“Are you the type of person who wonders what happened in a place that you visit or contemplate from the outside? If you answer in the affirmative to the question of Annie Richard and Jean-Philippe Rousseau, then you will dive with delight in their new book Mystery Motel — Disturbing Stories for Reckless Customers.
You will learn, among so many other equally tasty stories, that the members of the famous group The Who spent eight hours in a Montreal prison cell, in 1973, for having ransacked a room at the Bonaventure Hotel, after be produced at the Forum. Or that in 1933, a liquor smuggler from Newfoundland was arrested at the famous Château Frontenac, in Quebec, where he was hiding to escape the authorities.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
The Bonaventure hotel, place of some adventures…
“Hotels are places of passage, a bit like train stations, airports… We spend a few nights there and then forget about them. But when you dig, with the passage that there is in a hotel, it is sure that you will find dramas, things that are a little unusual, atypical, ”says Jean-Philippe Rousseau, who co-hosts the podcast. Retro Crimes with Anne Richard.
“We become more anonymous when we are passing through a hotel”, underlines for her part the one who is also a private detective at the helm of the show on your street (on Channel D). “So it’s definitely ideal for becoming the bandit hideout or the perfect overnight hideout. »
The two authors scoured Quebec’s criminal archives — and consulted a large number of newspaper articles — to bring to life unusual stories that occurred in 12 establishments in the province over the past 100 years or so.
These stories all made headlines at the time and have since fallen into oblivion; nevertheless, they are no less crispy even today. And even if some of the establishments whose incredible stories are told no longer exist or have changed their names – such as the mythical Hotel Rocdor, in Drummondville, or the Hotel de La Salle, in Montreal, which was located in the middle of the gangster district in the 1940s — the places still conceal the traces of their passage.
The story behind the facades
On Rue Saint-Vincent, in Old Montreal, a plaque recalls that the building, built in 1861 and now housing the small boutique hotel Maison Saint-Vincent, was once the Hôtel Richelieu — the subject of a top chapter in color in the book.
“It was a neighborhood that could be rough “says Annie Richard. “It’s the port with a lot of workers, sailors who stopped there, adds Jean-Philippe Rousseau. It was a hotel — one would say “classy” today — where there were a lot of personalities. »
It is indeed at the Hotel Richelieu that Sarah Bernhardt stayed during her American tour in 1880, we learn. “Afterwards, it was a somewhat posh restaurant,” says Annie Richard. Then, from 1902 to 1968, the premises were occupied by the Forensic Institute and the morgue. “It was a century later that it became a hotel establishment again,” says the author.
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PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
The alley which the Forensic Institute, which took the place of the Hôtel Richelieu, used to transport the corpses to the morgue
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PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
The plaque commemorating Sarah Bernhardt’s visit to the former Richelieu Hotel in Old Montreal
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This little trip down memory lane also shows that in recent decades, establishments that were very fashionable at one time have lost some of their luster after being at the heart of many criminal stories.
« The Raphael Motel [dans le quartier Notre-Dame-de-Grâce] was truly a resort; there were even honeymoons, conferences, many Americans who came to stay there. But I saw the last photos before the destruction… it really wasn’t pretty,” notes Jean-Philippe Rousseau.
Others, like the motel Pierre, in the borough of Saint-Laurent, continue to make headlines. “That too is another place that has changed over time,” he adds. Before, there was the Cartierville airport, opposite, and the Bobino, which was like a cabaret square; it was travellers, tourists, businessmen who were there. »
“Old buildings exude history. But the hotels, you don’t see them anymore; it’s part of our landscape, we see them more like architecture, ”says Jean-Philippe Rousseau. And yet, the stories they contain have not finished being told.
Mystery Motel — Disturbing Stories for Reckless Customers
Annie Richard and Jean-Philippe Rousseau
Editions of Man
240 pages