Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Elizabeth Dunt.
I got a question for you, my friend. Yes, sir, do you know what's ridiculous?
So you want to know if I know what's ridiculous.
I'm asking you, do you know what's ridiculous?
I know it's ridiculous. I knew that you would know what dependable that way. Air fresheners in cars, I think to excess are completely ridiculous.
And quite offensive.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say at all I don't like any air freshener in a car. Ah, Yes, yeah, I just rolled down the windows and it's so bad, and then clean the car if it's so bad.
Although, have you ever smelled that new car scent that they spray in It smells like new car scent.
It's crazy rolling down the windows and getting rid of that new car set. I just wanted to smell like nothing.
I was just impressed with with what New Jersey could do.
That is pretty impressive. So you've gotten into a car where it's like oppressive. Yes, the air fresheners, Yes, sometimes it is dangling from the rear view. There are all these companies that make like fancy ones now, like they have the fabreeze that you stick in the events. I got into an uber not too long ago where every event had.
Like two oh wow, yes I have seen that.
It was like how many fish have you got? Have you got it in this car that you're trying to cover? But they have like you know, wooden ones and things that dangle and decorative, yeah, and so carved. If you were going to use one, what what would you want your car to smell like? Your car could smell like anything.
Okay, this will sound gross to you, but probably the Pacific Ocean, the beach that smell of like seaweed, salt water. It's not a pleasant smell, but I would like that, Yeah, just like you know, the drying seaweed is it has to be there, sure, but that's what gives it the real like the base now the bottom exactly, and then wafting above that are all the various salt water spray and and they you know, maybe like the hint of like I don't know, bird poop whatever it is that also is in the air.
Yeah, exactly. I thank you for asking. Oh right, yes, I don't know. I feel like one of my favorite scents is like citrus blossom, like a lime.
Blossh yeah, you do like lime bloss.
That's one thing. I don't want my car to smell like you know where I'm going with it.
No, I do not, No, I do not pretending I do.
Not something too small weet, like for example, Cadbury mini eggs. What the hell like chocolate? Those Easter eggs. Anyway, there's a company in the UK Carfume. They do these air freshener things and they you know whatever, they parfume, Carfume. They have many scents there, you know, sustainable mood enhancing back seat Yeah, sure, like under boob one of them. And so No, they have many chalk eggs not c H A l K, but c H O C like chocolate. You can you can buy for eight hounds ninety five.
You can buy the carfume, which is like a weird dangling wooden thing, and then you can give me it refills the drops for almost ten quid. You can bundle it for cream eggs, no, like the little the little ones that look like speckled eggs, not the cream eggs like the little hardshell sure, yeah, and they have that very particular sweet chocolate with like candy, and.
Yes, I do it on purpose. Yes, why am I asking.
For the rest of days? Yeah? So that's ridiculous. And that came to us from Jimmy Dunn Man listener who got to us through Instagram. Thanks Jimmy, so thank you Jimmy. There you go. That's ridiculous.
That is ridiculous certified. Now do you I got a callback for you?
Oh?
Do you know you remember how I told you the story of Frank als friends.
Yeah, the name sounds familiar.
Flying bank robber.
Yes, yes, he just kept stealing.
Yeah, he kept he escaped prison, he kept stealing planes all around America and Canada, and then he kept robbing banks until he took a plane and he ran into a cow on a runway in Mexico and that ended his life as a bank robber. Baltimore, Yes, the Baltimore.
He was at a boarding house or.
Something, Yes, exactly. Good man was there, you were there, You're you feel it? Now? Do you also remember how I said that cat's his criminal nickname. It shouldn't have been the flying bank robber. That's too many syllables. It should have been the flying bandit boom right pop now It turns out someone already had used that g norm to crime. That nickname was taken Elizabeth two years earlier.
Oh so that's why he didn't get called the Flying Bandit.
By a Canadian. Oh I know you never see that. So today I have for you the story of Ken Leishman, known as the Flying Bandit. This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Yes, Elizabeth, darn.
My dude, Ken Leishman, right, folk hero of Canada. I'd never heard of this cat. It just happened. I was like, I was like, is there a flying Bandit? Why was it that name taking boom. Turns out there was this guy, Robinhood of the Great White North right now in his heyday. What turns out one to be one of our favorite times. He was a mid century bandit, mid century of the last century. Now dude was born June twentieth, nineteen thirty one. He gets popped out in this town called Holland in Manitoba,
enters life. Unfortunately, as we constantly kind of point out for people in the mid century, born into the depression, so oftentimes their childhoods are rough, right, His definitely, he was basically born into a storm of unceasing winds. It's just he gets blown from home to home, wind whipped through foster care, pulled from one home because of excessive abuse. Oh dear, Yeah, his childhood far from idyllic, right you too?
Like the anti beaver Cleaver. Now, somehow though throughout this, this childhood of chaotic upbringing and so forth, by all accounts, he emerges this handsome, charming, sometimes called dashing, well dressed, abundantly stylish young man. Amazing resilience this kid.
Yeah, the stylish part particularly well, Yeah, I mean he.
Was known to wear like a distinctive.
Mustache overcame distinctively.
Oh yeah, like think like imagine like a Canadian Clark Gable of the nineteen forties, but like kind of like more of a square head and like a one of a British mustache, like a British commando kind of guy.
Right, Like, I think, what's what's the cat Austin power shower is what's Mike Myers? I think Mike Myers would have loved to have played him, just as a straight British character. But even though he's in Canada, I was just from Canada anyway. The guy had like very much a British mustache in Canada, ornamental to his quick and beaming smile. This is my point, Elizabeth A ken Leishman.
This guy he's also whip smart. Now I said that for you because you always say men are never described as whip smart, only women are.
Yeah, which is true.
Yeah, Oh she's just whip smart.
Well, this guy, Elizabeth, he's smart.
Thank you for leveling the plane.
I wanted that one.
If you're interested in a real looker, does he smile? Does he go get her?
