WEBVTT - Legend of the Jailbreaking Bankrobber 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:03.199 Campsite Media. 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.640 In the summer of nineteen fifty nine, Roger was free 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:13.200 as a bird, well free as a bird on parole. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.800 He was out of the Kingston Penitentiary. He was living 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.919 in his parents' home in Cornwall, Ontario, and he was 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.880 determined to not just pull his weight, but to help 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.680 his parents with their financial woes. His dad's cancer was 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.600 getting worse and his mortgage and hospital payments were falling behind, 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:33.800 so Roger decided that he was going to help out 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:44.520 in the only way he knew how, which is why 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.680 a few weeks later, he found himself five hundred and 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.440 fifty five miles away from home in Fredericton, New Brunswick, 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:58.880 behind bars again. But Roger wasn't too concerned to be here. 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.320 Being hind bars in the literal sense was sort of 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:07.040 best case scenario, because the thing about bars is you 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:19.479 can cut through them. From iHeart podcasts and Campsite Media, 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:25.400 I'm Sam Mullens and this is Go Boy, Episode three, 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:40.720 Legend of the jail Breaking bank Robbery. When Roger was 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.240 first brought to the Fredericton County Jail, the guard search 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.760 had failed to discover two very important items that he 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.560 always tried to have on his person no matter what. 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.680 Number one, the soul of his right boot contained a 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:01.880 hacksaw blade, and number two, the soul of his left 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.480 boot also contained a hacksaw blade. 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:09.639 I got this hat that pattin bars all the time. 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:11.239 I cut so many right in my life, So I 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.760 went to county jail and handed paptain bars. I always 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:15.919 got actual ways hidden in his soul by shot. 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.040 When Rogers set out to help his dad get some money, 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.160 he didn't expect to be cutting bars in a prison 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:28.520 cell two provinces over less than a month later. But 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.600 there was a score he'd heard about in his hometown. 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:36.240 There was a rumor that at a nearby Cornwall general 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:40.600 store there was a safe chalk full of the owner's savings. 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.040 So the plan was simple enough. Typically with these kind 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.640 of scores, he'd physically remove the safe and take it 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.840 away to a private barn or garage somewhere so that 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.840 he could blow towards his way in. But when he 0:02:54.960 --> 0:03:01.520 was in the act, something went sideways and the place 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.880 was surrounded by police before he even got the thing outside. 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.359 How bitter he must have felt that on his very 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:13.560 first foray into the robbing arts as a graduate of KP. 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.160 He couldn't even get a safe from a general store. 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.680 How hopeless it must have felt to know that he'd 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:25.600 be back behind bars again for likely a much longer stint. 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:30.800 This time, it was game over right, Not so fast, 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.760 as the Ontario Provincial Police were leading him to a 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.920 cell in the Cornwall police station, Roger suddenly broke free, 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:44.480 and still handcuffed, dove headfirst through a window, falling two stories. 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.440 He disappeared before anyone with a badge could even figure 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.960 out which way he went. And from there it was 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.720 a summer to remember. He stole a car and drove 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:01.120 two provinces over to Fredericton in Atlantic Canada, where he 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.320 spent most of the summer working at a carnival. When 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.520 the carnival gig was over, he stole another car and 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.600 headed to Montreal, where he immediately got into a high 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.120 speed chase with the police, was arrested and sent back 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.920 here to Fredericton, the city he stole the car from, 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.840 and he was booked into the county jail where he 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:27.200 was awaiting his trial. Roger didn't like awaiting anything, so 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:32.320 he started cutting the bars right away. When they arrested him. 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.760 He gave them a bogus name and claimed to have 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.960 never been in trouble with the law before, But he 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.600 knew it was only a matter of time before they 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.719 figured out who they had a kid that was a 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:50.200 bona fide go boy, so he had to work fast. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:54.080 The Fredericton County Jail was just a small operation with 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.120 a handful of holding cells, a boutique purgatory for those 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.799 on their way to much larger prison, or the gallows, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.839 which were still a thing. Cutting bars is a lot 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.560 more complicated than you'd think. It's more of an art form, 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:14.119 one that Roger eventually became a master of and would 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.720 talk about often. You need to choose the right ones, 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.960 learn how to evaluate which section of the welding looks 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.320 the weakest, the quietest, and figure out which direction one 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:27.120 should saw. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.680 And don't cut the bar in an angle, because you've 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:31.359 got to keep putting the back and take us a 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:32.400 week to cut you all day. 