Yesterday's
hold-up at the Imperial Bank in Langton, followed by the slaying of two
South Middleton men, marked the second time in less than five years that
this bank branch has been the scene of an armed robbery.
At 11 o'clock on
the morning of September 12, 1945, four bandits, three masked and armed,
entered the bank, held up the staff and made their getaway in a car with
loot totaling approximately $35,000. Clarence Hodson of Langton, who was
in the bank at the time, narrowly escaped being shot when one of the
bandits fired a revolver after Manager James Brawley, now manager of the
Simcoe branch, refused to open the safe.
After being at
large for only two weeks, several suspects were arrested and four of
them brought to trial. They were sentenced by His Honour Judge G. A. P.
Bickenden in court here on December 5, 1945. The terms imposed were as
follows: Gail Hastings of Windsor, 12 years in Kingston Penitentiary,
with 20 lashes; Gerald Blackburn of Windsor and Dominic Minnillo of
Windsor and Ottawa, 10 years and [...] [lashes] and William [Vance] of
Windsor, driver of the bandit car, two years less one day determinate
and two years less a day indeterminate in the Guelph Reformatory.
