Canadian True Crime - The Beatle Bandit—Part 2

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

[ Part 2 of 2 ] The shocking conclusion to this historical Canadian crime saga. AD-FREE episodes are available via our Premium FeedsSign up via Apple Podcasts, Patreon or Supercast Full list of credits and information sourcesSee the applicable page for each episode at canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes. Research and writing: Kristi LeeTheme song, audio editing and production: We Talk of Dreams Disclaimer: voiced by the host of True Website and social medias:Website: www.canadiantruecrime.caFacebook: facebook.com/CanadianTrueCrimeTwitter: @CanadianTCpodInstagram: @CanadianTrueCrimePod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea and ice cream? Yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats. Get almost, almost anything. Order now.

Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. This is part two of a two-part series. Where we left off, 24-year-old Kerry Smith was ramping up his plans to get cash that would fund his violent uprising, his revolution. He had selected his next bank, a CIBC branch in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood north of Toronto. His getaway car had been stolen, and he'd rigged it with a contact switch that would start the ignition without a key, a strategy that he hoped would help him make a faster getaway. He had decided to conceal his military-grade FN semi-automatic rifle in a guitar case,

but the barrel was too long to fit, so he painted the barrel bright pink and poked it out of a hole he drilled in the guitar case. He was ready. The next day, he was going to rob another bank. Friday, July 24, 1964. It was a day that dawned bright and sunny in Toronto, but there was darkness coming. In the afternoon, Kerry Smith loaded the stolen Ford Galaxy with his two firearms. Then he threw in his disguise items and two canvas backpacks that would hold the cash.

He drove the car over to the Bathurst Manor Plaza strip mall, parking it on Overbrook Place, the residential side street. He was wearing the outfit he'd selected, with that Good Guys Radio T-shirt on. All he had to do was duck down to put on his disguise, his mask, his sunglasses and that Beatles wig. He then grabbed his guitar case and headed for the CIBC bank branch. He went inside, fired his gun at the wall,

got the staff to fill his canvas bags from the till and then the vault. He ordered all the customers and then just the female staff out of the bank and then brazenly walked behind the male staff with his rifle and the bags of cash. As he sauntered back to his stolen getaway car, he likely had no idea that a storm was brewing behind him, that Carmen Lamb had gone back to retrieve one of the bank's pistols, that Jack Blank, the military vet, had wrestled it out of Carmen's hands, and that both men were now in his pursuit. Kerry arrived at the Ford Galaxy and went to start the car using the contact switch he had installed, but the engine wouldn't start.

He fiddled with the device and tried again, and again, nothing. The switch was malfunctioning. Before he could think about what to do next, he heard a gunshot that struck the car. He quickly grabbed his semi-automatic pistol from the side holster and started firing back. But after only a few shots, his opponent stopped firing. Jack Blank had of course fired all four rounds in the chamber. Kerry saw an opportunity. While his own naval career didn't end well, he had been trained to deal with situations like this. He knew how to handle weapons and stay calm under stress. He calmly put down his pistol and grabbed the powerful FN rifle with the long barrel. He carefully aimed the rifle scope at Jack and squeezed the trigger.

The first shot hit Jack's right hand and then deflected into his chest, shattering his heart. into his chest, shattering his heart. Kerry fired again, this time at Jack's head, and this one hit exactly as he intended, taking off the top of the head with an impact so powerful that a third-story window in a nearby apartment building was splattered with blood. With an injury incompatible with life, Jack Blank was dead before his body hit the grass, and his wife Sally arrived seconds later screaming hysterically. The very thing that she feared would happen, had happened. But the incident was far from over. over. As this was happening, Carmen Lam realized that he was the only one left who could stop the robber and raced back to the bank to get the second revolver from the manager's desk. This one was also underloaded for safety reasons with only four cartridges. Carmen Lam was not a gun combat expert. He was a 24-year-old accountant who worked for a bank and all he was

able to do was take pot shots at Kerry from a distance. Like a character in a western movie, Carmen would fire, duck for cover and then fire again. None of the shots reached their target so after he had fired all four cartridges he went back inside the bank for more ammunition. By this point, Kerry had realized that the stolen car wasn't going to work, and he needed a new getaway plan. He decided that he must escape or die trying. He had to do something audacious, so he grabbed the bags of money and the rifle and started marching up the street, back towards the bank. As he went, he fired shots into the air, littering the asphalt with casings from spent rounds. Things were chaotic both on Overbrook Place and at the plaza. A truck driver

named Jack Sherlon had been frantically deciding what to do. He had stopped at the plaza. A truck driver named Jack Sherlon had been frantically deciding what to do. He had stopped at the plaza to visit a store just before the robbery started and he'd witnessed everything, including the first gunfight down the street that left Jack blank dead. Jack Sherlon decided he had no choice but to intervene before more people were hurt or killed. But he only had his truck there, he needed a car. He spied a man sitting in his own car and ran up to the window, saying, A man just got shot, let me have your car and I'll go after him. The driver handed over his keys and Jack Sherlon jumped in.

