Canadian True Crime - The Beatle Bandit [1]

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

A two-part series —The unbelievable but true story of a bizarre-looking bank robber who terrorized 1964 Toronto as Beatlemania was gripping the nation. One heist went terribly wrong, ending in a wild shootout that sparked a national debate around gun control, mental health and the death penalty.Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast. Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:See the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi everyone and welcome to the podcast. Just a couple of things before we begin. Apple Podcasts is currently featuring Canadian True Crime on their Canadian homepage. So if you're new here, hi, my name is Christy. I moved here from Australia almost 13 years ago, can you believe it? And this podcast is my independent creative passion project where I explore the dark underbelly of Canada through the lens of true crime. So if you're interested in joining me, welcome. That brings us to today's episode, it is a dozy, the start of a two-part series. Part two will be released to everyone in a week on Tuesday, March 22nd. And if you're subscribed to one of our premium feeds, both parts are available right now without any of the ads. We now have three premium feeds, Patreon, Supercast, and as of a couple of

days ago, Apple Podcasts. So there are a few options there for those who like to listen ad-free. It costs around $2 a month and I want you to know there's absolutely no pressure to support the podcast financially unless you're interested in the ad-free episodes. Visit Canadian True Crime.combe.com slash support to learn more or feel free to continue listening to the ad-supported feed. I am just happy to have you listening. So this two-part series, The Beetle Bandit, is really something, an explosive snapshot of Canadian history. Think of it like the mad trapper of Rat River, Except instead of a backdrop of Arctic Canada in the 1930s, this story spans out from the suburbs of Toronto in the 1960s. The series is based on author and journalist Nate Henley's new true crime book of the same name,

The Beetle Bandit, a serial bank robber's deadly heist, a cross-country manhunt, and the insanity plea that shook the nation. This book is a really surprising multifaceted story, a result of deep archival research, as well as interviews with some of the key players and their descendants. I couldn't put this book down. The case has it all, the Beatles at Maple Leaf Gardens, Canadian rock royalty, bank heists, plan to a tea, shootouts on suburban streets, crazy getaway plans and more.

From a content warning perspective, there is also mention of serious mental illness, death by suicide, and some mention of attitudes and language of the time that are now outdated. I also have to let you know that there are areas of this story where politics are mentioned. The truth is there is no true crime without politics, and this is a fact-based, non-partisan presentation, but if you're sensitive to these topics or prone to projection, you might want to skip this series. And with that, buckle up because it's on with this show. Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising.

The podcast often has coarse language and disturbing content. It's not for everyone. The year was 1964, and the Beatles were all the rage around the world, including in Canada. Songs, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and I saw her standing there, were on constant play on the radio. When it was announced that the Beatles would be playing two Toronto concerts at Maple Leaf Gardens in September 1964, there was a frenzy. Beatlemania had officially gripped the nation, and with their iconic shaggy locks and cool suits, teenagers everywhere wanted to be them. Fans flocked to Maple Leaf Gardens to make sure they didn't miss out on tickets, and then President Harold Ballard made a point of being there to greet them.

Harold wasn't much of a Beatles fan, but what he was a fan of was making money, wherever he saw an opportunity. The Beatles had only agreed to one show, but Harold went rogue and decided to sell tickets for a second show on the same night without telling either the band or their manager. When their manager Brian Epstein found out at the last minute, he was furious and confronted Harold, who dared him to cancel the second show in the face of all those fans and all that money.

In the end, the band agreed to pull. play it, and according to website beetlesbibble.com, more than 35,000 tickets would be sold for those two shows, which meant the band would make $93,000 from the two concerts, about $800,000 in today's money. Unfortunately, the concert goers would not be in for a good time. The day of the concert would be extremely hot, and to make extra cash, Harold Ballard would deletive. deliberately decide to delay both concerts for over an hour. He would turn up the building's heat and shut off the water fountains. The thirsty crowd would soon learn that the only available refreshments

were grossly overpriced large soft drinks that they had to buy at concession stands. But months before that, as they innocently camped out for their tickets at Maple Leaf Gardens, Harold Ballard was there to greet them and relieved them. of their cash. As his own nod to Beatlemania, he wore a special Beatles-themed wig, similar to the shaggy, bowl-like haircut that Paul McCartney

was sporting at the time. Toronto stores were selling the wigs like hotcakes to smitten teenagers. But one person had purchased one of those wigs who wasn't much of a Beatles fan. He had acquired it for a completely different reason, and Toronto would soon. find out why.

