Matt Owens Rees

Uncovering the Crimes of a Welsh Godfather

True crime records from 1934 to 1948 of the Godfather’s activities, his later philanthropic endeavours in local communities, and how the inheritance from his Mafia operations is being used today.

 
The Godfather and his son Eric Williams
(from family Photograph albums)

How the Godfather Became so Powerful

John Osborn Williams (28 March 1886 – 6 July 1963) was the owner of the logging and pit-prop exporting business known as The Labrador Development Company Ltd based in Port Hope Simpson, Newfoundland from 1934–1948.

The business became the basis for his wealth and power. His skill in negotiating with governments and his ruthless business methods enabled him to found his own mafia family.

Williams discussed his business objectives with Sir John Hope Simpson, the Commissioner of Natural Resources and Acting Commissioner of Justice 1934–36, and Thomas Lodge, Commissioner of Public Utilities from 1934–1937. They believed he could develop the Labrador Development Company for the benefit of the country and its people.
 
But, the Godfather had manoeuvred them into positions where they had to accept his authoritarian approach to running the company.

They gained financially from working for him. They were effectively part of this extended mafia family. A mafia family is not solely comprised of blood relatives.

They believed his crime was that he had deliberately and fraudulently misled them and was only interested in ensuring the business would benefit the mafia family he was creating.

The government’s view was that Williams was helping to “develop” Newfoundland by creating jobs for those who would otherwise be unemployed.

The Godfather’s Criminal Tactics being Investigated

He gave his workers rations of beans and porridge and forced them to buy deteriorating food at high prices from his company store. Williams’ son, Eric, was sent out to ensure that no-one would be allowed to compete against Williams’ monopolistic high prices.

Police Superintendent O’Neil was told to investigate the workers’ complaints but declared that they had no valid grounds for their grievances. His report is understandable given that the government’s concern was to get people into work, ignoring the Godfather’s criminal methods of controlling his workers.

O’Neil admitted that the Godfather’s development plans were totally inadequate, but he was never reprimanded for that.

The Godfather knew that any criticism of him would reflect adversely on those in the UK and Newfoundland who had not carried out any due diligence on his plans, actions, and previous business background.

In November 1934, Sir John Hope Simpson returned to England to meet with officials at the Dominions Office. They quickly realised that the 400 workers’ houses promised by the Godfather, and for which he had been paid, had not been built. The money had been borrowed from the government under false pretenses.
English Parliament and a Lord Chief Justice Involved

The link below takes you to a debate in Parliament on 9 July 1935. It proves thatthe U.K. parliament was already concerned but fearful of too much being revealed. 

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1935-07-09/debates/9438edb3-6acb-4390-85d2-43c2b1862cf1/LabradorDevelopmentCompany
                   
A government director was appointed to the company’s board in 1940, resulting in a Public Enquiry into its affairs in 1945 by Chief Justice Dunfield. He emphasised that J.O.’s personal qualities of drive and persistence were outweighed by his numerous criminal deceptions.

When Chief Justice Dunfield’s report on the public enquiry came out it meant the Dominions Office’s plan to discredit Williams’ character had seriously backfired. The government wanted the report buried after local publication in order to cover up its own involvement.

Chadwick, an influential official of the Dominions Office said on 29 June 1945, “on the whole, I should imagine that the Commission will be content to bury the main bodies of both reports as deeply as their publication locally permits.”

Judge Dunfield found that Williams had run out the cash necessary to continue operating.  He considered that the government was also negligent by pressing Williams to cut more timber merely to provide work for the people and to repay the capital and interest on the government loans.

Dunfield’s conclusion was that neither Williams nor the government fully appreciated how much the Port Hope Simpson project would cost and so the company was under-funded right from the start. It maintained the company lacked the funds for the planned expansion of operations.

The Lord Chief Justice acknowledged Williams’ ruthlessness in business but lacked the management skills of a leader. J.O. had already admitted as much in conversations. He also emphasised that the government lacked the type of officials who could work successfully with Williams.

