Legendary reporter Gwyn (Jocko) Thomas dies

Gwyn (Jocko) Thomas, who rose from selling newspapers on a Toronto street corner to become a local legend as a police reporter, has died at age 96.

Thomas died Wednesday at a long-term care facility in the city.

For Torontonians of a certain age, Thomas was not only the most famous police reporter in print — working for the Toronto Star — he was also the most famous radio reporter in the city.

He filed almost daily for what was then Canada's largest radio station, CFRB, with his trademark signoff:  "This is Gwyn (Jocko) Thomas reporting from police headqua-rrrrr-ters.'

He stayed on the police beat for the Star for 50 years, retiring in 1989 at age 75.

Thomas, universally known by his nickname, Jocko, started in newspapers in 1925 at the age of 13. His first job was as a newsboy.

He sold newspapers at the corner of Bathurst and Bloor streets, yelling, "Read all about it!"

Joined Star in 1929

Four years later he began work for the Star as a copy boy — mostly running errands in the newsroom — in 1929. The pay was $6 a week.

In an obituary published in the Star on Thursday, Thomas was quoted once saying, "I was so poorly paid they couldn't afford to fire me."

His ability, tenacity and devotion to journalism were evident early. When he was only 20 he single-handedly covered the anti-Semitic Christie Pits Riot in Toronto — one of the darkest episodes in the city's history.

A riot erupted at a baseball game at Christie Pits in August 1933. For three hours, an estimated 10,000 people fought in the park and surrounding streets.

His reporting earned Thomas his first front-page byline. He would go on to break hundreds of stories and his byline appeared regularly on the front page of Canada's largest-circulation newspaper.

Three times he won a National Newspaper Award and in 1995 he was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame.

Funeral services are planned for Saturday, May 8, at the R. S. Kane Funeral Home at 6150 Yonge St.