HIGHGRADING, PT. 2 OPP formed Gold Squad following 1938 gold theft

The time: 3 a.m., June 7, 1938. Using a small hacksaw, two men cut two steel bars from a small chest-high window at the rear of the Dome mine refinery in South Porcupine, Ont., and climbed in. Moments later, they scrambled away with several metal pails containing $41,000 worth of gold precipitates. They were Otto Fabbro, 33, an unemployed laborer, and Nick West, 22, a prize fighter and gambler from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Fabbro and West placed the pails in the trunk of Fabbro’s getaway car, which he had borrowed from his brother Joe. Joe Fabbro later became one of the more celebrated mayors of Sudbury, Ont. The police investigation eventually revealed that Joe had no idea what his brother Otto had planned to do with the car that night.

Ontario Provincial Police inspector Charles Gurnett led the search for what the public thought were unknown bandits. Gurnett took over the case from the Timmins and Tisdale police departments at the request of Timmins Police chief Leo Gagnon.

Gagnon and his force received information within 24 hours that Otto Fabbro might be one of the suspects. Fabbro claimed to be home in bed at the time of the robbery.

On the night of July 5, 1938, Fabbro was spotted by a Timmins police constable who was on a downtown foot patrol. Fabbro walked into a cigar store in his slippers and purchased three cartons of cigarettes.

The constable alerted Dome investigators that he thought Fabbro was stocking up on cigarettes for some type of a lengthy trip.

Fabbro and West left the city a few hours later in a used car and headed south toward North Bay.

A police tail was bungled and Fabbro and West disappeared. They didn’t turn up until the next day at a lodge several miles from the town of Temagami, and 125 miles south of Timmins.

Fabbro and West rented a cabin. The owner, suspicious that neither of the men seemed interested in fishing or hunting, called the Temagami O.P.P.

Constable Bert Braney was dispatched to the lodge. Nick West bolted from his chair and dove out a rear window. Braney pushed the door open and wrestled Fabbro to the floor where he placed him under arrest. West was long gone.

Next, constable Braney went to inspect Fabbro’s car. Tucked behind the rear seat were five canvas bags containing the 375 lb. of precipitates.

The next day Nick West turned himself in to a magistrate in Sudbury. West and Fabbro each received 5-year prison terms. Fabbro was transferred to a Manitoba prison after he tried to kill one of his fellow Ontario inmates, another highgrader he suspected turned him in.

In September, 1938, the Ontario government announced the creation of the Ontario Provincial Police Gold Squad, whose job it would be to put an end to gold thievery.

The gold squad is the topic of my next column.