Golden Boy of Crime, The

Praise for Canada’s Most Overrated Bank Robber“Standing at the foot of the scantling . . . was athick, freckle-faced man whose prison cap could not hide his flaming head. Itwas ‘Red’ Ryan.” —Ernest Hemingway“A malicious little bastard.” —Ryan’s childhoodfriend“Norman Ryan is a vicious, dangerous and resourcefulthief.” —Toronto police chief S. J. Dickson“Ryan is well liked in Kingston prison. A fine,handsome, clean-cut man, he stands out as a giant among the inmates.” —AtholGow, TorontoStar“We narrowly escaped meeting him. If we had, we fearwe might, like nearly everybody else, have succumbed to his fatal charm.” —J.V. MCAREE, The Globe and Mail“I’m glad he is dead.” —Senator H. A. MullinsDubbed “the Jesse James of Canada,” Norman “Red”Ryan was infamous in the 1920s and ’30s until he was gunned down in anattempted robbery in Sarnia, Ontario. Ernest Hemingway wrote about Ryan’sescape from Kingston Penitentiary for the Toronto Star, Morley Callaghan based a novel on him,and stories of Ryan and his daring crimes filled newspapers and airwaves. Oneof the first Canadians to be granted parole, he was held up by Prime MinisterR. B. Bennett as a model of rehabilitation and became a regular guest atToronto police picnics. All the while, however, Ryan continued a crime spree onthe side.With skepticism, humour and an often scathingexamination of his own profession, journalist Jim Brown tells the incrediblestory of “Red” Ryan, a larger-than-life criminal whose fame and legend weremuch encouraged by the media, leading to deadly results.