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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-09-05, Page 15r.s a Mystery still revolves around John L7abatt kidnapping 50years ago Searing over 24,OOO4hgmesinListowel, Wingham, Mount Forest., Milverton, Ariss, Arthur, Drayton, Harriston,Moorefield•, Palmerston. Bloomingdale, B,feslac,,Oonestogo, Elmira,'Heideil erg, Linwood, `Maryhill, St. Clements, St. Jacobs,. Wallenstein, Wellesley and West Montrose. r Wednesday, September 5, 1984 From left to right Michael McCardell or McArdle, the Beechwood native w,hd was "Three - Fingered Abe", the brains behind the kid- napping plot. The Labatt home, on London's Central Avenue, directly across from Victoria Park, is still a lovely,, residence although now divided into apartments. Windsor resident John Bannon gave police the clue needed to find Michael McCardell in an' Illinois prison. Horace Prowse of Muskoka and the cot- tage where the kidnappers hid London brewer John Labatt. Michael Francis McCardle or Mc- Cardell and John, alias Basil, Bannon might have been as anonymous as many Perth or Huron County farm boys who exchanged life behind a plough for city jobs. But instead, in 1934, Mc - Carden and Bannon and their cohorts kidnapped London millionaire John Labatt, earning themselves a well- publicized spot in Canada's annals of crime. The Labatt family had summered for three years at Bright's Grove, as Lake Huron resort north of Sarnia, in a home that is now the town library. Like other wealthy Canadians, shocked by the 1932 .Lindbergh _kid lapping and the growth of organized kidnap rings in the U.S., the Labatts feared that their children might be prime targets for gangsters. However, on Aug. 14, 1934, when John Labatt, 54, left the family hideaway to return. to London for a board of direc- tors' meeting, his thoughts were likely more concerned with beer distribution than kidnapping. He had just passed through the sleepy farming town of Camlachie, when a car described as a red -wheeled 1932 Hudson sedan, over- took him on the gravel Egremont Road. The car sped by Labatt's Reo, then sud- denly pulled_across the road in front of him. When the brewer slowed to avoid a collision, three men dashed toward his car, two of them brandishing guns. Sud- denly Labatt heard the words any millionaire dreaded — "Stick 'em up quick. This is a kidnapping." While one kidnapper pocketed $100 from Labatt's wallet the others per- suaded the brewer to write a short note to his brother, Hugh. The note said simply: "Dear Hugh: Do as these men have instructed you to do and don't go to the police. They promise not to harm me if you negotiate with them. Your af- fectionate brother, John." While McCardell and a man named Pegram bustled Labatt into their Hud- son, the third kidnapper, named Knowles, headed off to London to leave the Ileo and the note in some con- spicuous spot. Labatt's eyes were covered with tape and the Hudson head- ed north. Though 'the men stopped at various, times for gas and supplies, Labatt apparently never attempted to escape. The one kidnapper, later revealed to be Beechwood native McCardell, was particularly companionable during the drive, chatting with Labatt about a variety of subjects including other good robbery prospects in the London vicini- ty. As Labatt testified later, the kidnap- per pronounced London's Grosvenor, Street correctly — a fact that indicated by Alice Gibb Photos courtesy. of Alice, Gibb he was someone familiar with the city. While the kidnappers drove Labatt to an isolated Muskoka cottage they . had rented, not far from Bracebridge, Hugh Labatt decided to ignore the gang's order of secrecy. Immediately the pro}, vince's police forces were called into action by Premier Mitch Hepburn. The provincial police set up roadblocks around the Sarnia -London area and the RCMP started contacting U.S. law en- forcement agencies to compile a list of potential suspects. Ironically, in the light of later developments, RCMP Sergeant Ted Weeks and Provincial Police officials did visit a farm .in the Stratford area which was owned by John Bannon's brother. Weeks suspected that Bannon, a well-known Windsor rum -rummer, might be involved in the crime but a search of the farm found neither Labatt nor Bannon. RANSOM NOTE By this time a ransom note, signed by "Three -Fingered Abe", had arrived, advising Hugh Labatt to register in Toronto's Royal York Hotel, with $150,000 in cash and to await further in- structions. Once the kidnapping story broke eager reporters descended on Toronto in droves. Even' the respectable New York Times sent reporters to the "wilds" of Canada to cover the sensa- tional "snatch" of one of the country's wealthier residents. The police, ably assisted by headline -hungry newsmen soon started speculating that Labatt was snatched by a notorious gangster, former Canadian Alvin "Creepy" Kar - pis, a close associate of "Ma" Barker and her boys. For three nights and two days the kid- nappers lay low in Muskoka, reading, playing cards