The Beatle Bandit

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For decades, the name Labatt was synonymous with beer in Canada, but no longer. Brewed in the North traces the birth, growth, and demise of one of the nation's oldest and most successful breweries. Opening a window into Canada's complicated relationship with beer, Matthew Bellamy examines the strategic decisions taken by a long line of Labatt family members and professional managers from the 1840s, when John Kinder Labatt entered the business of brewing in the Upper Canadian town of London, to the globalization of the industry in the 1990s. Spotlighting the challenges involved as Labatt executives adjusted to external shocks - the advent of the railway, Prohibition, war, the Great Depression, new forms of competition, and free trade - Bellamy offers a case study of success and failure in business. Through Labatt's lively history from 1847 to 1995, this book explores the wider spirit of Canadian capitalism, the interplay between the state's moral economy and enterprise, and the difficulties of creating popular beer brands in a country that is regionally, linguistically, and culturally diverse. A comprehensive look at one of the industry's most iconic firms, Brewed in the North sheds light on what it takes to succeed in the business of Canadian brewing.

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.