The driver handed over his keys and Jack Sherlon jumped in. At the same time that this was happening, an unmarked police cruiser driven by a uniformed officer had pulled in and was greeted by frantic bystanders shouting about a gunman on the loose. They pointed down over Brook Place. Constable Donald Jackson drove in the direction of the pointing and turned the corner, but he was suddenly confronted by the sight of a man standing in the middle of the road, only 20 feet away from the cruiser, holding a rifle. Within seconds, that rifle was pointed at Constable Jackson. He braked hard and ducked down as the firing started. Luckily he wasn't hit, but two rounds hit the windshield sending broken glass into his face, making hundreds of tiny cuts. At this time the borrowed Pontiac driven by

Jack Sherlon turned into Overbrook Place and things got even more bizarre. So bizarre that, as Nate Henley wrote in his book The Beetle Bandit, if a Hollywood screenwriter included what happened next as part of a crime movie, they would be called out for creating such an unbelievable scenario. Jack Sherlon, truck driver and helpful bystander, didn't know what to expect when he borrowed the car. He certainly wasn't expecting to come face to face with the gunman after he had just shot up a police cruiser. So when he saw the man with the rifle directly in front of him, he decided that he didn't want to be the next victim and dove out of the car as it was still moving. The Pontiac ambled forward, hit the curb on the south side of Overbrook Place

and came to a stop. Kerry Smith suddenly realised he had again been handed the opportunity of a lifetime. Despite the fact that his getaway car plan did not work out, he had experienced some remarkable luck. He managed to walk out of the bank he just robbed. He had managed to immobilize both a man who tried to come after him as well as that police cruiser and now there was an abandoned car right in front of him with the keys still in the ignition. He calmly walked to the Pontiac, threw his money sacks and rifle inside, and then got behind the wheel. He drove off, leaving the chaos he had created behind, growing ever smaller in his rearview mirror. There was a dead man lying in someone's

front yard, a shot up police cruiser on the street and dozens of panicked bystanders yelling, he's getting away. And luck was still on Kerry's side. Constable Jackson was now furiously trying to start the cruiser so he could try and give chase, but the car conked out from all the bullet damage. He grabbed his radio and tried to call for assistance, but it too was not working. With no option but to let the man escape and hope he would be found later, the constable exited his cruiser and decided to start taking witness statements. Constable exited his cruiser and decided to start taking witness statements. He wiped glass fragments from his uniform and went over to Sally Blank, who had collapsed sobbing beside the body of her husband, Jack.

She called out, My husband, my husband, over and over. Constable Jackson made sure that Sally wasn't injured and tried to console her. As you'll remember, Jack and Sally Blank had two children, and their 14-year-old son Stanley was at home at their nearby apartment. Stanley had heard gunshots and a commotion coming down the street, and was anxiously looking out the window to see what was happening. street and was anxiously looking out the window to see what was happening. He would later tell author Nate Henley that he knew his father was a dedicated soldier and hoped that if it was gunfire his father had stayed away. Quote, I was afraid if he got involved that he would get killed and that's exactly what happened. When Stanley finally heard footsteps up the staircase, it was not the sound of his parents that he was hoping for. Instead, it was two homicide detectives.

His older sister Diane, who was in her mid-twenties and had moved out of home, spoke with what was then known as the Toronto Daily Star. She said, quote, it's a terrible thing to say, but I'm not shocked by the way my father was killed. It was a compulsion. She described that he was a good dad, but he was also a hard worker who never shirked, and she implied that being in that situation must have put him back into a military mindset. Quote, he was a sergeant again and he had to get into it. I was stunned at first, but when I heard how it happened, it just seemed typical of dad. In the days following, Jack blank was hailed as a hero, as was Carmen Lamb, the accountant with

zero firearms training who risked his life in a shootout with the gunman. But Carmen didn't agree. When he spoke with author Nate Henley for the book The Beetle Bandit, he described it as a knee-jerk reaction. Quote, A massive manhunt was launched to find the man now referred to as the Beetle Bandit. Luckily, his second getaway car, the borrowed Pontiac, was found the following day. It had been left in a grassy spot about 13 kilometers away from the plaza, but the gunman was long gone. Top priority for the police was to identify and locate him, but they had very little to go off except physical descriptions. A $7,000 reward was offered for information leading to his capture.

