Ronald Clifford Dingman, (1938? - ) was charged with murder, held at Oakalla prison, sent to Essondale for evaluation. Since the jury found him guilty and there is no other records in the Order-in-Council minutes, I assume that Ronald was sentenced to serve time, and his condition was not treated at Essondale.
He killed Raymond Thomas Adovard Duchateau ( 12 November 1926 - 24 March 1956) Raymond had only lived in British Columbia for two years, and been in Canada a total of 35 months. He lived at 891 Chilco Street., Vancouver. Raymond died from his wounds at St. Paul's hospital, and was buried the the Ocean View cemetery, his father was Edgard DuChateau.
2 Knife Murders In B.C.
VANCOUVER (CP)--- A woman was knifed to death in Victoria and a 29-year-old Belgian man was stabbed and killed in Vancouver during the week-end.
Two men are charged with murder in the slayings.
Raymond DuChateau, who came here from Ganshoren, Belgium in 1951 and worked as a bank clerk, died in an unprovoked attack at a downtown hotel beer parlor table.
ronald Clifford Dingman, 18 was charged with murder.
In Victoria, Mrs. Cecelia Pupkowski, 48, was knifed and battered to death and her husband, Chester charged.
Police here said DuChateau was sitting with friends and talking in French when a man rose from an adjoining table and without saying a word drove a knife into DuChateau's stomach.
Dingman was arrested after police studied a cab driver's trip report. the driver said he had carried a youth in his car and that his passenger had lain a blood-stained knife on the seat.
In Victoria, Pupkowski was charged with murder Saturday night seven hours after police---called by neighbours who heard screams---found his wife slashed and battered.
Another detachment of police answering a call that a man was walking out to sea, pulled Pupkowski from the water near his home.
Their only child, Milo, 8, was not home at the time of the slaying. He is being cared for by family friends.
NOTE: previously wrote about Pupkowski in this blog post
The Vancouver Sun 26 March 1956
City Youth Held in Unprovoked Killing
Mental Test for Accused Knifer
Psychiatric examination was ordered today for a Vancouver youth charged with murder.
The youth is Ronald Clifford Dingman, 18, six-foot-three, 200-pound steamship porter.
He is charged with the knife-slaying of bank teller, Raymond Thomas Adovard DuChateau, 29-year-old Belgian immigrant, in a downtown beer parlor Saturday.
DuChateau was stabbed in the chest, there were 150 patrons in the beer parlor, but only one saw the knife.
DuChateau laughed as blood spurted onto his shirt.
"It's nothing," he told his friends.
Then he collapsed.
He died in hospital four hours later.
A beer waiter said patrons heard the attacker say: "This is for you" as he passed DuChateau's table.
Police said there was no apparent reason for the attack.
But according to one report the assailant became incensed because DuChateau and his friends were conversing in French.
WAS SIPPING TEA
Dingman was sipping tea when he was arrested less than an hour after the slaying.
Police were led to his home at 2409 East Seventh by a tip from cab driver Joe Petek of 1741 West Fifth.
Petek told police his cab was standing outside the West Hotel when a man asked him to pull up in front of the nearby Roger and wait.
INSIDE A FEW MINUTES
The man went inside and came back a few minutes later, Petek said.
"He got in and put a blood-stained knife on the seat between us." Petek said.
"He seemed nervous and I knew something was wrong but with that eight-inch knife there, I wasn't going to say anything about it."
The passenger asked to be taken to 2409 East Seventh, Petek said. He changed his mind and got out in the 2100 block of Commercial
USED WASHROOM
Louis Marino, manager of Grandview Recreation, 2195 Commercial, told police a youth answering the assailant's description used his washroom shortly after the time of the attack, then left.
DuChateau and his friends all recent immigrants from France, had been drinking beer and talking in French for about two hours before the attack.
One of his companions, Roger Jeovien, 1786 West Fifth, said a man walked past their table and "seemed to punch DuChateau as he passed."
BLOOD ON SHIRT
DuChateau laughed a little," Jeovien said.
"Then I saw blood on his shirt and asked him what was the matter."
DuChateau replied that it was nothing.
Jeovien and another friend ran out on the street after the attacker but he had vanished.
When they returned DuChateau was slumped in his chair.
"It could have been anyone in the house," said Peter Germann,(1915 – 1979 ) waiter at the beer parlor.
"We generally have a couple of squabbles here on a Saturday but this time there were no angry words and no indication of any trouble."
"THIS IS FOR YOU"
He said people at nearby tables heard the slayer say "This is for you" as he drove the knife home."
Jocelyn Goyette of Maillardville, a friend of the slain man, was so shocked to hear of his death today she took the day off from her bank job.
She met DuChateau skiing two months ago.
DuChateau was known to co-workers as a "shy, quiet inoffensive type who would never cause anyone any trouble."
He had travelled through much of Europe and spoke five languages --- French, German, Dutch, English and Flemish.
WAS UNIVERSITY GRAD
He was a graduate of a Belgian university.
He came to Canada 2½ years ago. He worked for two years for the Toronto-Dominion Bank, and then moved to the Canadian Bank of Commerce last November.
He had recently been promoted to chief clerk and teller in the bank's Tenth Avenue and Sasamat Street branch.
He studied English for two years at the YMCA and worked hard to improve his mastery of the language, friends said.
"He was becoming a wonderful Canadian," said Mrs. Dorothy McNair, who led DuChateau's discussion group at the "Y."
LOVED THE MOUNTAINS
"He enjoyed life here. He loved the country and the mountains and skiing. He would have been a real asset to the country."
He was a trooper in the B.C. Regiment (Militia).
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Vancouver Archives A17562 Hotel Pennsylvania, 412 Carrall Street ca.1931 photo: Stuart Thomson
Taylor Hotel VPL 21341 date:14 September 1922 photo: Dominion Photo Co.
Formerly Woods hotel, on Hastings Street, at the corner of Carrall
42421 VPL photo: Byron Charles Jennings ca.1957
412 Carrall Street Roger Hotel
42420 VPL photo: Byron Charles Jennings ca.1957
412 Carrall Street Roger Hotel
Roger Hotel VPL 42419 ca.1957 photo: Province newspaper. corner of Carrall and Hastings Street, Vancouver
Google Streetview, May 2012
The Wood’s Hotel, held various names throughout its history, today it is a Single Room Occupancy, SRO rooming building; bought from the City of Vancouver in 1999 by the Portland Hotel Society, then in 2005 rehabilitated, for which it earned an award in 2010
81558 West Hotel, 444 Carral Street ca.1951 photo: Art Jones
81558A VPL West Hotel, 444 Carrall Street. ca.1951 photo: Art Jones.
You can see taxi’s waiting in both of these photos outside the West Hotel,
which is beside the Roger Hotel (on the far left in this photo)
41502 Grandview Recreations, exterior ca.195- photo: Province newspaper
Coffee bar (bowling lanes); Louis Marino,( 1910 - 1969 ) was the manager of Grandview Recreation, 2195 Commercial
The Roger hotel, site of the murder, and Commercial Recreations, where Ronald cleaned himself up before going home to 2409 East Seventh
29 March 1956
29 March 1956 Prince George Citizen
The Dingman family first shows up in the Vancouver directories in 1938, the father, Cliff M. Dingman worked various jobs, blacksmith, truck-driving for Crystal Dairy, truck-driving, painter. Cliff married to Anne Dingman
NOTE: A bizarre act, and unknown outcome of what the eventual justice meted out was.