The date was July 24th, 1964, just weeks before the Beatles' concerts, and the location was the Bathurst Manor Plaza, a popular strip mall in North York, an administrative district just north of Toronto. That hot and sunny afternoon, the staff at the Bathurst Manor Plaza's branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, or CIPC, were dealing with their last customers of the day. Two of those customers were married couple Jack and Sally Blank. At the time, 54-year-old Jack was working as a furrier, a maker of fur garments, but that was actually his second career. He was a military man, a veteran of both the Canadian and Israeli armed forces.

But that day in 1964, he and Sally went to the CIBC branch to open up a joint bank account for a family vacation. The couple had two children, an adult daughter who had since flown the nest, and a 14-year-old son named Stanley, who was waiting for them at their nearby apartment with the assurance that they wouldn't be long. One of the bank's tellers was a 24-year-old accountant named Carmen Lamb. As he was serving someone, he glanced out the window and something caught his attention. A strange-looking man was walking towards the building. Carmen eyed the man as he approached the entrance. He seemed to be wearing a rubber mask that looked like French President Charles de Gould.

A pair of sunglasses set on top of the mask and on top of the man's head was what looked like that Beatles-themed wig that everyone was buying that summer. As if this wasn't an intriguing enough get-up already, the strange man was wearing a local radio station t-shirt with big lettering across the front that read Good Guys. And this man, with his mask and wig, was also carrying two canvas backpack.

and a guitar case that had a curious pink metallic part protruding from it. Before Carmen Lamb could even start thinking about what all of this meant, the man suddenly burst through the front door. The people in the front of the bank didn't know what to make of it. Sally Blank thought the man looked like a clown. Others described his get-up as cartoonish. And after noting the name of a local radio station, C-K-E-Y, on his t-shirt, they wondered if this was some kind of radio publicity stunt.

Suddenly, the man opened the guitar case and grabbed something, revealing the pink metallic object as the painted barrel of a semi-automatic rifle. Throwing the case on the floor, the man gripped the rifle and walked out of the taller area and over to the manager's office. He shouted, this is a hold up, I want all the money. The manager didn't know what to make of the oddly dressed character with the bowl cut wig on and wondered if the pink weapon was a toy gun.

All he could think of to say was, I don't think this is very funny. In response, the robber raised the barrel of the rifle just a few feet above the manager's head and fired at the wall. At this point, everyone in the bank realized that this was no job. The man announced that a heist was in progress, but when the manager didn't move, he yelled, Get moving, I mean business. The manager and a salesman quickly walked towards the front of the bank where the tellers were.

The robber threw the canvas backpacks at them and demanded money from the tills. Terrified staff were jolted into action, but evidently it was not quick enough for the robber, who jumped on a desk, and reminded them that it was a hold-up. Quote, Hurry up, robbing banks is a tough way to make a living. Through raised eyebrows at that strange comment, one of the staff managed to press the silent alarm.

The police would soon be on their way. After the staff emptied the tills, the robber saw there were still room in his canvas bags and ordered them to access the vault. The manager explained that no one person could do it. It had been set up so that three separate people had to perform an action to open the vault. Luckily for the robber, all three of those people were there, so they initiated the procedure while he glanced outside to see if there was any police coming.

Most people there described him as being calm and collected. Once the vault was opened, the robber ordered them to put $100,000 in the bags. That'll do, he said. He ordered the female customers to leave, saying, quote, I've never killed a lady yet and I don't want to start now. He then ordered the rest of the customers to leave, followed by the female bank staff. All that were left were the men who worked at the bank. The robber ordered them to exit the front and head toward a nearby public school.

