high - but the police believed that he spoke "with a distinct foreign accent":
On December 6, the Daily Star reported his funeral:
According to the Daily Star, Mr. Copp's death led to a crime wave in the city. Here's the start of an article from the December 20 edition:
And his death was sufficiently well remembered that another criminal invoked his name as a threat over two months later, as reported in the February 23 1934 edition of the paper:
Despite the reward, the murderer of Johnny Copp was never found. He is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery; Mike Filey, a long-time writer of Toronto history, wrote up his story on the cemetery's web site. Mr. Copp was a rugby star and medical student at the University of Toronto and the university still awards a trophy and a scholarship in his name.
Created August 18, 2025.