Robert Knuckle - The Flying Bandit. Bringing Down Canadas Most Dangerous Armed Bandit

The Flying Bandit

Bringing Down Canadas Most Daring Armed Robber

Robert Knuckle

with Ed Arnold

GENERAL STORE PUBLISHING HOUSE INC.

499 OBrien Road, Renfrew, Ontario, Canada K7V 3Z3

Telephone 1.613.599.2064 or 1.800.465.6072

http://www.gsph.com

ISBN 978-1-896182-60-7 (pbk.)

978-1-77123-8274 (EPUB)

978-1-77123-8281 (MOBI)

978-1-77123-8298 (WEB).pdf

Copyright Robert Knuckle, Ed Arnold 2015

Cover design by Taragraphics

Layout by Derek McEwen

Published in Canada.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), One Yonge Street, Suite 800, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E5.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Knuckle, Robert, 1935; Arnold, Ed, 1952 - The flying bandit: bringing down Canadas most daring armed robber

ISBN 1-896182-60-7

1. Galvan, Gilbert. 2. CriminalsCanadaBiography. 3. Jewel thievesCanadaBiography. 4. Bank robberiesCanada. I. Title.

HV6653.G34K58 1996 364.1552092 C96-990072-4

Second Printing February 2003

Third Printing December 2013

For Cathy Harrison of Windsor

T his book was written by Robert Knuckle, based in part on the research of Ed Arnold, the managing editor of the Peterborough Examiner.

Arnold, who has won six Canadian Press awards, has been with the Examiner for twenty-five years. In 1988 he broke the story of Galvans exploits and capture and dubbed him the Flying Bandit. Intending to write a book, Arnold spent two years interviewing Galvan and many others involved in the story. He stopped work on the project in 1993.

In 1995, after Robert Knuckle decided to write a book about the Flying Bandit, he was denied visiting rights to Galvan by the warden of the maximum security Oxford Correctional Institute in Wisconsin, and Arnold agreed to allow him to use his notes. Knuckle broadened the research base of the project by corresponding with Galvan and holding extensive interviews with most of the other principals.

M any thanks to the following who assisted in the research or aided in the production of this book: Gord Carruth and Nicole Gagnon of Hull; Phil and Roberta Drouillard of Ottawa; Cathy and Grant Harrison of Windsor; Elizabeth Knuckle of Dundas; John and Lorna Plunkett of Ennismore; Don and Carol Mahar of Ottawa; Bill and Doreen Mahoney of London; Rosemary Kenopic of Burnstown; The Honourable Mr. Justice Gordon Thomson and Carol Thomson of Windsor; Terry and Val Knuckle of Peterborough; Det. Sgt. Bob Whitsitt, Det. Paul Legault and Det. Sgt. Jeff Dupuis of the OPP; the Dundas Public Library; the Hamilton Public Library; McMaster University Library.

Thanks to all of the principals in the story who shared their experiences so willingly and so honestly.

Thanks also to Tim Gordon the publisher who assigned me the project and to Stephanie Walsh of the Peterborough Examiner for getting me started.

Special thanks and sincere appreciation to my editor John Stevens for his insight, knowledge and skills. His help was invaluable.

I t was just before noon. The Royal Bank was crowded. June Smith, a senior sales officer at the bank, looked up to see a man in a baseball cap stepping behind the service counter. June got up from her desk to tell him that customers were not allowed to be back there. There was no reason for her to be alarmed, she just figured he had made a mistake and didnt know where he was going.

As June stepped towards him he said, Sit down and dont move!

She was about to argue with him but when she saw the gun in his hand she sat down. Realizing a robbery was taking place, her heart began to pound. No one else seemed to be aware of what was happening. June didnt know what to do. She was afraid to move and didnt want to scream; if she screamed it might cause the gunman to panic and she didnt know what he would do then. She sat motionless, watching helplessly as he walked directly to the door of the central cash cage.

Three tellers were standing in front of the door waiting to make transactions. One of these women was Colleen Banks. She was an experienced bank teller and had seen the stranger coming but she didnt quite know what to make of it. He simply walked around the west end of the counter and came directly towards the cage with a quick, steady step.

Whats he doing back here? she thought to herself.

Stand back and dont move! he said to the three women outside the cage. They saw his gun right away.

All of them were frightened. They moved closer together and cautiously backed away from the cage door. They tried to move in a calm, deliberate manner that would not upset him.

Open the door! he said to twenty-six-year-old Debbie Cook who was working inside the cage. She stared into the face of the strange looking man in a red nylon jacket. His hair was reddish blond and stringy; it hung below his ears and over his collar. A heavy blond moustache spread to the corners of his mouth and hid his upper lip.

Hurry up and open the door! he said again in a deep voice.

When Debbie saw he had a gun in his left hand she let him in immediately. The man handed her a white canvas bag about two feet long with two small red maple leaf flags on it and two black straps at the top. He was standing so close to her she could see he had brown eyes and a ruddy complexion with freckles.

Put all the money in there!

While Debbie began emptying the money out of one of the cash trays into the bag other tellers became aware that an unfamiliar man was in the central cage. They could see that he wasnt dressed like a banker and they couldnt understand what he was doing in there. Debbie seemed to be working with him, handing him things. She would go away from him and then come back. Still, they knew that no one should be in there with her; that was definitely against bank policy. They looked at each other, unsure what to do.

Clients in the lineups also saw the man go into the cage but thought little of it. An eighteen-year-old at the front of the line saw the man go into the cage. He wondered why but it didnt cause him any great concern. Even when he saw the three tellers standing frozen outside the cage with fearful expressions on their faces, it didnt faze him. However, when he watched Debbie Cook emptying money trays into the mans canvas bag, he was astounded that a robbery was happening in front of his very eyes.

Daina Brown, a clerk, was working at her desk west of the cage. She too saw the tellers frozen in fear outside the cage and Debbie emptying a money tray into the mans sack. It was obvious that the man was robbing the bank. Suspecting he had a gun, she knew it was too dangerous to move so she began to jot down the robbers description on the back of a withdrawal slip. She noted that he wore a black and white baseball cap, white denim pants and a red, lightweight jacket. He was white, in his early thirties, about 58 to 510, medium build, approximately 160 pounds.

Set the time locks! the gunman said to Debbie Cook.

Theyre set at two minutes, she replied.

Colleen Banks knew it was important for everyone to stay calm. She quietly told Debbie to set the combination for the time locks so they would open. Seeing the faces of the two younger tellers beside her contorted in fright, Colleen told them, Its OK, just dont move. With fear in their eyes, the two women nodded carefully.