He's getting out a lot of mocksy this kid, he's he was. If you're interested in, like a numerical qualification of his intelligence, because I know you always liked that kind of stuff, is quantified intelligence. His IQ was one forty six. Is that good? I think so it qualifies him for mens, I believe.
Oh, I don't know anyway, it sounds lone, but then again I think I'm for like twenty eight.
This guy is a non violent criminal, which I also thought you would like. I like that, right, He just he took things that didn't belong to him right throughout his criminal career. He had a reputation, as I said, as a Canadian folk hero. Well, I found one Canadian historian, this cat Christian Cassidy. They wrote about Ken Leishman and I quote, it wasn't a murder. People weren't hurt. I think that was one of the things that helped make him a bit of a folk hero. He was sticking
it to the man. He wasn't holding up little old ladies or beating people up or stealing their money.
H right, So was he robbing from like banks and corporations or well?
Okay, well here, well now that giving you a little sense of who he was when he looks like Let's get into his life in the moving parts. Okay, Ken marries his sweetheart at the age of eighteen some sorts of say, seventeen. I'm going with eighteen anyway. Her name Elva Shields. Okay, Elva love that now VLVA.
Oh it's pretty.
Yeah, it's like the female Elvis. So she was older than him by two years. There's a true young love but also a lasting love because despite all the criminality, she stands by her man. Anyway, now that he's married Ken, he knows he needs to get a job, so in the summer of nineteen fifty, he got a job as a traveling mechanic. He traveled all across Manitoba repairs agricultural
equipment like we straw cutters right now. To give his wife and soon to be young family a happy home, he wants to give them more than selling wheat straw cutters will allow, so Ken starts criming. In fact, he furnished their first home with stuff he stole from warehouses around the area. Nice, and I don't mean small things, Elizabeth. He stole a fridge and a stove right out from the Westinghouse building, just like we'll just take this right out the back. He also stole a sofa or is
the Canadians called it a chesterfield. He stole a matching dinette set and chairs from a warehouse. From a different warehouse, he stole a kitchen set and a bed. Yeah. Well, also he stole small things he liked. He stole a radio, because what happy home in nineteen fifty candidate doesn't have a radio right neath the crystal set. So, by the way, all this stealing that was done in one month, in one February nineteen fifty, he just rack it up, rack
it up. Right. In March he went back. He was trying to steal even more items to fill out their new happy home. Ken made the classic criminal mistake, Elizabeth. You know what he did. He got greedy every time. He also got lazy, because you see, he tried to
have stolen items delivered directly to his home. Stop, he selected items from the warehouse, then he posed as a buyer from a business, and he had basically phoned ahead to the transportation company, has them come to the warehouse to pick up his goods, and then he you know, delivered to my house, right, and so the plan would
have worked perfectly. It's like a late night delivery. He's only a couple of people at the warehouse don't really questioned it, except there was a nosy dispatchers like, I don't recognize this, This doesn't seem right. So what do they do? They call the cops?
I mean, come on, the man just needs anette.
Set Ken gets caught, busted, arrested, tried, convicted, and jailed Elizabeth nine month.
See that's the He's got a young family.
And now he's an ex con. As soon as he gets out, but he's only nine months.
They don't have the Potter familias in.
Exactly young family.
Yeah.
Three months later he gets released, though he doesn't have to do the full nine Canada. They like good behavior, we'll let you out early. So Ken gets out of jail. Now he needs to find a new way to support his still growing family, so he chooses to do what Elizabeth.
Go on the street and narrow house.
So far he's been like, you know, going selling wheat straw cutters. What does he do next? He chooses to learn to fly. He's like, I need to get more dimensions with their exactly cheap. No, no, not at all, But somehow he manages to do this. And now he goes to work as a traveling mechanic again. This time he's a good at it because he can expand his reach with the plane. Right, So he's going to distant rural community fixing their agricultural equipment.
Great idea newgate care super well.
Right, So now Kenny's able to buy a nice home for his family this kids, you know, he buys a new car. Now he's buying new clothes for him, the wife, the kids. Right, life's good also Ken, he buys himself a plane he got himself. Nineteen fifty two, he buys himself an aranka A E R O n C A ironka Okay, or maybe I'm pronouncing that wrong. Anyway, Picture a small plane with the wing over the cabin, like
you know, like just a flat wing. And then there's a little plane like the kind of people like will jump out of.
For I am so slow. I just had to like you, you did the hand movement, and then I had to puzzle it. I told you like a twenty.
Eight IQ, I mean, sure, you got like a forty one. So now that he owns is planned right. He can make extra cash. Elizabeths he can fly people around. Other people need to get placed, so he's like, I'm I'm like a taxi in the sky. So he becomes a charter flight company. Boom. Family now moves again. You get a bigger house. This pattern holds true for six years between nineteen fifty nineteen fifty six. The family's moving every
single year, sometimes because it was good. Sometimes it goes say he was in prison, but either way, they were moving every year for six years.
The goal is to not have to move. That's when you've made it keep true, to keep moving.
So Kenzie's he's looking for this luxurious life. Right, He's almost there. He's got things going with the charter, he's goings flying around doing agricultural mechanics stuff. Right, then life throws ken a speed bump. Yeah, the company's working for as a traveling mechanic closes up shop. That's fine, though, ken he's good here. He's like, okay, well I'll just I'll sell cookware. So now he starts flying to distant places and selling them cookware. Oh, I say, yeah, they basically,
you know, as they said, fly to remote locations. And he's like a door to door salesman, but with a plane.
And they need that. You need that out there.
Unfortunately, this job it doesn't last too long either, right, Apparently you can't sell cookware by plane and really keep a company afloat. Yeah, this is like a desperate act, I think at the end.
So what you're saying is he hit a little turbulent.
Yeah, the company closes shops as well. November nineteen fifty.
Sevens let that one go. You didn't even acknowledge that I gave you like a CSI Miami.
Oh I could have I was going to put the sunglasses on, but I got You.
Know, it's like anyway, I'm sorry anyway, So Ken, my man.
