"Gentleman" Bank Robber Edwin Alonzo Boyd
Boyd Gang Members Escaped from Toronto’s Don Jail Twice
Feb 6, 2009
Edwin Alonzo Boyd was the instigator in at least eleven bank robberies in the Toronto area. In September 1949, wearing a disguise, he robbed his first bank. He was quick as lightning when he entered the bank, grabbed the money, and ran.
“Gentleman” Bank Robber Edwin Alonzo Boyd Arrested
He was encouraged by that success and robbed more banks. His exploits were described at length in competing newspapers and on fledgling television stations. Described as a “gentleman” bank robber, he worked alone most of the time, but occasionally with another robber. When his captured partner told everything to the police, both went to Toronto’s Don Jail.
Boyd Gang Members Escape from Don Jail
A more violent and heavily-armed gang was robbing area banks at that time. Two members were Steve Suchan whose real name was Valent Lesso, and Leonard Jackson who had a wooden foot. He and Edwin Alonzo Boyd were in the same area in the Don Jail. Another violent criminal, Willie Jackson, who awaited transfer to Kingston Penitentiary, entered the same jail section.
Leonard Jackson had hidden hacksaw blades in his wooden foot. The three men cut through the window bars and escaped on November 4, 1951. Edwin Alonzo Boyd and Willie Jackson hid out at a pre-arranged location in Toronto. About two weeks later they pulled off the largest Toronto hold up to date. Steve Suchan and Leonard Jackson went to Montreal and were later joined by Boyd. Willie Jackson was arrested for carrying a gun.
Boyd Gang Members Shoot Policemen
On March 6, 1952 Toronto Detectives Edmund Tong and Roy Perry were shot by Steve Suchan and Leonard Jackson. Before he died, Detective Tong identified Suchan. A massive manhunt resulted. People who thought of Edwin Alonzo Boyd as a folk hero changed their ideas about him and his gang members. He was not involved in the shooting, but people were afraid while the killers were at large.
Steve Suchan and Leonard Jackson were shot and captured in Montreal. Edwin Alonzo Boyd was apprehended in Toronto and arrested without a struggle. The four gang members were placed together in the same Don Jail cell block. A cohort smuggled a piece of metal, a file, and hacksaw blades to them. They fashioned a key that resembled the guard’s. Once again, they cut through the bars and escaped just before dawn on September 8, 1952.
Boyd Gang Captured and Convicted
During the intense manhunt, the police closed in on the escapees who were hiding in a barn located about a mile from the jail. They were captured without incident on September 16, 1952. Edwin Alonzo Boyd, found guilty of robberies and other crimes, received several concurrent life sentences. Willie Jackson received a total of thirty-one years. Leonard Jackson and Steve Suchan were convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
Edwin Alonzo Boyd, born April 2, 1914 in Toronto, was son of a Toronto police officer. “Eddie” Boyd rebelled against his father’s strictness and rode the rails during the 1930s Depression. He enlisted during World War II, served overseas, then returned to Toronto with a wife and three children. Bored with his job as streetcar driver, Boyd started his life of crime.
Edwin Alonzo Boyd Paroled from Kingston Penitentiary
Edwin Alonzo Boyd was released on lifetime parole from Kingston Penitentiary in 1966. He was given a new identity and relocated near Victoria, British Columbia. Remarried, he was devoted to caring for his invalid wife.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had extensive interviews with Edwin Alonzo Boyd prior to his May 17, 2002 death. “I did a few things that could have got me hung,” he said in the CBC programme, “Life and Times”. He revealed new information that unmasked him as an “ego-driven psychopath whose...words connect him to unsolved crimes….” He was not the “gentleman” bank robber that many thought him to be.
Source:
Edwin Alonzo Boyd: The Story of the Notorious Boyd Gang by Brian Vallee; Doubleday Canada, 1998
 |
 |
 |
