The Beatle Bandit

The Beatle Bandit PDF Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459748123
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
The sensational true story of how a bank robber killed a man in a wild shootout, sparking a national debate around gun control and the death penalty. WINNER of the 2022 Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book On July 24, 1964, twenty-four-year-old Matthew Kerry Smith disguised himself with a mask and a Beatle wig, hoisted a semi-automatic rifle, then held up a bank in North York, Ontario. The intelligent but troubled son of a businessman and mentally ill mother, Smith was a navy veteran with a young Indigenous wife and a hazy plan for violent revolution. Outside the bank, Smith was confronted by Jack Blanc, a former member of the Canadian and Israeli armies, who brandished a revolver. During a wild shootout, Blanc was killed, and Smith escaped — only to become the object of the largest manhunt in the history of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force. Dubbed “The Beatle Bandit,” Smith was eventually captured, tried, and sentenced to hang. His murderous rampage had tragic consequences for multiple families and fuelled a national debate about the death penalty, gun control, and the insanity defence.

The Beatle Bandit

The Beatle Bandit PDF Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459748123
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Get Book

Book Description
The sensational true story of how a bank robber killed a man in a wild shootout, sparking a national debate around gun control and the death penalty. WINNER of the 2022 Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book On July 24, 1964, twenty-four-year-old Matthew Kerry Smith disguised himself with a mask and a Beatle wig, hoisted a semi-automatic rifle, then held up a bank in North York, Ontario. The intelligent but troubled son of a businessman and mentally ill mother, Smith was a navy veteran with a young Indigenous wife and a hazy plan for violent revolution. Outside the bank, Smith was confronted by Jack Blanc, a former member of the Canadian and Israeli armies, who brandished a revolver. During a wild shootout, Blanc was killed, and Smith escaped — only to become the object of the largest manhunt in the history of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force. Dubbed “The Beatle Bandit,” Smith was eventually captured, tried, and sentenced to hang. His murderous rampage had tragic consequences for multiple families and fuelled a national debate about the death penalty, gun control, and the insanity defence.

Edwin Alonzo Boyd

Edwin Alonzo Boyd PDF Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
ISBN: 1551539683
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
Edwin Boyd woke up, rolled out of bed, and got ready to rob his first bank. He began his preparations by disguising himself. He shoved wads of cotton into his cheeks and nostrils, smeared black mascara on his eyebrows, and rubbed rouge on his cheeks. This book will be especially fascinating for all readers interested in: history, biography, true crime. Toronto's dashing "Gentleman Bank Robber" was a charismatic felon who masterminded a series of daring robberies with his legendary gang. The most famous bank robber Canada has ever produced was responsible for a three-year crime spree which caught the public's imagination and made him an instant celebrity.

Al Capone

Al Capone PDF Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459749189
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
Chicago mob legend Al Capone set the template for future crime bosses, offering a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of being an underworld leader. Al Capone could have pursued an honest career and quiet life with his wife and son. Instead, he chose to become a towering mob boss in Chicago, overseeing an underworld empire based on bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and other rackets. Quick to recognize the value of sympathetic media coverage and alliances with local politicians, Capone amassed almost unimageable wealth, prestige, and power. He also had syphilis which affected his judgement and a violent streak which brought him to the attention of federal authorities. While rival gangs couldn’t kill Capone, he faced a more formidable challenge when bureaucrats began scrutinizing his tax returns. This concise account tells the story of America’s best-known gangster in a succinct, descriptive manner.

My Brother's Keeper

My Brother's Keeper PDF Author: Bryan Prince
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459705718
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
The stirring story of African Canadians who had fled slavery and oppression in the United States but returned to enlist in the Union forces in the American Civil War.

American Gangsters, Then and Now

American Gangsters, Then and Now PDF Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313354529
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
A detailed compendium of American gangsters and gangs from the end of the Civil War to the present day. American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia ranges from Western outlaws revered as Robin Hoods to the Depression's flamboyant bootleggers and bank robbers to the late 20th century's drug kingpins and "Dapper Dons." It is the first comprehensive resource on the gangster's historical evolution and unshakable grip on the American imagination. American Gangsters, Then and Now tells the stories of a number of famous gangsters and gangs—Jesse James and Billy the Kid, the Black Hand, Al Capone, Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels, the Mafia, Crips and Bloods, and more. Avoiding sensationalism, the straightforward entries include biographical portraits and historical background for each subject, as well as accounts of infamous robberies, killings, and other events, all well documented with both archival newspapers and extensive research into the files of the FBI. Readers will understand the families, the places, and the times that produced these monumental criminals, as well as the public mindset that often found them sympathetic and heroic.