He finds himself unemployed nineteen fifty to seven. Now at this point he saddled with financial responsibilities a little bit, not just his growing family. He's a Canadian, so he also has a fishing lotch and this fishing lodge is going to close, and you need money to keep his fishing lodge going.
So he holds a break dancing contest for the center.
If he had a good idea, that might have been on the list. But no, he's unemployed, needs a fishing lodge saved. But he starts criming again next month.
You know how you do you sell the fishing line? What?
No, No, he's trying to keep that going. You know, how would that help? Anyway? December nineteen fifty seven, Ken, he flew down on a commercial airline or from Winnipeg down to Toronto. Once he's there, he rented a car. He checked in at a luxury hotel in downtown Toronto. Next day he went shopping, bought himself some new clothes. Then he went and he robbed a bank.
Oh good, it was like, look I have no money, so I'm going to blow it on my outfit. I'm going to go do some crime which has hit or miss, you know, like, had he done a lot of research into this bank?
This was his first bank job. Yes, I want to guess, bro, he's a smart guy on this. If I told you I'm smart, this kid can smart. So he had dreamed it up a bunch. He thought, how am I going to do this? I can't go in and just be like, Oh, I'm gonna take over the bank. You know, He's not that kind.
Of He's a guy.
He is right. So he comes up with a really solid plan. I think you actually be tickled by it. But first let's take a break and then we'll come back and I will tell you how Ken gets into the real bank jobs. All right, Elizabeth, we're back. You ready to get criming?
Hi?
Yeah? Hi?
By the way, Hi, So Ken, my man is the Canadian robin hood. He's about a robin and steeling. He's got a mustache, he's got himself a clean outfit. He's got the mustache waxed and ratty, and he's uh, you know, feeling good, feeling ready to start becoming a real hardcore.
Criminal, super tight underpants.
So he walks into the Toronto Dominion Bank. This is in downtown Toronto. He pretends to be a mister Gehar. That's g ai R, mister Gahre, mister Garrett. This is a businessman from Buffalo. That's what he tells everybody. I'm mister Garrett Buffalo. So he's also a friend of the manager, that's what he tells people. He tells the bank staff this and he's like, I have come to speak with the manager about a bank loan. You were old friends.
So he gets escorted to the manager's office. The door is closed behind him because they're two old friends, so they assume they'll want to discreetly do their business, right, So sin as the Buffalo businessman is in the office and he the two men are alone, he whips out a handgun. Oh yeah, he mister Gere tells the bank manager to write out a check to him for the sum of ten thousand dollars.
Checked me exactly, Yeah, because that's just that well, there's no way to stop payment on that pipe.
Old you're not going to see this.
Well, he probably just will walk it around.
Okay, you did see that part coming Okay, yeah, he got exactly that. So meanwhile Ken is Garret. He chats with the banker. He's asking him questions though Elizabeth though learning about personal details from this guy. And then he forces the bank manager to go out with him to a teller and have the teller cash the check.
Is it a personal check of personal check?
But I don't know it could be written on the banks, you know, sock, I don't know if it's a personal check from the bank manager.
Okay, so it's from his account.
Yeah.
The bank manager does this. He walks out to the bank teller and then is mister ghare you know. He's like, once this is successful, the check is cash, mister Gere invites his old friend to come have a drink with him in front of the teller. He's like, oh yes. He's casually mentioning the names of the bank manager's family or friends, and he mentioned earlier in the questioning. So that's all part of his ruse right now. The bank manager decides to play it smooth. He's you know, he
doesn't he's Canadian. He doesn't want anyone get hurt. He's like, we can take care of this, hey, you know, don't worry about it. Now he goes out, mister gere, he goes, he walks out with out of the bank with him. He escorts him over to Ken's getaway rental car. Now Ken's like, you know, he's also Canadian. So he's like, hey, merry Christmas. Hey have a good one, and then he wishes him. He's like, also tell your family Merry Christmas.
So it's gonna be a cold one, right, So Ken drives away in his getaway rental car and then he goes right back to the airport. He flies home to Manitoba his family. They assume he must have been on one of his long remote runs. I don't ask any questions. Meanwhile, the eyewitness accounts from this bank job, Elizabeth, they all spoke of this guy Ken and his not They didn't call him Ken, mister Gare. They talk about his smooth behavior, how he was so dignified, stylish guy. Did you see
his mustache? Right, They're all just he was so dapper, so genteel. The press is loving this, They're like final, they got something to write about. They nickname him the Gentleman bandit. Oh that's his first one. Now, I guess the money from this first bank job, it didn't last long. Or maybe he had ten gees. Yeah, but maybe he had more than his fishing lodge to save. I don't know. Whatever it is. Ken was back at it. March sixteenth, nineteen fifty eight. He flew back down to Toronto once
again to rob a bank. And I guess he hadn't learned from the warehouse jobs that you don't and get greedy and do the exact same thing. Anyway, he walks into the CIBC bank in Toronto. He tried nearly the same routine, except when he was escorted into the bank manager's office and he tried to hold run the whole I need a bank loan scheme and I'm from Buffalo or whatever. Yeah, he pulls his gun and Ken runs into trouble this time when he flashes his piece, the
bank manager's like, what's that for, son? I don't know, Well, what are you trying to pull there?
Eh?
Now?
The bank manager he's unflappable. He gets like Canadian mad and he's like, now we're gonna We're not gonna do any of that, mister. And he comes at Ken right in a kind and dignified way. And it would be like he's ready for like a real good natured booty whooping right now. This this bank manager, he as I told you, he's come alive. He's Canadian mad. The gentleman banned it. He panics. He's like, oh, I didn't expect this, So Ken, I told you he doesn't want to use violence,
although he has the gun. He runs out of the office, right, he's terrified, he did Canadian bank man after Oh yeah, no, not at all. So, like I said, he's running. He tries to run out. Now somebody sees him running out of the bank manager's office. A female customer. She throws a leg out trips him. Yeah, okay, I figured you did. I knew you'd love that detail. So Ken stumbles, goes down, hits the bank floor hard, skitters across it right, scrambles
back up to his feet. He tries to flee again, but this time a bank teller is like hopped over the counter and runs and chases him, gets them right at the door, tackles them. They go knock down onto the sidewalk. Right. This guy hits them like a linebacker in Canadian football, just.
