CANADA Canada- Ralph Margeson, 32, taxi driver, robbed & shot in head w. large caliber gun, body dumped in ditch, Dixie Rd., Toronto, 11 November 1947

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2020

MURDER IN '47: Monsters, boozehounds and battered women

Freddie Bussey was a carnie from Regina.

torontosun.com

Toronto taxi driver Ralph Margeson left, was murdered along the QEW.
''Ralph Margeson was a hard-working cab driver who was shot to death on Nov. 11, 1947. His body was found just north of the QEW. Despite police efforts, the killer was never found.''

CRIMESOLVER POST, Toronto Crimes.

CANADA - Canada - Toronto Crimes Discussion

●A cyclist taking an early-morning ride through High Park on Colborne Lodge Rd. on Saturday, December 3rd, 1988, found the bloodied body of 28-year-old Richard Thomas Moore in some bushes near a footpath not far from Grenadier Restaurant. The murdered man, a drifter who worked for a temp...

www.websleuths.com

''32-year-old taxi driver Ralph Margeson was shot to death by a fare or fares on Tuesday, November 11th, 1947. At half past midnight, Margeson had called his dispatcher at Ardee Cab Company saying he was in the vicinity of Roncesvalles Ave. and Dundas St. W., and requesting permission to drive someone who had hailed him to Port Credit, southwest of Toronto. He was granted permission, and it was during the drive to Port Credit, at a point west of the intersection of the Queen Elizabeth Way and Browns Line, that he was shot in the head with a large calibre gun. Margeson's hat was found at that location, and there was evidence his body had been dragged out of and back into his car there. Margeson's body was ultimately dumped in a grassy ditch next to Dixie Rd., about 1.5 km from the shooting scene. The cabbie's wallet and pocket watch had been taken and his trouser pockets turned inside-out.
Margeson's cab was found abandoned in a laneway off Weston Rd. near St. Clair Ave. W., not far from 89 Guestville Ave., where the cabbie lived with his wife and five children. Oddly, on the night of the murder, a prowler tried to break into the Margeson house. Margeson's wife heard footsteps on the veranda and phoned police, but the intruder was gone when they arrived. It is not known if the break-in was connected to the murder.''

 

[Stitching Hippie]

Thank you for creating this dedicated thread to my great uncle, Ralph Margeson. This article was new for me, so I really appreciate the additional information!

 

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Canadian Taxi Driver Homicides: Ralph Cecil Margeson

''Ralph Cecil Margeson

Toronto, Ontario / November 11, 1947

''At about 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 1947 Ralph Margeson telephoned dispatcher Betty Christie to say that he had just completed a trip to Dufferin and Dundas Streets and now had a fare going to Port Credit. He said he would be back in Toronto by 1:15 a.m. It was driver Al Hogg's turn when the call for the Dufferin and Dundas trip came into the Ardee's taxi office. But Mr. Hogg had to get up early the next morning and he wanted to quit for the night. Mr. Margeson agreed to take the trip for him. When Mr. Margeson failed to report back by 2 a.m., Ardee's owner Roland (Roly) Lewis notified the York Township police that his driver was missing. Mr. Margeson was meticulous in reporting his whereabouts and his silence was a cause for worry. As the hours ticked by with no news Lewis also called the Ontario Provincial Police and the police in Toronto, Port Credit and Swanson. Eventually he got in his car and followed the most likely route to Port Credit but found no trace of Mr. Margeson. Meanwhile at about 1:30 a.m. a motorist driving along the Queen Elizabeth Way near Brown's Line spotted something gleaming in his headlights. Stopping to investigate he found Mr. Margeson's cap. It was the chauffeur's badge that had reflected his headlights. Mr. Margeson's name was inside the cap and the motorist phoned his home the next day. That afternoon searchers descended on the area where the cap was found and discovered Mr. Margeson's body in a ditch alongside Dixie Road, north of Queen Elizabeth Way. He had been shot in the head for $15. Mr. Margeson's taxi was found abandoned in a laneway on Weston Road near St. Clair Avenue. There was congealed blood on the floor mat behind the driver's seat. Mr. Margeson, 32, had worked for Ardee's for a year. "He didn't drink or gamble, he would have nothing to do with a fare that wanted to be taken to a joint," said Roly Lewis. "There have been times when I would let him go for a week without asking him to check in his cash. And in this business that's something. I know of several taxi companies who have been after him to work for them." Mr. Margeson often used the office of High Park Taxi to check in to Ardee's by phone. Syd Bailey, the owner, said "Mr. Margeson was one of the most likeable drivers I knew. He wouldn't turn down a drunk no matter how paralysed he was. He operated on the principle that he was providing a public service and had to take the bad customers with the good.

Ralph and Marjorie Margeson. (Source: Toronto Globe & Mail, November 13, 1947, p. 3) "I figure if he got a chance to talk to the guys who were after his money he wouldn't have been killed. He's dead because he didn't get even a chance to plead for his life." Al Hogg felt guilty about giving Mr. Margeson the trip that indirectly led to his death. "If it had been me, that b--- wouldn't have got off so easy," he said. "I can roll out of the front seat of a car in a split second if anyone gets the jump on me from behind. But Ralph -- he was lame. He was pinned to the seat and had to sit there and take it." Mr. Margeson had five children (two girls and three boys) aged from three to nine years. His wife Marjorie was pregnant with a sixth child. A trust fund was established for the family by Toronto businessmen and donations totalled $6,000 by November, 1948. In March, 1948 Marjorie Margeson gave birth to a son whom she named after her late husband.''