He was described as a slim white male, 25 to 30 years old and between 5 foot 10 and 6 foot tall. But when it came to describing him beyond that, the news reports and accompanied drawings were almost comical. The mask he was wearing was described as rubber or plastic, flesh colored with a red chin, red nose and red cheeks. And the wig was described as a black shiny beetle type wig. And the announcement was accompanied by drawings that depicted him as a kind of circus clown, with giant red cheeks and nose, dark lips and sunglasses, and a wig that looked less like Paul McCartney's hair and more like an upside-down straw mop that had been closely cropped into a bowl cut. In the meantime, the shell casings found at the various crime scenes were being analysed by forensics. The authorities determined that the two weapons used by the robber was a.45 calibre pistol and a Fabrique Nationale or FN semi-automatic rifle. Police were aware that the

FN was an expensive military-grade weapon. In fact, the Canadian Army used a version of that very rifle called the C1. The FN rifle would be declared prohibited in Canada in 1995, and even back in 1964, police knew that very few civilians would own such a weapon, and if this so-called beetle bandit had purchased the rifle legally, there might be a paper trail that detectives could follow. They discovered that only two retailers in Toronto sold FN rifles at the time, and in recent years there had only been a total of six sold. Detectives obtained the sales receipts and started to track down the four that had been purchased at Hallam Sporting Goods. They were able to rule out three of the four rifle owners as suspects, but they ran into a brick wall with the fourth.

The owner was apparently called Owen Fox, and the address provided did not exist. Detectives were extremely frustrated because the sporting goods store had actually done nothing wrong. They weren't required to check the ID because of a massive loophole in the criminal code regulations regarding the definition of the word firearm. regarding the definition of the word firearm. At the time, firearm sales had to be registered with the RCMP, but the registry rules defined the word firearm as a handgun, either a pistol or a revolver. And the FN was not a handgun, it was a rifle,

so it didn't fit under the definition of a firearm. Outside of this particular definition, fully automatic weapons were supposed to be registered with the RCMP as well. These weapons fire repeatedly when the trigger is squeezed, only stopping when it is released. But the FN was a semi-automatic weapon, meaning one trigger squeeze fires the round, ejects the empty shell and reloads the firearm. So because the FN was neither a firearm, meaning a handgun, nor a fully automatic weapon, it did not need to be registered with the Federal Firearm Registry. And it should be noted that this wasn't a case of clueless legislators who, like me, didn't understand gun terminology. Politicians were well aware that the regulations excluded a huge array of popular firearms. In fact, the Criminal Code's very limiting definition of the term firearm had been brought up during a House of Commons debate about the registry. The truth was, the loophole was deliberate, put in place to

appease sport shooters and hunters who weren't eager to register their shotguns and bolt-action rifles. Whether or not Kerry Smith knew about that particular loophole when he purchased the FN rifle is unclear, but what matters is that his identification was not checked. And this made it nearly impossible for police to track down the owner of that semi-automatic rifle bearing the serial number 2562. When this news came out, some media outlets were outraged and demanded tougher registration rules. The Toronto Telegram, a prominent newspaper of the day, suggested a complete ban on civilian handgun ownership. This idea was probably as much of a non-starter in 1964 as it would be today. as much of a non-starter in 1964 as it would be today. In any event, detectives continued that line of investigation,

tracking down and ruling out the two people who purchased FN rifles from the other gun shop. Then they visited the Browning Arms Company in Montreal, the company who distributed the FN rifle in Canada, weeding through the thousands of their sales slips, checking serial numbers and analysing shell casings to see if anything else jumped out at them. Ultimately, it was a dead end. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. We'll be right back. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now.