and carefully shaving Labatt, who was still blindfolded and chained to a bed. The brewer, who slept much . of the time, apparently never once tried to escape, leading many peo- ple to later conclude that the snatch Was simply a well -organized publicity stunt to sell Mr. Labatt's beer. , On the third night after the kidnapp- ing, however, a man wandered into the Royal York lobby late at night, stopping in a crowd of lawmen and reporters to ask directions to the Labatt suite. Only London Free Press reporter Howard Broughton learned, by way of a tip, that the nondescript -looking man was John Labatt himself. The two kidnappers in Muskoka, wor- ried about reports of Labatt's poor heart and by the widening police dragnet, had panicked. McCardell and Pegram hired a third man, Gerald Nicholson of Windsor, to drive Labatt and themselves to Toronto. There they hastily dropped the brewery executive on' a street corner, thoughtfully pro- viding him with cab fare.. While Broughton raced back over "fog -ridden roads" to file his sensa- tional scoop; Labatt was returning to London over those 'same roads, driven by lawyer friend, R. G. Ivey, to be reunited with his worried wife about 4:30a.m. POLICE UNAWARE Unfortunately, neither Hugh nor John notified the police of the victim's release, so lawmen continued to act on the assumption that the brewer was still among the missing: By the time they were notified Ontario Attorney General Arthur Roebuck, calculating the cost of all that police overtime to taxpayers, was less than pleased. Also, noted a Free Press report, the "lack of co-operation has meant that there is no riot trail of the abductors." Once he. was rested John Labatt started the tedious search through police mug shots. Finally he picked out a photo of a Huron County native, David Meisner, 55, a former Detroit resident living in Covington, Kentucky. Meisner, who was born nearDungannon, was a small, meek man, nicknamed "the lit- tle Kentucky gambler", whose most distinctive feature was a white cataract in one eye. From the day Meisner turn- ed himself in at a Detroit police station, he swore he was innocent of the kidnap- ping, the victim of some horrible mistake. But while Labatt and some Muskoka -area residents didn't recall Meisner's one white eye, they all swore he was the man they'd seen with Labatt. • The "littlegambler" was convicted and sentenced to serve 15 years in Kingston's Portsmouth Penitentiary. Also convicted, although equally in- nocent, was a younger gambler called "Piccolo Pete" Murray, also from Cov- ington. Murray's wife even hitchhiked to London from the Bluegrass state to protest her husband hadn't left Ken- tucky during the kidnap period, but her pleas werent' headed. Kingdon Murray started serving a 15 -year sentence in the Middlesex County jail. MICHAEL McCARDELL The man police really sought, of course, was handsome, 42 -year-old Michael " McCard ll, who had left Beechwood in 1908 to work as a carpenter and railway switcher in Alabama, until turning to Less legal means of earning his daily bread. BY the time the gangster was captured on • June 22, 1935, in an Indiana swamp 'known locally as Gangland's Graveyard, his family hadn't seen' him for 26 years. In a shootout with police McCardell's car was riddled with 38 bullets, one finger was shot 'away and he was wounded in one arm. He ended up in the Crown Point, Indiana, jail — the same prison that housed the notorious John Dillinger. On July 23, a banner headline in the Free Press announced, "Nab Suspect in Labatt Kidnapping. Beechwood Natives Sure Accused Man Michael Mc- Cardell:" Although the gangster had been jailed under one of his several aliases, when John Labatt arrived at the prison, he almost immediately iden- tified McCardell as "Three -Fingered Abe", the brains behind the ill-fated kidnapping. In fact it was McCardell who had sent a letter to the Labatts three months after the "snatch", ask- ing for a $25,000 reward for "a million dollars' worth of publicity, free of charge" that the,' kidnappers had pro- vided for Labatt Breweries. When McCardell met Labatt again in 1935, he greeted the brewer like a long lost friend, reeling off topics the men had discussed during Labatt's captivi- ty. Once he was back in London, Mc- Cardell, who displayed a fine Irish wit throughout his appearances in court, wasted no time in not only confessing, but also implicating Bannon, a Chatham native called Albert Pegram, and Russell Knowles, a university -- educated American engineer from Detroit who was known to have gangland connections. McCardell wasted little sympathy on Perth County native Bannon, who had turned in- former and sold information on both Meisner and McCardell to RCMP Sergeant Weeks for a $500 payoff. Asked why he suddenly confessed, the affable McCardell said, "It seemed logical to me that if (the courts) would convict an innocent man, they wouldn't. have much trouble convicting a guilty dne." While admittedly Meisner and. Mc- Cardell were old acquaintances, and had discussed