William Puddington, known affectionately as “Pop” to those who knew him, was a fixture in the city of Saint John, New Brunswick. At 72 years old, the male taxi driver was a veteran of his trade, having spent 35 years behind the wheel navigating the city streets. He was a husband, a father, and a grandfather, a man known for his reliability and experience. His long career had made him a familiar and trusted face in the community, so much so that customers would sometimes ask for him by name.
That is what happened on the night of October 6, 1949. Around 11:00 p.m., a call came into the Diamond Taxi office. The dispatcher, Gladys Johansen, took a request for a cab to pick up two passengers on Beaverbrook Avenue in the Portland Place neighborhood for a trip to Millidgeville. The caller specifically said, “Send Pop.” Johansen relayed the fare to Puddington, who was waiting at the Merchant Navy Officer's Club. By 11:15 p.m., he was on his way. Police later determined the call likely originated from a payphone in Portland Place, where a woman reported seeing one man on the phone while another waited nearby.
Shortly before midnight, another motorist found his path blocked by an abandoned taxi parked in the middle of the Somerset Road Extension. It was Puddington’s car. Police were called to the scene and found his hat resting on the back seat, but the driver was nowhere in sight. A search began immediately, tragically ending about an hour later. It was Puddington's own son, Edwin, also a taxi driver, who made the grim discovery. Following his father’s likely route, Edwin decided on a hunch to check the narrow, winding Boar’s Head Road. There, his headlights illuminated his father's body lying in a ditch beside the remote track.
William Puddington had been brutally bludgeoned to death. An autopsy would later confirm the cause of death was a fractured skull. The murder weapon, his car’s own bumper jack, was found discarded in the brush about twelve feet from his body. The scene told a story of a violent struggle. A pool of blood stained the road, and more was found on the rocks and mud at the bottom of the ditch where he lay. The motive appeared to be robbery; Puddington’s keys were missing, along with the estimated $26 he was carrying. The location of the murder was only about two miles from where the fatal fare had been dispatched.
The Saint John Police, with assistance from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), launched a thorough investigation. They processed the taxi, the recovered bumper jack, and the phone booth for fingerprints, but the search yielded no immediate suspects. The case file contains extensive notes from the investigation, but ultimately, all leads ran cold. No arrests were ever made in connection with the murder of William Puddington, and the case has remained unsolved for over seven decades.
William Puddington was survived by his wife, his son Edwin, and two brothers. His violent death sent a shockwave through the Saint John community, a place where he was a well-known and respected figure after more than three decades of service. The murder highlighted the inherent dangers faced by taxi drivers, a risk that remains a reality in the profession to this day.
The homicide of William "Pop" Puddington is now considered a cold case. It is remembered as one of New Brunswick's oldest and most perplexing unsolved crimes. Despite the passage of time, the file remains open, a silent testament to a life cut short by a senseless act of violence. There is no information to suggest a reward has ever been offered for information leading to the resolution of this case. The Saint John Police Department continues to hold the records for this investigation.