Wraps up takes him down.
Not at all. So now, that he's on the sidewalk just outside of the bank. A minister who's walking by, he gets involved. He goes over and he kicks the gun out of Ken's hand.
Right, So they're all just as Jesus would have done.
Canadian teamwork. Right, nobody's really hurting anybody. They're all just disarming him, wrapping him up.
Right.
So then now the linebacker bank teller, he sits on Ken until the police arrive.
Nice.
Yeah, And then Ken's arrested, convicted, sentenced to twelve years in prison. Oh that's rough.
And if I'm the wife back home, I'm putting the for sale sign right out in front of the lodge.
Well.
Thanks to his string of two robberies, one successful, one unsuccessful, but because he flew to both of them, Ken's given a new nickname by the Canadian press.
The Flying Band is.
Now if you believe it. His wife, Elva, barely blinked. She stood by our man. She's like Tammy, whyet Elizabeth? Yeah, she's like stand by man now, Elva. She tells the newspaper men to come around asking questions. She says, I will never pry into his affairs. She added that Ken was quote a perfect husband and a father and just a wonderful guy.
I will never pry into his affairs. Honey, I got news for you.
You need to get that crowbar.
Also your affairs now, and.
The children one hundred percent of your problem now exactly So to keep their family in diapers and food, Elva opened a little shop and she starts like slanging, I don't know, like Campbell's.
And that's the way to make.
Yeah, she's biden her time. Well, Ken does his twelve year bid now thankfully the young family. Ken gets released early. Now cars as soon as he's free, what does he do? Elizabeth buys a plane. He goes right back to criming. Only he goes and crimes bigger. He gets ready to pull off one of the most epic gold jobs ever pulled in Canada.
Well, see, there's part of me that thinks, like, you know, if you have, if you've done that time, it's really really hard to get gainful employment.
Yes, and you know that going out, And.
So there's also there's like this competing thing of like, you know, they have impulse control issues. They want to do the crime because it's exciting or it's all they know. But then on top of that is that overlay of like, you're not gonna be able to get a job because of you know, people discriminate against those with criminal records.
Then you put like a bunch of them together and they're all talking about their plans what they're gonna do when they get out. A lot of the plans are like, you know what, it would be a great job to pull off. How would you do that. He's a smart guy, he's gonna like the challenge.
And you can't really faults his owners too, because if they're like, I've been burned by hiring someone you know who's recently been released from incarceration, and so yeah, you know that happens quite a bit, and so it's just a bad situational around.
It burns on both ends, Elizabeth, It really does. Ken.
He spent his time in coming out.
Ah yes, the good ty food. So Ken. He's sitting there in prison, this Canadian prison. He's racking up ideas and finally he settles on one and he develops it from every possible angle, The Flying Bandit. Right when he gets out, he's like, Okay, I have got the job right. But he only has to do three and a half years of his twelve years, so he's still a young man, plenty of opportunities. He gets released for good behavior, so he was able to work two fronts. He's scheming in
his head, but meanwhile he's cheating on the outside. It smiles, right. He gets considered a model prisoner once again. His gentlemanly nature distinguishes him and in prison that actually benefits in by comparison. So he's released December twenty first, nineteen sixty one, just in time for Christmas. Hey, Wharton, tell your f Merry Christmas. Yah, I'll see you guys later the world.
Just like man. He is so whip smart.
Once he's out free again, ken, they told you he's gonna start crying. But first he tries to return to the straight life. Maybe he can make a go of it, who knows. He went home to Elva and the Young family. He gets a job. He starts selling cookware again door to door, but once again after flying to a remote location. They call it a fly in sales, right, so he's doing fly in sales. This lasted for.
A while, slang in Dutch ovens completely.
The Young family continue to grow. He and Elva they would continue. They have seven kids, stop it. Seven kids.
No, come on now, dude, he does not.
Seven kids is extra expensive too, That's what I'm saying, because I don't have.
It.
It's one thing if like, oh, we have these kids, and then I'm trying to make ends meet, and I turned to crime. Huh, well stop having the kids. Keep your expenses.
Down, Elizabeth. Making kids is fun. I don't know to tell you. So anyways goes. I gotta pay for these seven kids and all the fun we had, honey. And then he's like, I got an IDEA gold plane, a gold plane. Yeah, now, like a literal plane made out of gold. I know how you're picturing, Like King Mike has touched a plane gold gold transport plane.
You see the plane that transports gold.
Yeah, a gold plane, you know, like it's.
The old plane.
Yeah, there you go, But how you put the emphasis on it. Anyway, there's gold mines up in like in Ontario. The gold from the mines. It gets flown down south to Winnipeg on these small transport planes, gold planes operated by this company trans Air. Right now. Once they're the gold bullyon that's a kka gold bricks, gold ingots, and gold coins all labeled under the term gold.
Buwllyond in hot water and it makes gold soup.
It's excellent, some onion celery, it's amazing. Gold would be transferred by the way to an air crew from Air Canada. So it goes from trans air to Air Canada. Okay a right, So that crew from Air Canada, they would load the gold bricks onto flights bound to the Royal Canadian Mint in the capitol, Ottawa, Okay right. So for weeks Ken surveiled the Winnipeg Inner National Airport. He clocks the schedule of all the gold planes coming in and out from the Red Lake mines. He imagined how he
can get his hands on that gold. How do I pry in there? What will work? Eventually he figures out the exact ideal time to rob the gold planes. He's got his window down. He determines he'll need four men to make his plan work to pay off. Right, So he plans a job, like I said, back when he was into this place called Stony Mountain Prison. So he's like, okay, I knew a guy back there, and this guy was Harry,
back when he was a lawyer from Winnipeg. And well he becomes the financial backer for the scheme and in charge of fencing the stolen gold. So he goes he's smart. He gets both sides. I need money to pay for it. I need to get rid of it to cash it out for money. We always talk about it. They don't make a plan for how you're gonna get rid of it. You steal. It's very true part of his plan from the get go. Now, this lawyer, he wasn't in prison because he was like a bad lawyer. He's still a lawyer.
