Episode 427: In the summer of 1934, John Sackville Labatt was one of the most recognizable names in Canada. The fifty-three-year-old president of John Labatt Limited had spent nearly two decades running one of the country’s largest and oldest breweries, a family business built across three generations and tested by Prohibition, the Depression, and the rum-running trade that kept it alive through both. On the morning of August 14, he left his Lake Huron summer home running late for a meeting and took a shortcut through the forest on a little-used dirt road outside Sarnia. What happened on that road set off the largest manhunt in Canadian history, triggered Canada’s first kidnapping trial, and sent an innocent man to prison for a crime he had nothing to do with.
Sources:
John Sackville Labatt | The Canadian Encyclopedia
John Labatt’s 1934 kidnap | The Star
John Sackville Labatt | Wikipedia
Labatt Brewing Company | Wikipedia
Prohibition in Canada | Wikipedia
Labatt Brewing | Company Site
Lambton County’s Infamous Abduction: The John S. Labatt Kidnapping – Archived
Lambton County’s Infamous Abduction: The John S. Labatt Kidnapping – New
Snatched! by Susan Goldenberg – Ebook | Scribd
The Courier-News • Fri, Aug 17, 1934 • Page 10 • (Bridgewater, New Jersey)
The Courier-News • Fri, Aug 17, 1934 • Page 1 • (Bridgewater, New Jersey)
The Windsor Star • Fri, Aug 17, 1934 • Page 1 • (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)
The Windsor Star • Sat, Sep 08, 1934 • Page 9 • (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)
The Windsor Star • Sat, Feb 01, 1936 • Page 11 • (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)
The Hamilton Spectator • Tue, Sep 11, 1906 • Page 9 • (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)
The Molsons, The Labatts and The St.Johns | StJohnsWort.ca
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