Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClain Smith, where
Speaker 1: for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories
Speaker 1: and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the previous show. In last week's episode, A
Speaker 1: Story of Ice and Fire, we explored the haunting tale
Speaker 1: of the unknown woman whose burned body was found in
Speaker 1: the mountains on the outskirts of Bergen and West Norway
Speaker 1: in November nineteen seventy. Though the case was well documented
Speaker 1: at the time, it was largely thanks to the tireless
Speaker 1: work of a team from Norway's public broadcaster NRK, led
Speaker 1: by journalist married Hegroff, that this story was brought back
Speaker 1: into the public eye. You can read more about their
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen investigation into the case on NRK's website NRK
Speaker 1: dot No, but also so through a podcast of their
Speaker 1: own titled Death in IDs Valley, which was released in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. As part of their investigation, a more lifelike
Speaker 1: compositate with the woman's face was released alongside a renewed
Speaker 1: request of information from inter Pole. Though it failed to
Speaker 1: solve the mystery, it did encourage one man from the
Speaker 1: commune of fall Back in northeastern France to come forward
Speaker 1: with an intriguing story. The man claimed that back in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, when he was twenty two years old, he
Speaker 1: embarked on a sum of romance with the unknown woman,
Speaker 1: who he recognized from the composite image, only months before
Speaker 1: her death. He even produced a photo of her to
Speaker 1: prove it, which many believe is indeed the woman in question,
Speaker 1: often referred to as the Isdall woman, He claimed she
Speaker 1: had a Bulkan accent and was very secretive about her life.
Speaker 1: What she did apparently reveal, however, was that she had
Speaker 1: several papers that enabled her to travel freely between East
Speaker 1: and West Germany. The man also claimed to have seen
Speaker 1: numerous whigs inside one of the suitcases she was traveling.
Speaker 1: With the strangeness of it all had even prompted him
Speaker 1: to consider calling the police, believing that she might be
Speaker 1: a spy, only to decide against it at the last minute. However,
Speaker 1: her true identity remains elusive. There is an inevitable fascination
Speaker 1: with the unidentified, whose identities we feel almost obligated to uncover,
Speaker 1: whether it be to help solve a potential crime that
Speaker 1: has been committed against them on their behalf, or simply
Speaker 1: because we think it might honor them in some way
Speaker 1: to not let their names be forgotten. And yet, as
Speaker 1: in the case of the isdul woman, when someone seems
Speaker 1: to work so hard to maintain their anonymity, it could
Speaker 1: be argued that retaining their anonymity at all costs was
Speaker 1: what they might have preferred. All of which brings to
Speaker 1: mind one especially strange story about an unknown individual. It
Speaker 1: was just approaching three pm on May tenth, nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: on a bright but chilly spring day in the quiet
Speaker 1: town of Canora and Southern Canada, when a man walked
Speaker 1: into the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on Main Street,
Speaker 1: about five foot four in height and dressed in a
Speaker 1: pink plaid bush jacket. It was hard to see much
Speaker 1: of his face other than the sprawling red beard under
Speaker 1: the small checkered for Dora that he pulled tightly over
Speaker 1: his head. Bank manager our Reid was busy on a
Speaker 1: call when the man, who had a large duffel bag
Speaker 1: slung over one arm and a satchel over the other,
Speaker 1: walked straight past the queue of people outside his office
Speaker 1: and plumped himself down in the chair opposite his desk.
Speaker 1: Despite hour's protestations that he was busy, the man refused
Speaker 1: to budge. When now asked him what he wanted. He
Speaker 1: pointed to a pistol peeking out of his top pocket
Speaker 1: and said calmly to the startled manager that he wanted
Speaker 1: all the money in the bank. The man then told
Speaker 1: Reid to call the local police and inform them that
Speaker 1: a robbery was taking place. A few minutes later, Constable
Speaker 1: Bill Grinnell, Corporal John Letchkin, Inspector Walter my Callisian, and
Speaker 1: Corporal Norm Baxter converged at the bank to find a
Speaker 1: steady stream of people hastily leaving the building. The robber
Speaker 1: had told them all to evacuate the premises. Unsure what
Speaker 1: to do next, the four law enforcement officials stepped inside
Speaker 1: the bank to find the robber, who by now had
Speaker 1: pulled a silk stocking over his head, standing behind one
Speaker 1: of the counters alongside al Reid with some kind of
Speaker 1: contraption in his hands. The man addressed the police and
Speaker 1: invited them one at a time to look inside his satchel,
Speaker 1: which he'd placed on top of the counter. As they
Speaker 1: each approached to take a look, he explained that What
Speaker 1: he had in his hand was a dead man's switch, which,
Speaker 1: as the officers soon realized, was wied up to not
Speaker 1: only a detonation device inside the bag, but also the
Speaker 1: six sticks of dynamite next to it, enough to blow
Speaker 1: them all up in an instant and probably take the
Speaker 1: bank down with them. As customers and staff from the
Speaker 1: bank streamed into nearby bars and restaurants, it wasn't long
Speaker 1: before word got round that a robbery was taking place
Speaker 1: on Main Street. Dennis Belleville, the manager of the local
Speaker 1: radio station c j r L, just so happened to
Speaker 1: be walking down the street when he saw the stream
Speaker 1: of people fleeing the building and the police turning up.