He was actually just a law student who was going around helping the inmates. So he meets him. He's like, I like that guy. I wanna see I think he's a kind of hanky right this yeah, yeah, he flips them right. So the other guy, now he needs two hard men, just like but Canadian hard men. He gets, uh so they're very tall, exactly, rugged, broad chested. So John Barry, that's a hard man. He's a he's a professional crook. Then he also gets this guy, Richard Greenco
Rick Rick Greenco. He's a fellow hard man.
I thought you're gonna say, Richard Grico.
No, No, he could not get him. He was not available, said he was doing some show down South. That's terrible anyway. Ken's drinking buddies. That's these guys, that's their quality.
He hires his drinking Yeah, but.
Hard men, drinking buddies, those drinking buddies he has.
It's always a bad idea to bring in more people because it's more mouths to speak. Sure, but at the same time, it's not like he was a raging success before. So people as she wants.
So Rick, he brings in his brother, Paul Greenco, and he's gonna act as their face men. In this case, he'll be in charge of watching for the large gold shipment. So he's gonna pose as a as a salesman of gold. He wants to find out when a large shipment's gonna come in.
Okay, So Barry and then Grinco's so.
Yeah, Richard and Paul Granco and John Berry now Rick and John Berry, they will be in charge of grabbing the gold like they are. They're they're they're the hard men, right. So this wasn't gonna as they said, wasn't gonna be a smashing grab job, not gonna be a break in the plan was the two hard men would be handed the gold. Oh, just handed right over to them. Elizabeth, here you go take this goal.
I see what's gonna happen. They're gonna dress like Air Canada employees. We're so whip smart for a lady host.
That lady host whip smart kitting. Now to pull this off, this means is you'd guessed disguise it. So the men they get white wintertime coveralls that match the ones worn by the Air Canada crew. Then they doctor up the stencil for the Air Canada logo. Next, now they need proper paperwork, and so they're gonna need to manifest way bills. Can finesse that by stealing some actual way bills from the Air Canada. Heels are the Winnipeg Airport. How did
he pull off that move? Well, he's super smooth, Elizabeth. He did almost next to nothing. He just waited until the Canadian crew took lunch. Then the Air Canada, the people of the crew, they left the desk unattended. Yoick. Now he had fish away bills they were so they weren't suspicious. So anyway, a plane from the Red Lake Gold Mines. They flew into Winnipeg Airport on March first, nineteen sixty six. Can and his crew were all ready
and set Paul the lookout. He's posing as a salesman, as he told you, interested in buying a lot of gold. So he's like, oh, there's an extra large gold shipman coming in. They told me it's aboard this plane. He tells them. When it's gonna land, time to strike. Rick Granco and John Berry. They get dawled up in their fake Air Canada wintertime coveralls. Next they go on they steal an Air Canada truck possibly a van source to say both. Anyway, they stole that from the motor pool.
They drive that stolen truck or van right across the tarmac. They are the two hard men in their Air Canada coveralls. They meet the trans Air gold plane. They informed the trans Air staff that they're there too. There's a been a change in the scheduled transfer right. But typically Air Canada they would take possession of the gold right and then they would transfer it out on a scheduled flight.
Everybody knew it. It was all set, but due to the size of this particular gold shipment, the hard Men explained that Air Canada wanted to get it out as soon as possible, so they want to transfer it and they have it lined up for a charter flight. It was six hundred pounds of gold.
Wow, that's multiple bo Jackson.
Yes, multiple, Like it's at least I think two and a third bowl Jackson. Now their story was suspicious, but what could that trans air aircrew say? I mean, they're like, well, the two hard men, they have wintertime Air Canada coveralls on. They're driving a legit Air Canada truck or possibly van. They also have legit paperwork. They have the way bills from Air Canada. Right, it's snowy and cold, and who
wants to stand around on a tarmac questioning paperwork? So hinky as it all may have seen Transair staffs like here you go. They hand over the gold shipment. They load the gold onto the Air Canada truck. The two hard men drive off right off to the tarmac and they disappear. Rick Green Coow and John Barry successfully drove the Air Canada van out of the airport. Then a bilometer or so away, they meet up with a second vehicle driven by Ken Leishman. The Flying Man had done it.
Elizabeth Coincidentally, or rather ironically, considering his name, he chose not to fly away with his six hundred pounds of stolen gold. The plan was to drive it away, so he dropped off the hard men and then he drove the gold bullyon over to the home of the lawyer, Harry Backlan Right, he let himself in since Backlhan was away on vacation. He planned to hide the gold in the lawyer's freezer. At this point, that wasn't the original plan.
The original plan was much better. Originally, Ken planned to hide the stolen gold in a farm field. The farm belonged to Ken's uncle. Was gonna be super easy, but then a blizzard comes in, so now they can't dig, they can't even drive. Also, Kent's gotta worry. He's got all these fears and worries. He suddenly fears creep up about the Mounties, the Royal Canadian Announted Police. They're gonna have set up a roadblock so all over the place.
He's not gonna want to.
Drive too much. So he just drives over to the lawyer's house and then he audibles. Right, He's like, okay, we need to sit tight. Where they're going to leave the gold hidden somewhere that no one would look. The lawyer's deep freeze.
That's pretty good. That's great. So what's your ridiculous take?
Oh no, no, he yeah, he drives over to the lawyer's house. He's supposed to be away on vacations I told you, which he was, but his mother was there. She decided to house sit in the nice house. Anyway, Ken had to quickly come up with a cover story where he has all these boxes that have to go into the lawyer's basement. He's like, oh, these are filled with frozen moostakes, your son ordered. She's like, okay, come on in. She lets them. Man Ken's able to stash
the gold in the lawyer's deep freeze. I thought you'd liked that.
The mom wasn't like, oh, break me off one on your way down there.