For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Hi, everyone. Today, we're talking passion projects that turn into careers, a topic that obviously resonates quite a bit with me. In collaboration

with the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAST Creative, I want to introduce you to someone who took his passion for cannabis, turned it into a career and is now an industry trailblazer. This is Nico Soziak. He's the Chief Financial Officer of Canara Biotech, a prominent producer based in Montreal. Nico, I know that you've had a passion for cannabis for quite a few years, but you seem a lot younger than what I was expecting. I have to know how and when you got into the cannabis business. Yeah, absolutely. I look younger, but I'm aging by the day.

But no, I'm 35 years old. I got into cannabis about five years ago. Started with Canara. But you were a consumer before that. by the day, but no, I'm 35 years old. I got into cannabis about five years ago. I started with Canara. But you were a consumer before that. Yeah, I've been a consumer. I had friends in the legacy side of the business and watched what they did. I tried the different strains and genetics, watched how they grew, really found a passion for cannabis and the products. But my professional career is an accountant. So while I had a passion for cannabis, I was also a straight A student. Wow. And then Canada decided to legalize cannabis.

And that was when I was like, okay, this is kind of my calling. I have to try to figure out how do I can get into the industry. And Canara had just became a public company. I joined them in April 2019 and built the finance department here at Canara and worked with the founder. And at one point I was given the keys to that. And now I'm here today. Wow, that's such a cool story. So how do you feel about being called a trailblazer in the legal market now? It's an honor. I've looked up to many trailblazers in this industry today that come from the legacy side that went to legal. I'm happy to be part of that. Actually, I wanted to ask you about the legacy market. How did you incorporate it into operations on the legal side? I don't pretend that the cannabis market just got created in 2017.

For me, legacy means that everyone that's been working, all the businesses that have been in the industry pre-legalization. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel in terms of thinking I know what consumers want. There's been an industry that's been built for many, many, many years. So it's all the ideas and creations that were pre-legalization, figuring out how do we evolve that into the legal side with all the regulatory frameworks. What would you say is the best part of working in the legal market? Knowing that your product is clean, knowing what you're consuming,

we're ensuring quality, we're ensuring the price. I think we're ahead of other industries. Okay, so final question. What gets you excited to go to work every day? This is my dream. This is my passion. I get excited. Work doesn't feel like work for me. When you're creating things that you dream about, I give the idea to the team. The team is able to execute different innovations. That's what really gets me excited. Thanks for listening to this Trailblazers story brought to

you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAST Creative. If you like the trail Nico Soziak is blazing, you will love what's happening in legal cannabis. Visit ocs.ca slash trailblazers to learn more. Kerry Smith had gotten away with it again. He ditched the getaway car, made his way home and counted his latest haul. He'd made off with over $25,000. If that were today, it would be about $220,000. His common-law wife Eileen was still in Manitoba having the extended visit with her family,

but Kerry's old Navy buddy was there at the bungalow. Kerry showed him the cash and calmly told him that he'd robbed the bank and had no choice but to shoot a man who chased him. Kill or be killed, he said. Richard would say that Kerry didn't seem emotionally upset by the fact that he had killed someone. In fact, Richard himself was fairly apathetic about it. He accepted a gift of $70 from Kerry and then went on with his weekend plans. Over the summer, Richard was joined by Kerry's mining friend Joe, the one who had set him up with Eileen. They had a job to do. They had to help Kerry launder the cash so that the banknotes couldn't be traced back to him.

So in exchange for a percentage of the cash, Joe and Richard opened various bank accounts in their names, deposited cash from the heist, and then went back to withdraw it, giving the different bank notes to Kerry. As the summer came to a close, Eileen called and asked Kerry if she could bring her daughter Estelle back with her to Toronto. Kerry immediately purchased them both tickets to fly back and Eileen would say that he treated her daughter well and didn't seem to mind having a toddler in the house. She would also say that he told her that he robbed a bank and killed a man while she was away, and showed the newspaper clippings to prove it. Like Richard, she didn't give much of a reaction. After all, she was in a different province with a small child, no income, and by all accounts she was happy in the relationship compared to others. So she stayed. But Kerry Smith wasn't done robbing banks just yet. Even with his recent windfall

and the fact that he was still working at Dunlop Tire, he was already planning a new heist. And for the first time, he involved a partner, a co-worker named Warren Laidlaw, who needed cash fast. Kerry did his research and chose a branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia, located in a small town called Sutton, Ontario, located just south of Lake Simcoe. He and Warren drove up there in his Oldsmobile to case the community and come up with a plan. the community and come up with a plan. Sutton only had about 1,400 residents at the time, and the pair had no idea how dodgy they looked to the locals, so suspicious that a local resident took immediate note of the sedan with number plate 16924 and passed the details on to the local police. None the wiser, Kerry and Warren continued their preparation for the robbery, which required the purchase of another car.