The officials y did not realise that he wanted to get as much money as possible from the UK and Newfoundland governments, not using his own considerable wealth from his operations in Cardiff, South Wales.

Williams left Port Hope Simpson in 1948.

The Godfather uses a top barrister to pressurise and influence the government

To justify the good works done by Williams, his counsel emphasised, at the public enquiry in 1945 chaired by Judge Dunfield, that the company had rendered every possible service at considerable cost to himself to provide work for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

He claimed that J.O. had adhered to the agreement made with the government on 30 April 1934. Williams’ counsel claimed that after years of work the company had stabilised and had built up an efficient unit of workers who took an interest in their work and respected their employers.

Williams’ counsel made a strong case. No-one questioned how much J.O. was making or that he was using government (taxpayers) money. For their part, the governments did not want to admit their failures to control J.O. or their lack of careful scrutiny of his original proposals and plans. The Godfather knew he had outmaneuvered them and they would not want to lose face.

Something of the Godfather’s Character

In the early hours of 3 February 1940, J.O.’s son, Eric Arthur Williams, his daughter-in-law (Olga d’Anitoff Williams), and their daughter (Erica d’Anitoff Williams) died in a house fire in Port Hope Simpson. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Serious Crimes Unit, which suspected foul play, opened their investigations as late as August 2002, 39 years after J.O.’s death.

The unit quoted, “Williams…betrayed the people and no doubt this would have stirred the pot enough for someone to have taken drastic measures by their own hands and started the fire at the house that led to the deaths of Eric, Olga, and Erica, his infant daughter.”

No reports on the deaths in Port Hope Simpson for February 1940 have ever been found. No medical report from the doctor who attended Olga at the scene of the three deaths has been found. No death certificates for Arthur Eric Williams, Olga d’Anitoff Williams and Erica D’Anitoff Williams have been found.

According to original correspondence held by the 1945 enquiry, Keith Yonge, J.O.’s store manager, ordered that the bodies should be quickly buried and a concrete headstone inscribed and erected.

The Godfather insisted that the original tombstone with Olga D’Anitoff’s name on it be removed. A granite memorial stone, cut from the Preseli Hills of South Wales, and without mention of Olga, was shipped out by the Godfather, replacing the smaller original headstone.

After the three deaths, J.O.Williams forbade any talk of his daughter-in-law. Olga was the grand-daughter of a Russian count. There are letters in the UK national archives stating she was of poor character. The UK government collecting so much information on the Godfather demonstrates their fear of him.

The Godfather took advantage of the British government

The British treasury tried to cover themselves for any loss if the company became bankrupt and could not pay its debts, and to avoid any claims for compensation which the Godfather might make.

They offered to waive the interest on their loans from 30 June 1940 to 20 November 1945. In 1946 the Godfather was offered a new contract. The export of timber by J.O.’s company would be free of all tax from 1946 to 1955, and a reduced rate of export tax would apply from 1956 to 1966. Royalties on cutting timber were waived.

Williams admitted, in a letter to Keith Yonge, the company store manager, that he had enough money to continue operations but wanted to get as big a concession from the government as possible before disclosing his financial strength.

The Cover-Up The affairs of the Godfather’s operations were hushed-up because, in the lead up to the Second World War, a climate of trust in our political leaders was vital and good for morale. Neither the United Kingdom nor its steadfast ally, Newfoundland, wanted the Godfather’s criminal activities to be revealed.

International governments and individuals, having gained financially from Williams’ ruthless criminal activities, were afraid his activities drew attention to their own involvement in the operations of The Labrador Development Company.

There was Always an Aura Around the Godfather
Johnny Illsley was around 14 when his grand-father died. I was 15. We only learnt that he was a mafia boss when Johnny’s mother died in 1996 aged 84, and the Godfather’s letters, photos, and other evidence of his criminal activities were inherited by Johnny.

The results of Freedom of Information requests, some are still redacted, corroborate the family records.

Johnny inherited the Godfather’s aura, and is using the vast family wealth, gained initially though criminal activity, for the benefit of the local community.