By this point, a crowd had heard the gunfire, seen a commotion and had started gathering near the bank, they watched as the men filed out, followed by a man in an odd disguise holding a rifle. And they watched as he strode away in the opposite direction. The Bathurst Manor Plaza was located on the corner of two streets, Wilmington Street, where the entrance to the plaza was, and Overbrook Place, a residential street which is where the robber seemed to be headed. As he turned the corner into Overbrook Place, Jack Blank, the military vet, was staring in disbelief. They were really going to just let this guy walk away from the bank he'd just robbed? Jack knew that at the time, banks in Canada were stocked with handguns, and in the event of a robbery,

staff were encouraged to play the role of hero and take matters into their own hands. Jack wondered, why hadn't any of them grabbed the revolver? Why wasn't anyone doing anything to stop this? Jack assumed the police would arrive momentarily, but he worried it might be too late and the robber might elude them. The military man decided that he wasn't going to let that happen. He gathered the mail bank staff

and stated that someone needed to get the gun from the bank. He added that he was a crack shot and was prepared to use it. The staff would later tell CBC that they asked Jack to stay out of the situation. The bank was insured. There was no reason for anyone to jeopardize their own lives just to save some insured cash, and besides, the police were on their way. But Jack didn't agree.

His military training and experience had taught him that to do nothing was unacceptable, so he insisted that someone go and get the handgun that he knew, must be inside the bank, and if no one else was prepared to use it, he was. So Carmen, the accountant, went back in, knowing that there were actually two 38-caliber Enfield revolvers there, one in his desk and the other in the manager's desk. Carmen grabbed the revolver in his desk, which was loaded, but not fully loaded. A bank employee at a different branch had been killed in a freak accident, where a handgun hit the floor and went off, and after that, they changed their protocol

and underloaded the handguns for safety reasons. The revolver had six chambers, but two were kept empty, and the cylinder was positioned so that if the firearm fell on the floor, it wouldn't hit a live round and discharge. Newer revolvers have what's called a falling block safety or transfer bar which prevents this, but this bank robbery was before. for that time. So the handgun had six chambers, but only four of them were loaded. According to Carmen, when he exited the bank with the revolver, he was confronted by Jack

Blank, who tried to grab it from him, saying, I'm a crack shot, give me that gun. The two men struggled with it, Jack trying to get the gun and Carmen holding on. Jack's wife Sally did not like what was transpiring, and bystanders heard her pleading with Carmen, saying, please don't do it, my husband will be killed, don't give him a gun, please. But Jack wouldn't let go, and Carmen soon realized there was a chance that somehow someone might end up getting hurt if the struggle continued, so he let go. Jack Blank seized the revolver and ran in the direction of Overbrook Place, with Carmen following him a few feet. behind. A local liquor store owner ran beside Jack and tried to persuade him that the cause wasn't

worth dying for. He should throw the gun away and let the police catch the robber. But Jack was insistent, saying, he will never bother me, I am a better shot than he is. The robber was up ahead now, a block away from the strip mall, and they watched as he approached a car, a 1963 turquoise and white Ford Galaxy. As he gripped the door handle, Jack crept to the shelter of a low-rise apartment building and crouched down, holding the revolver. The robber was now sitting half inside the car and half outside, and seemed to be fiddling with something, completely unaware he had been followed. But if this was supposed to be his getaway car, he didn't seem to be in any hurry. In fact, the car hadn't even been started. Jack started creeping closer,

pointing his revolver. Suddenly, he yelled, I will kill the son of a bitch, and fired off a shot. The robber turned and realized what was happening, and suddenly he was firing back with a handgun of his own, leading to a quick, fiery exchange. Jack fired three more shots that hit the car and managed to avoid getting hit himself, but the next time he squeezed the trigger, there was just a click. He was holding a six-shot revolver, but it was only now that he would have realized

that two chambers were empty. He had no replacement cartridges and no other weapons. He was completely vulnerable. The robber in the beetle wig hadn't been able to get away. In fact, he still hadn't managed to start the car, but he quit.

quickly realized an opportunity had presented itself. He put down the handgun, grabbed the semi-automatic rifle he used at the bank, and carefully aimed it at Jack Blank. The bank robbery at Bathurst Manor Plaza was not the Beatle Bandit's first robbery, nor would it be his last. The 24-year-old man who caused this chaos

was born Matthew Kerry Smith, and to tell this story properly, we have to go back to the beginning. He was born in Winnipeg in 1940, and he went by his middle name Kerry, but he'd be named after his father, Matt Smith, who worked as a journalist at the time. Kerry's mother Helen was a schoolteacher,