Warren's wife decided to take on that task, and used a fake name to purchase a used blue Meteor. She promised the owners she would sign the owner transfer application and take it to the motor vehicle registration office as soon as the office opened after the weekend. But she didn't, and that was by design. Kerry and Warren then arranged for the vehicle to be driven to Sutton and parked on a side street. This car would form an important part of their plan. Street. This car would form an important part of their plan. On November 27th, 1964, Kerry Smith and Warren Laidlaw drove back to the Sutton area in Kerry's Oldsmobile, but this time they were also pulling a small boat on a trailer that Kerry had purchased especially for this. They parked the car on the

western shore of Lake Simcoe and then put the boat in the water, stocking it with their guns and disguises. They then raced the boat across the lake toward the town of Sutton, docking nearby. The pair then walked to the meteor that had been parked there before. They put on disguises of red wool masks and dark glasses and drove the car to the local police station. They knew that the station was only staffed by one person and they burst in, roughed up the elderly peace officer, handcuffed him and then departed for the bank. Gripping their rifles, they ran into the entrance of the Bank of Nova Scotia, but once inside, one of the rifles suddenly discharged, wounding two bank staff. It appeared that it may have been accidental

because the robbers apologised and allowed another bank patron to call an ambulance as they were scooping up cash to put in their sack. And then on the way out of the bank, a canvas backpack was dropped and cash went flying into the air. Witnesses saw the robbers shoving money back into the bag before getting into a blue meteor and speeding off. bag before getting into a blue meteor and speeding off. When Kerry and Warren arrived back at the dock they abandoned the meteor there, jumped back on the boat and zipped across the water to where the Oldsmobile was parked, tossing their firearms in the water on the way. They also sunk the boat close to the shoreline before speeding off back to Toronto in the Oldsmobile.

The men knew there would be no police on their tail for quite some time. They had bought themselves some time by leaving that handcuffed peace officer at the station, and even more time after that because after the authorities had found him, they would be looking for a getaway car that was a blue Meteor. Despite the foolish mistakes they made, it was a clever, well-thought-out robbery, and the pair made off with more than $10,000, worth close to $90,000 today. The next month was December of 1964, and Kerry's father, Matt Smith, came to visit his son at the Toronto bungalow. He noticed the home contained almost no furniture but had lots of

people there, including Eileen's daughter Estelle, as well as her brother Kenneth and his girlfriend. her brother Kenneth and his girlfriend. Matt also learned that Kerry had since quit his job at Dunlop Tire and additionally as someone who was not into guns he was distressed to learn that his son appeared to be obsessed with them and was enjoying target practice in his basement with his new friends. He wondered what Kerry was up to. How was he making a living? Matt Smith would soon find out. The new year arrived, 1965. It had now been almost six months since the CIBC heist that left Jack Blank dead, and the police were still technically looking for the Beatle bandit, although the last leads had long since dried up. Late in the night of January 6th, Eileen's brother Kenneth was out cruising with Kerry in his Oldsmobile. As they drove up Yonge Street,

Toronto, they had no idea that there was a motorcycle cop there on a mission. Constable Robert Greig was randomly checking the number plates of cars driving past, comparing them to a list of number plates he had of wanted vehicles. One of those wanted vehicles was the suspicious-looking Oldsmobile that had been spotted in the town of Sutton when Kerry and Warren first drove through as they formulated a plan. The Oldsmobile hadn't been connected to the bank robbery of course and the abandoned blue meteor had since been located. Because Warren's wife hadn't changed the registration and she gave a false name when she purchased the vehicle, the police could only track it back to its previous owners.

But there had been some other thefts in the area at the time, and the licence plate of the suspicious Oldsmobile had been passed to the Toronto Police as something to keep an eye on. When Constable Greig spotted the vehicle with the plate number 16924 coming up Yonge Street, he checked his list and then took off on his motorcycle in pursuit, indicating for it to pull over. Kerry either didn't notice or ignored it and kept driving at the same speed. Before long, they had attracted the attention of another constable and the car

pulled over. More police arrived and they saw the car was wanted, possibly in connection to the theft of two outboard motors from the Sutton area. The two men and the car were taken to station number 53 at Eglinton Avenue and Yonge Street. Both men were told to empty their pockets. The police noticed that Kenneth had some money in his wallet that had bloodstains on it, and then a pistol fell out of Kerry's pocket. A constable quickly seized the firearm and began questioning the two men. Kerry's answers came in the form of babbling about revolution and violence. He said he admired both Nazis and the Chinese Communist Party, not because of their ideology but because they were both getting somewhere thanks to the use

of violence. As Nate Henley wrote in his book The Beetle Bandit, Kerry's interest in both extremes hinged not on what they each believed, but on their willingness to use violence to further their cause. At first, detectives thought Kerry was just a potential outboard motor thief with a pistol and some weird opinions. He was arrested for possessing an offensive weapon. The police then took Kenneth and went over to the bungalow where everyone lived, waking up Eileen, her toddler Estelle, and the other people who were staying there. Detectives uncovered a huge arsenal of 22 weapons that included pistols, rifles, a crossbow and vast quantities of ammunition.

Loaded guns were found under beds and in closets and police were astonished at how carelessly these weapons were stored. It was an incredibly dangerous and hazardous environment for anyone to live in, especially a young child. But the police would soon come across something very interesting. Among those firearms were parts of an FN rifle bearing the serial number 2562. There was also a part there that appeared to have been dabbed with pink paint. When the police checked the serial number, they were shocked to realize that they might have inadvertently captured the elusive Beatle bandit. Back at the police station, Kerry Smith was permitted to call his partner Eileen during a break in the interrogation.

Eileen had learned that she was pregnant with her second child but also the couple's first, and Kerry was apologetic and tender with her, asking repeatedly if she was okay. But when Kerry got off the phone, he went back to ranting about revolution. He did admit to killing Jack Blank and took full responsibility for the crime. Jack blank and took full responsibility for the crime. The police charged him with murder and bank robbery, with an additional bank robbery charge laid for the Christmas Eve robbery where he wished the staff a Merry Christmas. Throughout most of Canada's history, a murder conviction automatically resulted in a death sentence. The penalty could be commuted, but in general, justice was harsh. From Confederation until 1962, over 700 convicts were

hanged in Canada. In the few years before that, the criminal code had been tweaked to create a distinction between what was called capital murder and non-capital murder. Capital murder charges applied when a suspect killed a police officer, prison guard or civilian while committing a violent crime. And capital murder was punishable by hanging. Anything that didn't fit under that category was considered non-capital murder and attracted a maximum sentence of life in prison. Even though Kerry Smith admitted to killing Jack Blank, he was committed to stand trial for capital murder. When faced with the prospect of being hanged, he pleaded not guilty. get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But ice tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goal tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those

too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. 25-year-old Kerry Smith went on trial starting May 10, 1965, and his defense lawyer, John O'Driscoll, faced a huge challenge. There would be damning testimony from Eileen, her brother Kenneth, Richard, Joe and other acquaintances that Kerry had discussed his robbery plans with. None of these witnesses had bothered to report his alarming comments to police and had been charged with being an accessory, but in exchange for testifying against him, they would be granted immunity

from prosecution. The Crown admitted Kerry's confession into evidence as well as all of the ballistics evidence regarding the firearms and shell casings. Police investigators had test-fired the guns they seized from the house and had the shell casings analysed and compared to those found at the crime scene. And casings from the recovered FN rifle with serial number 2562 matched those found at the crime scene. Solid evidence linking Kerry to the murder and the robberies. With this, Kerry's defence team put forward an insanity defence. While these days this defence is handled by way of a not criminally responsible hearing, back in the 60s it was argued as part of the trial.

And importantly, a person deemed legally insane could not be hanged. The court heard that Kerry Smith did kill Jack Blank, but he was having a psychotic episode as a result of his schizophrenia and was acting out a fantasy about leading a revolution. Psychiatrists who testified for the defense agreed that Kerry had schizophrenia. One told the court his opinion that because Kerry was prepared to take chances that people who are not mentally ill would never think of taking, and even though he knew that murder and robbery was illegal, in his mind what he was doing was morally right and justified. The defense stated that Kerry Smith had no understanding of or appreciation

for the nature of his acts and wasn't able to comprehend the consequences. Therefore, he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. The Crown had provided solid evidence, but their rebuttal to the insanity defence was by way of another psychiatrist, who testified that Kerry was cunning, manipulative and cold-blooded. He did not think that Kerry was insane at the time of the robbery, and in his opinion, Kerry didn't have schizophrenia. Instead, he showed evidence of an antisocial personality with psychopathic traits. Essentially, the Crown was arguing that Kerry did have some kind of, quote, disease of the mind, but it was not to the extent that rendered

him incapable of knowing that what he had done was wrong. Furthermore, the court heard that if Kerry was in the middle of a psychotic episode, that would render him incapable of the careful planning that clearly went into the robberies. He was rational enough to plan the Bathurst Manor Plaza bank robbery and the getaway car. He was rational enough to pivot to a new escape plan when that car didn't start, and he was savvy enough to remain at large for six months. The Crown described him as a perfectly normal bank robber, motivated only by greed. Quote, he knew exactly what he was doing. Kerry himself was secretly annoyed at being portrayed as an insane madman and had written letters to Eileen in prison

where he denied being mentally ill at the time of the robbery. He said he preferred to be seen as just a bad guy who robbed banks. But because of the solid evidence against him, an insanity plea was his only chance of escaping the noose, so he begrudgingly went along with it. After only a few hours' deliberation, the jury found him guilty of capital murder. When asked if they wanted to recommend clemency or leniency, which might stave off a death sentence, the jury said no. With that, Kerry Smith was sentenced to death by hanging. He showed no reaction and when asked if he wanted to speak, he said, I would just like to say what I have said before about the overthrow of the government I believe in,

and that I believe men will have to give their lives to change our government to fight decadence and to fight apathy. That is all. Apparently, the prospect of death had done nothing to dampen his fantasies about violent revolution. His lawyer appealed the sentence with the Ontario Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court of Canada, but it was no use. There was, however, growing pressure in the court of public opinion to spare Kerry's life, with petitions and newspaper editorials popping up

to decry the death penalty. His father, Matt Smith, was beside himself, moving into advocacy for his son's life straight away. The Globe and Mail published a very poignant interview he gave to a journalist and sports author named Scott Young. At the time, Scott Young's 20-year-old son, Neil Young, had just finished playing folk clubs in Winnipeg with another up-and-coming musician called Joni Mitchell. with another up-and-coming musician called Joni Mitchell. In any event, Scott Young clearly sympathised with Matt Smith's plight.

In the introduction to his September 10, 1965 feature for the Globe and Mail, he wrote about how Matt wanted to spare the life of his son and improve mental health services so that people like Kerry Smith could get the help they needed. Matt recalled when Kerry was first diagnosed with schizophrenia and advised to seek outpatient treatment because there weren't enough beds at the mental health facility. Quote, The article also spoke about Kerry's mother, Isabel, who was described as being in the throes of her own illness and seemed oblivious to her son's fate. By this point, she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and when her friends tried to explain to her that her son was going to be hanged, she didn't really understand, calling him a good boy who had always done well.

It seemed that Kerry Smith's last hope lay with the federal government. For years, the government had been routinely commuting death sentences. While the conservatives were choosy about which person they spared, the Liberals wanted to abolish capital punishment altogether. This was late 1965. The Liberals had been in office since 1963, and Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson had commuted every death sentence passed by the courts. It seemed likely that they might act again and spare Kerry's life. After some behind-the-scenes drama, Ottawa decreed that Kerry Smith, along with two other convicted murderers, would not be executed. All three men would serve life in prison instead. This announcement was a watershed moment in Canada. While the death penalty wouldn't be

officially abolished until 1976, there would be no more executions. Kerry Smith was shipped to the Kingston Penitentiary to serve his sentence. By that point, Eileen had given birth to their son, who she named Kerry Jr. While the Kingston pen was notoriously tough, Kerry wrote Eileen a lot of letters and seemed upbeat for the most part. His letters were filled with loving comments about baby Kerry Jr. and Estelle, Eileen's daughter from her previous marriage. He also questioned Eileen's well-being because she was now living in poverty with the children. being because she was now living in poverty with the children and Kerry knew that she had been engaging in hazardous use of alcohol and tried to be as supportive as he could behind bars. He said, quote, don't throw money away on liquor. The kids need a good sober mother.

They need love and understanding. While Kerry was putting on a good public face, in private he was wrestling with some inner demons. While he once considered himself just a bad guy who robbed banks, he had started to wonder if he'd suffered some kind of head injury which was what caused him to do what he did. In one letter to Eileen, he said that he believed he had a defect that had affected his intellect, and had inquired as to whether brain surgery might help him. Then he started complaining about headaches and a clicking sound in his ears, and doctors noticed he started rambling. One doctor placed him on medication for anxiety, and another wrote to the prison's chief psychiatrist, concerned that Kerry was at risk of suicide, and suggesting that he be sent to the prison's psychiatric wing. At least one other doctor there agreed.

The chief decided that Kerry was having some sort of episode, but didn't think it would help him to be placed in the psych wing. It was decided that he would be able to manage staying in general population where he could continue to focus on his daily chores. On June 13th, 1966, Kerry Matthew Smith was found lying in a pool of blood in his cell. A razor blade was found nearby. There was no note. Had he been placed in the psychiatric wing, he would not have had access to razor blades. But instead, he bled to death in his general population cell without anyone noticing. There was outrage, with Neil Young's father, Scott Young, again writing a scathing article for the Globe and Mail.

Quote, leave him in his cell night after night, including the sad hours of the early morning which many prisoners say are the worst of all, all the time processing a razor blade? An inquest was held and the jury concluded that prison staff weren't negligent and that Kerry had received adequate mental care. In an effort to get more answers, his brain was removed from his head and carefully examined in a lab to see if there were any defects or injuries that may have explained his violent actions. But everything appeared perfectly normal. Kerry Smith's rampage has been largely forgotten over the years.

In fact, Toronto true crime author Nate Henley hadn't heard of the story until he was approached by retired legal educator and freelance writer Paul Truster, who had collected a treasure trove of materials, including police memos, court reports, interrogation and psych reports, military records for both Jack Blank and Kerry Smith, and the full trial transcript, about a thousand pages. Once Nate realised the enormity of the story, he knew it had to be the subject of his next book. But even though the details of the case itself

faded in the public consciousness, the issues surrounding this case are still hotly debated today. Canadians still argue about gun control, the death penalty, how mentally ill people should be treated by the justice system, and how much funding should be allocated towards mental health. And given recent events in both the United States and Canada, the prospect of how to deal with citizens attempting to overthrow the government is now a heated topic of discussion. According to later reporting by the Globe and Mail, Kerry Smith came to regret the violence and chaos he had caused as a wannabe revolutionary, and his son, Kerry Jr., tends to agree, believing that this is part of why his father took his own life. Now a middle-aged man with his own family and life,

man with his own family and life, Kerry Jr. told author Nate Henley that he has no criminal affectations or serious problems with mental health, but he has had plenty of time to think and he believes his father had reflected on his crimes while locked up. He may have been consumed with guilt over the murder of Jack Blank, and perhaps these regrets led to his suicide. That's what Kerry Jr. believes, but no one will ever know for sure. The Bathurst Manor Plaza was once a popular destination, but it has since been demolished and today it's a vacant and overgrown wasteland. For people who witnessed the Bathurst Manor Plaza robbery or grew up in the neighbourhood and the devastated Smith and Blank families, the Beetle Bandit himself remained a mystery. Clearly, Kerry Smith had a serious

mental illness and might have led a different life had he received better and more appropriate treatment when he was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1961. Instead, he left behind a legacy of armed robbery, violence and misplaced purpose. Thanks for listening and special thanks to true crime author and journalist Nate Henley, who wrote these episodes based on his book The Beetle Bandit, a serial bank robber's deadly heist, a cross-country manhunt, and the insanity plea that shook the nation, published by Dundurn Press. It is an amazing book full of history and interesting anecdotes, but presented in a very clean and easy to read way. And there is so much more to explore than what I could fit

into these episodes. The book could have been its own standalone podcast series. You can find The Beetle Bandit by Nate Henley wherever good books are sold, and there are links to purchase in the show notes. Special thanks also to Chris Sensical, municipal law enforcement officer and sport shooter, who was helping me improve how I describe firearms and related technology. I am clueless when it comes to firearms, but I want to make sure that I get it right. So thank you to Chris for reaching out so kindly. For the full list of resources and anything else you want to know about the podcast, including how to access ad-free episodes,

visit canadiantruecrime.ca. Well, that's it for this series. Thank you again so much for your kind ratings, reviews, messages, and support. Thank you also to Aussie music producer, Solar Flare, who composed some of the tracks used in this series, and to the host of True for voicing the disclaimer, and We Talk of Dreams who composed the theme song. I'll be back

soon with a new Canadian true crime story. See you then. Thank you.