Ernest Goble and Bruce Thornley
Toronto Daily Star, October 15 1938
I looked up Police Constable Ernest Goble in the Toronto city directories. Sure enough, he appears in the 1938 directory as working at Police Station 7. He then went off to fight in the war - the 1944 directory lists him as being on active service.
After the war, P.C. Goble returned to his old job. By 1949, he had been promoted to detective. The last directory that he appears in is 1952; the 1953 directory does not list him. There is no entry for a widow in the 1953 directory, so my hope is that he was promoted to an even better job outside of Toronto.
As for the man he captured: the 1938 city directory lists Bruce A. Thornley as working as a salesman at Canada Chewing Gum Sales and living at 58 St. Anne's Road. The 1939 directory lists him as a shopper at Philco Products; I have no idea whether he changed jobs voluntarily or whether the chewing gum company fired him because of his notoriety. He is listed with no occupation in the 1940 directory and does not appear after that.
Coincidentally, the two men lived on the same street, though not at the same time. Thornley lived at 4 Pearson Avenue in 1940, and Goble moved to 210 Pearson Avenue sometime during the war.
Created October 2, 2025.