WEBVTT - The Manuscript 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:03.199 Campsite media. 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.800 When I looked back over my past, all that dead time, 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.959 all that anguish, all the waste of my life that 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.439 I could see there, I felt as if I was 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.400 bursting with a fierce compulsion to fill the ugly void 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.680 with something meaningful, so that the mirror would quit accusing 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.800 me of being a total failure. That is why I 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.360 habitually returned to crime upon each release from prison, not 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.440 really for the money, but like a compulsive gambler who 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.040 tries to recoup his losses the only way he knows 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.839 how to prove that he wasn't a fool once and 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.720 for all. There lies the proverbial carot that keeps the 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:48.520 prisons of the world overpopulated. 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.479 Roger had lost a lot of years, but one thing 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.640 he hadn't experienced yet was losing years of his work. 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.920 Imagine the gut hunch of losing that manuscript, close to 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.280 eight years of his work, of his therapy, of his 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:11.360 hope for the future, literally thrown in the garbage. But 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:15.120 when the manuscript was miraculously returned to him, after everything 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:19.240 he'd been through, after everything he'd done, how could he 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.840 not interpret it as a balancing of his fortunes? When 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.880 the teacher accidentally found Roger's discarded manuscript in the ruins 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.480 of the Kingston pen and then a few months later, 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.920 the twenty five years he'd been sentenced to was overturned 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.920 in appeals court. It would have made sense if this 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.440 was the sign for Roger, the thing that made him 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.880 think I need to finally turn my life around, to 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:49.560 walk down this new path. Someone or something was clearly 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:55.320 saying to Roger, here is your manuscript, Here is your freedom. 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.800 Do I need to spell out for you what you're 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:05.960 destined to do next? But, like they say, old habits 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:20.240 die hard. From iHeart Podcasts and Campsite Media, I'm Sam 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:29.000 Moens and this is Go Boy, episode six. The manuscript. 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.679 Roger, still wearing his inmate clothes, was riding shotgun in 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.560 a Volkswagen as it tore toward the US border. It 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.760 wasn't his first choice to still be wearing his prisoner clothes. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.720 It wasn't ideal that the he just stole was bright red, 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.840 or that it had raccoon tail hanging from each of 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:06.600 the area antennas off the back. 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.200 It wasn't optimal that he had brought with him on 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.720 this escape a green twenty year old who'd never attempted 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.880 a prison break or even a bank robbery. But here 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:22.359 he was, and here they were. When you bust out 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:24.840 of prison, the last thing you want to do is 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.360 speed toward the federal agents of another country at a 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.680 border crossing. But given what they'd just done, it was 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:37.160 the best of their bad options. Back at the Brockville jail, 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.920 Roger and his cellmate, a kid named Doug, had just 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.000 cut the bars to their cell and left three tied 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.440 up guards in their wake. They emerged in the parking 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:52.080 lot as the storm opened up. Roger and Doug scanned 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:56.320 the staff lot to determine which of these vehicles corresponded 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.960 with the VW keys they'd taken from the trembling hand 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.840 of the guard. But then they spotted it. The car 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.960 was about as inconspicuous as Santa's slay, but they needed 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.080 to jack wrap it, so they climbed in. 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.520 I said to Doug, okay, I never go both brighten. 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.640 So he gets in, cran up and go. You know, 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:18.040 it's so old and is shaky. 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:20.960 But when Doug went to put it in gear, something 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:22.200 was wrong with the gearbox. 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.599 Couldn't find and reverse tried it like say come on, dog, dear, 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:28.360 don't get his car back. 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.880 Couldn't find reverse on the job, one thing, don't. 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.960 As Doug continued grinding the transmission, Roger looked back at 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.040 the jail windows in a panic, convinced that at any 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.839 moment one of the guards he'd left behind would suddenly 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:45.040 appear or call the police. They needed to get this 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.760 thing on the road in whatever way possible, even if, 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:53.880 as Roger claims, they needed to literally lift one end 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.039 of the car off the ground to swivel it to 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:57.919 the right direction. 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:03.719 We picked it up, he turned it. 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:08.560 There's no going back now, literally get it because the 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:12.960 car doesn't go in reverse anyway. They knew the provincial 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:17.040 police would have roadblocks all over eastern Ontario and bulletins 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.320 out everywhere warning the public of two armed and dangerous 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.880 jail breakers, so they opted to roll the dice at 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.400 the border, and if they made it through, they'd then 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.560 find a place to ditch this apple bong on wheels. 