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.000 Trying to cut a prison bar with a hacksaw blade 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.479 is a lot like trying to cut the strings of 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.000 a violin with a spoon. It can make an awful 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.039 amount of racket and take a long time to get through. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.040 Its bar. And at the end of a successful night 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.000 of sawing, you of course need to hide your work. 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.320 It's not like you can throw up a construction cone 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.120 and walk off the job. You need to find something 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.359 to hold the bar perfectly in place. 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.679 I take the bar I grew from the library books, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.480 and some scotch tape from the library books and soap 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.160 and all that, and I take the bar in place. 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:10.320 The shave soap would be the glue, and then he'd 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:12.760 take a small strip of tape off the spine of 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.040 the library book and finish it off with a coat 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:17.719 of shoe polish for color. 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.680 So when using the seam scotch tape for a week now, 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:21.600 it's starting to let out. 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.560 The time in between the first cut of the first 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.000 bar and the final cut of the final bar is 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.520 an extremely stressful time. Every time a guard would walk by, 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.760 Roger's entire being would clench. 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.320 Then like the garden com walk down this hall pass 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.640 all the cells go into the washington and come by 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:42.640 the steel barrier of ent into the hanggun room, and 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.400 you give the barrier shake And every time he'd shake 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:49.640 that game my heart just a bus stop that gate along. 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:53.160 And if it wasn't the guards fraying his nerves, there 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.040 was the bar cutter's other greatest foe, gravity. 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.039 And it's heartbreaking when you work on a bar for 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.120 a week, and at three o'clock in the morning, while 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:02.760 you're waiting to wake up in the morning to work 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:04.440 on it and more, it falls down in the middle 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:04.840 of the night. 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.280 Back in the Frederickton County jail, Roger had made some 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.160 real headway. He only had one or two bars to 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.040 go before he could fit all the way through, and 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.480 he was determined to get the hell out of here 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:20.960 so that he could get back to the mission at 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.040 hand and find a way to score some cash to 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:28.280 help out his folks. Everything was going according to plan 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:35.400 until one of the guards work in the graveyard shift 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.080 must have heard roger sigh. They slammed the door open 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.480 suddenly at three am and caught him blade in hand. 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.960 The guards wrestled him out of his cell and put 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:52.080 him into a different, more secure one. Roger still had 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.960 the other hacksaw blade taped to his foot, but the 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.440 joke was on him because in the new drum they 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.960 threw him in, there wasn't a bar to cut, just 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:09.080 four cinderblock walls with a solid door. The next day, 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.600 the guards added a series of extra locking mechanisms to 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.120 the other side of his door, confirming to Roger that 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:22.280 his time was up. They had finally figured out his 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:28.360 real name and thus his reputation. And this is where 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:33.000 things got weird. Picture Roger in this new coffin like cell, 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.640 sulking about this considerable setback, just feeling lower than ever, 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.360 waiting for them to transport him to his next slice 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:48.000 of hell. When he hears it, someone was tapping on 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:51.840 the side wall of his cell. When he stood up 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.199 to investigate, he heard that the taps were moving in 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.720 a pattern. They begin in the back corner and move 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.960 slowly to the front of his cell. He started following 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.760 the percussive sound as it moved, when he discovered that 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.440 he was being led to a tiny hole in the 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.240 wall about knee height that was stuffed with toilet paper. 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:17.800 When he dug the paper plug out, he got down 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.960 on all fours to peer through when he saw staring 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:28.640 back at him but two feet away, a very pretty eye, 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.920 the eye of a young woman halfway through a six 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:36.120 month sentence in the cell beside his She said her 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:40.440 name was Ninni excitedly. Roger gestured for her to step 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.440 back so he could have a look at her. Roger 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.360 describes meeting Ninny in his book as read here by 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:47.880 an actor. 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.080 By midnight we were fast friends, and things got informal, 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.000 to the point where she would strip down to her 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.120 bra and panties and roll around teasingly on her bunk. 