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.
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.
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.
Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 145974912X
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 223
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Book Description
On the night of September 15, 1956, a seven-year-old child was murdered on the deserted grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto. The main suspect was a teenage boy seen near the crime scene on a bicycle. Toronto police arrested Ron Moffatt, a fourteen-year-old former CNE employee who vaguely fit the description of the suspect. During a tough interrogation, Ron falsely confessed and was convicted at trial. In truth, Ron couldn’t ride a bicycle and was innocent; his phony admission was the product of fear and pressure tactics. The real culprit — sex offender and serial killer Peter Woodcock — remained at large, preying on new victims. This shocking story has eerie parallels to the Steven Truscott case (which also involved a fourteen-year-old Ontario boy accused of murder) but has been largely forgotten until now. A powerful account about a coerced confession, a fumbled police investigation and the crusading lawyer who fought to free Ron from custody.
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.
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.
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.
Author: Nate Hendley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248
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Book Description
Based on original sources and research, not legends and myth, this book presents a lively, in-depth analysis of how the American Mafia epitomizes organized crime. Whether it's supplying illicit drugs, alcohol during Prohibition, gambling, prostitution, or even loans to those with bad credit, the Mafia has established itself as a part of the fabric of American society, politics, and economics for over a century. The Mafia continues to exist not only because of their immense power that allows their criminal organization to defy law enforcement, but because demand remains strong for what they offer. This book utilizes verifiable information about the Mafia based on newspaper and magazine accounts, police and FBI documents, court records, and the author's own original research to offer a deeper analysis of "the Mob" that provides historical, social, economic and cultural context. Fascinating biographical sketches that profile well-known Mafiosi such as Charles "Lucky" Luciano and John Gotti are also presented.
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.
Author: Susan Goldenberg
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459750322
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 169
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Book Description
Glamorous young wife Alma Rattenbury takes her chauffeur as a lover and their scandalous relationship leads to a murder most foul. The 1935 murder of architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury, famous for his design of the iconic Parliament Buildings and Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, and the arrest and lurid trial of his 30-years-younger second wife, Alma, and the family chauffeur, George Percy Stoner, her lover, riveted people. Francis and Alma had moved to Bournemouth, England, after the City of Victoria had ostracized them for their scandalous, flagrant affair while Francis was married to his first wife. Their life in Bournemouth was tangled. Francis became an impotent lush. Deprived of sexual gratification, Alma seduced George, previously a virgin who was half her age. They conducted their affair in her upstairs bedroom with her and Francis’s six-year-old son in a nearby bed, “sleeping,” she said, and the near-deaf Francis in his armchair downstairs in a drunken stupor. The lovers were tried together for Francis’s murder at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London, resulting in intense public interest and massive, frenzied media coverage. The trial became one of the 20th century’s most sensational cases, sparking widespread debate over sexual mores and social strata distinctions.