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.280 As they approached the crossing, they had no way of 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.120 knowing if the guards they left tied up had been discovered, 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.239 yet no way of knowing if just around the corner 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.760 there'd be a gang of armed border agents waiting for 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.640 them behind the wheel. Doug, who'd never been in a 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.480 situation like this, seemed to be having second thoughts as 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.799 the suspension bridge came into view. 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.320 And pull across me see this big ridge and Doug's 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:57.320 just so scared. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.279 Got Ahola's arms and pull it Dugs just three You 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:01.000 never did any of this? 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.200 Stuck in form it's liking, won't freeze. 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.960 Oning up, Doug brought the red VW to a shaky 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.880 stop at the line as Roger discreetly scanned the scene 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.760 to see if they were in the clear. The bright 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:17.400 red Volkswagen wasn't ideal for their getaway in general, but 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.800 when the border agent approached, Roger realized that, ironically, for 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.880 this moment, it was the right car for the job. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.839 In tandem with their mismatched, shabby clothes, the car was 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.200 participating in an inadvertent disguise. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.080 It looked like a couple of university students said where 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.480 yous going and say we're going to see the girls 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:40.239 across the bride. 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.719 Ah, the girls across the bridge. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:43.000 Eh. 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:48.360 Doug shifted nervously in his prison attire as Roger smiled 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:49.320 with confidence. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.240 See any stranger would bring me some back. He said, yeah, sure, okay, 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:54.680 right on. 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.520 The border agent waved them through without even asking to 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:02.479 see their ideas. So our two runaway bandits whooped it 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.440 up the whole way across the Saint Lawrence. 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:07.960 We went all along with Saint Orn Turver and we 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:09.960 finally got to see New York. 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.360 And I said, Doug, we can't go another while in 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:14.560 this crazy car. When we first elucted the park and 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.600 you've gone almost on your files. You got to get 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:16.920 rid of it. 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.040 So after doing a lab, they ditched their car in 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.840 a parking lot that just happened to belong to the 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.480 police station. From there, they ducked into a local tavern 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:29.760 and called a cab to take them to their agreed 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.000 upon next destination. 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.320 We called a taxi, and we do the money we 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:37.040 took in the bus stake and all the guard We 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:38.840 took a taxi in New York City. 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.960 And you'd think that, given how insanely well their escape 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.560 had gone, that Roger would be the happiest man in 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.960 New York. You'd think he'd be all chuffed, reveling in 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:54.240 the masterpiece he just painted, cut bars, gagged guards, grand 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.400 theft auto and a border crossing these are a few 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:01.800 of my favorite things, right, Roger. But instead he felt 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.240 like the dog who had caught the car and was 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:11.320 consumed by a strange new feeling paranoia. Roger was afraid 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.120 to leave the room, afraid to show his face on 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.920 the street, and most of all, he was afraid of 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.679 what he and Doug would have to do next. Because 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:23.520 it didn't take long for them to burn through the 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.080 money they'd stolen from the guards in their daring escape, 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.360 and it was only a matter of time before they'd 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:31.080 need to go get some more. 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.680 And so thirty one days later, we're running out of money. 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.120 We've just got a few dollars left. 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.640 In fact, they eleven eleven dollars with my pocket. He 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:42.600 Ducks said, if you go to rob a bank, showed 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:44.240 me out a rock bank, and it was the only 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:45.079 thing I knew how to do. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.280 But they couldn't do it here. So they got out 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.120 of the city and headed to Indiana, I'm guessing, a 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.880 state for which Roger's main association was that Dillinger was 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.640 from there. Dillinger was a figure that loomed large, not 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.800 just in Roger's mind, but in Roger's whole generation of 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:08.079 bank robber he was a legend and was considered accurately 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.320 or not to be a Robin Hood type. But Roger 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.240 rolled into the Dillinger State in the midst of a 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.720 full blown existential crisis. He walked into a gun shop 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.679 to purchase a couple of tools of the trade, but 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.160 when the shop owner placed the handgun in Roger's palm, 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:27.840 he started to tremble. 