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Ken Leishman was born in 1931 in a farming community east of Winnipeg.
Unknown to the small child, the Great Depression raged around him, destroying people's livelihoods and even taking lives. Businesses shuttered, government spending dried up at its height. 30% of the labor force was out of work. The Great Depression would eventually come for Ken too, ripping apart his family and plunging him into poverty and uncertainty. Ken would come to see crime as a fast way to the top, especially robbery.
As a young man, he would go on to achieve folk hero status, pulling off one of the largest gold heists in Canadian history while his own family suffered. Part 1: Prairie Sky Holland, Manitoba, sits 85 miles west of Winnipeg. It is a farming town. Grain elevators can be seen from the highway, and even today, farmers' fields stretch out in the distance under the vast prairie sky.
Holland was the birthplace of Ken Leishman, and from his cradle, he might have gazed up at the clear blue sky, not knowing that one day it would help him become rich and even escape the police. Struggling through the depression years, Ken's family left Holland looking for work. When Ken was seven, his parents separated. On her own with three children, Ken's mother, Irene, found a job on a farm as a live-in domestic.
the small family moved into their new home, except the widowed farm owner did not take to Ken. In 1966, Irene told the Winnipeg Free Press that the man would beat Ken with a stick of stove wood and that, - It pounced on him for everything. - The man forced Irene to choose between her job and her son. With no other opportunities, she chose her job. And Irene wasn't the only one to make this heartbreaking decision.
During the Depression, over 1,500 Manitoba children were placed in charitable institutions, more than in any other western province. Seven-year-old Ken would be shuttled between relatives before ending up as a ward of the Children's Aid Society of Manitoba, where he moved from one foster home to the other. Part 2: A Taste for Robbery
In 1950, and just 18 years old, Ken married Elva Shields. The couple moved into an apartment in Winnipeg and set up home. Except there wasn't much money to set up anything. At the time, Ken had a job as an elevator repairman.
While at work one day, he was accidentally locked into a building. The building happened to be a furniture warehouse, and furniture was what Ken and Elva needed to decorate their apartment. So, Ken helped himself to several items. His first heist was successful. A few months later, he attempted to repeat the crime, but this time, he was caught. Ken would spend the next four months in jail.
After he was released from jail, he worked at various jobs, including selling cookware. He also learned to fly and incredibly, was able to purchase a plane. From the air, Ken would land on remote Manitoba farms to sell his product. He also made money by offering short rides in his plane. By 1957, Ken was a prominent member of the Manitoba Volunteer Air Patrol, even attending meetings on its behalf.
And by now, Ken and Elva were parents to five children. Ken Leishman appeared to be a respectable citizen, but he was secretly desperate for one thing: money. He had invested heavily in a fishing lodge and needed money to keep the operation from going under. His debts were piling up. Christmas was coming. He needed money, and lots of it. Part 3: Crime and Coffee On the morning of December 17th, 1957,
Ken said goodbye to his family. They believed he was off to sell his cookware. But instead, he flew 950 miles to Toronto. Just before 3 p.m., he walked into the TD Bank at the corner of Yonge Street and Albert Street and requested to speak to the manager. Bank manager A.J. Lund was happy to talk about loans with the well-dressed businessman. But once inside Lund's private office, Ken pulled a gun from his briefcase.
He told the startled man, "I presume you would like to be with your family for Christmas." He then added, "In case you should wonder, I think I ought to tell you that I have 12 slugs in here." Fearing for his life, the bank manager took Ken at his word. As requested, he wrote out a cashier's check for $10,000, then prodded by Ken's gun, which was secretly aimed at his side.
The two men walked over to a teller's wicket, where Lund asked for the check to be cashed. By now, it was after 3:00 PM and the bank had closed. After putting the bills in his briefcase, Ken invited the bank manager for coffee, and they left the building together. To the teller and anyone else who happened to notice, Lund and Leishman appeared to be friends.
Even a policeman aided the illegal transaction. Working the busy intersection at Young and Albert, when he saw the two men step up to the curb, he stopped traffic so they could safely cross. When they were a few blocks from the bank, Ken turned to the bank manager and wished him a very Merry Christmas. Moments later, Ken Leishman would disappear into the crowds of Christmas shoppers, right along with the bank's den grand.
For the Leishman family in Winnipeg, it would be a very merry Christmas. One of Ken's children recalled that it was the best Christmas they ever had, back in Toronto. A newspaper included Ken's bank heist and its Christmas crime wave reporting. With unemployment at record highs, Ken was not the only person who had turned to crime.
