“North Bay Man Sentenced for Powassan Theft,” North Bay Nugget. October 12, 1938. Page 7.
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Harry Leblanc Given Three Years, Accomplice Gets Four Months
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Powassan, Oct. 12— (Special to The Nugget) — Henry Leblanc, 30, of North Bay, was sentenced to three years In Kingston penitentiary, Tuesday, when he pleaded guilty here before Magistrate J. H. McCurry to a charge of breaking and entering the garage of Walter H. Jessup at Powassan and stealing a car a quantity of tires and inner tubes and other goods on September 23.
Lionel Augier, 21, of North Bay, Leblanc’s companion, pleaded not guilty to the actual breaking and entering but admitted driving Leblanc to and from Powassan. He was sentenced to four months at Burwash Industrial Farm.
The men came before Magistrate McCurry in court held at the Powassan town hall. Crown Attorney H. Stone of Parry Sound conducted the prosecution.
Sold Stolen Tire
Augier was arrested by provincial police of the North Bay detachment and Constable H. Finger, OPP, of Powassan, several days after the theft when he attempted to sell a tire in North Bay. He admitted driving Leblanc to Powassan in his truck and said the other man had the stolen car. The markers had been changed, he told police. The goods stolen from Powassan were recovered in a cache near Sand Dam, where the two men had been cutting wood.
Leblanc was arrested a few days ago in Kirkland Lake and was returned to Powassan.
According to police, the man has a record dating back to 1924 and just recently finished serving a three-year term for breaking and entering at Sudbury.
In passing sentence, Magistrate McCurry stressed that Augier had been implicated in the matter by Leblanc whom he described as a ‘hard criminal’. Since Augier knew of the older man's criminal record, the magistrate said he should have known better than to associate with him. He was made the "goat" of the affair by Leblanc and for that reason the court was lenient.
[AL: Leblanc was actually 39, born in North Bay, and separated from his wife due to his previous prison term. He was a lumberjack, but had had trouble finding work after release from his last sentence. He had actually served five previous terms in reformatories. Contrary to the judge’s lecture, the reason Leblanc and Augier were working together is because Leblanc’s sister was married to the younger man. Leblanc was convict #5247, worked in the quarry at Kingston Penitentiary, and was released in February 1941.]