No, no, they were deck two frozen for I gas. Anyway. Another part of the original plan that was that they would all sit on they told you on the stolen gold wait a few years, then attempt to fence it once the heat was off. Yeah, they'd move the gold to buyers overseas. There was a problem with that plan. The two hard men they we want to get paid right now, of course, the right, So Ken he has to up the timetable. Now the new plan, Ken's going
to go overseas. He's going to show prospective buyers what they had stolen, and then they'll all make all their problems go away because they'll buy all six hundred pounds the gold and will go great.
What's going to happen.
We'll be back and I'll tell you what happened to the six hundred pounds of gold and our Canadian Robin hood. All right, Elizabeth, Okay, so where were we? That's right, Harry Beckland's basement. Yes, we got the frozen moose steaks that are not real but are actually gold.
Bullyard, very very heavy steaks.
So and they need to take The new plan is to take some gold overseas so they can sell it right away, even though the heat is still on. So what do they do? The h is fully oh so Ken. He grabs a hacksaw, he saws off a chunk of gold for one of the gold bars. Then his new pop plan is he will go and board a train headed to Vancouver, where he will board a flight to Hong Kong, because you know that's where there's a big black market for this type of stuff. Meanwhile, the lawyer,
Harry Becklin. He returned home from his vacation, and he gets worried that his wife might find all this gold hidden amongst the frozen moostakes that actually are in the deep freezer. I forgot to tell you that he actually does have legitimate frozen moose stakes. So he takes the gold out from the deep freeze and he buries it in his backyard. Oh there's another tiny problem with all of this. I forgot the CRU's newly improvised plan right to sell the gold. Ken didn't have a passport. He
can't travel on a passport. So yeah, yeah, yeah, so he's going to use the lawyer's passport. Just say I'm Harry back. Yeah, yeah, that's the plan. So Ken linked up with the lawyer. He takes the lawyer's passport. He gets on a train to Vancouver. Boom, he takes off with a sowd off chunk of sample goals. This is the plan working perfect right now, and Ken arrives in Vancouver. He wastes no time, Elizabeth. He headed right over to
the airport. While he waited for his flight, he heard his name get called over the airport.
P a is His name was Ken Leishman.
He's like, that ain't good. That spooked him. So what did he do? He gets up and he goes and he ditches a hunk of gold that has on him. Right, He's like, dump sit somewhere in the trash. Nobody ever finds it.
Odd, No, just disappeared quiet about it.
He was in the trash, yeah, exactly. So anyway, he tries to play it cool. He's like, who's Ken Leishman. I don't know, n Yeah. So that fails though, because there's a full detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the airport. I like to picture them up on horseback walking through with the red jackets. Anyway, so they eventually find him and the inspector from the Mountains in charge of this airport arrest. His name was Superintendent Gordon Perry.
That's like the most Canadian named ever Canadian, Gordon Perry, right. So anyway, Inspector Gordon, he said the plan was good, what he did afterward, and the people he associated with were not up to his character. He should have done better.
Eh.
So while Ken was stuck on his two day train trip from Winnipeg to Vancouver, the cops had been on the case. Yeah, right, by the way, can we just talk for a moment about how dope would be on a two day train trip to go across Canada.
I've always wanted to do that trans Canadian rail trip.
That would am amazing. We got to come up their excuse to do that.
We could record special episodes from the train.
There you go and do all all a ridiculous crime on the train and just cover it live.
Well, the first the Tuesday episode is us talking about great train robbery, and then Thursday Thursday is us doing a train robbery, and then the next.
Week from prisons. Hopefully we'll be on the LAMB for at least.
This very special rerun while we're gonna get bailed out.
Anyway, back to the mountains. Okay, they've been working on this case for two days despite the blizzard. I told you about the obscured tire tracks and you know whatever. The investigators found the abandoned Air Canada cargo van. Yep. To their luck, forensics were able to lift a fingerprint on one of the men.
Listen, it is cold out there. Yeh yeah, what are the leaving fingerprints? Where are you going?
Exactly?
Just for the war?
Your finger sums. Anyway, the Mounties they find Ken's get away car too. He had abandoned somewhere where they're like, hey, it's over here, eh. So he'd also left behind a notepad, although he'd torn out the notes. The police used that old pencil truck. Yeah, I figured you like this, right, sister bon rightly shaded that paper and boom emerges one word, that word Backland.
Oh, he's like back then, with like the little hearts around it. And he was like one, get the gold too, drive it to Backland's house at and then the address and like little directions.
So the next morning, the Mountain's paid a visit Backland, but not at home at his office. Really's dignified, right, But you know what, rather than me's telling you about it, talking about Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your eyes, I'd like you to picture it. It's March nineteen sixty six, and you are in Manitoba, Canada. Specifically, you were in a law of this, typing up a letter. You are the newly hired secretary of a young lawyer.
I'm lipsmart.
Can't get a much better job since you're in Canada on the lamb. That's right, you are a successful gem thief who's been working the Eastern Seaboard posing as a psychic medium, Madame Regina corn Tower. Now after you had an escape. You had to escape a botched gem job in Manhattan. You snuck over the border into Canada. Now you're working for this young lawyer. It's the perfect gig. Who whatever suspect you, you're just nice little Regina Cornthawer
from Calgary. Now you know, I'd love to tell you about it.
Eh.
You try your accent, but it doesn't always see anyway. This morning, you're feeling a little nervous because why there's police at the door. You can see them through the smoke glass panel of the door to the law office. You see the hand of the law rap on the glass. The door shakes in the frame. You see the gold of the law man's badge. You get up your chair, squeaks, your heels click clack cross that linoleum floor. You open the door, praying that this isn't the moment you feared
for months would come. Nope, but cop greets you with a smile. He's a detective, he says, his name is Detective Sergeant Dunmall and he asks you if your boss, Harry Backlan is in. You say to yourself, oh he is now. Detectives say oh goody, and he steps inside the office, walks past you, knocks on the door to Backlan's office. Come in, is the reply, now, Backland, he's assuming it's probably you with coffee or the morning's news. Door sleeps open. His face falls when he sees it's
not you, it's what is you? But it's also detective Sergeant Dunball. He is smiling. The detective introduces himself. Backland stands up to greet him. The two men shake hands. Nice you know, friendly Canadians. Backland's cools a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce. Shout out mci. Now. He asks what the detective is there for. He offers him a seat in the chair opposite his desk. The detective, you're standing there watching this. The detective accepts the offer.
