Nate Hendley - The Beatle Bandit: A Serial Bank Robbers Deadly Heist, a Cross-Country Manhunt, and the Insanity Plea that Shook the Nation

A SERIAL BANK ROBBERS DEADLY HEIST, A CROSS-COUNTRY MANHUNT, AND THE INSANITY PLEA THAT SHOOK THE NATION

NATE HENDLEY

Copyright Nate Hendley, 2021

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 purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Publisher and acquiring editor: Scott Fraser | Editor: Laurie Miller

Cover designer: Laura Boyle

Cover image: Government of Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives

Canada (2021). Source: Library and Archives Canada/Department of Justice fonds/C-0149611.

Printer: Marquis Book Printing Inc.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: The Beatle Bandit : a serial bank robbers deadly heist, a cross-country manhunt, and the insanity plea that shook the nation / Nate Hendley.

Names: Hendley, Nate, author.

Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210260564 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210260572 | ISBN 9781459748101 (softcover) | ISBN 9781459748118 (PDF) | ISBN 9781459748125 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Smith, Matthew Kerry. | LCSH: Bank robberiesOntarioToronto. | LCSH: MurderOntarioToronto.

Classification: LCC HV6665.C32 H46 2021 | DDC 364.15/5209713541dc23

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 Ontario, through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and Ontario Creates, and the Government of Canada.

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.

The publisher is not responsible for websites or their content unless they are owned by the publisher.

Dundurn Press
1382 Queen Street East
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4L 1C9
dundurn.com, @dundurnpress

This book is dedicated to Paul Truster, who first alerted me to the story of Matthew Kerry Smith and provided interview contacts and copious research materials. This book would not have been possible without Pauls dedication and commendable research skills.

T his book is about Matthew Kerry Smith, who robbed a series of banks in Southern Ontario between 1960 and 1964 most notably, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in North York on July 24, 1964. On this occasion, Smith shot and killed a bank customer named Jack Blanc who tried to intervene.

Smiths actions would have far-reaching effects and inflame a national debate about gun control, the insanity defence, and especially, the death penalty in Canada.

His crimes were particularly shocking given that Canada prided itself on being a peaceful society at the time with a low crime rate. Gunfights on the street with military-grade weapons happened in Chicago, not Canada.

The 1961 census counted 18.24 million Canadians. Of these, 1.8 million people lived in the Metropolitan Toronto Area, making it the second-largest urban centre in the country, after Montreal.

Metro Toronto was not a particularly diverse place. Over a million residents responding to the 1961 census cited the British Isles as their homeland. Most of the remaining residents in Metropolitan Toronto came from continental Europe. Protestants represented the majority faith in Metro Toronto, and there were few people of colour (although the 1961 census did list 20,534 residents under the category Asiatic). At the time, North York was an independent municipality with a population of 269,959 and its own mayor.

In the summer of 1964, Philip Givens was mayor of Toronto. He presided over a rapidly growing city that had to deal with multiple issues. The day Smith conducted his raid on the Imperial Bank, the Toronto Daily Star reported on a meeting of municipal officials to discuss a proposed apartment development with local homeowners.

The meeting quickly degenerated into a general beefing session against the city, reported the Star. Homeowners raised angry questions about taxes, the high cost of snow removal, and noise from subway construction, among other topics.

Then, as now, Toronto was considered a safe place. Even in 2020 there were only seventy-one homicides in the City of Toronto, down from seventy-nine the year before, a remarkably low figure for a mega-city where nearly three million people currently live.

In the 1960s, violent crime was even less common. Toronto had its share of headline-grabbing criminals, such as the bank-robbing Boyd Gang of the early 1950s, but the city was generally peaceful. So, too, was the entire country, for that matter.

In 1964, there were 253 homicides recorded in Canada, 81 of which took place in Ontario. That same year, Canadian courts handed down five death sentences. While no one had been executed since late 1962, when Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas were hanged at Torontos Don Jail, capital punishment was still on the books.

If Canadian crime rates were low, violence and armed robbery were not completely unknown.

On July 24, 1964, the front page of the Toronto Daily Star carried a story about a bank robbery in small-town Cobden, Ontario. During a holdup at a Bank of Nova Scotia branch, a pair of robbers shot and wounded a bank accountant. A teller was held hostage and two suspects were arrested in a stolen vehicle at the west gate of Algonquin Park.

The same edition offered a glimpse at the entertainment options available to Torontonians in the summer of 1964. There were advertisements for an upcoming Louis Armstrong concert and the musical Camelot. A small notice listed a show by then-unknown Levon Helm (before his fame with the Band). The big movies in town included Robin and the 7 Hoods (a clownish affair featuring Frank Sinatras Rat Pack), Stanley Kubricks Dr. Strangelove, and Zulu, featuring an up-and-coming British actor named Michael Caine.

As for more downscale entertainment, a Toronto theatre offered an adults-only flick called The Doctor and the Playgirls, supposedly based on the Profumo-Keeler-Dr. Ward Scandal! as the ad copy put it. Said scandal involved sex, prostitutes, and British high society. The same theatre promised a demonstration of the latest in beach fashions including the new and unique topless bathing suits, modeled by the worlds most beautiful women.

On a similar note, Torontos Victory Burlesque theatre was hosting a performance by Kim Soo Lee, sexotic Queen of the Orient! An advertisement assured attendees they could enjoy a great stage and screen show in cool air-conditioned comfort.