John Sackville Labatt

John Sackville Labatt (1880 - July 8, 1952) was president of the Labatt brewing company and a prominent kidnapping victim.

He was one of nine children of John Labatt, and was educated at Trinity College School and McGill University. It was him and his brother, Hugh Francis Labatt, who took up management of the firm upon their father's death in 1915. John Sackville became president of the company, and would hold that position for several decades. In 1926 he married Elizabeth Anne Lynch. With her he had three children, John Pridham, Arthur, and Ruston.

On August 14, 1934 Labatt was returning to his office in London, Ontario from his cottage on Lake Huron near Sarnia. Soon after leaving his cottage, his car was forced to stop by another vehicle, and Labatt was abducted at gunpoint. He was forced to write a letter to his brother Hugh, telling him to go to the Royal York Hotel to wait further instructions. Labatt was then taken to a cottage on Lake Muskoka near Bracebridge, Ontario, where he was blindfolded and chained to a bed.

The three kidnappers were Michael Francis McCardell, known as Three Fingered Abe, Albert Pegram, and Russell Knowles. Knowles drove Labatt's car to London, and after placing the note inside it sent word to Hugh Labatt about its location. Hugh did proceed to the Royal York and began gathering money to pay the ransom, but word got out and generated a media furor. Reporters massed at the Royal York and in London.

This caused the kidnappers to panic, and they decided to release Labatt, and he was unchained form the bed after three days of captivity. They drove him to Toronto and released him on St. Clair Avenue in the Forest Hill neighbourhood. They gave him cab fare and then fled. Labatt travelled to the Royal York, to meet his brother. It took some moments for the gathered crowd of reporters to realize who had just walked in the door, but when it was revealed pandemonium erupted.

Two of the kidnappers were later arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in jail, the third was killed in the United States soon after. While unharmed, the experience deeply affected Labatt and he became a near recluse for the rest of his life.

Further reading

*Susan Goldenberg "Snatched! : The Peculiar Kidnapping of Beer Tycoon John Labatt" Dundurn Press, September 2004

References

*Adam Mayers. "A heady week in 1934" "The Toronto Star." Jun 22, 2007
*"John S. Labatt" "The Globe and Mail" July 9, 1952
* [http://www.londonhistory.org/kidnap.htm The London and Middlesex Historical Society - Three Fingered Abe and the Labatt Kidnapping]