As he moves to sit down, he spies a briefcase beside Backland's desk. The detective he trusts his instincts. He kicks the briefcase just gently. The briefcase is heavy. It doesn't move. It's weighted down with something real heavy the detective bends over all Harry Backland and you can do or watch together as the detective opens the unlocked briefcase and boom, what does he see? A sowd off stolen gold bar shining back at him.
That's a that's a difficult probable cause right there.
Harry Backlan says, nothing. You gasped at the sight of the gold. The detective chuckles to himself, and then he says, now, counselor you know what this means, don't you? You're going to jail? Oh you bet you eh. Now, after this, Elizabeth, the detective went over to the lawyer's house with a bunch of other cops. Say, what do you think they founded Harry Backland's place?
Mistakes?
Yes, they did find and in the deep freeze below that they found a small pile of gold that Harry tried to I guess hide from the others. Old Harry couldn't help himself. But that wasn't all. The mounties kept searching and they found all the other gold bars and bullion and ingots and so forth that were in the back of the Backland house.
Yeah, hidden under fresh fallen snow.
Now, when he heard about how his lawyer was the one who was caught with the hunk of sawd off gold in his brief case, which ultimately led the police to the rest of the main stat What do you the Ken was thinking. He was flabbergasted the lawyer had kept the gold on him in his briefcase. Ken, that was his actually pretty much his quote. But you were there, you saw the downfall I did now, I mean, who
would ever write anyway? As Ken Leishman said quote, the plan was that he would return that piece to the freezer. It was stupid. So their successful Air Canada gold robbery, mind you, was the largest gold heist in Canadian history up to that point. Ken gets arrested, sent to Headlingly Jail to await trial. While there, he convinced some other inmates we shouldn't be in here, so we should be good for this. We should leave guys, and so they did.
They busted out. So this time his plan works perfectly. These guys listen, I don't know. September one, nineteen sixty six, Ken and three inmates overpower a guard, steal his keys, bust out. Once they get free, they make a quick getaway and a stolen Chevy. Nice choice boy. Now that the escape convicts had wheels, they lee over to nearby Steinbach, Manitoba. Now the prison escapes, big news. Right leads to the largest manhunt in Manitoba history. They're cops everywhere. They're shutting
down to all the major highways, the roads. There's roadblocks everywhere. Elizabeth, these guys need to get off the road. Luckily they're with the flying bandit.
That's right.
So he has a plan for this. He springs into action. He drives them over to an airport, right onto the tarmac. They steal a plane. Then they fly their freedom in another country. What country is that?
Hey?
Big hey, hey, Now Candy flies himself and the jailbird crew across the border. They land and where Gary, Indiana? Ohys, but this is not the Gary you would picture. This is not urban downtown Gary. This is the farms surrounding.
Yeah.
Obviously he can't land at an airport, Elizabeth, so Ken landed the plane in a farmer's field. So after he safely crash landed with the three fellow convicts, and then this worried farmer comes running out to see if the men are okay. He's always had engine troubles, Yeah, Ken's genteel nature once again wins the day. The concerned farmer looks past the three obvious convicts and says, like, yes, you fellows might need a ride to town. He gives
them a ride to town. So once they're in Gary proper, how they can get up to some real trouble newly free Canadians. What do they do?
Well?
I mean, are they still in their prison garb?
You know, what's a good question. I'm thinking they probably took clothing from maybe the scarecrow. I don't know, only enough for one.
So I don't know what they get to Gary, Indiana.
They have to get clothing at some point.
I don't know where they get they get clothing.
So now they're wearing like the latest.
Duds of Now what you got to get out of that town?
Yeah? Nope, they go to a bar, they ordered drinks and they toast their freedom. Meanwhile, keep in mind, this is a huge man hunt, right, so they are all sorts of TV news reports. TVs are always in bars, so they're on the news in the bar, right, but they when I first noticed them. But still there's constant updates every hour on the hour about this daring escape from the Canadian jail being on the lookout, you know, wanted men anyway, sitting in the bar and Gary, Indiana,
the four recently freed inmates. They of course call attention to themselves in the dumbest way possible. As they're getting drunk, they start getting loud, but they're also dropping Canadian money in America. No, you're kidding we Oh yeah, it didn't take long for someone to put two and two together and not the count of four. They phoned the cops. So now the cops show up in all four convicts. Right they're in the bar, they're surrounded confronted by a
bunch of armed police. Ken's like, I give up, So he's like, I'm cool with this. Two of the other guys they're hardened criminals, so they decide they're not going back inside and they're not going back to the big House Elizabeth. They just either are gonna blast their way out like it's the nineteen thirties. So they're getting a shootout with the cops. No one gets killed, no one
gets hurt. Right now, you're seriously injured. But canon three, they all get captured, returned to the unfriendly confines of a Canadian prison. The authorities tacked on another seven years for the gold heist and the jail escape to his prior eight years prison sentence, and Ken was sent back to Stony Mountain Penitentiary AA. His second time at the prison was no different than his first time, Elizabeth because again model prisoner. Everybody likes Ken. Example, he ran the
prison hockey league. He was a commissioner of the prison Hockey League, make sure the ice was all clean and allly that. He became integral to lives of prisoners and the prison warden. According to one remembrance, the guy said quote, he was well liked at Stony Mountain. The warden used to have him over for dinner. They had a Toastmaster's club in the prison and he was the president. Oh yeah,
Ken's kids. One of them recalled quote, if some guy was having a problem with his wife or girlfriend, Dad would write a romantic poem he could send.
Are you kidding?
