The Havelock Bank Robbery was a 1961 armed robbery of bank bonds plus $230,000 cash from the

Toronto-Dominion Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (), doing business as TD Bank Group (), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The bank was created on February 1, 1955, through the merger of the Bank of ...

branch in Havelock, Ontario. The five robbers were arrested; one died in custody and the other four were found guilty. The money was never found.

Background

31 August 1961 was the pay day of three local mining companies, and therefore a day in which the Havelock branch of Toronto-Dominion Bank would have more money than usual.

Robbery

During the early morning of 31 August, four men entered the basement window of the Toronto-Dominion Bank in the small town of Havelock, Ontario, while another waited in the get-away car. The assailants waited for staff to arrive, and once they did at 9:15am, the armed robbers politely demanded bank worker William Lindup to open the safe and put the contents into a duffel bag, fleeing minutes later with $230,000 of cash plus bank bonds. The five robbers were armed with revolvers and an

M1 carbine The M1 carbine (formally the United States carbine, caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine chambered in the .30 carbine (7.62×33mm) cartridge that was issued to the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War, and t ...

semi-automatic rifle. As they waited, the neighbouring butcher spotted their

Buick Buick () is a division (business), division of the Automotive industry in the United States, American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American automobil ...

vehicle, felt it was suspicious and noted down the license plate. The robbers fled the scene in their vehicle, their escape was initially blocked by a

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large tractor equipped with a metal #Blade, blade at the front for pushing material (soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock) during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, ...

. Police chased them along rural roads on the

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...

, and again their escape was delayed when a car with a punctured tire blocked a single-lane road. After hitting a rock and abandoning their vehicles, the robbers exchanged gunfire with the police and escaped into the wilderness east of the

Crowe River The Crowe River is a river in the counties of Haliburton, Hastings, Northumberland and Peterborough in southern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Lake Ontario drainage basin and is a tributary of the Trent River. Course The river begins at Paudas ...

. The

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the State police, provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. The OPP patrols Provincial highways in Ontario, provincial highways and waterways; protects Government of Ontario, provincial government buil ...

launched a search of the area, involving 75 officers, and captured the suspects on 3 and 4 September near

Ontario Highway 62 King's Highway 62, commonly referred to as Highway 62, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The highway travels south–north from Highway 33 at Bloomfield in Prince Edward County, through Belleville ...

. Yvon Lalonde and one other robber were spotted on 3 September by lumber mill operator Martin Murphy, and Lalonde was arrested by police hours later. On 4 September, three suspects were found by Frederick Andrews of

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

, one of many civilians who were helping the police with the search. Police constable John Martin then arrested three men, before they were taken to Millbridge. They were initially held in

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

County jail, later transferring them to

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

jail. One of the robbers died of a heart attack while in custody. The remaining four were found guilty after nine days of trial starting in January 1962. As of 2014, The

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stated that none of the money was found in circulation. According to ''The Toronto Star'', the robbery "was considered one of the biggest bank robberies in Canadian history." Despite two years of planning, the series of delays in their escape resulted in them becoming known as the "bad luck bank robbers".

Robbers

All five robbers, known as the Red Hood Gang, were French-Canadians from

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. Jean Claude Lalonde, Yvon Lalonde, Roger Poirier, and Roger Martel were found guilty, Hermyle Lalonde died before the trial.

In popular culture

The robbery was the subject of the 2006 book '' Bad Luck Bank Robbers'', by Grace Barker, and a 2014 play produced by the 4th Line Theatre also called ''Bad Luck Bank Robbers.'' The play was written by Alex Poch-Goldin and directed by Kim Blackwell. The township of Wollaston, Ontario, changed the name of the street where the robbers abandoned their vehicle to ''Bank Robbers Lane''.

References

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