and family and friends typically called her Isabel or Bell for short. Isabel showed signs of mental illness early in the marriage. Sometimes she would appear relatively lucid. but other times whatever she was dealing with became so debilitating that she was admitted to a mental health facility. Kerry was deeply affected by his mother's struggles, which at that time was interpreted as insanity. He felt a growing worry that whatever afflicted his mother

would one day afflict him too. This was a fear that would follow him his whole life. The Smith family moved about, At one point they lived in the Toronto neighborhood of Willowdale, which was located next to Bathurst Manor where the plaza was located. In 1949, Matt and Isabel separated, and as they tried to sort through the wreckage of their marriage, while also dealing with Isabel's mental illness, Carrie and his older sister were sent to live with their grandparents in a small town near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Matt's goal was to get custody of the kids, and he knew he had to work hard to support them and make a suitable home for them to live in.

He was working hard as a radio editor for CBC Radio, but he had grand ambitions to start a business. In the meantime, he purchased a 102-acre farm in another Toronto neighborhood called Cooksville, which is now part of the city of Mississauga. In court, the justice stated bluntly that Isabel was in no condition to raise children and awarded sole custody to Matt, who immediately drove the almost 3,000 kilometres to Saskatchewan to pick up his son and daughter. Kerry was only 10 years old at the time and had really enjoyed his year living with his grandparents. He was not pleased by this disruption, and the multiple-day drive home was,

was an awkward one for everyone, as Matt tried to reconnect with the two kids after a year's absence. Kerry was intelligent and a voracious reader, and while his father drove, he preferred to read newspapers. Matt noticed he seemed fascinated by articles about crime and law-breaking. A story about a bank robbery got him so worked up when he read the robbers left behind fingerprints and other evidence that led to their capture. The 10-year-old yelled, The fools! And added that they could have gotten away with it if they'd just been more careful.

This was only the beginning. While plenty of little boys liked playing cops and robbers, Kerry Smith seemed obsessed. He kept babbling about wiping fingerprint evidence and other ways criminals might avoid being caught. His father, Matt, Matt Smith was dismayed by this conversation. He was an ambitious, conventional man who stayed on the straight and narrow. He did not admire criminals or lawbreakers. He tried to set his son straight,

telling him that criminals did a legal acts and it didn't matter if they were clever or stupid or if they left evidence behind or not. They all deserve to go to jail, he said. The fatherly approach seemed to work, and Carrie shuner. up about foolish criminals and their sloppy tactics for a time. But after they had settled into the farm in Cooksville, he started back up again to his father's dismay. Matt likely hoped that Kerry would grow out of it, but at the same time he struggled to find common ground with his son. The boy seemed like a stranger, and no matter how hard Matt tried to bond with him, he seemed to grow even more so.

When Kerry expressed interest in guitar, Matt purchased one for him, excited that they might find an activity to enjoy together, but before long, his son had completely lost interest. Then he took up a new hobby, amateur radio. Known as ham radio, the popular pastime was sort of a primitive precursor to the internet, bringing people, electronics and communications,

together over the free airwaves. Matt saw this as another opportunity to get involved in his son's interest, and he purchased books, a radio kit and various parts, so Kerry could build his own receiver and transmitter. And he did. Next was for Kerry to pass a difficult test to get his ham radio license, which he couldn't do until he turned 15. His father helped him study for it,

learning Morse code, theory and radio and other things. Kerry had grown to be a tall, slim, handsome teenager with a clean-cut look, and as soon as he turned 15, he took the test and passed it with flying colours. Matt was so proud. His son had become the youngest amateur radio operator in Canada. But like the guitar thing, Kerry lost interest in ham radio and dropped it as a hobby. He had become quite unsociable and had very few friends, but it didn't seem to bother him. What did seem to bother him, though, was what he perceived to be an intense sense of sibling rivalry.

