Auguste Gagner, 38, was the father of four children. He died of injuries following savage beating he received in the early morning of Friday, September 14, 1956. Newspaper reports referred to his having tried to break up a fight, or having become involved in a fistfight, but these versions seem to have been speculative accounts given to reporters after the fact by people who did not witness the incident. Actual witnesses had a much simpler story to tell: Mr. Gagner was the innocent victim of an unprovoked attack by a drunken thug. Mr. Gagner was evidently cruising for fares at about 2 a.m. along St. Catherine Street in the heart of downtown Montréal. He pulled up and double parked near the intersection of St. Catherine and St. Dominique streets, possibly attracted by the 60 or 70 people who were gathered in the area. Just before Mr. Gagner arrived, a white couple were engaged in an argument with a 24-year-old Black man whom they accused of robbing them. The couple left just as Mr. Gagner pulled up. According to one witness, the young man attacked Mr. Gagner as soon as he got out of his cab. Another witness said Mr. Gagner got as far as the sidewalk and picked up a jacket that was lying there. The attacker said "Give me my jacket!" and immediately began pummelling him. Neither witness said anything about the taxi driver intervening in a fight, or taking part in one. The attacker knocked Mr. Gagner to the ground and then began kicking him while another Black man shouted "Kill him! Kill him!" The attacker then ran off. By the time police arrived Mr. Gagner was on his feet but he was having difficulty breathing. A police officer said he would drive him to a hospital but Mr. Gagner refused, saying he could make it there on his own. Mr. Gagner seems not to have realized how badly he was hurt. He was initially reluctant to report the incident but another taxi driver convinced him to make formal complaint and accompanied him to a police station. By now Mr. Gagner was in serious distress. Police took him to St. Luke's Hospital where he was put under an oxygen tent but he died early Saturday morning. His lung had been punctured by two broken ribs and his larynx was fractured. Doctors said his life probably could have been saved if he had gone to the hospital sooner.

St. Catherine Street at night, about 1952 judging by the Palace Theatre marquee. "Lydia Bailey," starring Anne Francis, was released in 1952. (Source: "St. Catherine St. at night, Montreal Que. Canada" (detail). Plastichrome postcard published by Benjamin News Company, Montreal, via Hippostcard.) Police had no difficulty identifying the attacker. He was well known to them under both his real name and an alias. After they went to his rooming house and found that he had decamped, they released his name to the newspapers. Meanwhile the killer confessed to another taxi driver that he had beaten Mr. Gagner to death. The taxi driver persuaded him to surrender to police and, early on Sunday morning, took him to a local newspaper reporter who acted as an intermediary. The killer said he was too drunk to remember exactly what happened. The killer was charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter. At his sentencing in May, 1957 Mr. Justice Wilfrid Lazure noted that his criminal record included repeated charges for breaking, entering and theft and for assault on police officers as well as a charge for indecent assault. "I realize you were drunk," he said, "but the position you find yourself in is the result of continuous drunkenness and your violent character." The killer was sentenced to 12 years in prison.