Moe Vernon was the owner of an auto repair shop in New York around 1928; he was married with Beatrice. Fred Motz and Hollis Mason's father were his employees. His office had glass sides to watch his employees and a new gramophone in the corner that would play old seventy-eight recordings of opera as loud as it could manage. Although Vernon accepted their apology, he committed suicide that night. Hollis Mason would later note that he could not hear opera music without thinking about how he and the others inadvertently drove Vernon to his death.