Despite his obvious intelligence, his marks at school were dismal, in contrast to his older sister who excelled in her studies. By this point, Matt had started a business in chemicals and paint, called Allied Manufacturing, and he had been able to quit his job at CBC Radio to focus on the business. The family also moved away from the farm to a different home. As the business took off, Matt had the means to send Kerry to a private boarding school for grade 9, hoping that this would help whatever was troubling him and change his course. It didn't. Kerry had to repeat grade nine, and even though his father hired multiple tutors,

they all reported that he would not participate. Kerry dropped out of school before finishing grade 10 and never graduated. Matt was extremely worried about his son's trajectory and set up an appointment with a psychiatrist. When Kerry found out, he reportedly burst into tears and said, you mean I'm going crazy just like my mother? He did attend the appointment but refused to answer any questions. After the session, the psychiatrist told Matt that Kerry appeared to be deeply disturbed. Matt suspected it was true and would say, quote,

There was something going on inside his brain, but you never knew exactly what. Matt took his son to see other therapists and mental health professionals, but he remained. unresponsive during his sessions and was increasingly inattentive. He seemed to space out a lot and was prone to fantasising. And he had since started viewing his own father as some kind of competition. At one point, he declared he wanted to own a farm of his own, but boasted that his farm would be ten times bigger than the one his dad had owned. Matt seized this opportunity and told Kerry it was a great idea, suggesting that perhaps he could attend agricultural school

or do a farm apprenticeship to gain the experience. But Kerry laughed at these practical suggestions. He said his only dream was to be a landowner. The realities of day-to-day farm management didn't interest him in the slightest. His plan was to hire workers to perform the actual work and he would reap the profits of their labour. But he had to have to be able. but he had no plan for how he was actually going to pay for these workers in the first place. Not surprisingly, Kerry did not pursue a farm career. He worked odd jobs and then in 1957 when he was 17, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy. His father wasn't thrilled about this turn of events,

preferring that his son get a proper education. But clearly that wasn't going to work so he begrudgingly, signed the admission form. As a requirement of his enlistment, Kerry had to submit to a physical examination. There were no medical problems noted besides somewhat weak vision that necessitated glasses on occasion. As with many of the activities Kerry had started with gusto, his naval career went well at first, but before long his superiors started to notice a deterioration in his attitude and discipline. He was chided about his sloppy attire, a lack of interest in his duties, eccentric mannerisms and a strange affect that had developed. And then he went AWOL or absent without

leave, complaining that Navy work made him nervous and depressed. Kerry requested an early release from the Navy and told his father that Navy life was boring and that his fellow soldiers drank too much. The Navy were only too pleased to release him and he was discharged in October 1959. Once he left the military, Kerry began complaining about excruciating headaches. He told some people that he'd been struck on the head

by a flying beer bottle during a bar fight and others that it was the Navy ship's fault. He claimed that the ship had rolled in stormy seas, while he was sleeping, causing his head to be slammed into the hull repeatedly. Matt Smith arranged for his son to see a doctor. Various tests were performed, but doctors couldn't find anything physically wrong with his brain, and the headache soon disappeared on their own. But Kerry's behaviour continued to alarm his father.

He remained antisocial with very few close friends and zero romantic relationships, And one day he rocked up to his father's house driving an expensive Buick that he said cost over $2,000, which is about $18,000 in today's money. Matt was flabbergasted. He knew that what his son had been paid in the Navy wasn't enough to afford such flashy wheels. He asked him how it came about. Kerry explained that he had earned extra money working as a bootlegger, selling liquor to his fellow sailors.

This may have been a plausible explanation had Kerry not previously complained that they drank too much. If he was selling them liquor, then that would have been good for business, not cause for complaint. It made Matt wonder if Kerry had acquired the car illegally. In the meantime, Matt Smith had started dabbling in real estate and had purchased a house which he rented to several tenants. One of them was his ex-wife Isabel, who rented the basement apartment. Kerry had been keeping an occasional contact with his mother over the years,

sending each other letters, and at this point of his life, he decided he wanted to move in with her. Unfortunately, this would prove to be a bad idea. His mother was far from the help that Kerry needed as he tried to sort out his own inner turmoil. Isabel was sinking deeper into mental illness herself. By this point, she was convinced that there were secret microphones in her apartment that were picking up her private conversations.

The apartment and the whole house was of course owned by Matt, and he knew there were no listening devices there, but Isabel refused to believe it. The way she dealt with it was by keeping her TV and radio on full volume to prevent eavesdropping, and she would stare blankly at her television for hours, convinced she was engaged in silent two-way telepathy. Then, she became convinced that giant insects were roaming through the residents, and she kept the stove on at all times to keep the bugs away.

