The Great Depression was biting into Canada when three unemployed men hatched a plot to hold up a small grocery store in Philip Street, a poorly lit cul-de-sac in London, Ontario, run by 65-year-old Samuel Weinstein.
Walter Ramesbottom, 18, was the hold-up man, Henry Quinn, 36, the look-out, and Henry Traxler waited in the comfort of his living-room for the result. But when Ramesbottom pulled his gun the store owner grabbed his arm. They grappled, the gun went off, and Weinstein was fatally wounded.
Plenty of witnesses saw Ramesbottom fleeing from the shop, and the stolen getaway car he was driving was caught in a police roadblock. He was found guilty of murder and hanged on Tuesday, April 26th, 1932. Quinn followed his partner to the same scaffold two months later and Traxler was jailed for two years.