John Gordon Harris (15 November 1947 – 10 September 2019) was a Canadian policeman, widely regarded as one of the most honored officers of the Hamilton Police Service.
Football player
Harris was born in Toronto, the son of a policeman. As an youth, he dreamed of being a football player for the Toronto Argonauts. Harris stated in 2012: "Football kept me in school".
Between 1967 and 1971, Harris attended the University of Minnesota on a scholarship awarded to football players. Harris nearly joined the U.S Marine Corps in order to fight in the Vietnam War, but was dissuaded by his coach, which became the source of a lifetime regret for him. In 1971, he graduated with a joint degree in history and political science, and then returned to Toronto to attend York University in order to "kill time", as he phrased it. In 1971, he was drafted to play for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team, which led him to visit Hamilton for the first time. While recovering from a broken ankle after playing for one season for the Tiger-Cats, he joined the Hamilton police force in 1972.
Policeman
Beat cop
Harris was a huge 6'7 man, described by the journalist Jerry Langton as "the biggest, most intimidating cop I've ever seen" and "the most knowledgeable person I have ever met in law enforcement when it comes to biker gangs, especially in Ontario".
Harris stated in the late 1970s that the biggest source of crime in Hamilton were the Musitano family. In the 1970s, Hamilton was known as "Bomb City" owing to the frequency which Hamilton businesses that were late in paying or had refused to pay extortion money were blown up by the Wild Ones outlaw biker club, which was working for the Musitano family. Harris recalled about the Musitano family: "You couldn't help but bump into them on James Street North. They were never rude because they didn't want any more attention than they were already getting".
In the summer of 1979, Constable Harris pulled over Frank Papalia, the brother of the gangster Johnny Papalia. At the time, Johnny Papalia was in prison, and Frank Papalia served as the boss of the Papalia family during his absence. Frank Papalia complained: "Is it because of my name, my last name? You're only stopping me because of who I am and the family name". Harris was tasked with arresting Papalia so the police could impound his Cadillac automobile in order to plant a bug. After a night out at the Gold Key Club, Papalia was stopped by Harris at about 2 am while driving home. Harris demanded that Papalia take an alcohol breath test, which he refused. Harris then arrested and charged Papalia with impaired driving and refusing to give a breath sample. As a result, his Cadillac was impounded, which allowed the police to plant a bug. At Papalia's trial in 1981, the bug-planting operation became the center of some dispute as Papalia's lawyer, Ross MacKay, accused the police of misconduct. The case ended with the judge suspending Papalia's driver's license for three months, a case that ended the aura of impunity that surrounded the Papalia family in Hamilton ever since 1961.
Anti-Gangster Squad
Harris was assigned to the organized crime unit because it was felt he could best handle the "low-life, anti-social misfits" that made up the Hamilton underworld. Harris recalled in 2012: "They were all about intimidation and I thought I could do it better than they could". A major break was made in investigating the bombing spree on 3 June 1980, when a bomb planted in La Favorita Bakery on Concession Street failed to explode due to faulty construction with an excess of glue insulating the screw that was to send the electric current to set off the dynamite. Harris was involved in the investigation where the police were able to trace the process of the bomb's construction starting with the stolen dynamite. As a result, Tony Musitano was convicted of extortion and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Harris frequently crossed paths with Mario Parente, the president of first the Hamilton chapter of Satan's Choice and then the Outlaws. Parente has stated that Harris was the only policeman he ever respected.