Kenneth Leishman (June 20, 1931 – December 14, 1979), also known as the Flying Bandit or the Gentleman Bandit was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
criminal responsible for multiple robberies between 1957 and 1966. Leishman was the mastermind behind the largest gold theft in Canadian history.
[ This record stood for over 50 years, until it was surpassed by the Toronto Pearson airport heist in 2023. After being caught and ]arrested
An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...
by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
(RCMP), Leishman managed to escape twice, before being caught and serving the remainder of his various sentences.
In December 1979, while flying a mercy flight to Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...
, Leishman's aircraft crashed about north of Thunder Bay.
Early life
Leishman was born on June 20, 1931, in the town of Holland, Manitoba. Coming from a troubled home, he dropped out of school before graduating, and worked various jobs before marrying Elva Shields at the age of 17. Sometime in the summer of 1951, Leishman started working as a travelling mechanic for Machine Industries, repairing straw cutters in southern Manitoba. In 1952, he was able to purchase an Aeronca aircraft, using it to fly to the farms he needed to work at, as well as making additional money selling short rides in the aircraft. At some point in the next five years, Machine Industries closed its doors, and Leishman started working for Queen Anne Cookware. He continued working with them until November 1957, when they went bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
.["Documentaries:'Ken Leishman: The Flying Bandit'."]
''Telefilm Canada''. Retrieved: January 21, 2016.
Criminal career
First theft
On December 17, 1957, Leishman, by posing as a friend of the manager, robbed the Toronto-Dominion Bank
Toronto-Dominion Bank (french: links=no, Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business as TD Bank Group (french: links=no, Groupe Banque TD), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. T ...
on the corner of Yonge Street
Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes.
Once the southernmost leg of provincial H ...
and Albert in Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Ontario. He got away with $10,000. This was accomplished by arranging to meet the manager to talk about a business loan. Once inside the manager's office, with the door closed for privacy, he produced a gun, and had the manager write him a cheque for $10,000. After receiving the cheque, and questioning the manager for personal information about himself, his family and friends, he coerced the manager into taking him over to a bank teller, and having the cheque cashed. The knowledge gained from the questioning was used to appear as though he was a close friend of the manager. After getting the money, under the pretence of getting a drink, Leishman took the manager with him to the getaway car, then let him go.
Second theft
Three months later, on March 16, 1958, Leishman attempted to rob the C.I.B.C. bank on the corner of Yonge Street
Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes.
Once the southernmost leg of provincial H ...
and Bloor, in Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
. This time, he was not successful, as the manager, Howard Mason, upon sight of the gun, did not acquiesce to his request. As Leishman attempted to escape the bank, he was tripped by a female customer, before being tackled by a teller less than a block from the bank, and was arrested. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, to be served at Stony Mountain Penitentiary
Stony Mountain Institution is a federal multi-security complex located in the Rural Municipality of Rockwood immediately adjacent to the community of Stony Mountain, Manitoba, about from Winnipeg.
The Institution (medium-security) began opera ...
.
Leishman was parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
d on December 21, 1961, and for a time, to support his family, worked as a door-to-door salesman. By 1966, however, with his family having grown to seven children, the income provided by legitimate work was insufficient, and Leishman needed to find another means of supporting his family, reverting to a life of crime.
The Great Gold Heist
On his most famous robbery, Leishman and four accomplices stole almost $385,000 (just over $3.5 million 2023 dollars) in gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
bullion being transported by TransAir to Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
where it would be shipped via Air Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled an ...
to Ottawa, Ontario.
While watching aircraft at Winnipeg International Airport
Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (commonly known as Winnipeg International Airport or Winnipeg Airport) is a Transport Canada designated international airport located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the seventh ...
as a form of inexpensive entertainment, Leishman had occasionally seen gold shipments from Red Lake being flown into the airport for transport via Air Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled an ...
to the mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...
in Ottawa.[Barnes 2008, p. 106.] While incarcerated in Stony Mountain Penitentiary, he formed the basics of the idea.