It wasn't easy for Kerry to be living there, but during this time he decided that perhaps a fresh identity would help him moving forward. He told his friends and family that he no longer wanted to be called Kerry and asked them to refer to him by his first name, Matthew. His family continued to call him Kerry, though, as will we. For a time, he appeared to get his life back on track, enrolling in a college to finish his education. The pattern continued.

He worked hard for a time and passed his first set of exams, but weeks later he lost interest and quit. He worked various jobs, including in a factory, but suddenly he quit that too. Now was the time. He had decided he was going to rob a bank. On February 5, 1960, just four months after he was discharged from the Navy, Kerry Smith stole a car.

And a few days later, the 19-year-old drove it to the Imperial. Bank of Canada branch in North York, and then staged a heist, threatening terrified staff with a 32-caliber automatic pistol. The hold-up did not go smoothly, though, and his pistol discharged, shooting bankteller and accountant Colin Beals in the head. Kerry would later claim that the shot was accidental, but it didn't stop him from grabbing over $3,000 and running for the exit, as the injured Taller collapsed on the bank floor, bleeding and unconscious. An angry Taller had grabbed a bank handgun and fired shots at Kerry, but all missed and he was able to flee in his stolen getaway car. Colin Beals survived, but doctors had to put a steel plate in his head, and he spent more than

three months in recovery. After getting away with his first robbery, Kerry's urge for major criminal activity seemed to be satiated for a while, and he started working for a business that his father ran. But about a year later, he was driving around North Toronto when he had a sudden urge to steal a car. Now, he obviously already had a car, the one he was driving, and he had no current use for a second. He just wanted to steal one and take it for a bit of a joy ride, presumably for thrills. He parked his own car and came across an Oldsmobile with the keys in the ignition, so he got behind the wheel and took off, driving erratically. A police cruiser suddenly came into view, and when Kerry swerved around it, backup was called. Soon, Kerry was being followed by a line

of police cars as he tore through red lights and stop signs at high speed. A very speed. A very Eventually he crashed, and when he appeared before a judge, he couldn't explain his actions in any way that made sense. The justice asked him, what should we do with you? And he laughed and replied, throw the book at me. This, the judge did not do. He placed carry-on probation and sent him to get evaluated at the forensic clinic of the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital. During the 1960s, criminals who showed signs of mental illness were routinely sent to the clinic by courts for assessment. A panel of medical experts and social workers scrutinized Kerry Smith, and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia,

a serious mental disorder which interferes with a person's ability to perceive reality, think clearly, manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others. Now, had Kerry been diagnosed a decade earlier, he might have been forced into a brutal therapeutic regime. During the 1950s, common psychiatric treatments in North America included ice baths, and something that became known as insulin comers, where non-diabetic patients were overdosed with insulin, rendering them unconscious. Lobotomies were also routinely performed at this time, which, which is where an ice pick-like instrument is poked up a patient's eye socket and into their brain, and scraping is performed to sever some of the brain's nerve pathways. This was supposed to have a calming effect,

but often left patients with varying degrees of brain damage, not to mention trauma. By the early 1960s, when Kerry was diagnosed with schizophrenia, these horrors were being phased out in favour of gentler therapeutic treatment coupled with psychiatric medication. The panel had to decide on a plan for Kerry's treatment and concluded that he would not be a danger to the public and he didn't need to be committed to the facility as an inpatient. There was also a long waiting list for hospital beds at mental health facilities at the time, which likely factored into the decision. Kerry was released from the facility and advised to seek outpatient mental health treatment.

And he did, but only briefly. When he stopped going, his father was shocked and angered, but he faced no repercussions from the criminal justice system. Kerry Smith was free to live his life again. For a time, he did get his life back on track. He headed west and took a mining job in the remote city of Thompson, in central Manitoba. He worked there for a year and a half,

using his wages to buy firearms and practice target shooting when he wasn't working. By this point, Kerry's antisocial ways seemed to have subsided some, and at this time he loved to party, often venturing to one of the nearby

indigenous communities to party there, something that was fairly unusual for the time. But Kerry never stayed in any one place for long, And in the spring of 1963, just over a year before he would rob that CIBC branch wearing the Beatles wig, he returned to Toronto and took a machine-operated job at Dunlop Canada Limited, a rubber tire manufacturer in downtown Toronto. There, to his father's astonishment, he was able to earn a very good paycheck. And even though Kerry Smith lived with schizophrenia, which can induce,

episodes of hallucination, psychosis, and problems with perception of reality, he had many periods of relative lucidity, where he wasn't experiencing severe symptoms or symptoms at all, and appeared to function as someone who was neurotypical. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, the exact course and impact of schizophrenia is unique for each person. Some people only experience one episode in their lifetime and others experience many, and some people, like Kerry, experience periods of wellness between these episodes. But while Kerry Smith had been able to hold down jobs for a period of time and earn a good living, he still harboured dreams about becoming a master criminal. He decided that his next mission would be to assemble a proper arsenal of firearms.

