ALIBI COLLAPSES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20539, 14 February 1935, Page 5

ALIBI COLLAPSES.

Kidnapper to Serve Long Term in Prison. RANSOM NOT COLLECTED. NEW YORK, January 6. When John Labatt, wealthy brewer, of London, Ontario, was kidnapped last July and held in an obscure hunting lodge for ten days, abductors who snatched him from his own motor-car, covered his eyes with adhesive tape. Moaning and crying to simulate distress, Labatt was able to see enough from a corner of his left eye to get a good look at the chief kidnapper, who often threatened him with death. Half-starved, Labatt was finally released after giving an order to a brother to pay £50,000 ransom, which, however, was uncollected. In December police arrested David Meisner, a gangster from Cincinnati, who, with much bravado, offered the alibi that he was living quietly at Covington, Kentucky, when the kidnapping occurred. Yesterday two American police officials arrived at London from Kentucky. One spent a miserable afternoon, cross-examined by the Canadian prosecutor concerning the glib alibi. During the night both American officers fled back to U.S. in their own car, leaving Meisner to his fate. Judge M’Farland told the jury he did not believe a word of the alibi evidence, and the defence utterly collapsed. The jury found Meisner guilty, and the judge sentenced him to fifteen years’ imprisonment.