Edward Butts - Running With Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws

RUNNING WITH
DILLINGER

RUNNING WITH
DILLINGER

THE STORY OF RED HAMILTON AND OTHER
FORGOTTEN CANADIAN OUTLAWS | EDWARD BUTTS

Copyright Edward Butts, 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Copy-editor: Marja Appleford
Design: Jennifer Scott
Printer: Transcontinental

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Butts, Edward, 1951
Running with Dillinger : the story of Red Hamilton and other forgotten Canadian outlaws / Edward Butts.

Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-55002-683-2

1. Outlaws--Canada--Biography. 2. Criminals--Canada-- Biography. 3. Crime--Canada--History. I. Title.

HV6805.B88 2008 364.1092'271 C2007-907080-9

1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 09 08

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the BookPublishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario MediaDevelopment Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Printed and bound in Canada.
Printed on recycled paper.

www.dundurn.com

For Mum:
Patricia Margery Butts
19252007

1. Chapter One
   The Power Gang of Newfoundland:
   "Until You Are Dead, Dead, Dead!"
2. Chapter Two
   The Smugglers of Lake Champlain:
   The Black Snake and the Phoenix II
3. Chapter Three
   Edwin Johnson: Master Counterfeiter
4. Chapter Four
   Jack Krafchenko: The Saga of Bloody Jack
5. Chapter Five
   Tom Bassoff: Shootout in Bellevue
6. Chapter Six
   Blackie Audett: Liar, Liar
7. Chapter Seven
   Matthew Kolidee: "Me Fool Me Get 'Fraid"
8. Chapter Eight
   Toronto's Great Train Robbery: "Like Hawks at Midnight"
9. Chapter Nine
   John Burowski: "Why Should I Shoot My Friend?"
10. Chapter Ten
    The Chatham Train Robbery:
    "Nothing But Knowing How"
11. Chapter Eleven
    Albert Dorland: "I Was Framed!"
12. Chapter Twelve
    John "Red" Hamilton: Running With Dillinger
13. Chapter Thirteen
    Edward McMullen: Death of an Outlaw
14. Chapter Fourteen
    Sam Behan: Buried Alive
15. Chapter Fifteen
    Phillips and Lund: "Now Boys Please Take a Warning"
16. Chapter Sixteen
    Margaret Goede: Kidnapper

I would like to thank the many people and institutions who were of assistance to me in one way or another while I was researching and writing this book: Tony Hawke, Michael Carroll, Marja Appleford, and Jennifer Scott of Dundurn Press; Dillinger biographers Tony Stewart, Ellen Poulsen, Jefferey S. King, Bill Helmer, and Rick Mattix; Bob Bates, for his excellent article on Blackie Audett; Dave St. Onge of the Kingston Penitentiary Museum; Norina Dagostini of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Museum; Irene Novaczek, Jim Hornby, and the P.E.I. Institute of Island Studies; Bruce Woodruff, and Brian Beerman; Library and Archives Canada; Veterans Affairs Canada; the Rooms Archives of Newfoundland; the provincial archives of Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta; the Galt Museum and Archives of Lethbridge, Alberta; the Vermont State Archives; the Toronto Star; the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library; the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library; and of course my ever-helpful friends at the Guelph Public Library. A special note of thanks to Bruce Hamilton of Shiprock, New Mexico.

W hile I was researching The Desperate Ones: Forgotten Canadian Outlaws, I came across a Toronto newspaper article from May 1934 about the American bank robber John Dillinger. The story, under a banner headline, said the FBI believed Dillinger might be aboard a Canadian ship heading for Britain. I also found a terrific editorial cartoon that depicted Jack Canuck offering Uncle Sam the services of one Mountie to catch Dillinger. I thought this little-known "Canadian connection" to the Dillinger saga would make a good closing chapter for the book, so I started searching for information on Dillinger's life. Among other sources, I found two websites, dillingertimes and gangsterologists (both Yahoo groups). These groups are operated by and for people with a serious interest in the "gangster era" of the United States, particularly the 1920s and 1930s. It was through these groups that I met (online) Tony Stewart, author of Dillinger: the Hidden Truth; Ellen Poulsen, author of Don't Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang; Jefferey S. King, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dillinger Gang; William J. Helmer, co-author (with G. Russell Girardin) of Dillinger: the Untold Story; Rick Mattix, a historian who helped prepare the expanded edition of the Helmer/Girardin book; and gangster-era expert Bob Bates.

These people, individually and collectively, undoubtedly know more about America's gangster era than anyone else in the world. After the publication of The Desperate Ones, I learned from them that there was much more of a Canadian connection to the Dillinger story than I had realized. John "Red" Hamilton, a core member of the Dillinger Gang from its beginning to its bloody end, was Canadian! Moreover, there is a quite believable story that Red Hamilton was not killed in 1934 as the FBI claimed, but escaped to Canada and lived until the 1970s. This story has been supported by John Hamilton's great-nephew, Bruce Hamilton of Shiprock, New Mexico, as well as other members of the Hamilton family.

The story of how this Ontario-born desperado fell into a life of crime and became a gunman with one of the most legendary bandit gangs in American history is told here. It is every bit as intriguing as the story of Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, the Canadian-born member of the Barker Gang whose autobiography, Public Enemy # 1, was published in 1971. So is the story of how Hamilton allegedly survived a near-fatal bullet wound, evaded capture, and ended his days as a free man in Canada.

Not all of the historical characters the reader will meet in this book were bank robbers. Some preferred to rob trains, such as the gang that hit a mail car at Toronto's Union Station for one of the biggest holdups in Canadian history. Others were counterfeiters, smugglers, and kidnappers. A convicted bandit named Sam Behan won public admiration, not for his lawlessness, but for his courageous attempt to bring to the nation's attention the inhumane conditions in the Kingston Penitentiary. Albert Dorland, a failed bank robber, gained the public eye when overzealous members of the Toronto Police Department framed him for a bank robbery.