MYSTERY WOMAN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20418, 24 September 1934, Page 5

MYSTERY WOMAN.

Alleged Intermediary for Kidnappers. CANADIAN’S ORDEAL. LONDON (Ontario), August S. Canadian authorities seeking the kidnappers of John S. Labatt, wealthy Canadian brewer, centred their search to-night on a mysterious woman who, it is believed, acted as a lookout for the abductors during the time they held Labatt captive, and who also acted as an intermediary with the Labatt family to collect the ransom. The new clue was turned up by the police of Hamilton, Ontario, and" was immediately taken up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The woman was dropped off at Hamilton, police learned, by a group of men who spent Wednesday night at a Hamilton hotel. The men disappeared early on the following morning. It was learned that the mounted police began their search for the woman as long auo as last Thursday. It is believed she was left behind to communicate with Hugh Labatt, younger brother of the brewer, whom the kidnappers had named as the person to pay the ransom. Reveals Escape from Death. She was further seen as the chief source of information for the kidnappers who held Labatt under guard. That they were in close touch with police activities and the movements of Hugh Labatt, the victim himself testified friend of the family. He revealed that last Wednesday night, when outside information led the abductors to believe 1 they would be captured, they sat and ; discussed in his presence the’ best wav | to murder him. Labatt, gagged and with his eves , taped, listened as his guards discussed a choice between cutting his throat or 1 using a garrote as the simplest way to

be rid of him. lie fainted as they coolly debated how to dispose of his body, he said. “Outside of the terrible suspense of the hours when they were planning to murder me, I was well treated,” Labatt said. Despite threats of murder if he assisted the authorities after his release late last Thursday night, it was learned that Labatt is co-operating in the search for his kidnappers. He told the police ; iliat he was taken to a frame shack either in northern Ontario or in the j Muskoka region, for there was a con- , stant smell of pine woods. He said his | captors talked like Canadians, but seemed to have spent some time in the United States. Labatt Goes Into Hiding. Labatt's whereabouts to-night was as J much of a mystery as the amount of j ransom paid, if any. Rumours that he had received further threats was given some credence when it was understood j tliat lie had been spirited from the home • of his brother and taken to a hiding- | place. Authorities denied that lie had been moved, but the police guard which lias stood outside his door was removed for the first time since his release. Rumours over tli * amount of ransom paid continued, and still disagreed. J. C. Elliott, attorney for the Labatt family, said lie believed “about oncthird” of the money demanded—l3o,ooo dollars—-was paid. Authorities to-night were inclined to dismiss the theory that the death of Gordon McKenzie, a worker at the I Labatt brewery, was in any wav conj *>ccted with the kidnapping. McKenzie j was found unconscious in a street dur- | ing the night and died of a head wound I 20 minutes after reaching the hospital, j Coioner J. C. Wilson held an inquest to day, at which only preliminary eviI ilcnce was heard. Denies Any Connection. | At the conclusion Wilson issued the following official statement: “In view of the fact that there are many rumours regarding the McKenzie case, and at the request of the Crown Attorney, I wish to state that the evidence is conclusive, and that there is

no connection whatever between the McKenzie ea&e and the Labatt kidnap* ping.*' Edward Chard, 22, a Toronto youth, was remanded in custody without bail to-day, labelled by officials as a “chieeller” without connection with the kidI nappers, who had tried to extort money independently from the harassed Labatt family. Chard is accused of calliug on ! Hugh iJabatt and demanding 50.000 dol--1 lars for the Brewers release, just be- ! fore he was remanded officials quoted Chard as raying: “I my job in a. | broker’s office, and I had been drinking. If I hadn’t been drunk I wouldn’t have ' done it.” | A threat of abduction was reported | to have been delivered to Harry C. I Hatch, 43. millionaire distiller, who is head of Hiram Walker and Gooderham ! and Worts, bse. Hatch dismissed the i rumour as “brink.”