During his night shift on Sunday Nov. 23, 1958, Port Arthur taxi driver Victor Waller stopped off at his home on Velva Avenue to change his trousers. Shortly after 1 a.m. he started back downtown. As he reached the corner of Velva and Balsam Street he was hailed by a man who carried a small black suitcase. The man tossed the suitcase ahead of him as he entered the cab and a powerful explosion followed, shattering windows in nearby houses. The blast tore off the taxi roof which severed overhead power lines and cut off electricity to part of the city. The man was killed instantly and his body thrown 25 feet into a ditch. Mr. Waller was removed from the wreckage and died soon after being admitted to hospital. The suitcase contained a dynamite bomb that was intended for the man's estranged wife who lived on Balsam Street in a basement apartment. The man, a 57-year-old prospector, had earlier threatened to blow up the house where his wife lived with her two sons aged 16 and 20. The owners lived in the same house with their four young children. After phoning the house eight times and being told by the landlady that his wife was not there the man turned up at about 8 p.m. Saturday evening and laid siege to the place. His wife was in fact at home, spending most of the day and evening in her darkened suite or with the landlady. At about midnight the man was seen attempting to remove one of the basement storm windows, but was warned off by the landlady. Before hailing Mr. Waller's cab he tried unsuccessfully to force his way into a neighbour's car. Ontario Provincial Police explosives experts found that the dynamite had been wired to a battery. They surmised that act of tossing the bag into the cab brought loose wires into contact, setting off the explosion.

Victor Waller. (Source: Port Arthur News-Chronicle, November 24, 1958, p. 1.) Mr. Waller, 29, was survived by his wife and three young daughters as well as by his parents and a brother and sister. His taxi's city license number was 13.