the proposed kidnapping plot with Knowles and Bannon, Mc- Cardell testified the "little Kentucky gambler" had wanted nothing to do with the plan. LONDONER NAMED While McCardell's testimony ex- onerated both Meisner and Pete Mur- ray, it just as clearly implicated Knowles, Bannon, Pegram and surpris- ingly, a London resident named Louis McCaughey. Unlike the others, Mc- Caughey o rated on the had neverpe fringes of the law. In face, he was sales manager at Labatt's, a trusted employee for over a decade. While Mc- Cardell testified McCaughey had no.ac- tual role in the "snatch" but was in for a five -way split of the ransom, the court acquitted the Londoner. Despite.his ac- quittal, he was fired from the brewery. On August 27, 1935, Murray was retried and quickly acquitted after ser- ving seven months for a crime he didn't commit. When asked about his plans, Murray told .reporters, "I am going to send a wire to my wifeand then I am going to see if John Labatt's beer is as bad as his eyesight." He later launched a $50,000 damage suit against Labatt for "alleged malicious prosecution and wrongful imprisonment." While th is no evidence he ever received an ou - of -court settlement, Murray did pro- sper in later life, owning a successful tavern called The Rainbow Club and making some very successful real estate investments before his death in 1978. Meisner wasn't acquitted and freed until March, 1936, after spending 18 months in Portsmouth prison in Kingston. Almost penniless on his release, he went to live temporarily with ' a sister in Windsor, telling reporters that he was certain his unjust prison sentence had led to his mother's early death. In. later years he and ghostwriter Hal J. Miller wrote a booklet about the Labatt case to help pay Meisner's legal fees but local libraries have neither a copy of the booklet nor any information on Meisner'sventual fate. 12-VEAR SENTENCE McCardell, by good-naturedly con- fessing all, received a reduced 12 -year sentence on Nov. 2, 1935: When asked, after sentencing, if he had any final words for the court, McCardell rose and addressed John Labatt. "I wish to say that while Mr. Labatt was held captive, he was never in any danger of personal injury. I also wish him to know that there will never be any reprisal against him or members of his family for co-operating with the police or testifying in court." The crown prosecutor noted, in return, "If anyone but McCardell had been in charge, I believe Mr. Labatt would have lost his life. A weaker or more vicious man would have killed him." McCardell served 12 years in Kingston prison an settled in Windsor on his release. Perhaps day jobs still didn't appeal to the bachelor, since 14 months after his release' he robbed the People's Fruit Company. That earned him another five years in the peniten- tiary. In 1950, when he was 58, McCardell died of cancer in a Windsor hospital. No family members attended his funeral and burial in St: Alphonsus Cemetery. John or Basil Bannon, a self -described Windsor real estate agent, and father of. three children, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, despite Sergeant Weeks' plea that he be tried only on con- spiracy charges. Ironically, Bannon was convicted primarily on McCardell's testimony — and plice learned about McCardell from Bannon. Throughout his trial Bannon joked with guards and traded wisecracks with the prosecutor. This wasn't his first appearancein a courtroom since Bannon had been a key witness in the trial of Rev. J. O. Spracklin of Sand- wich, accused some years before of shooting a local saloon owner. Bannon's photo and a description of the Spracklin case appear in a book called "The Rumrunners", published in 1980 by Windsor author C. H. Gervais. Albert Pegram supposedly fled Can- ada shortly after the kidnapping and it was later rumored he was "rubbed out" by other small-time gangsters. What- ever happened, Pegram was never found or , brought to trial. Russell Knowles, in turn, was also sentenced to 15 years in Kingston prison and spent his time there employed in the prison li- brary. While John Labatt was physically unharmed during the "snatch", his life was undeniably affected " by the ex- perience. He had armour-plated glass installed in his office windows and paid a trusted employee to live in the family's Central Avenue home for more protection. The already quiet, unas- suming man became even more so in later life, dying at age 72 while relaxing at the family's Port Stanley summer home. While the kidnapping took place ex- actly 50 years ago, many mysteries about the "snatch" remain unanswered. Why did Labatt, and the Muskoka witnesses, positively identify two completely innocent men? Did Louis McCaughey and a Chicago gangster called Ernest Rossi, really have any actual involvement in plotting the crime? What happened to David Meisner in later life and why did two Perth and Huron County boys, named McCardell and Bannon, decide life on the straight and narrow just wasn't their cup of bootlegged gin?