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.760 The gun felt in his hand like a slithering snake. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.880 He put it down on the counter and walked out 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:35.480 of the store. 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.160 I walked out a store. It even park at you 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.280 ever paying off for carme? Haven't? I said, I don't know, 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.679 dugas is I have to cut that gun? And I 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.960 just realized that I hurt anybody anymore, and I don't 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:47.600 want to get hurt. 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.959 I don't want any more to the youthful invincibility he'd 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.079 always felt walking into a stick up that he'd always 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.880 counted on just wasn't there. This time. The well of 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.480 mindless confidence had run dry. Even though he had had 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.880 a few weeks to work through the feeling, Roger couldn't 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.240 shake the inevitability that something really bad was going to happen, 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.079 and he kept having these visions. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:13.960 I kept seeing at least everywhere. 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.559 And I was convinced that my record was so devastating 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.520 that the police I'm going to take a chance with me. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:19.880 They're going to use me in an example. 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.160 And I thought, insist, what all my life is boiling 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.840 down to an auto mike parade, dead and an hourly. 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.920 But he just didn't seem to have any options. He 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.480 didn't know where else to go or what else to do. 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:34.880 They didn't need to go on a spree or anything. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.440 They just needed to hit one bank so Roger could 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:52.720 buy himself some more time to clear his head. Saturday, 0:10:52.960 --> 0:11:00.640 September two, nineteen seventy two, near Indianapolis, Indianaerug arrived at 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.040 a big, modern shopping plaza in the suburbs where they 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:08.080 first set eyes on their target, the centerpiece of the plaza, 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.559 the bank. The shopping complex was plunked right in the 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:16.520 middle of some farmland. On all sides were cornfields, tall 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.120 and ready for harvest. Roger had spent the morning checking 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.360 out the immediate surroundings and getting a feel for the place. 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:27.280 He then went to a toy store to grab one 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:28.400 last thing they needed. 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.680 Walk in a block five dollar toy pistol dur plastic 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:32.320 jurdan rug. 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:39.520 Doug was like a plastic gun. Roger smiled confidently and said, 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.760 don't worry about it. They won't be able to tell 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.000 the only thing they didn't have was a getaway car, 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:49.760 and they were far enough into the suburbs that a 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:51.160 car would be essential. 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:53.760 So I said to double Kate, you're you know a 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:55.280 little bit about car steal a car. 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:57.760 So as soon as Doug secured a ride for them, 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.559 it was go time. Roger had burst into a bank 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.920 many times before, but he was mindful that this was 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:12.160 Doug's first time, and frankly, he seemed scared. He seemed 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.760 unsure of himself as they strode past all the shoppers 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:20.120 and would be witnesses in broad daylight. As they approached 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:22.800 the bank, Roger noticed Doug eyeing up a group of 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:28.400 teenage boys who were lingering near the entrance fighting. 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:29.440 Other teenagers playing in front of the bank. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:31.760 So I said, think, Doug, you don't worry about it, 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.840 and you just concentrate on the teller's cagy all take 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:36.320 You'll take care of they all take care. 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:36.720 Of the customer. 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.719 Roger gripped the toy gun tightly as he let his 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:41.600 muscle memory take over. 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.240 He placed in the bank on Yon and everybody's landing 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.080 on the floor and ducks roving onto all the cage. 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:48.840 The three vacational. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.640 As Doug is stuffing the case with cash, Roger was 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:57.319 on crowd control, a role not unfamiliar to him. But 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.720 as Roger stood there with his toy gun, he started 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.840 noticing the expression of the bystanders, the people on the floor, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:10.640 and they looked terrified, scared to death. Some of them 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:16.000 were crying. And this observation caused Roger to have almost 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:17.720 an out of body experience. 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.160 And the first thing, all my bank are obsation, think, oh, 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:23.400 I'm not hurting anybody. 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:25.240 I wouldn't take any hostages. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.080 I died before I'd heard a child or a lady 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.640 or something like that, and all a fella reading noble. 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.400 Just as James and Allett and Brodie Clyde. 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.000 Roger had always believed that when he stuck up a place, 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.200 that he was committing a victimless crime, that at worst 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.440 he was just giving the bystanders a good story from 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.439 when they got home to their loved ones. But in 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:51.679 this bank, on this day, looking at these faces, something clicked. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.679 I'm looking to stand here all of a sudden, all 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.000 these ladies, a beautiful lady. I think I used to 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.199 think myself with the protector of ladies and that. And 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.280 they're crying just like I was. An escape gorilla from 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.160 this never terrified me. And all of a sudden, I 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.240 feel like apologize. I feel like say, hey, this isn't 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:10.319 even a real good. 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:10.880 No good. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.040 I just felt really bad, like you know. 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:17.079 Suddenly Doug appeared, snapping Roger out of his days. 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:19.440 My partner showed up in front of me. He owes 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.680 the sack and he says, I got it off. I okay, Doug, 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:24.440 give you ten seconds. I start to. 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.240 Assure a quick escape. Roger told Doug to leave the 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.200 car idling in the parking lot so they wouldn't waste 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.720 a single second before putting this place in their rear view. 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.160 And now something happened that no other bankrupt. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.040 I don't care whether or bank I ret tell you, 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.840 no one is that it's experienced, not in a movie, 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.480 not anywhere a director would even write. 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:46.040 About in the screen. 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.200 By Rease day act to Corn and deck Cauld, never 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.560 happened while I'm in the bank, didn't by kids store 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:52.320 or get away car. 0:14:54.200 --> 0:15:03.640 Goddamn teenagers. Roger and Doug stood for a moment in 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.520 disbelief as they could hear the police sirens getting closer, 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.960 and it was suddenly every man for himself. 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.640 I turned around to get away target. 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:14.440 I have gone that way. 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:15.680 My partner's gone that way. 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.320 Three cruiser just pulling out the big callut of desk 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.440 and tunning all the machine guns to the knight them 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:22.720 and you're yelling at him to a bullarm. 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:23.360 Put your hands up. 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.120 No, Roger had been having a premonition for weeks. This 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.240 was how it was going to end. Gun down, holding 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:35.640 a gun left in an alley somewhere. Put your hands up, 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:36.880 they yelled again. 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.680 And time stand, you're at a toy gun. I looked 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:41.960 at my left and there's all these rolls, a shot 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:42.440 in class. 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.720 I looked at my right, Oh, Rose is shot in 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:46.840 plasss and in front of these places the house you 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:47.400 know where to go. 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:48.760 And I said, they're gonna kill me. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.200 But then Roger notices the front door of a beauty. 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.520 Partner from all these ladies with herders and sheets around 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:57.120 and looking. 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.680 Through the window, and Roger thinks that'll do. 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.320 And I first into the beauty cower before the pups 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:03.960 can get a shot. 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.040 Everyone was screaming and diving out of the way as 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:09.920 Roger weaved his way to the back. 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.920 I got the ladies all nicely agitated, all excited, you know, 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.000 so that by timely hit the back door and the 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.040 police were coming in the front door. The ladies were 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.920 throwing sheets over their heads and hanging around the stowing 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.000 down to their progressisting enough to get me out. 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:23.360 Of the back door. 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.920 And then I opened the back and all cornfields, miles 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.200 and miles of corn fields seven feet high. 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.000 Hearing the police closing in behind him, Roger bolted for 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.360 the corn sprinting into the stalks as fast as he could. 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.400 When he heard the first gun shots ring out. 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:43.960 Behind him, I first into the cornfield. All of a sudden, 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.880 a corner in front of me boom over my head 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:49.400 and I said, oh right, you're good. 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:51.320 I die, You know you die. 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.000 The corn was stepty high. I can't hear if the 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.120 police are underfeet behind me or a fright pepin. I'm 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.040 my old it's gonna blow out the shoulder, and I'm 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.200 running and I'm run a real bow boy, you know, 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:02.000 go go go. 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:03.600 You always hear the. 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.800 Canad of the guys in the reformentory. You own, go boy, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.040 go boy. Bullets are going on and. 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.240 Finally if you got red quiet and I stopped. I 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:11.480 looked down these rolls. 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.000 I don't see anything, but you're the sirens everywhere you go, 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.200 and I must have rann Able four miles. 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:17.800 Through the cornfield. 