Leishman recruited four people to be accomplices in the robbery. Harry Backlin, a Winnipeg lawyer who had befriended Leishman in Stony Mountain was to provide financial backing. John Berry, and Richard Grenkow were recruited to be the ones to actually get the gold, as Leishman was too well known to the police to take the gold himself. Grenkow's brother Paul was recruited to go to Red Lake in the guise of a salesman to watch for a large shipment to leave.
In addition to this preparation, Leishman also prepared fake Air Canada coverall
A boilersuit (or boiler suit), also known as coveralls, is a loose fitting garment covering the whole body except for the head, hands and feet.
Terminology
The term ''boilersuit'' is most common in the UK, where the 1989 edition of the ''Oxfo ...
s by purchasing some winter coveralls, and stenciling the Air Canada logo onto them. Lastly, he acquired some Air Canada waybills from the Air Canada desk at the airport by simply waiting until the desk was unmanned at lunch, and taking what he needed.[Schroeder 1997, p. 161.]
On March 1, 1966, the lookout called Leishman to report a large shipment of gold was being delivered. The team put their plan into action. Wearing the fake Air Canada coveralls, Rick and John stole one of the Air Canada trucks, and drove to the tarmac to meet the arriving TransAir aircraft carrying the gold shipment. Pretending to be Air Canada staff, they explained that there had been a change of plans, as there was a charter flight leaving in an hour, and Air Canada wanted to ship the gold out immediately, rather than waiting on the normal flight. As the two were driving an Air Canada truck, had Air Canada uniforms, and had what appeared to be a valid waybill for the shipment, their ruse worked, and the gold was loaded into their truck, and they drove off with the gold.
The gold was then transferred into Leishman's car, and driven to the house of Harry Backlin, his lawyer, who was on vacation with his family. The gold ingots were loaded into his freezer. The plan was to leave the gold there overnight, before moving it to a farm in Treherne, belonging to Leishman's uncle, but a blizzard on March 3 and 4 prevented them from recovering it. Since Backlin had distanced himself from the robbery, the gold could not stay there. Most of the gold bars ended up buried in Backlin's backyard, but were soon unearthed by the local police force who were investigating all of Leishman's suspected associates.[
]
Later life
Imprisoned again as a result of the gold heist and awaiting trial, Leishman, assisted by some accomplices, managed to escape from Headingley Jail in September, 1966, and stole an aircraft from Steinbach, Manitoba
Steinbach () ( Plautdietsch: /ˈʃte̞nbah/ or /ˈʃte̞nbax/) is a city located about south-east of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Steinbach is the third-largest city in Manitoba, with a population of 17,806, and the largest community in the Eas ...
, reinforcing his reputation as the "Flying Bandit."[
Leishman and his accomplices were arrested after a shootout in ]Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the sou ...
. In 1975, after his release from prison, Leishman moved to Red Lake, Ontario, to manage Tomahawk Airlines. He was a "model citizen", even being nominated as a candidate for Reeve of the community. Leishman disappeared while on a mercy flight in 1979 and was declared officially dead in 1980.
In popular culture
Leishman's exploits caught the fancy of the public, and he became something of a "Robin Hood" figure. A 2005 television documentary, written by Bob Lower and directed by Norma Bailey, entitled ''Ken Leishman: The Flying Bandit'' recounts his life and career as a criminal.[
Other biographical material about Leishman includes a play (''The Flying Bandit'' (2007) by Lindsay Price), a book (''The Flying Bandit'' by Heather Robertson)]["The Flying Bandit."]
''This was Winnipeg''. Retrieved: January 21, 2016 and a "non-fiction novel
The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherw ...
" based on his life, called ''Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman'' by Wayne Tefs."Daily Book Review: Inside the life of Canada's rock-star criminal."
''Globe & Mail'', July 7, 2011. Retrieved: September 28, 2011.
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Barnes, M. ''Red Lake: Golden Treasure Chest''. Renfrew, Ontario: General Store Publishing House, 2008.
* Redekop, Bill. ''Crimes of the Century: Manitoba's Most Notorious True Crimes''. Winnipeg: Great Plains Publications, 2002. .
* Schroeder, A. ''Cheats, Charlatans, and Chicanery''. Toronto: McLelland & Stewart, 1997 .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leishman, Ken
1931 births
1979 deaths
Canadian aviators
Fugitives