Stephen Reid (bank Robber)
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Stephen Reid (March 13, 1950 – June 12, 2018) was a
Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...
criminal and writer, who was a member of the notorious Stopwatch Gang and was also convicted twice of
bank robbery Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank Branch (banking), branch or Bank teller, tel ...
. Reid served time in over 20 prisons in Canada and the United States. Reid was born in
Massey Massey may refer to: Places Canada * Massey, Ontario * Massey Island, Nunavut New Zealand * Massey, New Zealand, an Auckland suburb United States * Massey, Alabama * Massey, Iowa * Massey, Maryland People * Massey (surname) Educati ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, on March 13, 1950, and is of Irish and
Ojibwa The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...
descent. Reid, working with fellow Canadians
Paddy Mitchell Patrick Michael "Paddy" Mitchell (June 26, 1942 – January 14, 2007) of Ottawa, Ontario, was leader of the notorious "Stopwatch Gang" of Bank robbery, bank robbers. Mitchell was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitiv ...
, and Lionel Wright stole approximately $15 million—mainly in the 1970s and 1980s—from more than 140 banks and other sites across Canada and the U.S. The Stopwatch Gang, which was famous for its speedy heists—including the 1974 robbery of $750,000 in
gold bars A gold bar, also known as gold bullion or a gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold that can be shaped in various forms, produced under standardized conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record-keeping. Larger varieties of gold ...
from the Ottawa Airport—was named for a
stopwatch A stopwatch is a timepiece designed to measure the amount of time that elapses between its activation and deactivation. A large digital version of a stopwatch designed for viewing at a distance, as in a sports stadium, is called a stop clock ...
Reid wore around his neck. They successfully completed a $750,000 gold heist in 1974 from the
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
airport. They were arrested after that robbery and all escaped from prison by 1979. Later in 1980, Reid was arrested in Arizona, and began writing in 1984 while serving a 21-year prison sentence at the
Kent Institution Kent Institution () is a Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) facility located in Agassiz, British Columbia. Opened in 1979, Kent is the only maximum security federal penitentiary in the CSC's Pacific region, which includes the province of British ...
in
Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
. During his first sentence, he submitted a manuscript to
Susan Musgrave Susan Musgrave (born March 12, 1951) is a Canadian poet and children's writer. She was born in Santa Cruz, California, to Canadian parents, and lives in British Columbia, dividing her time between Sidney and Haida Gwaii. She has been nominated ...
, then writer-in-residence at the
University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...
. Thus developed an ongoing correspondence, and they married in 1986 at Kent. He published his first novel, ''Jackrabbit Parole,'' that year. Reid was released on full
parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...
in June 1987. He lived with Musgrave and her daughters in Sidney, British Columbia, teaching creative writing at
Camosun College Camosun College is a public college located in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The college has two campuses, Lansdowne and Interurban, with a total full-time equivalent enrollment of 4,946 students in 2022/23. Camosun College also provides co ...
and working as a youth counsellor in the
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...
. He became addicted to
heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...
and
cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
and, in June 1999, committed another bank robbery, in
Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...
, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was granted parole in February 2014. Shortly before his 1999 robbery, he had a small acting role in the film '' Four Days''. Reid was the subject of a 2007
National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...
documentary film, ''Inside Time'', which was the recipient of a 2008
Golden Sheaf Award Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...
for social/political documentary. Reid won the 2013 Victoria Book Award for his second work, ''A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden: Writing from Prison.'' Reid died in hospital near his home on
Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; / , literally "Islands of the Haida people"), previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between off the British Columbia Coast, northern Pacific coast in the Canadian province of British Columbia ...
on June 12, 2018. Susan Musgrave issue a statement saying he had died from “pulmonary edema, and third-degree heart block.” His archives, along with his wife's, are held by the
William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections __NOTOC__ The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections is the principal repository for rare books, archives, maps and historical material at McMaster University. Developed to support teaching, research and scholarship, its holdi ...
at
McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...
.


See also

*
Roger Caron Roger "Mad Dog" Caron (April 12, 1938 – April 11, 2012) was a Canadian robber and the author of the influential prison memoir '' Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars'' (1978). At the time of publishing, Caron was 39 years old and had spent ...


References


External links


Stephen Reid bio
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Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (formerly Banff Centre) is an arts and culture educational institution in Banff, Alberta, Banff, Alberta. It offers arts programs in the Performing arts, performing and fine arts, as well as leadership trai ...
Press *Watc
''Inside Time''
at the National Film Board of Canada website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Stephen 1950 births 2018 deaths Canadian bank robbers Organized crime memoirists Canadian gangsters Canadian people of Irish descent Canadian people of Ojibwe descent Canadian people convicted of robbery People from Sudbury District Academic staff of Camosun College 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian memoirists 21st-century Canadian male writers