Booked in Toronto  General on a Sunday afternoon,  I woke up from the operation in the police ward on the Monday morning just as Dr Tovee came in for his appointed rounds  and new jokes.  

I was told by a patient in the next bed after he left, that a police officer had been shot during  the night, was in another room down the hall and had been operated on by Dr Tovee before he did my operation. After lunch I lugged by apparatus down the hall to meet him.

At the time of my operation I was a P.C in 51 Division Youth Bureau but, as time went by, I became very much involved in a workman’s compensation investigation for the officer who was saved by Dr Tovee that night, and so the story unfolds:

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P.C Russell William Clark, patrolling the shopping Plaza at Bathurst and Lawrence at about 2am observed  a car parked on the Plaza, one he had not seen on previous visits.  He got out of his cruiser  to investigate. Finding   the front  door to an office complex  had been jimmied open, he entered the premises  to investigate, equipped  with a six shot revolver,  a flashlight, whistle,  handcuffs and wooden baton in his back pocket.

Revolver in one hand, flashlight in the other, he walked down the hall, observing several office doors had been jimmied open and came to a stairway.  There, a man by the name of Dumas was standing partway up the stairway looking down at him.

Illuminated by the beam of his flashlight Russell told him he was under arrest for break and enter. Dumas had a large screwdriver in his hand, his break and enter instrument and, with his hands raised in the air he threw the screwdriver at Russell and dove off the stairway at him.  In the ensuring struggle, Dumas overpowered Russell and shot him with his own revolver.

Dumas began cleaning  the scene for any fingerprints left behind in the struggle, Russell was now on his feet and about to strike Dumas with his baton as Dumas turned to see him. Dumas shot him again and fled the scene.

As he exited the building Dumas was astute enough to get rid of the gun by throwing it on the roof of the building just in case he got stopped  on the way home. 

Managing to get to an office phone, Russell called the radio room. Answering the call was Nelson (Itchy) Oliver, my ex partner at the scene of Hurricane  Hazel.

“I have been shot,” said Russell. 

“Where are you?” asked Nelson.

“I don’t know,” replied Russell

“Keep talking,” Nelson instructed.  Nelson even got the license number of the car on the parking  lot that caused him to get out and check the building.

Highway 401 had just been built and a P.C with a cadet as escort pulled Dumas' car over on the 401 and arrested him.  He was subsequently convicted for attempted murder and died in prison.

A few years later I was a Detective in the D office at 52 Division, sometimes investigating suspects brought in by P.C Eddie Adamson or Russell Clark.   Russell worked plainclothes out of 52 detective  office, steady days, weekends off, checking  the Pawn Shops for stolen property.  I would see him when I was on the day shift. He often had migraine  headaches, but he did excellent pawn detail work, bringing in stolen property from the pawn shops for further  investigation.

A few years later, 13 years after he had been shot by Dumas, Russell gave me another investigation that as the events unfolded would not be successful for the relatives of Russell Clark, but would be successful for the relatives  of Eddie Adamson  and others to follow  with the realization  that tough as they are or try to be, Police Officers can suffer excruciating and debilitating pain that sometimes ends in death, now called Post Traumatic Stress.

On January 4, 1979 Patricia Clark came home from work to find a note on the door, written by Russell, it told her not to go downstairs but to call the police.

Russell had committed suicide  but not in the usual manner police officers commit suicide, with their gun.  He had already suffered enough.  After being humiliated by being shot with his own gun, he couldn’t do it again.

Taking a large knife into the basement, he worked it into his stomach until it entered his heart.  He then pulled it out and threw it across the basement. The attending  Coroner concluded it was a homicide, unable to believe anyone could work the knife slowly into the heart, with the ability to pull it out and throw  it such a distance.

It took an explanation of his past history and the suicide note to convince the coroner  he should  sign the death certificate a suicide.

In 1980 I was elected as a Police Association Director  and re-elected in each of the next four years.  As Vice President,  I commenced  the investigation into the suicide of Russell Clark to make application for a workman’s compensation claim for his surviving spouse Patricia. I chose a very well known and respected psychiatrist by the name of Jerry Cooper. He told me what he needed and I set out taking statements from his wife, co-workers, friends  and family, who knew him before and after he was shot. 

A positive graph emerged showing an ever worsening deterioration of his personality and moods leading up to his suicide.  I took my brief to Dr Cooper for his response.  A week or so later he called to advise me he could not take the stand and give positive evidence that the suicide  was a direct result of an incident that happened 13 years previously. I went to the family Dr and received the same answer. I was left with no ammunition to make a case for Workman’s comp.

In 1988 I was elected President  of the Association. Eddie Adamson,  now a Uniform Staff Sgt was grappling with stress occasioned by the death of Michael Sweet He called me often.

Ed put in for steady nights  to get away from the brass, often calling me in the evening with long conversations about the department and how it treated him.  He called others as well, in particular George Crease. A workman’s compensation claim had been initiated but Eddie abandoned  it in 1993, I retired from the Association and the Force in 1994. As Susan Eng said in 1993, I would become history in October 1994, for the first time in a long time, she was right.

On October 5, 2005 Eddie went out in police style, taking his life with a gun surrounded by his memo books in a rented motel room.

From that point on Linda Adamson called me on  the anniversaries, his birthday, their wedding, Michael Sweet's death and Eddie’s death.  We sometimes had had long talks.

Julian Fantino published his first book, and in the first chapter he dealt with the death of Eddie Adamson.  Linda called me, so excited Eddie had been mentioned in the book. The bells started to ring again in my head, for I knew Eddie had undergone long extensive  psychiatric treatment.  I called George Crease to see if he remembered  the name of Eddie’s psychiatrist, he said “Sure I do, he lives just around the corner from me.”

I called Dr Stokes, telling him about my involvement with the Adamson  family and my previous attempt and failure to secure the right recognition for Patricia Clark. With the treatment  he had given Eddie, could we do anything for Linda Adamson? I was trying  to tell him the name of the psychiatrist I went to who worked out of the North York General Hospital  and was pro police, I said “I think his name was Jerry Smith or something like that” He instantly corrected me saying  it was Jerry Cooper. 

Dr Stokes said” let me work on it." About a week later he called to say he had completed his report--what did he want me to do with it?   I asked him to send it to the Association.  The Association sent it to Andy Emmink of A.Emmink Associates Ltd in Ajax and the application to the WSIB began again.

Just before Christmas in 2008, Linda received a phone call.  The claim had been successful. It took me a while as a Trustee of the pension  fund, but our own Police Services Board have now recognized Linda Adamson  is entitled  to the surviving spouse benefits  covered in the Associations 1980 Memorandum of understanding that I negotiated and signed as Vice President  in 1980, giving  her the surviving spouse pension  for an officer killed in the line of duty.

Patricia Clark died on January 29, 1989; I am left wondering if there is a grave for her husband,  Russell William Clark, born June 1, 1930, died January 4, 1979. Is he an unknown soldier?  The police Museum do not know him.  Does anyone remember him?   His suicide helped to finally produce  acceptance, police officers can suffer post traumatic stress and the employer  needs to do something about it.  

When I visited  Russell Clark down the hall after my own operation he was distressed by more than his bullet wounds.  The District Chief had just paid him a visit telling him he should  have shot Dumas and the suggestion this might affect any chances he might have for promotion. Chief Mackey changed that with his visit later on, telling him what an excellent job he did.

Mike McCormack, President of the Toronto Police Association, is now ensuring the name of Staff Sgt Edward Adamson is placed on the Honour role for an officer killed in the line of duty.

--Art Lymer