Speaker 1: Having realized what was happening, he ran immediately to the
Speaker 1: radio's offices, only a few buildings down, and gathered his
Speaker 1: team to discuss what they should do about it. Minutes later,
Speaker 1: the crew were busy threading cables through rooms as two
Speaker 1: of the station's reporters, John Berry and Chris Paulson, took
Speaker 1: up positions leaning out of two second floor windows in
Speaker 1: order to commentate live on the drama unfolding below them.
Speaker 1: Back inside the bank, with the robber having ordered three
Speaker 1: of the police to leave the building. Only he Al
Speaker 1: Reid and Corporal Letchkin remained. With the dead man's trigger
Speaker 1: clutched tightly in the robber's hand. The other men could
Speaker 1: only watch in horror as he casually transferred it from
Speaker 1: his hand to his mouth so he could toss the
Speaker 1: duffel bag to Corporal Letchkin. Then grabbing the trigger with
Speaker 1: his hand again, he ordered him to empty the cash
Speaker 1: draws into it. Then, turning to read, he told him
Speaker 1: to open the vault. When the bank manager realized with
Speaker 1: terror that he needed a second code to open it,
Speaker 1: which he didn't have access to, there was a temp
Speaker 1: standoff as Reid was forced to call up a colleague
Speaker 1: to procure it, after which he was eventually able to
Speaker 1: open it, and moments later he and the robber were inside,
Speaker 1: emptying out the contents of its numerous cash boxes. Once
Speaker 1: he'd gathered everything he needed, the robber ordered Letchkin out
Speaker 1: of the premises and set about planning his next move.
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Speaker 1: Officer Don Millard arrived at the Canora Police Station ready
Speaker 1: for the evening shift, just in time to hear the
Speaker 1: station Chief Charles Engstrom, relaying the robber's latest demands to
Speaker 1: all those on duty at the time. As Engstrom explained,
Speaker 1: the man was armed with at least two guns and
Speaker 1: a bag full of dynamite, and had requested a driver
Speaker 1: and pick up truck to pick him up from the
Speaker 1: bank and take him to an as yet undecided location.
Speaker 1: Engstrom wanted to know if anyone was willing to volunteer
Speaker 1: to be the driver. Millard didn't hesitate to raise his hand.
Speaker 1: A short time later, after a green Dodge was delivered
Speaker 1: to the police station, Millard, after a quick stop off
Speaker 1: to change into civilian clothes, was on his way to
Speaker 1: Main Street to rendezvous with the robber. When he arrived,
Speaker 1: a crowd of nearly a thousand people ball had gathered
Speaker 1: in the freezing cold, held back by two police lines
Speaker 1: at the north and south end of the road. Parking
Speaker 1: the truck outside Woolworth's a few doors from the bank,
Speaker 1: Millard surveyed the scene. Two sets of officers with guns
Speaker 1: pointed at the bank, were crouched down behind two cruisers
Speaker 1: parked each side of the building, while opposite the bank
Speaker 1: a few doors down, two radio men hung out of windows,
Speaker 1: clutching microphones in their hands and on the roof opposite
Speaker 1: the bank, a marksman had also taken up a position.