In early December of 1963, Kerry armed himself with a pistol, disguised himself with a raincoat and balaclava, and broke into a gun shop, the Denison Armory in North York. His mission was to acquire military-grade firearms, but he couldn't locate any. He came across an armory officer and caretaker and decided to hold them at gunpoint while he rambled and ranted about his bank-robbing prowess and knowledge about firearms. That year was a key year for the uprising of the Front Deliberation du Quebec. The FLQ was a militant Quebec separatist group that had been founded in the early 60s, and while they would go on to cause a national crisis in 1970, seven years later, in 1963 they had been detonating bombs in Quebec, mostly in mailboxes.

As part of Kerry's lengthy monologue, he assured his hostages that he wasn't with the FLQ. He wasn't a terrorist and he stated there was nothing political or partisan in his motives. He handcuffed the men to a railing and then left empty-handed. He would keep searching for military-grade firearms. During this period in December 1963, Kerry decided to rob another bank. Again, he stole a getaway car and on Christmas Eve he drove it to a branch of the Toronto Dominion Bank. He burst in holding a pistol in one hand and a revolver in the other, and after the tellers loaded up his bags with over $12,000 in cash,

Kerry yelled, Merry Christmas and fled. He decided to use a portion of this cash to try and purchase a military-grade firearm from a store, on Young Street called Hallam Sporting Goods. He got there and put an order in for an FN or Fabric Nacional semi-automatic rifle, an expensive weapon used by soldiers around the world, including Canada. On the order form, he wrote the fake name of Owen Fox, along with a fake address.

He wasn't asked to provide any ID to verify and there was no background check. Kerry Smith walked out of the store after having legally purchased the powerful semi-automatic firearm he so desperately wanted. He was thrilled. But there was some bad news on the horizon. Dunlop Tyre ran into some financial issues and had to lay some staff off. Kerry was one of them. He didn't mind that much, though.

Still cashed up from the robbery, he decided to head back to Manitoba. for some fun. When he got there, he contacted a friend he worked with at the mine named Joe. Now, because Joe was currently unemployed, the pair were able to hang out together for a few days, just driving around. One night, Joe proposed a double date. His girlfriend had a recently single friend named Eileen Charity Griffiths. In fact, Kerry had actually worked with her brother at the mine. They were originally from the Kesei-Kowanan Ojibwe First Nation, located in southwest Manitoba. Eileen and her brother were Métis, a distinct indigenous people who descended from unions between indigenous and European people during the fur trade era. Eileen was just 20 years old, but she had recently separated from her husband of two years, also the father of her young daughter.

When a fun night out was suggested, Eileen jumped at the chance to take her mind off things. As it turned out, Eileen and Kerry were a love match, and the next day, Kerry asked Eileen to return to Toronto with him. She said yes, leaving her toddler daughter Estelle with her mother and set off for the drive. Kerry's pal Joe wasn't doing much either, so he came along to Toronto as well.

Carrie introduced Eileen to everyone back in Toronto as his wife, and the pair stayed with his mother Isabel for a while, but she was still struggling with her own mental illness and living with her was not easy. Carrie was able to get himself rehired back at Dunlop Tyre and announced to his father that he now had a wife and he was going to get a house. And he did. He saved up and was able to purchase

a small bungalow or one-story house in Toronto. When he moved in with Eileen, it raised eyebrows, though. This was the early 1960s and couples typically only lived together after they were married, but also, a white man in a common law relationship with an indigenous woman who was still married to someone else was quite a spectacle. And years later, after Kerry's escapades and story had come to life, his choice of partner would be portrayed as further evidence of what was considered eccentric behaviour, a reflection of the legacy of colonial racism of the time.

