Charles William Bell

Who was Charles William Bell?

Charles William Bell was a Canadian playwright, lawyer and politician, born in Hamilton, Ontario. He was Rocco Perri's lawyer.

Bell attended Hamilton Collegiate Institute and Trinity College, University of Toronto. He was called to the bar in 1899, after studies at Osgoode Hall. He practiced law in Toronto before moving back to Hamilton, and worked for a couple of local law firms before setting up his own firm, Bell & Yates.

Before 1930 he defended thirteen men on murder charges and all were acquitted. In the mid-1930s he defended David Meisner, accused of kidnapping London Beer Tycoon John Labatt. Despite a valiant effort by Bell to prove Meisner's innocence, the jury found him guilty and the judge sentenced him to 15 years in the Kingston Penetentiary in Ontario. Bell maintained that Meisner was innocent, and wrongly accused, even writing a book about it: "Who Said Murder?" published by Macmillan in Toronto in 1935. It was later found that Meisner was innocent, and he was acquitted.

He entered the world of politics and represented Hamilton West as a Conservative candidate in the 1925 Dominion election and won with a majority of 12,000 votes.