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.000 The thought that I would be returning to the penitentiary 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.480 still a virgin troubled me very much, and that thought 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.520 inflamed the passion in me for a girl. When she 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.160 smiled wickedly and arched her back, I'd clowt the plaster 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.240 and break out and sweat. If you want me, Roger, 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.120 she'd murmur, silkily, why don't you find a way to 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:17.560 come over and visit me. 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.800 Ninni obviously didn't know that she was talking to the 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:27.280 one man who could accomplish just that. Roger and Ninni 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.160 hatched the most naive of plans. She slid him a 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.720 butter knife that she'd hidden from the guards, and he 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.760 was to use it to chisel through the wall so 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.040 that he could cut the bars in her cell, and 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:46.400 then they could run away together. Roger worked frantically desperately 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.520 in the way only a virgin young man could. He 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:52.800 got the first cinderblock out of the wall. 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.160 I became so obsessed with my little project that I 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.360 had very little inclination for small talk, and Ninni was 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.400 beginning to pass. To keep her spirits up, I would 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.800 fill her mind with happy thoughts about what we would 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:09.160 do together after we escaped. But the excitement started wearing thin, 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.040 and the dire consequences dawned dark and threatening. 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.280 Roger was only a few hours from getting all the 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:20.440 way through when suddenly he heard the unmistakable sound of 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:25.120 her cell door swinging open. Roger froze and pressed his 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.080 ear to the hole, just in time to hear his 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:31.440 dear Ninny's voice shout. And he has a hack saw 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.880 blade too. He staggered to the center of the cell, 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:40.319 his face buried in his hands, disbelieving what he'd just heard. 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.800 Out in the corridor, there was a wild stampede of 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.240 confused activity and hysterical yelling as the sheriff and his 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:49.880 powerful trustees started fumbling with the locks. 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:54.160 And this is where you need to understand something about 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:59.199 Roger Karan. When he is totally cooked, when he is cornered, 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.480 it is never over. As the three guards prepared to 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:07.120 open the door, they had no idea what was waiting 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.760 for them on the other side an explosion. When the 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:14.800 door swung open, the guards didn't know what hit them. 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.120 Roger came at them ferociously, fists swinging. 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.560 My assault was so fierce and unexpected, I momentarily had 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.679 the edge. As I struggled to my feet, Roger saw 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.800 a stairwell and leapt down them a flight at a time. 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.560 With the guards in hot pursuit, he ran into an office, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.880 and most people would have hidden, would have realized that 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.200 they were cornered and had no choice but to come 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:40.720 out with their hands up. 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:47.040 But that's not Roger's style. At the instant of the 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:51.480 guards burst into the office, Roger dove headlong through a window, 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:56.240 hit the ground, and limped away, with a guard shouting 0:12:56.280 --> 0:13:00.000 at him through the open window. Roger made his way 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.000 to the highway, where he hitched a ride bound for 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:16.040 the US Board. The painful part about being on the 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.680 run that summer was that Roger knew the one place 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.200 he couldn't go was the place he wanted to be 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.760 the most home. Roger would call his dad on the 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.360 phone in the middle of the night to tell him 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:32.640 that he was okay. Since he last saw his father, 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:36.679 he'd been pursued by police in three provinces, had stolen 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:41.280 two cars, and had escaped custody twice. It had been 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.600 less than a month. Roger was surprised that his dad 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.280 never told him to turn himself in, perhaps because he 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:52.959 still had that bootlegger spirit in him. Roger thumbed a 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.760 ride from some teenagers who took him to the main 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.360 border where he crossed undetected, and he thought he was 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:04.120 home free. But then in one of those this could 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:08.160 only happen to Roger Strokes of profound bad luck, one 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.520 of the guards from the very prison he just escaped from, 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.720 was on a road trip with his family when who 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.920 should he pass hitchhiking on the main highway but the 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.400 young man the rest of the country was looking for. 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.760 He immediately called it in and Roger was picked up 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:30.240 by the highway patrolman, delivered to the RCMP, or, as 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.920 Roger called him, the Horseman, and before he knew it, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.200 he was back in maximum security with a fresh two 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:44.200 and a half years to serve. Summer was over, Roger 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.760 was sent to serve his time in a new Brunswick 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:52.560 prison called Dorchester. Up until this point, when Roger entered 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.760 a new institution, he would lay low at first and 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.160 suss things out for a time. But he decided that 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.440 he was going to things a little different this time. 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.800 This time, he decided he was going to check's notes, 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:09.720 fight everyone. 