Dutch Schultz

Dutch Schultz PDF Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459749162
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
While uncouth, unpredictable, and unpopular with his mob peers, ruthless gang boss Dutch Schultz was also wildly successful — for a time. Gang boss Dutch Schultz rose to prominence in the 1920s using violent means to peddle low-quality bootleg beer in New York City. When Prohibition ended, Schultz diversified into other rackets, becoming fantastically wealthy in the process. Playing by his own rules, “The Dutchman” always seemed to come out on top in conflicts with cops, courts, and disloyal members of his own crew. Uncouth and unpredictable, Schultz was also unpopular with his mob peers who conspired against him. Shot in a restaurant ambush, Schultz”s delirious hospital-bed rants cemented his idiosyncratic legacy. This concise account highlights the short, violent life of one of America”s strangest gangsters.

The Whisky King

The Whisky King PDF Author: Trevor Cole
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 1443442259
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
“True-crime writing at its finest.” —Dean Jobb, author of Empire of Deception A rich and fascinating history of Canada’s first celebrity mobster, Rocco Perri—King of the Bootleggers—and the man who pursued him, Canada’s first undercover Mountie, for readers of Erik Larson, Dean Jobb and Charlotte Gray At the dawn of the 20th century, two Italian men arrived in Canada amid waves of immigration. One, Rocco Perri, from southern Italy, rose from the life of a petty criminal on the streets of Toronto to running the most prominent bootlegging operation of the Prohibition era, taking over Hamilton and leading one of the country’s most influential crime syndicates. Perri was feared by his enemies and loved by the press, who featured him regularly in splashy front-page headlines. So great was his celebrity that, following the murder of his wife and business partner, Bessie Starkman, a crowd of 30,000 thronged the streets of Hamilton for her funeral. Perri’s businesses—which included alcohol, drugs, gambling and prostitution—kept him under constant police surveillance. He caught the interest of one man in particular, the other arrival from Italy, Frank Zaneth. Zaneth, originally from the Italian north, joined the RCMP and became its first undercover investigator—Operative No. 1. Zaneth’s work took him across the country, but he was dogged in his pursuit of Rocco Perri and worked for his arrest until the day Perri was last seen, in 1944, when he disappeared without a trace. With original research and masterful storytelling, Cole details the fascinating rise to power of a notorious Prohibition-era Canadian crime figure twinned with the life of the man who pursued him.

The Flying Bandit

The Flying Bandit PDF Author: Heather Robertson
Publisher: Lorimer
ISBN: 9780888625205
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
In December 1957, Kenny Leishman came to Toronto from Winnipeg and robbed his first bank. By the time he disappeared in a plane crash over northern Ontario 22 years later, he was a legend. Smooth talking, flashy, with a string of bank jobs to his credit, Leishman catapulted into the national spotlight--and into the hearts of millions of Canadians--by pulling off the biggest gold heist in the country's history. Canadians cheered on the man they affectionately dubbed The Flying Bandit. From coast to coast, in small towns and big cities, everyone wanted Leishman to get away with it. His status as a folk hero was assured. Based on Leishman's private diaries, extensive research and personal interviews with family and friends, The Flying Bandit recreates the life and times of one of Canada's most flamboyant criminals.

The Castleton Massacre

The Castleton Massacre PDF Author: Sharon Anne Cook
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 145974988X
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
A former United Church minister massacres his family. What led to this act of femicide, and why were his victims forgotten? On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She (and her brother) lived to tell the story of what motivated a talented man who had been widely admired, a scholar and graduate from Queen’s University, to stalk and terrorize the women in his family for almost twenty years and then murder them. Through extensive oral histories, Cook and Carson painstakingly trace the causes of a femicide in which four women and two unborn babies were murdered over the course of one bloody evening. While they situate this murderous rampage in the literature on domestic abuse and mass murders, they also explore how the two traumatized child survivors found their way back to health and happiness. Told through vivid first-person accounts, this family memoir explores how a murderer was created.

Black Donnellys

Black Donnellys PDF Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
ISBN: 1459413385
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
The gruesome saga of the Black Donnellys has been heavily mythologized beginning with the first book published on the story by Thomas Kelley in 1954. A thick layer of rumour, legend and hearsay has built up around the facts of the case. But one thing is clear — no one who reads this book will ever forget the murderous events that occurred near the town of Lucan, Ontario, in the 1870s. This new edition has been updated to include numerous black and white and colour photos pertaining to the infamous Donnelly family.