In a 48-hour span, the Toronto Star reported seven holdups, one attempted robbery, and a pistol whipping and shooting connected to another robbery. In two days, thieves had made off with $20,000 in cash and jewels. Meanwhile, back in Winnipeg, Ken was flush with cash. He bought a house in an upmarket subdivision, a Cadillac for himself, and a fur coat for Elva. But three months later,
He needed more money. And again, robbery seemed like the quickest way to get it. Part 4: Repeat Performance On March 18th, 1958, Ken flew his plane to the Toronto airport, rented a car, then checked into a luxury hotel. This time, he targeted the Canadian Bank of Commerce, located at the busy corner of Bloor and Yonge Streets. Following his previous script, he asked to speak to the bank manager.
with his pencil-thin mustache and dressed in a dark overcoat, hat, and white silk scarf. Bank manager H.F. Mason said that the charismatic Ken Leishman spoke and acted like a successful businessman. And when Ken drew a Luger pistol from his briefcase, Mason, surprisingly, was not concerned. He said to Ken, "Don't be ridiculous." The bank manager headed for the door. Ken grabbed him by the coat, then panicked and ran for the exit.
A woman standing nearby saw the tussle and screamed. Chased by two accountants, Ken raced outside. On the street, a woman tricked him, but he got up and kept on running. A half block from the bank, one of the accountants caught up with Ken and tried to subdue him by pulling his coat over his head. In the struggle, Ken reached for his pistol and his arm shot out, about to fire.
But just then, a church minister who happened to be walking ahead of the men and heard the commotion, turned around, saw the gun, and instinctively kicked it away. In front of crowds of onlookers, Ken Leishman was handcuffed by police officers while reporters' camera bulbs flashed. The story of his foiled robbery would make headlines across the country.
Back home in Winnipeg, Elva must have been shocked to read that her husband had not gone to work as he'd said, but was miles away in another province holding up a bank, and that the brief luxury her family had enjoyed was paid for by crime. Elva and the children's circumstances were about to change drastically. Meanwhile, in a Toronto court, Ken was charged with one count of bank robbery and a second of attempted bank robbery.
During the trial, the defense used Ken's unhappy childhood to draw sympathy. Elva, who was pregnant with another child, took the stand and said that her husband worked too hard because he wanted to get ahead. The defense asked for leniency and proposed that everything Ken owned would be sold to pay back the $10,000 debt. The haul from his first successful bank job. The magistrate agreed, but he also sentenced Ken to 12 years.
While Ken did his time at Stony Mountain Penitentiary in Manitoba, the family would move away from the upmarket subdivision and go on welfare. The days of luxury were over. In prison, Ken kept himself busy. He completed high school courses. He was a well-behaved, model prisoner and would be released after serving just three and a half years of his sentence.
A free man again, Ken returned to his work as a fly-in cookware salesman and to his role as provider for his family. But while he was flying in and out the Winnipeg airport and the gold mining community of Red Lake, Ken Leishman was secretly planning his next big heist.
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Part 5: Gold Bars On March 1st, 1966, Ken put his plan into action. He had four accomplices. One was in Red Lake and alerted Ken that a gold shipment was heading for Winnipeg.
where it would be transferred to another plane en route to the Canadian Mint in Ottawa. With overalls affixed with Air Canada logos, a stolen panel van and fake documents, the men approached the plane on the tarmac. They announced that there was a change of plans and that they would be transporting the 12 bars of gold to another plane
With paperwork signed, they drove away with the gold, valued at $363,000, the largest gold heist in Canadian history, until the record was broken in 2023. But the robbery of 12 bars of gold was not the only thing happening in Winnipeg that day. The city was in the grip of a record-breaking blizzard. 60-mile-an-hour winds pushed snow drifts up to rooftops.
because the streets were choked with snow. The thieves were unable to dispose of the van as they'd planned and ended up abandoning it. They had also intended to bury the gold bars in the ground, but chose to hide them in snowbanks instead. Meanwhile, one of Ken's accomplices was a lawyer and his role in the heist was to fly to Hong Kong to find a buyer for the stolen gold. But his passport application was rejected, so Ken was forced to go in his place
Even though the police had no clues as to the whereabouts of the gold or the identity of the thieves, Ken was a prime suspect because of his criminal history. Eight days after the robbery, Ken was arrested in the Vancouver airport while he waited for his flight to Hong Kong. Police also located the stolen van and found fingerprints of the accomplices, and all involved were charged. But Ken was not ready to be locked up just yet. Part 6. Manhunt
On September 1st, 1966, Ken Leishman was in the Headingley Jail just west of Winnipeg, awaiting his trial for robbery and conspiracy in the gold heist he masterminded six months earlier. When the perfect moment arrived, he and nine others attacked two guards and grabbed their keys. They unlocked a gun locker and helped themselves to weapons and civilian clothes. They also threw open the cell block doors so that 40 other prisoners could escape.
But interestingly, these men decided to stay behind bars. The daring escape would trigger a manhunt involving every one of Manitoba's 450-man Royal Canadian Mountain Police Unit. The convicts split up. Some were captured when the car they were driving crashed through a roadblock. Others were caught by US authorities after they crossed the border into North Dakota. But four remained at large, including Ken Leishman. Part 7: Cattlemen
After breaking out of jail, Ken and the other men he was with stole a car and headed for the border. On the car radio, they heard that every cop in the province was looking for the escapees, who included a rapist and a murderer awaiting transfer to a mental hospital. The leader of the group, Ken, decided to abandon the highway and take to the sky. At the Steinbach airfield, he stole a single-engine aircraft. The plane was last seen heading stateside.