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:11.680 You could fight with your best friend and be best 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.040 friend at one guy in the next time you just 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:15.800 looked back to fighting. We could be fighting as like 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:16.720 at Jungle. 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.080 The toughest guys in prison, three guys in one day. 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.520 It didn't matter. He just wanted to throw his hands. 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:24.880 He needed to. 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.200 My fists would act like demented playmates, with mind and 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.680 temper of their own. It was as if all the 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.160 hate and frustration of being a born loser had seeped 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.320 down into my fists. Sick at heart being pushed around, 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.800 I lashed out viciously at anything that was cool to me. 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.680 Roger got into so many fights in Dorchester that they 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.080 had to move him to another province, to Saint Vincent 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.880 de Paul in Quebec, where his fists picked up right 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.320 where they left off. And it was during this toxic 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.880 time that Roger got a left her from his sister 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:05.400 Sue from back home, sharing the unfortunate news that their 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:09.640 father had passed away, and it was too much for 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.640 Roger to process, so he snapped. When my father died 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:15.400 when I was in prison, I was in the cell. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:19.080 I went berserk. He destroyed every possession he had, and 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.760 by the time he was done, even his own body 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:26.280 had been smashed to pieces. The last bit of hope 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:28.720 he'd held on to was gone. 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:33.200 That Roger was devastated when my father passed away. He 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:39.480 was inside because I remember writing to the warden. You know, 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.560 it was worth a shot to see if he could 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:47.200 attend the funeral, and that was not granted. But I 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:52.240 did try, you know, hoping maybe you know that that 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.240 might be a closure for Roger whatever. But he did 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.640 not get to see that. I don't think that was 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.520 easy for him. 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.320 Roger's final months at Saint Vincent were spent not in 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:12.080 a rage, but in quiet reflection, turning over an inescapable 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:18.159 thought he had failed his father. He wasn't there for 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.200 him when he died, and he certainly hadn't been there 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:23.280 to help out with the bills like he said he 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:26.600 would to help keep his father comfortable at the end. 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:32.919 Roger was never guided by any faith or ideology, but 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.040 one animating force that he did hold on to was 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.560 that one day he was going to make his father proud. 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.040 One day he was going to clean up his act 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:47.640 and turn into the man his father believed he could become. 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.880 But now he'd never have the chance. And with this 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:57.880 devastating realization came in a lusive bit of clarity. When 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.960 he got out this time, there truly be nothing to 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:05.479 hold him back now. When he got out of Saint Vincent, 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:06.400 Roger said. 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.240 I no longer have any intentions of going straight about 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:09.760 my release. 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.600 I have wasted all those years I kept saying to myself, 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:15.440 I can get that one big score. I'll prove to 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:16.359 them that they're wrong. 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.560 Roger was paroled in nineteen sixty two, and he was 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:27.120 hungry to make a name for himself. This wasn't going 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.920 to be like the other times he'd been let out. No, 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.040 this time he had a plan, and he knew exactly 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:36.000 where he wanted to go. 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:36.920 America. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.360 France and Britain have influenced the growth of Montreal, capital 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:41.920 of Canada's Quebec province. 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:45.439 In the nineteen sixties, Montreal was the place to be 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.199 if you wanted to be a thief, and not a 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:52.440 small time thief. Montreal was where you went to become 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:57.399 a bank robber. So the plan for Roger was this, 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.960 build a solid bank robber crew and start hitting banks. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.240 I must admit when I first got out, I used 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.280 to look at things like some guys look at girls 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:09.000 and miniskirvis. 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.960 There were so many bank robberies happening in Montreal that 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.119 the police let it be known that there would be 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.240 serious consequences to anyone they caught pulling a job, that 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.600 they were going to show up shooting if they had to. 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.919 But that didn't seem to deter Roger in his gang. 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.439 The only thing that did seem to stop them was 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.000 if the bank they pulled up to was already in 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.840 the process of being robbed by another crew. 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.600 And I've nearly walked thanks. I'm trying to to went 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.239 to all that's a good good day. We pulled up 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.680 to a bank and bank arbor Tres running out and 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:45.200 he said, oh, Dan, you're here first. 