Clerk lost hand in 1974 bombing

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This article was published 04/07/2015 (3751 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AN incident similar to Friday’s explosion occurred four decades ago at Winnipeg’s Law Courts building.

Charles Gilraine, the chief clerk of the county court, lost his left hand when a dynamite-rigged electric clock exploded on Sept. 26, 1974, according to Free Press files.

A jury found John Joseph Rogers guilty of two counts of attempted murder. Rogers had mailed the homemade explosive to the courthouse.

Gilraine was not the target. It was addressed to James Symons, a clerk in the small-claims court, with whom Rogers had a dispute for dismissing a claim.

“I put on my glasses and plugged in the clock,” Gilraine testified in 1975, saying it felt as if white discs had been placed over his eyes. “I was crouched down in a squat position. The thing I recall — I thought I was blind.”

“I blinked my eyes a few times and I could see… finally. I thought if I could stand I could walk, and if I could walk I’d better get out of there.”

A police officer was in the hallway when he heard the explosion. Const. Don Pilcher saw smoke coming from under the county court door and heard screams. Pilcher used a necktie as a tourniquet on Gilraine’s arm, stopped a car outside the courthouse and had the driver rush them to Misericordia Hospital.