Three-Fingered Abe: The Kidnapping of John S. Labatt

**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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices