The Underworld Podcast - 140 Banks! The Craziest Robbery Crew You've Never Heard Of!

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Meet the Stopwatch Gang: three polite Canadian crooks turned bank robbery into a precision sport, hitting over 140 banks across North America and walking away with $15 million without firing a single shot. They wore presidential Halloween masks, escaped from prison multiple times, and became so notorious that the boss landed on the FBI's Most Wanted list. At their peak, they stole millions while humiliating police forces across North America and becoming legends in the criminal underworld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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April 14, 1974, in Ottawa, Canada. A young security guard is pulling what should be an uneventful overnight shift at a cargo warehouse at Ottawa International Airport. He's watching over five boxes sealed with redwax stacked inside a locked cage. They're on their way from the Red Lake gold mines in western Ontario to the Royal Canadian Mint. And the boxes contain 5,100 ounces of solid gold bars. That's $23 million in today's money. A few minutes before midnight, the phone rings.

An angry voice on the other end demand to know if his guy has shown up yet, a worker sent to pick something up. The voice is yelling, it's angry, something about flights being delayed, and he keeps asking where the hell his guy is. The security guard is clueless, and the voice on the other line keeps yelling. Then, all of a sudden, a knock on the door. Ian walks a guy in a blue air Canada parker,

the missing worker doing the pickup. The security guard tells him his boss is looking for him, and he's not happy. The man walks over to the phone and he picks it up. He looks nervous, but in a second, he's pulled a gun from his waistband and he says, this is a robbery. If you don't do everything I tell you,

I'm going to have to kill you. The man is Stephen Reed. He's a co-founder of the Stop Watch gang, one of the most infamous bank robbery gangs in North American history. Reed handcuffs the security guard to the outside of the cage and asks him where the key is to get the boxes open. The security guard tells him it's stored in the main terminal, which is quite a distance away.

It's a slight missat for the robbery crew, but Reed doesn't panic. He grabs an empty cardboard box and just places it over the security guard's head so he can't see what's happening. Then he disappears into a workshop next door. He comes back soon with a hacksaw and a heavy wrench. And for the next 20 minutes,

he bangs and saws at that lock until it hits the floor. Then he stacks the five boxes of gold onto a cart, wheels them to loading dock where his partner Lionel Wright is waiting, and they loaded it all into a car and vanish into the night. The security guard sits there, handcuffed to a cage, with a cardboard box on his head, for another 30 minutes until a cleaning crew finally finds him. The police are called immediately, and they scramble to put together roadblocks and go on a massive

manhunt. But it's already too late. The guys are already gone. This is the not messing around crew, and tens of million dollars in gold gone, just like that, with a fairly simple robbery where no one even gets hurt. The Stopwatch gang is just getting started, for they're going to go on to become one of the most successful heist crews ever seen in Canada and the U.S. This is the Underworld podcast.

Welcome back to the Underwell podcast, an audio visual program where two journalists take you our listeners, who we love and cherish, on a journey through the world of international organized crime, past, present, and future. I'm one of your host, Danny Gold, and I am here. with long-form writer turned Playboy's centerfold. Sean, is it true that you're actually Playboys' main model of the month or whatever they're calling it right now? Yeah, I'm on the cover of Playboy.

Should we say that? I mean, be more specific. I did an article for them. They're back, apparently. And I did an episode. An episode, see, I can only think in podcasts now. Like, only podcasts exist. I did a feature article for them about a guy who was kidnapped in Venezuela as,

the US was kind of doing his thing in Venezuela, which steamrolled my story. But yeah, I did that. It's in Playboy. It's pretty weird. And now I did a video for them online, which I hated, obviously. I don't do an all video.

And now I'm online either a communist sympathizer or an imperialist shill. That's what happens. I mean, if it was either one of those things, I would be way richer than I am. But yeah, isn't it great? We joke, but they used to have incredible articles. And the interviews, the interviews are like some most remarkable interview.

I mean, we're talking 30, 40 years ago. Some of the best interviews ever, ever done. I'm bringing it back, baby. Yeah. Okay, so there is an article, but are you or are you not showing feet in the magazine? We have an exciting deal that I can't yet reveal. But maybe we'll kind of like tease that one out in the next few weeks. Yeah, I'm kind of like, I'm bound to an NDA, so I can't really talk about that.

Well, okay, I think a lot of our patrons are going to be disqual. but what else is new? Speaking of which, you can sign up for those, that sort of stuff at patreon.com slash normal podcast. We probably should do more regular bonus episodes, which we haven't been doing. Also can do that at Spotify and iTunes at

underworldpod.com. You can get merch like t-shirts and the Underworld Podcast at gmail.com for all other inquiries like advertising. Social media clips, go watch them. We put them up against their will again. We do. Yeah. So, let's

talk about the stopwatch gang. We love a good heist crew, and the main sources for this episode are the book, The Stopwatch Gang by Greg Watson, and a big article in The Adivist by Josh Dean. Very cool read, both of those. So Patrick Michael Mitchell, better known as Patty, which is what I'm going to call him, because it's a very long, good name, is born in the suburbs of Ottawa, Canada in 1942 in a not-so-nice part of town. It's bad enough that at 14, he's getting into brawls, one of which leaves another kid

dead and him and Juvie for a few years. So definitely, you know, hardcore, hardcore at that age. He gets out, gets married at the age of 19 and has a kid shortly after. Still smart enough to go to college, though, which, you know, in the 50s, kind of a big deal. But he drops out after one semester to get a job to help support his growing family. He gets a job as a salesman at a beverage company and is living a pretty middle-class suburban life. What the fuck is that? You may be asking yourself. Barbecues and ball games with his kids, hanging out with other dad's typical stuff as he tries to move off the corporate ladder. Nicely done.

I feel like there's going to be a few more of those first around this episode. Also, yeah, I know that life well. I'm still waiting for my raids as well, actually. It's been a while. He's getting by, he's doing all right, but as time goes by, he realizes isn't exactly going to lead to the good life. And he wants the good life. Then in 1971, he leads a strike as the union leader versus the beverage company.

It gets kind of ugly. And after the strike ends, he's fired by the company. And he's out looking for jobs. And he comes home one day to tell his wife. he just landed a new job as a salesman with a hefty commissions. The thing is, though, that job doesn't exist. What is he doing? In actuality, he's doing what a lot of men do when they tell their wives they're busy working.

He is spending his days and a lot of his nights at a bar. And the bar, as the book that I mentioned describes it, is like the cheers for the town's seigneur set, a little Star Wars canteen action, if you will. It's a quote, rag-tag assortment of rounders, thieves, hookers, and hoods, who share the bar with a quote, insortment of policemen, judges, journalists,

and other liars, which is a fantastic way to describe that. That's, I mean, the bar sounds incredible, kind of like the place Jimmy Breslin would hang out in,

you know, not many of those left, unfortunately. Are there none, are they none in your neck of the woods these days? No, no, I mean,

there might be, there used to be a couple left, I think, by the courthouse, uh, in Central Street of Manhattan. There might be one or two like that, but they don't really exist

anymore like that, man, That is sad. I mean, I'm on a mission to find those kind of bars here, but I can't speak the language, so it doesn't really help. Anyway, moving on. I'm sure you'll figure it out. The book goes on to say it's like a demilitarized zone where half the crowd did time in jail, and the other half helped put them there. Patty has a lot of friends, he's got a big network of people who grew up with. He's generally a likable guy. Some of his pals grew up to become businessman, lawyers, cops, and the rest become crooks. And his network, it's way more crooks than legitimate people. So Patty holds court at the table in the far corner of the bar where he acts as almost like a criminal consultant. He's a very sharp guy.

He's putting together robberies, but not actually participating in himself and taking a cut of the loot. Like we said, he's sharp, he's a problem solver, and soon enough, some people are calling him the unofficial mayor of the underworld. A psychologist later profile released about Patty describes him as, quote, presenting himself as an articulate, amiable, and intelligent person. Mr. Patty possesses, Mr. Mitchell possesses the strengths of personality that could lead him into successful and lawful enterprises. By the way, I feel like when I do Canadian episodes, there's always like a psychologist profile that they have there. And I don't, I mean, obviously, I think the U.S. does those two on criminals, but maybe it's not as openly available. I mean, I don't want to be out here standing both the Venezuelan regime and the welfare state in one episode. But I don't know, maybe it's a good thing.

Although, yeah, I don't think it's going to go so well for the Canadian state from here on out, right? What do you mean a good thing that the Canadians let it be open or a good thing that the U.S. protects it? Just maybe they're throwing money as psychological profiles, but then again, like, I don't think he's going to do a lot, right? Because otherwise, why would we be doing a show about this guy? I'm pretty sure the U.S. psychological profiles, like, core cases do them too. I just don't remember them being so widely open. Like, I feel like they're always quoted in Canadian crime stories and not U.S. ones. I could also just be making that up, which could be a thing.

Patty had been hanging out at this bar even before he was fired, but now that he's jobless, he needs money, hence getting into crime since he already has the connections. He isn't really a fan of big corporations, so he has no problem putting together these robberies for his Hullim friends, and they're basically like, you know, ripping off appliances and electronics. Their rule basically is don't rob innocent folks and try not to use guns. Through the first half of the 1970s,

nothing much of substance gets stolen around town without input from Patty. Thieves would basically say, I think I have an opportunity here. And then he works out the plan, but doesn't participate in the robberies himself. It actually sounds kind of great, right? That's essentially being a consultant, right? None of the risk, none of the hard work, telling people what to do and just making bank out of it. He's like the McKinsey of Ottawa Heist. Very good.

Yeah, nice one. Yeah, thank you. The items stolen range from booze. cigarettes, TVs, truckloads of butter, blank travelers checks, all types of stuff, heists, hijackings. You know, it's like the beginning of Goodfellas. And the cops seem to know Patty is involved with all these shenanigans, but they don't really bother with them because it's kind of small-time stuff. Stephen Reed is another guy from a middle class background that becomes a hippie one summer and drops out of school, and he also gets a bit of a drug problem and starts robbing

to support his habit. First a corner store, then a bank, but on the bank robbery, he gets arrested and sentenced the 10 years in prison. He escapes prison after about a year when he's on a day pass with guards to attend a course of fitness programming because he was the inmate sporting director at the prison, which is just, I guess Canada, Canada, bro. He convinces the guards to stop at a Chinese restaurant against the rules, but Reed is also a very charming guy, well-liked by the prison guards, so they break the rules to stop. He escapes outside the Chinese restaurant bathroom window and has a friend ready to pick him up. When Reed's out of prison, he becomes friends with Patty, when another friend introduces the two and they start getting along.

Okay, so was he going like from the gym or going to the gym? Because coming back, I can understand you've got a carb load, right? But going to, that is, I mean, that's a horror show on every level. So you've got to sack everyone involved immediately. I mean, it's not great. I think he was, it's unreal. He was coming back, but I feel like if you're like, let me get some Chinese food before you go workout, it would be suspicious in the least. Not if you're me, but yeah, maybe for people to,

actually get fit. Now, in November of 1973, Reed and Patty and another gentleman hour at the bar discussing business. The guy has a connection at the airport, and he's telling the guys

about 100 calculators he wants to steal. If Goodfellas was based in Ottawa, it would not be as exciting. But the guy casually mentions in the conversation, there's also some gold bars that go in and out of the airport.

The duo, they ask him about security, and he's like, look, there's barely any there, but can we please talk about the calculators? I don't know, man. And maybe it was those we used to have back in high school, what were they called graphing calculators? Remember those? They were like a couple hundred dollars each, I suppose.

Yeah. Remember you could play that drug dealer game on them. That was kind of sick. Oh, I don't know what that is. I'm going to need a bit more information. I do remember those kind of calculators being, they were like the coolest thing you could have, right? Like there would only be a handful of people in the school that would have them. We all had to have them.

What is the drug dealer grafting? Well, it was like someone like designed a game that you could get on them where you was like, like a choose one and you were like a drug dealer. I feel like it was a thing. Maybe it was before your time. I don't know. Maybe it wasn't a thing in the UK, but it was like a thing. Possibly.

Definitely a thing. If you remember that game, email us or leave a comment. You email us now. Yeah, definitely let me know. I'm pretty sure I'm not hallucinating it. Anyway, Patty is like, you know, forget about these calculators. Let's steal the gold and then we'll never have to work again, which is what every robbery should be about.

Yeah. He starts planning to heist. but he's a big picture guy, right? They need another guy for the details. And that guy is Lionel Wright. He's a quiet 27-year-old night clerk for a trucking company that Patty had previously befriended

because of his keen interest in trucking. You know, because he robs stuff from trucks. Wright quits his trucking job a year after meeting Patty and becomes a sort of, you know, do-it-all gopher, chauffeur, an organizer for the crew. He has an incredible memory and is extremely details-oriented,

which Patty is not. He's also like a quiet sort of like, mind his own business sort of guy. And on the night of April 17th, 1974, that's where we have the robbery from the cold open. The cops at this point, they know it's Patty that he's the mastermind, but they don't have any evidence

and they don't know who else is involved. In fact, Patty has a strong alibi. He was out having a drink with some people in the prime minister's office the night of the robbery. I mean, like, that work in the prime minister's office, not like in the prime minister's office, but like still Canada, right? Just a small country back then.

That could just happen, which is also a great alibi. You know, I'm sure it was like an aide or like a secretary. I doubt it was like a high level justice official, but still, that's how you plan an alibi, people. Top. Yeah. Not like I was at my girlfriend's place and you're like, you know, I was with people from the prime minister's office. That's how it's done. Six weeks after the robbery, Patty drives down to about a mile away from the American border

and sells the goal for $200,000 to a couple of friends that were doing odd jobs for organized crime out of California. So he makes out with, like, less than he had hoped for, but still pretty good scratch. After Patty pays out his partners, he buys some racehorses, as one does, opens up an illegal gambling operation in a fancy high-rise apartment, but in no time at all, he's down to like his last 40K. He'd put none of the money to good use, just spent it on nonsense, even though spending it on horse racing and gambling operation sounds like the opposite of nonsense to me. Reed, on the other hand, is already an escape convict. He takes his woman, he takes his 60K, the cost.

caught, he runs the U.S. almost immediately. Right, like I said, the quiet guy. He doesn't really spend much of the money at all, and he keeps to his low-key, quiet routine. Yeah, around half our listeners are going to know this quite well, but it reminds me the George Best one. Do you know that one? It's like, uh, I spent a lot of money on boo's, birds and fast cars, and the rest are just squandered, which is, which is very good. Yeah, I mean, that's a classic. I don't know anything else about George, but he was a football player, right? He was a football player. He was a football player. He played for the LAS at the end of his career, and his son is American. Uh, I mean, I mean, he was a classic. Uh,

But he's a legend, Northern Irish. Yeah. A big drinker to a bit of a fall. But anyway, yes, good quote. All I know is about that quote, which is also like, you know, great, great. You don't need to know much more. That's good. Yeah.

About three months after the heist, the cops execute search warrants that somehow, they've somehow obtained without any real good evidence on Patty, on right, and on the inside man. But they don't really find anything. However, even though they've got nothing on him, the inside man, kind of cracks and agrees to wear a wire against Patty and the others. Paddy kind of stiffed him on his promised cut of the loot, so he's not too happy with the others anyway and figures why not. Patty also at this time, he's working on a hustle with some of his airport connects. He's trying to bring drugs in from Curacao. Curacao. Yeah, South America. Curacao, right next to Venezuela, right?

Yeah, yeah. He's trying to bring, what I assume is cocaine in for some quick cash, but it falls through because that guy is working with the police. It really does feel like in the 70s you could just like rock up the Caribbean, wave around a few ground and end up being a major coke smuggler. But I guess that's the problem with today's capitalism, mate. It's just the bars of entry, they're too high. Just can't do it anymore. You know how it works once like multi, you know, the global corporations just take over. Yeah.

These guys, they started from the, you know, they started from the bottom and went to the top very quickly, not even in the 70s. If you were starting the 70s and held out as long as some of these cartels did, they'd be doing quite well. Oh yeah. On December 10, 1974, Reed gets busted because he's been fooling around with a friend's ex-wife who rats him out, so he gets taken back to jail and is charged with escaping custody. It initially freaks out Patty, who's expecting the worst, but nothing happens. Patty's officially out of money from the heist at this point. And then on March 4, 1975, Patty and Wright finally get arrested for both the gold heist

and the drug scheme, and Reed is given his indictment just for the gold heist behind bars. Patty and Wright get a total of 20 years, 17 years for the drug heist. drug case, three for the gold, and while we're already in jail, he gets an additional 10 years tacked onto a sentence, which I was surprised by that. That's like serious, serious time, especially for Canada, you know? Yeah. Right after spending a year in pre-child detention, he's like, this is not, this isn't going to work for me. I do not, I do not like this, which understandable. He's able to get involved with a crew planning an escape in October of 1976. It works out successfully, and then he disappears to Florida. Patty also doesn't plan out sticking around very long, but he's in a different

much higher, higher security level prison, rated as the worst in Canada. He hatches a plan with some other inmates. They find a recreational shed in the yard that's never really used. And under the guise of playing a daily Scrabble game near the shed, they start digging a tunnel. To get rid of the dirt, they would dump the dirt out during casual walks around the jogging track, Shawshank style. So another sort of, like, you know, great, great movie style reference. I wonder if Stephen King wrote Shawshank, right?

Yep. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I wonder if you got if I, like, you hear a couple things in this movie. You're like, I mean, in this story, like, I wonder if they took it from, from that. Straight out. Yeah. In the summer of 1977, Reid joins him at that prison. The tunnel effort, however, fails when the tennis court they were tunneling under collapses during

a specially hot day. With that plan dashed and other potential escapes considered too high risk, the guys switch strategies. They figure they need a transfer to a less high security prison, which medium security, low security to have a chance to escape. So they become model prisoners, chatting it up with the guards, organizing sporting events, stuff like that. Reading roles in the prison barber program to become professional hairdresser.

He writes to the prison administration that he needs to transfer to a medium security prison to further pursue his training and his hairdresser instructor also comes through with a note to the warden. In September of 1978, he's approved and transferred to the medium security prison, which is quoting a stopwatch gang book. Its escape record had also prompted more than one critic to, wonder why the authorities didn't install turnstiles in the fences. At least they could keep an accurate account of unscheduled departures.

Patty joins him six months later using a similar strategy. When Reed gets to the new prison, he continues to be a model inmate, signs up for all the various inmate committees, even becomes the captain of the prison's hockey team, which in Canada is like, you know, the highest honor that one can achieve. It goes so well that when he applies for parole, the warden allows him a day pass, underguard, of course, to talk to future employers about job opportunities,

which again, Canadian prisons, man. On August 23rd, 1979, while on this day pass, he convinces the guard to go to a seafood restaurant so he can get a real meal. And much like his first prison escape, he again vanishes out the bathroom window. The press has a field day with the escape, considering Reed, used the exact same method

as the first time he escaped. Oh, I mean, Chinese food, seafood, like, they, that's worlds apart. I guess you could say that the guards this time, time might have been herring from their superiors, am I right? That's awful even for you. Oh, okay. The Chinese food and seafood quality is Ottawa is like not close to the ocean. The seafood quality.

No, but you know, diplomatic core, fancy government people maybe. I don't know. Yeah, but it's like the late 70s. I mean, the Chinese food and the seafood is probably not, I can't assume it's great. I could be wrong. Yeah, but I mean, I kind of like that. and dilled, like buffet stuff. It's probably my favorite kind of Chinese food, actually.

I prefer it to actual good Chinese food. There's a hot take for you. There you go. All right. Bosch, then. This wasn't a random escape that happened by opportunity, though. Reed and Patty had meticulously planned out every detail of it, spending many hours pouring over city maps.

And even though he'd been up for parole, which again, seems kind of silly to escape at that point, Reed assumes he has zero chance and escape is his only option. After that, Patty goes to. gets ready planning his own escape. He continued complaints to the prison medical staff about chest pains, headaches, numbness in his left arm. So then on November

15th, 1979, when he collapses in the prison yard with all the signs of a heart attack, the prison nurse reviewing his files automatically demand to be sent to the hospital at once. Patty fakes the signs of a heart attack by drenching cigarettes and water to make a disgusting concoction of nicotine water that he learned when talking to other inmates.

If you do that, you know, that's how you get a trip the hospital because it kind of chugging a ton of nicotine kind of gives you some of the symptoms of a heart attack at least enough to fake out a prison nurse which if anyone has you know spent the night smoking chinese coolade flavored vapes i'm pretty sure you know or even 12 minutes smoking one of them like you do get those those symptoms pretty pretty quickly you know yeah i think you're going to demonstrate that at the end of this episode i'm off the i'm off the chinese basement vapes dude can't do it can't do it are you back on like actual cigarettes or we're

What are we talking about? No, I can't do either. My throat's like kind of wrecked. I miss it. I shouldn't be doing either. But every now and then I, I, every now and then, what I'll do is I'll just get really stressed out and I'll go to the smoke shop around the corner for me and I'll buy like a jewel, like the device and a bunch of pods, smoke it for like one night, throw it out the next day and be like, this is disgusting.

Four days later, go back, do it again. Buy a whole new one again. Yes. Smoke it again for a day. Then I'll do that site. like three or four times and then I'll be like, I'm not doing this for like another six months. Well, just save the actual cigarettes for me when I come out there because I do. There's a landfill. There's a landfill specifically just from the jewels and jewel pods that I bought

and thrown out over the course of the last three years. And I'm sorry. Like I don't, you know, it's not great. When the ambulance arrives at the hospital, the usual emergency entrance is closed due to construction. So they pull into a makeshift entrance by the administration building and are greeted by two attendants in white hospital uniforms. One of the hospital attendants is Reed and he pulls a gun on the guard. A black Chevy pulls up. They jump inside. Inside the Chevy is the long disappeared line all right.

The threesome behind the gold heist is back in business. This is like the formation of the stopwatch gang right here. Reed had actually raised the money need to spring patty by going on a bank robbery spree himself since the escape. So he's already just getting after it. After the escape, Wright finishes back to Florida. where he's been hiding out with fake papers since he escaped in prison a few years prior. Patty and Reed hang around for a couple of weeks

until the heat dies down. Then they make their move. Joining them on their trip is Reed's new girlfriend who he meets when he escapes prison and was waiting for Patty's escape. Reed is just, I mean, these guys are woman out. We don't go into it in details, but these guys are, they are ladies, man, right here.

She hasn't asked too many questions, and they take a train from Montreal and Vermont and fly to Florida from there. It's the 70s, so it's, like, much easier to do these types of things as a fugitive than it is now. you could just walk on flights with like a ticket back then. It was crazy. When the trio arrive in Florida,

Wright goes to pick them up and he hands them fake papers as well that he's prepared for them with like some of his contacts down there. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19 speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility and Optic delivers with precision

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with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention,

and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster. For the next month, the gang just kind of parties in Florida, staying at like a, you know, a Roach Motown and a small town, but then they eventually switched to a rent at home in St. Petersburg. They drink all night, they eat in night, restaurants for a couple of months until they just run out of the leftover money that Reed stole

on his bank robbery speed of fun, Paddy's escape. By the way, after just like one or two robberies, it's kind of nice how loyal these guys are. Yeah. You know, people who work together for 10, 15 years. I mean, Wright's leaving Florida, they go help bail them out, like, even though he's not even living that life anymore. And these guys are just like, they're real best buds. You know, you get that vibe. It's kind of nice, you know? Yeah, I like the bank robber ones. You know, there's like a, there's something really touching about them. They seem to... There's some camaraderie there. Yeah.

You know? Read and Wright scout a bunch of different targets, but they settle on a large suburban department store where they notice that the store takes out two gigantic bags of cash every Monday afternoon at around the same time, you know, the weekend cash back then. People weren't mostly paying with credit cards. A lot of money lying around on a Monday from a big department store.

They figure they can hit the store when they're preparing the bags before they bring the money to the armored truck, and it will net them like 100K easy. They steal a car, they gather supplies for the robbery, You know, in the days before the robbery, they go over the plan a dozen times. And on robbery day, the heist goes exactly as planned. And Patty actually uses a Richard Nixon mask as his disguise, which... Amazing.

Dude, point break. Point break, right? Like, maybe. Feels like every movie has borrowed something from these guys at some point. Unfortunately, they only net 40K, so it's, you know, solid, but not great. After a close call, when they meet a new friend's husband who happens to be a cop, the gang decides they're going to leave St. Petersburg, reading his girlfriend fly across the country who started again in San Diego, whereas Patty and Wright moved back to the Roach

Mattel they were originally in. But after a few months, Reed kind of starts to run low on funds, and when he's down to like his last 5K, he calls up Patty and Wright. He tells them there's a lot of good opportunities in San Diego. So they get on a plane and they join him there. When they arrive, Reed's already cased a few potential banks to hit, but he hadn't done like serious research. So Patty prepares a checklist of what to look for in a bank to rob. First, they want a bank with an alley or some vegetation kind of out front to help obscure their movements from car to the bank and back. Next, they want a major thoroughfare nearby with either infrequent or brief stoplights.

And finally, an underground parking garage nearby where they can kind of safely switch between their getaway car and another car. A bank with rear access, that's considered a bonus. So these guys have, they got a system. The next thing to consider is when's the best time to hit a particular bank to maximize returns. And in terms of casing, a week before they would hit a business. bank, they wouldn't go inside so that they wouldn't be on camera, figuring the bank footage would be stored on the tapes only a few days back.

It's kind of hilarious that, just like banking the entire rest of their life's freedom on this hunch. You know, they're seen as this, like, genius group who really, like, plotted things out, but it doesn't seem that thorough. It just makes you wonder, man. Like, we're too smart guys. I'm saying, like, what? Get a third smart?

Like, you ever wonder? Yeah. Maybe we could, not now. I mean, I actually, I honestly, I think now is like, impossible cameras and whatnot but you ever just think to yourself can we do it somewhere else is this somewhere they don't have cameras uh yeah maybe not we're relying on like going back to the stone age to rob a bank and hard currency i don't know if now is the time to be robin banks man there's not a lot of hard currency going out yeah true true a lot of cameras a lot of cell phones just uh it's a lost

art form john if you will so again as i'm saying these guys they're not exactly the near on heat but I guess the professional caliber of bank robbers back then, it's not super high. Finally, Patty also demands that one of them wears a stopwatch around their neck so they can time it to be out in exactly 90 seconds. Reed thinks this idea is dumb because he knows when to leave based on instinct. Also, Patty has no idea what the proper time for a bank robbery is anyways. He's just making up 90 seconds. So again, a hunch, but they are careful. On February 19, 1980, they hit their first bank.

Reed and Patty come into the bank with motorcycle helmets and underneath the helmets are ski masks with sun visors on them. Reed pulls out a shotgun from a duffel bag and screams. This is a hold up. Open your castoraws and lie face down on the floor. Do as I say and no one will get hurt. Patty jumps over the counter and starts emptying castoraws until Reed yells time.

Reid who has a stopwatch around his neck doesn't actually use it. And, you know, they were correct to say it's useless. However, it does take only 88 seconds. And even though Patty doesn't have time to hit every castorah, it goes pretty flawless with Wright waiting outside in the getaway car. They make out with around 25 grand, which, you know, not too shabby. That's pretty good. And I guess we've got to bear in mind this is like almost half a century ago, right? So that's like a couple of hundred grand a day.

And a house cost less than a packet of cigarettes back then. So all is well. Yeah, I mean, 25 grand has got to be like, what, 300, 400, 400, 500 grand and the same sort of money. saw. Yeah. You know, it's nice to, nice to, yeah, it's solid haul. A few days after the robbery, Reid bumps into another escape Canadian conflict nicknamed Wacko Joe, who is, you know, quite, quite wacko. I don't think of the fun way like the animaniacs that I referenced now in two episodes, I think two weeks in a row. But this guy was in prison for multiple armed robberies. So Reed, even though this guy wasn't exactly a prison pal, he figures, you know what the heck,

we got five more banks lined up and we can use an extra box. since we weren't even able to grab all the cash in the last one. And he invites this guy into the group. Patty, though, he doesn't want to do anything with him. He kind of, this guy scares Patty, scares Reed's girlfriend. Like, they don't like his vibe. Nine days after that first bank robbery, they hit another bank. This does not go as well because Wacko Joe knocks over a lady teller that perceives the

point is gun at several customers and bank employees telling them he's going to blow their heads off, which again, dude, it's wing grow. You know? Totally is. Everything. Nuts. A lot of references. I think he does stand-up comedy at one point and does like the early part or he did for a while.

I feel like I've heard this on there. And he does the early bit in character as Wayne Grow. What? I would go see that. I think more than most stand-up comedians these days. He just starts doing Wayne Grow, dude, like as a part of that. As a bit. Like in the beginning.

Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty solid. The robbery only nets 19,000. and this time it's split four ways, so not great. The gang meets to discuss Wacko Joe and what to do about him. They actually talk about killing him, but Wright quickly shuts that down by just asking who's going to pull the trigger

because these guys, they're not murderers. And their next idea is simple. They just slip a note under Wacko's door telling him, they're making a run for it and they'll meet up with him in Florida. Then they temporarily move into a downtown hotel, and the problem takes care of itself after Wacko Joe is arrested a few days later and sent back to Canadian jail when he's caught stealing a woman's panties off her clothesline,

which coincidentally is very similar to something Sean got arrested for in his 20s. All right, there it is. We'll just pass over that. We'll let it sit and we're done. Okay, let's move on. Yeah. Yeah. I have to sneak it in somewhere, God.

Now, the boys do actually decide to head back to Florida, team up with two other criminals, Fat Boy and the Kid, who were part of the team that helped Patty bust out of jail, which is also just like a super dope nickname for like a rock. property duo, you know? Fat boy and the kid, that's solid. They'd already been robbing banks in Florida and Georgia before the trio joins up with them. You know, who knows we, like, who knew we were importing so many Canadian bank robbers back

then? Just flowing into the country, dude. Together, they go in a two-week bank robbing spree, and then all five of them leave to go back to California. This is free internet. Like, this is basically, I mean, what are they using, like classified ads in newspapers to get in touch with people? How come all these bank robbers are so well connected?

They just keep hooking up with each other. I think it's a great question. I don't know. Phone calls, phone numbers, messages. Yeah, what? You know, they were part of a sort of underworld. I think they were able to trade messages. But yeah, you're right.

It is very how they were linking up is pretty weird. It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Back in California, they're now five, some robbed three more banks between April 7th and April 14th, 1980. So these guys, they're just robbing. banks left and right. Although Reed tells Patty the stopwatch had never been used, Patty still

insist on wearing it. On April 15th, the FBI holds a press conference and they announced that they are trying to stem a wave of bank robberies and are certain the same bandits are responsible for at least four of the bank robberies, but could be responsible for up to 20. I think at some point, it might have been the 80s and might have been in the 90s, but L.A. was like the bank robbery capital of America. Did you know that? I did not. No. I mean, you know. It seems like there's like a million bank robberies happening every day at this point in time anyway. So, yeah, I mean, you can name any city and I'll be like, yeah, that makes sense. I've only ever heard it for L.A. and Boston, in Charlestown, you know?

That's just because of Ben Affleck movies. Yeah, or every other Ben Affleck movie. The next day, the Los Angeles Times runs a story with a dude in a Klingon mask, you know, Star Trek or whatever, with a stopwatcher on his neck and a submachine gun in his hand with the title, stopwatch gang hunted in robberies. After the press conference, fat boy and the kid, they duck the heat in San Diego,

they flee to Los Angeles, reading his girlfriend had a ready-made social friends in the area, rethought it would provide an excellent cover. Patty thinks about flinging and hitting up the cash he stored in bank accounts in the southeast from his robbing spring in Florida, but he really wants to stick around for that one dream score. Wright's just happy to do whatever.

So they're all kind of like a little nervous after the press conference trying to figure out what to do. So they keep robbing banks. this time hitting a couple of banks in Los Angeles over the span of a few days. I guess I was wrong. They were talking about San Diego back then, but I have heard LA was like a big bank robbery capital place.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Reed also convinces Patty to stop wearing the stopwatch. It's now it's famous and that they never use it for anything anyways. They also branch out and hit a bullion shop, not the soup stuff, but the kind of place where they sell gold and metals. Right?

Is that the same bullion? It's the same thing, right? Yeah, for the purposes of that sentence, yeah. that it's good. By this point, the FBI I've been hunting them for like four or so months. They're calling press conferences, they're passing out pictures,

they're interviewing every bank employee and customer that got robbed. No stone left unturned, but they really don't know much about the guys. In fact, they bust up a different bank robbery crew in Northern California and think they've actually nabbed

the stopwatch crew. This bus ends in a shootout with one guy killed and three arrested. The press goes wild. They take, talk about the stopwatch gang being busted, and the gang decides, maybe this is a good thing, but it's time to split town. Reed, his girlfriend, and write, they rent a home in small town, Arizona, I think in in

Sedona, which was small town back then. Patty decides to head back to Canada, but only makes it as far as Washington State where he finds a woman settled down with. That only lasts about six weeks before he gets bored and joins the others in Sedona, and they just start to hang out and blend in. Reed takes up flying lessons, Patty chases girls, and Wright reads books. But, yeah, not enough. a bad life, but you know how it is. Soon enough, they just can't help themselves to get back to robbing

banks in the area. The same type of routine as well. One person would be the getaway driver, one person will control the bank and the customers, and the third one would jump over the counter and grab the castoros all within 90 seconds. So even when a bank employee would hit the silent alarm, they'd be long gone before the cops arrive. They hit one in Texas, but in a robbery in New Mexico, they get into some trouble when a bank customer grabs Patty's gun and points at him telling him to get down or he's going to blow his head off. When Patty goes to grab him, grab the gun back, the customer pulls the trigger, but a bullet doesn't fire and Patty clocks him with a hard right and retakes the gun. Reed would always tell the others to leave the first

two bullets in the chamber empty, because you never know what could go wrong when you're robbing a bank, which sounds smart in this instance, but in usual situations, not that smart. Yeah, I think the listeners are going to have to tell us in the comments, because I'm erring on the side of incredibly dumb, but also, it's also funny, and I appreciate that they're doing stuff like this because they stuck with the 92nd thing as well and it was completely arbitrary so i mean yeah but i guess it was working for them it was working for them you know so why why change yeah i guess it's working for them because the cops seem to be just yeah you know not working and there's no prison no so it doesn't matter what sentence you get anyway because it's just bust out of prison in like

10 days so yeah it's a it's a good time to be alive i mean i'm i'm i'm kind of nostalgic for these kind of times and i never even live through them so yeah we all are shown This goes on for months in this part of Arizona. They're traveling out of town to Rob Banks, occasionally a metal business or something like that, and then they go back and they hang out. They even stop back in San Diego sometimes, and on one trip, they noticed a bank

they had previously robbed had changed locations, and they think, why don't we just hit it again, but this time go for a bigger score. Wright cases the place, and he notices that an armored truck arrives every Tuesday morning between 1020 and 10.30, like clockwork. So they devise a new plan, more the town style, right? Wright and Reid, who had already become customers of the bank in preparation,

would go into the bank as businessman with wigs, fake mustaches and makeup, the whole nine yards, so that they're in there when the armored truck goes for the pickup. They figure the best way to do this is inside the bank when there's only one armored guard truck guy taking out the deposits, and they also estimate that the last trolley of money being taken out, there's multiple trips, is going to be the largest one, which will be close to a million dollars. Okay, here we go. This is like classic movie Dunumont. Is there a film written about these guys?

It's like even more perfect than any of the movies we're mentioning. No, there should be, you know. But the Ottawa accent just doesn't translate like the Boston one does. I'm surprised, you know, are there bad parts of Ottawa? I was under the impression it was bad because it was so nice anyway. I have no, I just assumed it was not a fun place to live, but I have no, because it was cold all the time. But I have no recollection. I have no idea.

Have you been to Ottawa? No, no. I mean, but my girlfriend, have. And actually, yeah, no comment. Let's move on. So on the great insight. Thanks again, John Lewis. Yeah.

I'll save a blush. Yeah, really just interjecting with wisdom here. So on the day of the robbery, September 23rd, 1980, the end of the bank at 1015. Toronto's good. I was in Toronto last weekend. It's a cool place. I enjoyed it. Very nice city.

Maple leaves stick is expensive, but otherwise nice. It is full of Canadians, though. I'm just kidding. you guys, but Toronto, dude, Toronto has like, you can find streets in Toronto that are like Queens and won, you know, there's like 14 different ethnic foods in a two-block stress and his uncle's apartment, which is pretty amazing. It's all solid, you know? So on the day of the robbery, September 23rd, 1980, they enter the bank at 1015, but the armored truck ride doesn't come into the bank until 1048, which is way behind schedule. After watching the guard make five trips

to the vault with a trolley, Reed finally makes his move on the sixth. He sticks his gun gun to the guard's rib cage and says, you know, don't move or I'm going to kill you. And then adds, don't try to be a hero or I'll make you a dead one. Reed takes the guard's gun and hands it to Wright, who has rushed over. Reed tells everyone in the bank to get down on the floor and let's not have any hero's speech, that usual thing. Wright grabs two sacks of cash. Reed grabs one and keeps the other on his gun.

They rush into the car. The guard quickly gets up and runs the armored truck and grabs a shotgun, but he can't get a shot off because of too many civilians in the way. They switch cards. They head back to an apartment they had rented from. for the job. They count $283,000 in stolen funds, but now they're semi-paranoid halfway expecting for the FBI and SWAT to knock down their door. But nothing happens. And the next day, they head back to Arizona with their score. Now, this robbery makes all the headlines in the

press as the biggest bank robbery in the history of San Diego. Because I think 280K has got to be a few million in like 1980s money, right? Oh, yeah, that's huge. The FBI tells the press they don't know if it was the stopwatch gang or not, but privately, they're convinced it was them. They're convinced because they matched the ammo of previous stopwatch gang robberies. They had the same height. They carried their guns the same way. No one was hurt. And finally, they were unusually polite for gangsters.

Back in Arizona, gangs little on edge, half expecting the FBI to turn out, but nothing happens. But they do decide to take some precautions. Reed plans on getting some small scars removed from his face in a nose job, while Patty removes a tattoo from his arm and gets a facelift. Rite doesn't do anything, but he's also the kind of one who just sticks to himself. stays out of a public eye the most. I like him. Yeah, nice guy. Just wants to read books and hang out, you know?

Reed also starts wearing color contacts that change his eye color. They soon get back to... You really think that's going to be like a... Like, is that really going to fool anyone? It's like Clark Kent with sunglasses. Maybe they'll see my eyes are brown and not green and I'll get away with it. I feel like, you know, change your skin color, don't you guys? If you want to really do this...

I mean, you don't give it of a scar. Like the plot of the 1980s movie about the guy who becomes black to get into Harvard? law? Oh, yeah. You know what I'm talking about? What's the name of that movie? Oh, my God, it's going to bother me if you don't think of it. God, what's it called?

Literally looking at that way. Yeah, look it up because the audience deserves that. We haven't mentioned it in like a year and a half. I feel like I mentioned it every other year, but new listeners does like deserve to be able to look up this, at least look up the trail. The soul man. It's the soul man. Yes.

It's incredible. 80s movies, everyone was on cocaine. It's so good. It's up there. with like, I taught weird science, man. We're like, they're like, let's make a, let's make our, we're 15 years old. Let's make a nude model woman out of our, in our, in our lab and our, dude, 80s movies are so good.

Oh my God. I've said, I just put the trailer on you. Oh, yeah. No, you guys, I don't even mind if you turn off the episode right now and go watch the trailer for the soul man. It's incredible. It'll change, it'll change your life. It'll make your day.

Wow. They used to show on Comedy Central, like run in like, the, eight like the 90s, but you'd be running at like the middle of the day. To put that on, dude. You could probably get away with that if you did, what,

Albania? Can not get a minute now. There'd be, there'd be 4,000 TikToks calling for your head, posting the address of like the Comedy Central CEO if that happened right now. Oh, man, everyone involved in the movie.

Anyway, so yeah, calling contacts to change his eye color. They soon get back to their Arizona routine, but after a drive to Phoenix to fill up a safety deposit box, read and Patty have a chat, And they're just like, we need to leave. We're friends with too many people.

Their stories are too inconsistent with these people. Plus, they need to take a long break from bank robberies in general and just kind of calm down. I don't really get why, like, Mexico is right there. I just drive across the border into Nogales. No federally is going to come near you. It's a nice place. There's great food. The people are kind.

They just go there. Go there. I'm on board, bud. If we ever do heist, we'll head to Mexico. Paul de Lascadito, man. It's where it's at. They just didn't take care of a few things in Arizona first. Patty's girlfriend insists on giving a two weeks notice for a job,

and Reed is waiting around for a $70,000 plane he's purchased after the heist, and he's become obsessed with flying and was continually taking lessons since they got to Arizona. Reed also has to wait a couple of weeks for his plastic surgery appointment to, you know, get his face all done up. Reed, though, he's starting to get more paranoid, especially when he sees a telephone repairman outside his place for a very long time, telling Wright, I just, I don't like it, I just don't like it. I just imagine in that Simpsons thing with flowers by Irene or something.

I'm trying to think of that version of that where it's a telephone man. And it turns out Reed's paranoia is justified because on Halloween morning 1980, when he's driving to the airport to get his FAA license, he gets pulled over by the local deputy, who he actually knows, but with him is a whole gang of FBI agents. Then they move on, they take down Wright back at his house, they arrest him. Patty, though, he gets away. He had to ducked that town a few days earlier with his girlfriend. The FBI soon tracks down where Patty's staying in Florida, but by that time, he's

on a three-week cruise in the Caribbean with his girl. He's immediately placed on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. And the way the feds actually trace these three is that after a robbery, they had dumped their wigs in some Bank of America money bags in a public dumpster. An old guy's looking for cans, he finds them, and he turns them in. And the cops use them the full fingerprints and ID the three bank robbers. They also use a rented car as a getaway car that time instead of a stolen one, so the cops are able to track down their fake IDs. Behind bars.

Read and write give an interview with a journalist. Right, doesn't say much, of course, but Reed talks for hours and says, quote, for the first time of my life, I was starting to feel straight on the inside. I know it is hard for anyone to swallow, but you're looking at a guy who I'd become the picture of the perfect square. And I was never happier. A real stand-up girl, my dog, my house, my new plane, I had everything I ever wanted. One more week and I was headed for a lot of straight time.

Oh, it's just amazing. Amazing. What an interview. Yeah. Just when he was going to get out, man. Just when he was going to get out. It's always just as you're about to get out, right? Yeah.

Just when you've turned over in New Leaf. They both plead not guilty. Patty, meanwhile, he's still on the lamb. He's partying up in New Orleans. Crazy enough, he actually slips back into Phoenix that retrieve $300,000 in a safety deposit box that him and Rita had stored there and manages to get a away with it. These guys just take a lot of chances, too. Jeez, man. Yeah.

Meanwhile, the case against Reed and Wright takes an interesting turn when the defense team finds out there's a bunch of holes in the prosecution's case. The FBI doesn't actually pull the prints from the money bags they found in the dumpster. That whole thing, it's made up. They didn't use that information to build their case, you know,

with the fake IDs and rental cars. They actually got all the information from a career criminal that is an old friend of Patty Mitchells. And this guy is basically an informant that they've been using for a long time. He was also working with the bank crew. He was, you know, getting them all types of stuff like a gopher, new fake identities, you know, lining up plastic surgeons, having to change their fingerprints, which I don't even know if that's a, that's a thing. And crazy enough, he's actually

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Visit Loreal.com to learn more. The guys involved in all types of crying him and preparing to lay some charges. But because he's so kind of shady, the prosecutors of the heist crew, the stopwatch gang, they just pretend he doesn't exist and that they got the evidence somewhere else tying to the gang for the robbery

from their own investigation. Part of the reason the defense team is actually able to find a lot of this out is because the DA is like, super pissed off at the FBI for protecting this guy. So they're leaking like crazy to everyone, right? The defense team, the media, everybody. And the judge knows all this.

He wants the case just wrapped up. So they come up with this plan. They basically get the guys in the stopwatch gang to plead guilty and take 20 years. And that's the sentence they initially get in front of the PAC corporate. Now, why would they agree to plead guilty to 20 years? Because there's like a hush, hush deal that like a few months later, after the media tensions died down, everyone goes home. the judge quietly changes their sentence to 10 years,

which is going to run concurrently with the 14 years Reed had left in Canada and the 17 years right had left on those other sentences, which is, you know, not a bad deal. It's basically no time if it's concurrent, right? Wow. Now, Patty, with the 300K he gets from Phoenix, he ends up just partying again in New Orleans.

He's womanizing, doing a bunch of blow. You know how it goes. He eventually heads back to Phoenix to rob a department store desperate for a score. Again, why would you go to the? the place that you're already super well known in. The crew had previously scoped it out, though, before things went south. He figures it might be worth a few hundred grand,

and he even plans to hit it right before Christmas in 1981, thinking that it's going to be even more money because of holiday shoppers. He actually pulls it off. He robs the office, but when he's making his way out, he gets spotted by a cop who promptly shoots at him. Patty takes off running through the store, the cop chases him, and he nabs in just when he's about to get his car going. Patty, who had had the plastic surgery, is using a fake ID,

doesn't say anything during the interrogation. He gets a $16,000 bail because it's, you know, a single department store robbery. The cops don't know who he is and he's, you know, or that he's on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. So his bail just isn't that high. A criminal associate soon bails him out. He heads to the infamous hideaway of Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is like, you know, famous for decades, I think, where all the mobsters used to go on the lamb and he hangs out there for a few months. Yeah, we did a show about that back in like Berlin times.

I think there was the book about the vapors. It was great. Yeah, crazy. Like the Vegas, it wasn't Vegas kind of thing. Really interesting place. Yeah, about all the New York mobsters in like the 20s, 30s, 40s used to go on the lamb there. I think the Italians did even after in the 50s and 60s. It was just a spot you went to to like lay low.

Amazing. Of course, after a couple months, you know, Patty, it's got to get his fix in. It's robbery time again. I mean, at some point, you do have to know when to fold them, Sean. He just doesn't. It does not. Patty does not know when to fold them. He picks April 5th, 1982, the first day of the horse racing season at Oakland, a track on the outskirts of town to rob a bank.

I guess he figures it's a good day because the whole area is going to be packed with people, but I would assume people would take all their money out during horse racing season, you know, to go bet it. So little surprised by that doesn't strike me as a smart move. He may have just to pull it off, but he doesn't cover his tracks well enough and the cops are soon on to him. He spends the entire summer on the run. He's going state to state. The cops are hot on his trail, only missing him by a few days a number of times. They still don't know, though, it's the actually infamous Patty Mitchell of the Stopwatch gang.

Otherwise, there would be a major FBI manhunt involved. By September, Patty settles in Central Florida, renting a small cottage, and he gets depressed because that's what happens in Central Florida. You know, he's got to be slim-picking over there. He's tired of running from the law, and his two-passes. are in brutal prisons in the U.S. He occasionally sends the money from time to time, but that's about it.

Again, another sign of, like, you know, loyalty and camaraderie, sending them cash. It doesn't have to do that. Yeah. It takes too much, and they don't dime out, which, again, you know, another, like, a lot of loyalty in this Canadian crew, you know? It takes too much, though, for the FBI

to tracking down to Central Florida, but when they go to arrest him, he's already moved two hours north where he meets a new lady, and for much he just lives, like, a reclusive lifestyle, with her until December 19, 1982, where he decides to rob a bank in a different part of Florida, this time with a partner. Finally, on February 22nd, 1983, Patty gets arrested. It's taken some time for the FBI, but they finally put together the man who they were looking for who robbed

the apartment store in Phoenix and the bank in Hot Springs is actually the top 10 most wanted fugitive, Patty Mitchell, after they just get a ton of tips from tipsters in Central Florida. Many of them women who Patty had been with and who he had, you know, sort of tossed to the wayside. Patty's capture, front page news in the U.S. and Canada, and like his partners, he gives an interview the press saying, quote, I guess it's easier to steal money than make it. I'm lazy, that's all. I wanted the good life. After four or five years in jail, you just want to relax. He later adds, that was a goddamn dreamer talking, pal. There is no big score. You just keep doing it again and again. Once you start, you can't stop.

Yeah, I was going to say something about journalism, but yeah, this guy is somehow every Michael Man movie character just rolled into one. He's just fantastic. He really is. I might like him, actually. I really do wonder if Michael Mann had based, you know, any of these films off, yeah, all of his film is off these guys, because it really does, there are similarities, man. When the journalist tells him the at the FBI characterizes him as a pro as, like, one really

smart, cunning guy, Patty replies, quote, if I'm so dead. damn smart, what am I doing in jail? When he first gets locked up, Patty calls radio, tells him that maximum security prison in the U.S. is not like Canada. Like, it sucks. And that soon him and Wright are going to be sent back to Canada to serve the rest of their time after putting in for a transfer.

He tells Patty, like, he's got to put in his transfer for his transfer now. Patty eventually pleads out to three of the robberies that had him on. He gets 20 years to run concurrently with his Canadian sentence, which he had 14 years left on. But the Arizona prosecutor screws with them, and he asks to serve the first 12 years. years in Arizona before being sent back. And the Arizona State Prison is one of the worst in the country at that time.

Rita previously told him to try to get federal jail over state jail when they first spoke or federal prison over state prison when they first spoke on the phone because apparently it's slightly easier. Patty does not think he can last 12 months, much less 12 years. But he does get some good news about his pals in early 1985 and that not only were they back in Canada, but because of some Canadian parole board nonsense, they both would be eligible for early release. That year.

This, though, it pisses off the Americans who take it out on Patty, who's still in American prison, whose application to transfer back to Canada gets delayed. That's wild. Patty, though, he's on his hustle, right? He's acting like a model prisoner. He soon gets transferred to the medium security wing in the prison complex. And if you thought he was only able to escape from Canadian prisons because it was easy, like I did, well, you do not give him enough credit. He soon recruits two other prisoners, and after six months of planning, they cut a hole into an air duct. and climb through it to escape, and he goes on the run once again.

If anything, that is easier than the things that he's done before. This is mad. So maybe, I mean, maybe this guy is actually a genius after all. Maybe that's the, maybe that's the tale. Here's the thing, dude. He's still on the run. What? Well, we'll get to it.

What? Read, meanwhile, writes a book in prison. Well, he was still on the run. Never mind. I said that wrong, but you'll see what happens. read meanwhile writes a book in prison a fictional work about bank robbers he sends the manuscript to a young writer they fall in love and get married in prison and the book is published in 1986 titled jack rabbit parole it is a big success he's released in 1987 on parole and goes on to teach creative writing at college all as well until he gets addicted

to drugs and robs the bank in 1999 sent back to prison he writes another book in prison it wins the Victoria Book Award for it. He gets paroled again in 2014 and he dies in 2018. God. That, my friends, is a life lived. After Patty escapes, we're back to Patty now. He heads back to Florida with one of his fellow escapees. He starts

robbing banks again and on December 14th, 1987 in Gainesville, Florida, two armed men wearing Ronald Reagan masks, rob a bank for $300,000 and get away with it. Patty then moves to the Philippines, marries a local and has a son. He sometimes even pops back into the U.S. to rob another bank, which again is insane.

Go to Europe, man. What are you doing? Yeah. He's featured. Oh my God. Yeah. I can't get my head around this. Hasn't he also got another kid?

He's got like another kid. That's the thing. Just hop it around somewhere. In the book, it just talks about how occasionally like he feels bad about it. He's got his first kid and his first wife. I think he sent them money every now and then. Okay. But, uh, yeah.

Mm. He's, I bet he went to the, I bet he went to the, uh, the dwarf bar. In the Philippines. You've been there, haven't you? Like no one else, I know. Yeah. Wait, do you haven't you been there? Yeah, I have.

Out of all the things you're going to pretend you haven't done that we've accused you of on this podcast, it's going to that bar in Manila, which is like a touristy place, I assume, at this point. Yeah, no, I have been there. But I did actually, I actually left early because I, it was, it's insane, man. It's so wrong. It's so wrong. First hearing about it decades ago and just.

Yeah, it sounds not good. It's still there. I was there quite recently. It's still there. I didn't go in, but it exists. Anyway, Paddy's featured on both unsolved mysteries and America's Most Wanted in the early 90s, and in 1993, a couple he had been friendly with in the Philippines notices him from the show and calls in a tip.

The FBI just misses him, but he somehow ends up back in the States in 1994 and gets caught robbing a bank in Mississippi, which I mean, again, go to Europe, dude. Just come on. Yeah, anywhere else. Just, I don't get this guy now. I mean, to be fair, that quote he gave in prison was dead on. He's just addicted to it. He can't stop doing it.

So he's a bit more. Sounds like fun. Yeah, honest. I do wish I had more info on him in the Philippines period, but there's just not that much out there. He does die in prison in 2007 from lung cancer. And then Lionel Wright, the quiet one, on the other hand, he gets paroled in 1994 and just kind of disappears. Wow.

Oh, we, man. I feel like there's a lot of lessons in this show. I mean, the one I'm going to take away from it, though, is if you're going to do crimes and you're going to get caught. I mean, do it in Canada and then just find a hungry guard. My God, that is nuts. Yeah, that's also two bank robber shows in a row. And I do agree with you, like, the two bank robbers we've done in two weeks,

they have showed that bank robbers are kind of more stand-up guys than other people that we tend to cover on this show. You're not wrong. I have a cartel one next week. with our guest, Andrew Glazer. Would you like me to end on a quote from the director of Soulman about what Soulman is like? And this was in 2021, right? Yes.

Okay. I'm very, very, very, very proud of it. I love this movie. It's beautiful. I think it's a gorgeous film. I don't feel any sense of anything negative about it. I think it's absolutely adorable and super funny. There you go.

Double T.F down. I like how he's not being like, oh, yeah, Times are Grimback. He's like, no, he's owning it, dude, and I respect that a lot. Do you know how backwards you are? It's a, it's a woman. Wow. Just unbelievable. There you go.

And she could have just been like, she could have been like we were on so much cocaine and just like people thought differently then. But no, she owns it and I respect that. Guys, Inca's Armored. I-N-K-A-S-Armored.com. If one of you buys one of these cars, I feel like it's enough that they'll just keep advertising with us or they will let me drive around New York City in an armored seven series,

which would be, that's the main reason I started this podcast, so someone would give me an armored car. And we could make that happen if just one of you buys an armored suburban. Please make that happen. Thank you guys for tuning in. And, uh, yeah.

Now it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca.

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