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:50.320 No. Roger was grateful that he'd been accepted into a 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:54.440 group of professionals like this. Things were going well at work, 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:59.439 and would you believe it that, in between robberies Roger 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:06.400 managed to finally fall in love. Denise was the sister 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:08.800 of one of the guys on his crew, a single 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:12.399 mother and cocktail waitress who was a little older than Roger. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.320 She got a kick out of him right away. He 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:17.480 was rough around the edges in the way most ex 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:22.639 cons are, but he was also surprisingly chivalrous, gentle, and funny. 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:27.200 While he had experienced more things than other twenty some things, 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.040 it was clear that he was delayed in other areas, 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.560 and she loved seeing how hard he'd blush when she 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:35.800 flirted with him. 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.200 Roger wrote, it took me twenty three years to finally 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.159 lose my virginity, and when it did happen, it was 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.320 as wonderful and fulfilling as the literature on the subject 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:46.760 had prepared me to experience. 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:49.760 After their first night together, Roger showed up the next 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:53.600 day at Denise's with a bunch of boxes and announced 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:54.920 that he was moving in. 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:59.080 I moved in with all my belongings, accepting the responsibility 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:02.240 of caring for loving both her and her daughter, Diane, 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:03.480 who was at boarding school. 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:08.399 You see, Roger never half ascidly does anything it seems 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:12.240 like Denise coming into Roger's life when she did change things. 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:16.080 Whereas before he walked into these banks, they were knocking 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.080 off like he was invincible, he suddenly had something to lose. 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:24.400 And I guess it was only through this first hit 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.560 of romantic love that he finally grasped how risky and 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.480 unsustainable this life he was living was, and if he 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.199 kept going like this, it was only a matter of 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:39.280 time before he got pinched or worse shot. 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:41.920 So I burst into I remember running in the bank 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:43.840 and he looked kind of empty, and I'm saying, stick 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.040 him up, arroy lyon the floor. All of a sudden 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.359 a half a dozen big policemen popped up and behind 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:50.479 the town of both group vets and sheet and got 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:52.679 into shotguns. He said, do stick them up, and I 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:53.840 said no, no, no, I gotta go. 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:55.440 Soon as he said you stick him up, I was 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.320 about take feet off the groundling the ringstrake through the 0:21:58.400 --> 0:21:59.399 lake glass window. 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:03.399 By this point, jumping through a window was almost a 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:06.960 normal occurrence in Roger's life. What was new was the 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:09.359 bullets whizzing past his head. 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.760 Running down the street, the machine guns, shotgun bullets, Everything's 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:14.040 winding around by years ago. 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:16.320 It was only when Roger made it back to the 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.840 getaway car that he realized he had badly injured himself 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:24.000 on the broken glass and was bleeding everywhere. Making matters 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:26.800 worse was that his crew had a rule, if the 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:30.000 first bank doesn't work, we hit a different one before 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.000 calling it a day, even if you're bleeding out in 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:33.720 the back seat. 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.560 We pulled up to our secondary bank about two miles away, 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:39.720 and getting behind the car, I'm all gloody, we're going 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:41.720 all He ran. 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.160 To inspect the banks, big banks, boom boot without being weight. 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:45.360 He zoomed the way. 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:47.399 He took me to it. N behind the world doctor. 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.480 The underworld doctor had his work cut out for him 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:50.880 that day. 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:53.280 He's putting all these meadow plants, about one hundred and 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:55.760 baggy meadow plants, always said on the skin to get 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:57.320 you know, is that kind environment? 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:11.040 With all these close calls with the Montreal police, a 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:15.520 sense of anxiety was creeping into Roger and his gang's psyche. 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:18.760 The city was getting too hot, even for a crew 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:19.959 as skilled as theirs. 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:22.840 The jug patrols were so well organized that it was 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.280 suicide to remain inside of a bank for longer than 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:28.639 ninety seconds with a countdown restriction on each heyst. The 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:31.560 take was small whatever was in the teller's cages, and 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:33.600 so the ambition of the gang I joined up with 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:35.959 was to hit that one big score. 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:40.000 Roger and his crew got to thinking that instead of 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:43.680 making off with all these small scores from the tellers, 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:48.520 what if they instead made plans for something really big. 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:53.520 I was living in bliss with Denise when our gang 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:55.960 was offered that one big score. We'd all dreamed of. 0:23:56.920 --> 0:23:58.920