Ken flew close to the treeline to avoid radar detection. Running low on fuel, he made several stops, including in an airfield near Tyler, Minnesota, where Ken discovered the airfield's fuel pump wasn't working. At the same time, school teacher Harold Peterson was playing golf and saw the plane land. He walked over to investigate.
Ken made up a story, explaining that they were cattlemen en route to Texas to look at some Herefords, and that they had set off at 5:00 AM. Harold offered to drive them into town to get a bite to eat. He then called Ralph, the editor of the local paper, who took a photo of the men in front of their plane before they took off again. As Harold and Ralph watched the plane disappear into the sky, they wondered about the strange encounter. Were they really cattlemen?
Ralph recalled that, "One had a suit two sizes too large, and the other wore a shirt that was very tight. They didn't fit the cattle buyer picture, but we didn't get suspicious. They were friendly guys." The man's next stop was Wheeler, Indiana. Ken landed in a farm field a mile south of the town.
The land was owned by Ross Shook and his wife. In the farmhouse, the couple allowed them to make a call to an associate in Gary, Indiana. But the telephone operator informed them that the person had moved. With no fuel, they decided to travel to Gary to locate their contact. The Shooks drove the cattlemen to Hobart, where they caught the bus to Gary. But in Gary, Indiana, their luck ran out.
After arriving in town, the men went into the M&S Tavern. The owner, who was in a wheelchair, was suspicious of the four men and asked them, jokingly, if they were the escapees he'd heard mentioned on the radio. Incredibly, one of the four men replied, "Yes." While the tavern owner wheeled himself to the phone to call the police, the men slipped out of the bar, but one of the customers in the bar followed and saw them enter the Baltimore Hotel.
The men had booked two rooms. Moments later, three policemen entered the hotel and confronted the convicts. Two of the men, including Ken, surrendered immediately. The other two ran onto the roof of the hotel with police officers in pursuit. One man would be shot in the arm while the other escaped down an air shaft in a nearby jewelry store. After a police shootout involving tear gas, the two remaining men were also caught.
Days later, the four were transported back to Canada under heavy guard. Amazingly, less than two months later, Ken would attempt to escape again. On October 31st, 1966, Ken was being held in the Vaughan Street Jail in downtown Winnipeg in an empty wing. The guards had given him access to the corridor outside his cell for exercise. They had no concerns since there were three men guarding Ken and three locked doors.
What they didn't anticipate was that Ken knew how to pick a lock. On the pretext of exercise, he worked out in the corridor, then got to work on the lock. Once through the first door, he overpowered the three surprised guards, then slipped outside into the night. But this time, Ken would be caught in under four hours.
On November 1, 1966, Ken Leishman was sentenced to seven years in addition to the eight he still had to serve for his Toronto bank robberies and parole violation. Again, behind bars in the Stony Mountain Penitentiary, Ken was again a model inmate. His son recalled that the warden had him over for dinner. There was a Toastmasters club in the prison and Ken was president. He also ran a hockey league.
Ron added, "If some guy's having a problem with his wife or girlfriend, dad would write a romantic poem he could send." 10 years later, and after a request to the parole board to review his sentences, in May of 1974, Ken Leishman was finally a free man. Part Eight: A Normal, Happy Life Once on the outside, Ken became a celebrity, appearing on talk shows and even on CBC's front page challenge game show.
In the show, panelists would guess the identity of a mystery guest based on clues supplied by the guest. On September 17th, 1974, the guest was Ken Leishman. While Ken basked in the notoriety of his exploits, his family tried to pull itself back together after years of poverty, ridicule and shame. While he was in prison, Elva had gone on welfare
and living in the shadow of their criminal father was hard on Ken's seven children. In 1977, the family started over in Red Lake, where the gold bars had come from 11 years earlier. Ken and Elva opened a gift shop, and Ken continued his love of aviation, piloting medevac flights out of the remote community. A year later, he was elected to the town's Chamber of Commerce.
27 years after marrying the love of her life, Elva believed she finally had a chance at a normal, happy life with her husband. And after all the Christmases without their father, the children looked forward to celebrations as a family. But Christmas 1979 would be memorable for a very different reason. On December 14th, 1979, Ken, who was now 48 years old, was on medevac assignment piloting a twin engine plane.
On board was a nurse, along with a member of Sandy Lake First Nation, who needed medical attention for a broken hip. The trio was bound for a hospital in Thunder Bay. Leishman's plane was last heard from around 8:25 pm. After an intensive search, no sign of the plane or its occupants was found. Then, six months later, two Canadian Forces rescue officers were flying in a helicopter when they spotted the wreckage spread over a densely wooded area.
The crash site was some 18 miles north of Thunder Bay. When searchers reached the location, they would find bits of clothing and bones, and even Leishman's wallet. Later, at Toronto Centre for Forensic Sciences, the coroner on the case was able to positively identify the two women aboard the plane, but not Ken. To this day, no sign of Kenneth Leishman has ever been found, alive or dead.
