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Norman “Red” Ryan, dubbed “the Jesse James of Canada,” was infamous in the 1920s and ’30s until he was gunned down in an attempted robbery in Sarnia, Ontario. Ernest Hemingway wrote about Ryan’s escape from the 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. One of the first Canadians to be granted parole, he was held up by Prime Minister R.B. Bennett as a model of rehabilitation and became a regular guest at Toronto police picnics. All the while, however, Ryan was continuing a crime spree on the side.
With skepticism, humour and an often scathing examination of his own profession, journalist Jim Brown tells the incredible story of “Red” Ryan, a larger-than-life criminal whose fame and legend were much encouraged by the media, with deadly results.