Edwin Alonzo Boyd

Edwin Alonzo Boyd (April 2, 1914 – May 17, 2002) was a Canadian bank robber and leader of the Boyd Gang.

His career made him a notorious Canadian folk hero.

Edwin Alonzo Boyd was born on April 2, 1914, four months before the British Empire, of which Canada was part, entered World War I.

His father, Glover Boyd, joined the army in August 1915 and did not return home from the war until a few years later.

The apartment the family lived in was then too small, so they soon moved to a duplex on Bee Street in Todmorden, an area beyond the Don Valley, in East York.

Soon after, Edwin's mother Eleanor became pregnant again, so Glover Boyd took a job at the Toronto Police Department.

Edwin was enrolled in school in the 1921–22 year, but due to an incident there, he did not remain for very long and during his first year of schooling his family had moved again.

He then switched to Gledhill Public School to finish out the semester.

In September 1923, Glover moved the family a few blocks north and Ed switched to Secord Public School for a brief period of time before being transferred back to Gledhill Public School.

The Boyds soon moved again, this time to Glebemount Avenue, and Boyd transferred to yet another new school, this time to Earl Beatty Public School, and it was here that Boyd became more of his own person, joining the school's soccer team so that for years his picture hung in the hall of the school.

Boyd also then joined the YMCA marching band where he mastered the mouth organ and accompanied the band when they won a world championship at the Canadian National Exhibition.

In early 1930, his brothers, Gord and Norm Boyd, contracted scarlet fever and while taking care of them, Eleanor Boyd became sick herself and died from the disease.

In 1933, Edwin had his first brush with the law when he was picked up for vagrancy by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

A few years later, Boyd joined the Royal Canadian Regiment, First Division.

In June 1940, his regiment crossed the channel to France.

When his regiment was posted to Reigate, Surrey, Boyd met his first wife, Doreen Mary Frances Thompson.

On August 20, 1941, almost nine months to the day after Boyd and Thompson married, she gave birth to a son, Edwin Alonzo Boyd, Jr. The baby was two days old when an air raid siren sounded; the bombing resulted in the baby suffering a cerebral hemorrhage from which he died.

He was buried on August 30 in a York cemetery.

In early 1941, Doreen went to York and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service but was too short to be a truck driver, so she became a motorcycle driver to join her husband in the war.

Boyd was transferred to the Canadian Provost Corps on July 27, 1942, because he was displeased with the army.

Soon after that, his wife discovered that she was pregnant again and this time they had twins on December 21, 1943.

Boyd was officially discharged from the war effort on May 24, 1945, 16 days after Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) May 8, 1945.

Upon his return from the war, Boyd failed to find adequate permanent employment and turned to crime to provide for his wife and two children.

On September 9, 1949, Boyd robbed a North York branch of the Bank of Montreal.

Between September 1949 and October 1951, Boyd pulled at least six bank heists.

He joined up with another local thief, Howard Gault, and together they carried out several other bold bank robberies.

Edwin had a reputation for jumping over counters, moving quickly, and carrying a gun.

Howard was caught and confessed to the robberies and identified Edwin as his accomplice.

Edwin and Howard both went to the Don Jail in Toronto.

While Boyd and his partner were robbing banks, another more violent gang was also doing the same thing.

Lennie Jackson, a member of that gang, was caught at the same time as Boyd, and they began swapping notes while in jail.

Soon another experienced bank robber, Willie Jackson (no relation to Lennie), alias The Clown, arrived at the Don Jail awaiting transfer to the Kingston Penitentiary for a seven-year sentence.

Lennie Jackson had lost a foot in a railway accident and had a wooden foot in which he stored several hacksaw blades.

On November 4, 1951, Boyd and the Jacksons hacksawed the bars at the Kingston penitentiary went over the prison wall and escaped.

They met a friend, Valent Lesso from Cochrane, one of the violent members of Lennie Jackson’s original gang, and the four became a team.

Lesso was a talented musician who couldn’t find work; he changed his name to Steve Suchan and became a bank robber.

They soon pulled off a series of robberies, including the biggest one in Toronto history.

The newspapers dubbed the new group "the Boyd Gang," seeing Boyd himself as the brains behind the operation.

Willie Jackson was arrested and sent to the Don Jail.

Boyd went into hiding with his wife Doreen.