Yeah, he's playing like lonely inside, yeah, Sarah no de Bergier, Yeah exactly. So it was fellow prisoners they come to love this guy. They're like, it's flying bandit. He's all right man right. So Ken, like I said, charismatic still whips Smart so his wife, Elvia, she stands by her man. She visits him in prison all the time. Their love affair undiminished. Elizabeth through despite the seven kids. She's like,
I can take this all right, it wasn't easy. We can all agree on that, right, Yeah, Ken gets lucky. Eventually he's let out after eight years of his fifteen year sentence. He immediately went and rejoined Elva in the family. They moved the family up to Red Lake, up near the gold mines, but not for more crime. I don't want you worrying. Elva's not gonna get like shafted again. Instead, it becomes an actual, factual member of the community.
Really. Yeah.
He worked as a bush pilot, used his talents to help others. Elva opened up another shop selling like, I don't know, candles and tea cozies. Again. Eventually the family has embraced They're welcomed as members of the community. Ken. He gets elected president of the Chamber of Commerce. Elizabeth, you are that's the main Like, that's the stripe down main Street. You cannot get more mainstream than that, right.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Gordon Perry remember him, Yeah, He once summed up my man, Ken Leishman by saying that quote, he was living on the edge all the time. In my view, he had this Errol Flynn complex. He was a romantic type of guy, so hard to argue with that, right, the flying bat was anything. He was a romantic. He was a criminally romantic. He was romantic romantic. He was just a big heart.
Right.
Yeah.
His wife, Elva, she said she'd once considered divorcing him, but she couldn't turn her back on She couldn't stop loving him. Theirs was a rare true love of fair, she told a curious reporter. And and I will quote she tried to explain why she'd stayed, because I know you're confused by this, why she couldn't quit her never ending love affair. And she said, and I quote. He was the man in my life. He was my everything. He got into problems and stuff, but oh he was
really good. I wrote him every day. He wrote poems for me. He never sent a car without writing a verse in it.
Oh.
El So you know, big heart lorry right. And then Ken Leishman goes out as a true folk hero. I saved the best relaxed Okay, he was still flying working as a bush pilot. I told you that he starts working with the remote hospitals. He's bringing people patients into the city who need like life saving tradment. Unfortunately, December nineteen seventy nine, Ken Leishman was on one of those life saving medflights. His plane goes down, dies in the crash,
or so it's presumed. His body never found, just his wallet. He's forty eight years old at the time forty eight.
Wow.
Authority is determined while he was never found, he was likely eaten by wolves.
So oh goodness.
Yeah, well that was very Canadian.
Yeah, that's the way to God.
That was a tough blow. You know, when you live by the wolf, you died by the wolf. I guess. Anyway, as she said at the time, it was a hard time. We were starting out again and Ken was doing so well. We're going to have a nice life. Now. I know this sounds crazy, right, but from nineteen fifty one to nineteen seventy nine, when you know he had the plane crash, they had a really strong true love. So I know they made They raised and parented seven kids, or she
parented seven kids and Kevin. Ken never hurt anyone, right, you know, and you're throwing the gold HEISTI I know, things get criminal, ridiculous, whatever, But Ken, he had a good life. Yeah, being at the gentleman outlaw, the Flying bandit Elva. Maybe not so much. The kids maybe not so much.
Yeah, yeah, maybe not.
The wolf's digestion not so much. But whatever, it was every Ken he did have a nice life, right, what's a ridiculous takeaway, Elizabeth?
Impulse control is always with impulse control. We know it is. It's sort of the root of a lot of problems. And particularly like you know, when I taught the prisons, like my students and I would talk about that about impulse control and how it manifests and how it got them there. Every single one of them was like, that's exactly you know why I'm here because I can't control an impulse.
When the plank when they have what about when they have planning, like he was sitting in there in prison getting ready to do his gold heights. There's no impulse control there is there.
There's yeah, the impulse to do the crime like he he is, he's a husband and a father and he has a family to to take care of or to help take care of to be a part of that unit. And he has this impulse to commit this crime in order to get the you know, the money that he wants, rather than to work hard and you know, do something that's not so fun, like you know most of us do in order to get paid and run our lives.
He can't control that impulse. Like you know, a lot of people will think, you know, it would be really great rob a bank, and then you know, it's so easy to out and I could do it, and I can figure out all these things. And this guy's sitting in prison because he didn't do it right. You know what I can do, Trust, I could do this well. Suppress that impulse, you know, and that's not easy for a lot of people.
I was speaking of it as much more in the moment, like you know, when you pull the gun, that type of impulse control, not the like long term six months later, I'm going to do.
It long term impulse? Is that avery ridiculous takeaway?
No, I don't have one. There, you go, I didn't have I didn't expect you to ask, so I just didn't even think about it. I was like, my ridiculous takeaway Lizbeth is not gonna ask me. That's what it is. So hey, you in the mood for a talkback though?
I love talkbacks.
Oh my god, super.
I love get Hi.
This is Abby from Florida. I love this show and I just wanted to say in the Charlie Chaplin episode Zarn his accent sounded like his accent from mister Rochat. It sounded like doctor dufer Schmertz from Veneas and Ferb. I don't know if I was gonna get that reference, but yeah, it's awesome. Love the show, keep doing it.
Hell on me, says Abby from Florida. I want to say thank you for the talk back. So there you go. That was nice. Anyway, that was just popped out, you know. Anyway, As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime on Twitter, Instagram. We have that website ridiculous Crime dot com. Go over there check it out. It's all sorts of visual fun. Also, as obviously indicated, we love the talkbacks, so please go to the iHeart app and give us one. We will gladly put you on the air because we love your
people's emails. Also, if you like a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com, as always, thanks for listening. May Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by the roller Skate Bandit Dave Houstin. Research is by Marisa Canadian Acts. Sins Are So Cute Brown and Andrea Oh tell me a boot It song, Sharpened Tear Our theme song is by Thomas take Off You Hoser Lee and Travis Cock Co Dutton. The host wardrobe
provided by I Bought Me five hundred. Executive producers are Ben Oh, I Love the Mackenzie brothers, Boland and Noel. I love that Mel Blank is their dad.
Brown We gek Cui say it one more time, Geek we cry.
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