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.040 Roger spotted a big farmhouse with a nice car in 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:25.320 the driveway, so he ran in, still wielding the toy gun, 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.040 of course, and scared the hell out of the woman 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.639 who lived there when he showed up in her kitchen. 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.280 I won burst in the doors your room. Looked at you. 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.800 I said, just you coo. He says you own the 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.520 carne run She said, I said, do you hear sirens? 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:43.760 A lot of people up the are gonna meet your 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:44.440 guards went on. 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.720 She was too shocked to help with the car keys, 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.520 but Roger spotted them hanging on hooks near the front door. 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.320 He leapt into the car and was out of there 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.159 before anyone could catch him. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:17:59.960 Got out of it. 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.480 I got into Ohio, and then I got to Detroit 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:06.200 and stuck on to sty at ETOs. 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.640 Coming back to Canada. At least for you don't steal 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:09.840 your getaway cards. Certain. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.000 Roger pulled into Detroit, just across the river from Canada, 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:17.760 and checked into a CD motel, But when he turned 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.720 on the TV, he was given a fright when he 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.000 saw his own face on the screen looking back at him. 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:26.399 Nil most wanted future of out of. 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.040 The state, Roger learned that his partner, Doug, had been 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:33.640 arrested already, whereas Roger was now a celebrity and being 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:38.080 hunted by the FBI. After a lifetime of languishing in 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.439 Canadian obscurity, it seemed he had graduated to the big leagues. 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.840 The next morning, Roger came across the Ambassador Bridge on 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.720 a bus and made his way to Toronto. If he 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:52.200 was going to have to spend the rest of his 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:56.080 life behind bars, they might as well be Canadian bars. 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.800 They eventually caught him in a motel room, and a 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:04.560 few weeks later Roger found himself standing before a judge. 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.960 You didn't need a law degree to understand how this 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:11.639 was going to go for Roger. I think the Latin 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:17.560 word to describe what Roger was is fucked and it's up. 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.760 And you said your says, I my playing as the 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.280 worst criminal record than any of us in our career. 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.800 I've ever seen her. That's my lawyer, you know. 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.439 When it was the Crown Prosecutor's turn, he held up 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.400 Roger's rap sheet and called him a psychopath, a man 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:36.560 without conscience. 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:39.360 I'm not an a million I love the conscience. I'm 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:41.359 not a criminal. Stuck at fact. That's what kept getting 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.280 any trouble is I thought, a conscience, you don't. 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.040 Even the judge had things like, I've tried to find 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:49.919 something that would give me some hope for your rehabilitation, 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:54.159 but I certainly haven't been able to see anything, et cetera, 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.400 et cetera. But then, in the middle of this very 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:02.720 cut and dry trial, something surprising that would change Roger's life. 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.440 Well, boy said, just a minute to your argum, He said, 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:07.560 just a minute, and he said, can I talk to you? 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:07.920 Braver. 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.359 Roger's lawyer had come to learn that for the past 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:13.879 eight years his client had been working on a manuscript 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.280 about his life in the penal system, and since he 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.760 had almost no other defense to put forward, he figured 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:22.639 it was worth a shot to at least share with 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:26.400 the judge some of the highlights from the manuscript before sentencing. 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:27.760 They had hers, so. 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:30.440 They had jured it came back to judge to look 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:32.240 through it all over an hour and he called back, 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.199 he said, he said, boy, he said, pop until an 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:36.520 hour a boy, he said, I'm going to give you 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.000 a life sentence, he said, but I'm looking through your 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.520 manuscript is stead things and never going to get probablished, 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:42.120 too primitive. 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:44.159 But he says, I can see a lot of insight. 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:46.240 I said, see a lot of hope. I can understand 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:46.920 you a little better. 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.360 Roger couldn't believe the tone change from just an hour earlier, 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:53.879 and then when it was time for the judge to 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.480 share his final decision, he said, I sent it to 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.920 you the twenty year twenty years nineteen and a half 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.840 to be exact. Now, nearly twenty years might seem like 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:07.640 a long time, but you need to remember the judge's 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.560 first instinct was to put him away for life. But 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:15.159 this was twenty years. Twenty years. Roger could do. 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:17.480 That was okay to be twenty years. He was delighted 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:18.120 end of the time. 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.920