In any event, Kerry didn't care what anyone thought, and started stockpiling guns at the house, and then he invited his old Navy buddy Richard to move in. Richard was known for being a bit of a drop kick and had a criminal record for car theft. The pair had reconnected at Christmas time and promised to stay in touch, and Richard was pleased to move in. The two were known to practice target shooting in the basement with pallet guns. Eileen didn't seem to mind. She had had a difficult life, and however odd this situation appeared to be, she would say she was happy. Kerry had treated her better than anyone ever had before, even though he could be domineering.

In fact, that summer of 1964, he paid for her to fly back to Manitoba for an extended visit with her family and of course to reunite with her daughter, Estelle. But before she left, his period of relative wellness and lucidity seemed to be ending, and he started ranting and raving to whoever was at the house. He was against the government, the way the country was being run and he wanted to reverect. He wanted the forcible overthrow of the government, a revolution. But in keeping with what he said to those armory employees he held hostage, his motivation didn't appear to be political. He wasn't in support of any particular ideology or political party,

and he couldn't explain what he wanted to happen after his proposed revolution. He did say that he would consider running the police or the army, as though he would, he expected that both of those options would be offered to him. For Kerry Smith, the focus was on the armed revolt. He didn't seem to have a solid reason for proposing a revolution, nor could he articulate the change that he wanted to arise from it. He just wanted the violent uprising itself. Eileen later stated that she paid no attention to the rants,

and Richard, who was staying there, didn't seem to take them very seriously. seriously either. But Kerry was serious, and he knew that if he wanted a revolution, he needed to fund it, he needed more cash, and that meant another bank robbery. But this time, he wanted to maximise his chances of getting as much cash as he possibly could. He started looking for a location and stumbled upon the CIBC branch at Bathurst Manor Plaza in North York. It was a quiet middle-class neighborhood with a predominantly Jewish population, many of whom were Holocaust survivors. This court carries attention,

and the reason why is because of an anti-Semitic stereotype that Jewish people hoard their cash. It's an irrelevant trope that evolved from the Middle Ages, that's at least 500 years ago, but continues to impact perceptions of Jewish people today. Kerry assumed that because this particular bank branch served the local Jewish community that it must be loaded with cash. All he had to do was rob the bank and he would be able to fund his revolution.

With a location decided upon, Kerry needed a getaway car. He went to the Yorkdale Plaza, a new shopping mall at North York, and stole a 1963 Ford Galaxy, turquoise and white, engulf. colour. When he got home, he extensively modified it to ensure a quick and seamless getaway, starting with removing the front passenger seat. He then added a contact switch to the ignition, which would enable him to start the car instantly without having to fuss around with a key. Next would be to get his weapons in order. He knew that he would carry his 45-caliber a semi-automatic pistol in a belt holster for backup.

But he wasn't quite sure what to do with his powerful military-grade FN semi-automatic rifle. It had a long barrel, and he thought he might be able to disguise it in a guitar case. But when he tried it out, the barrel of the rifle was too long, so he bore a hole in the guitar case, painted the long barrel of the gun pink, and then poked it out of the hole. He figured that anyone who saw him might wonder what the pink thing was protruding from the guitar case, but they would never guess that it was actually the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle.

Next, Kerry gathered his other items, the bowl-cut Beatles wig, the Halloween mask resembling the French president, and a pair of sunglasses. And when it came to his attire, he had selected a special, white t-shirt for the heist. It bore the slogan, C-K-E-Y, Good Guys, a reference to a local radio station. Robbing a bank wearing a good guy's t-shirt was Kerry's idea of a joke. He wasn't known for having a good sense of humor. That's where we'll leave it for part one.

In part two, we'll pick up from the day of the Bathurst Manor Plaza bank robbery and continue after that pivotal moment where Jack Blank commandeered the bank's revolver and ran after the robber before realizing he had fired all four rounds in the gun. Believe me, this was not the end of the story, in fact, far from it. If you would like to listen to Part 2 now without any of the ads, you can subscribe to any of our premium feeds on Patreon, Supercast and now Apple Podcasts. Visit Canadian True Crime.com.ca.com.com. for more information.

And while you're there, you can also see full credits and resources for each episode. Thanks always to the host of True for voicing the disclaimer and also to We Talk of Dreams who compose the theme song. I will be back in a week with Part 2. See you then.