Speaker 1: Feeling a little boulder, Millard eased the truck to a
Speaker 1: stop outside the bank's entrance, then swiftly jumped out and
Speaker 1: made his way to the front door. After our red
Speaker 1: let him in. The robber, with the dead man switch
Speaker 1: still firmly in his grasp, immediately accosted him and demanded
Speaker 1: to know if he was a police officer. Millard insisted
Speaker 1: he wasn't, and the man quickly relaxed, precariously transferring the
Speaker 1: dead man switch into his mouth again. He then handed
Speaker 1: the now completely stuffed a duffle bag to Millard and
Speaker 1: instructed him to take it outside. After a false start,
Speaker 1: as the robber went back inside to collect a pistol
Speaker 1: he'd found in al Reid's office, he and Millard stepped
Speaker 1: out at the bank's front door, drawing gasps from the
Speaker 1: assembled crowd. With the trigger device clamped between his teeth
Speaker 1: and the pistol in one hand, the robber followed Millard
Speaker 1: out to the truck. As Millard went to put the
Speaker 1: bag in the passenger seat, the robber pulled the trigger
Speaker 1: from his mouth and told him to put it in
Speaker 1: the back instead. A little further up the street to
Speaker 1: the north, Sergeant Robert Letaine had watched all of this
Speaker 1: unfold from behind the scope of his rifle as he
Speaker 1: kept low behind the door of a police cruiser. He
Speaker 1: then watched, dumbfound it as Millart disappeared behind the back
Speaker 1: of the truck and the robber simply walked away from him,
Speaker 1: then stepped out alone into the middle of the road,
Speaker 1: holding the dead man switch out in his hand. Then
Speaker 1: Sergeant l'taine took the shot. Millard had just enough time
Speaker 1: to see the robber's body crumpled to the floor before
Speaker 1: he was sent high into the air and slammed back
Speaker 1: hard onto the tarmac. The next thing he remembered was
Speaker 1: a strange ringing in his ears and a hideous smell
Speaker 1: of burned flesh as blood streamed down the side of
Speaker 1: his face. Sergeant L'taine's bullet had struck the robber in
Speaker 1: his chest, killing him almost instantly, in turn releasing the
Speaker 1: dead man switch and setting off the dynamite inside his bag.
Speaker 1: The explosion had blown Millard twenty feet away, obliterated most
Speaker 1: of the windows of the surrounding buildings, and splattered their
Speaker 1: facades in globules of flesh and blood, while all about
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand Canadian dollars of cash reigned down onto
Speaker 1: the street as the many observers streamed forward to try
Speaker 1: and grab as much of it as they could. One witness,
Speaker 1: standing a block away from the explosion, stood staring in
Speaker 1: disbelief at the bloody, pulpy, severed hand that had just
Speaker 1: landed with a smack on the road in front of her.
Speaker 1: As detailed in Joe Ralco's twenty seventeen book The Devil's Gap,
Speaker 1: which provides a speculative account of this extraordinary story, one
Speaker 1: man who'd stayed to watch the attempted robbery was the
Speaker 1: manager of Canora's ken Rissia Hotel. He'd watched with shock
Speaker 1: when the robber exited the bank wearing the exact same
Speaker 1: jacket that he had seen on one of his hotel guests.
Speaker 1: As he swiftly informed the police, the man had checked
Speaker 1: in seventeen days previously, on April twenty third, under the
Speaker 1: name of Paul Higgins of four three five Glenn Drive
Speaker 1: in Toronto, Ontario. The manager had thought it odd that
Speaker 1: the man had booked to stay for two weeks only
Speaker 1: to then disappear for ten days before returning on the
Speaker 1: fifth of May, five days before the robbery. Officers were
Speaker 1: dispatched immediately to the hotel to inspect the man's room,
Speaker 1: where they found various bomb making materials in the bathroom,
Speaker 1: as well as a number of maps and books which
Speaker 1: suggested the man had been planning to hide out in
Speaker 1: the wild for some time. A Nazi picture book was
Speaker 1: also said to have been found among his possessions. One
Speaker 1: particular oddity was that all the labels of Higgins's clothes
Speaker 1: had been removed, Nonetheless, with everything they seemingly needed to
Speaker 1: formally identify the man, Cunora Police promptly contacted their counterparts
Speaker 1: in Toronto to confirm the details. Only, as it turned out,
Speaker 1: Paul Higgins didn't exist, and neither did four three five
Speaker 1: Glenn Drive. The man had made it all up, with
Speaker 1: no evidence of him found listed on any public record,
Speaker 1: from passport, the driver's license and taxes. Fingerprints taken from
Speaker 1: the severed hand were checked against a database of over
Speaker 1: forty five million individuals, but that also led nowhere. Despite
Speaker 1: exhaustive efforts to find anyone that might know him, the
Speaker 1: police were eventually forced to concede defeat. To this day,
Speaker 1: the identity of the man who had become known as
Speaker 1: effectively Canada's first suicide bomber remains a complete mystery. Thank
Speaker 1: you to Jordan Dunford for suggesting this week's story. If
Speaker 1: you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you
Speaker 1: can now do so via Patreon. To receive access to
Speaker 1: add free episodes, just go to Patron dot com, Forward
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Speaker 1: featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on
Speaker 1: the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can
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Speaker 1: All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced
Speaker 1: by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the
Speaker 1: show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to
Speaker 1: get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the
Speaker 1: stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an
Speaker 1: explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can
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