The Flying Bandit Page 23

  “Well, we all got to be a lot more careful then,” Robert said.

  Five days later, using his En Route credit card which made air travel so much more convenient, Robert flew out to Vancouver. He intended to rob the CIBC on West Georgia Street which he had hit twice before, but the next day, he changed his mind at the last minute because he suspected he was being followed. Instead of robbing the CIBC, he changed course and went into the Bank of Montreal at 385 Burrard Street. Dressed in blue coveralls, he walked directly behind the service counter and pushed one of the tellers, Cindy Gardner, aside.

  As he was rifling through her cash drawer, Cindy said, “What are you doing?”

  Robert told her, “Don’t move and you won’t get hurt.”

  When he was finished there he went over to John Bishop’s teller position and pushed him out of the way and began taking money out of his drawers. All Bishop could do was hold his ground and stare at him. Robert pushed him again and said, “Don’t give me any trouble or I’ll blow your fucking head off.” He emptied two more drawers and was gone. Back at the Westin Hotel he counted his money, and figured $5,840 would make a nice contribution towards his proposed business venture in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

  In the limousine on the way to the airport Robert marvelled at the beauty of Vancouver; the mountains, the ocean, the harbour. It was easily his favourite place in Canada. He had visited more than a dozen times in the last three years.

  When the Boeing 747 lifted over the water and circled back towards the mountains, Robert strained to have one final look at the city. The sun, shining from the east, glittered off the ocean and sparkled on the dramatic skyline.

  Tired but thoroughly contented, Robert closed his eyes and settled back for the long flight home. He thought about life in the islands. The future looked promising.

  CHAPTER 15

  Closing In

  Pete Bond continued to give Snider more information about Robert Whiteman. He told him that Whiteman had done time in the States and was violent. He said when Whiteman went on a job he was always armed and would shoot it out with police if he was cornered. It was Bond’s belief that Whiteman intended to rob another Birks store. He wasn’t sure where, but thought it might be either in Halifax or Vancouver. He said there was a possibility Whiteman might go back and hold up the Birks store on Granville Street again.

  These considerations were discussed at a CAFE meeting on May 28. Police and Birks security would be notified in both cities. There was also some discussion about a jewellery show to be held in Pembroke on June 13. According to CAFE’s information, Whiteman, Tommy Craig and Pete Bond would all be there. As well, some of the stolen Birks jewellery would be on display for sale.

  Mel Robertson reported that he had checked out Whiteman’s cover in Calgary and determined that neither Whiteman’s father nor his security analyst business were located in that city. Both were obviously fictitious. This convinced the members of CAFE that the suspicions they had about Robert Whiteman were solid. From that time on, Snider, Heyerhoff and Robertson were to focus their complete attention on him to see if they could gather sufficient evidence for his arrest.

  Although Whiteman had become a major concern, CAFE operatives were still cutting a wide swath through the Ottawa underworld, scoring a number of arrests and recovering a huge amount of stolen property. Up to this time, CAFE had recovered almost $44,000 worth of stolen property from a reported loss of $145,000. This represented a 200 per cent increase in the rate of recovery of identified stolen property. CAFE had also taken back another $10,000 worth of stolen property whose owners, as yet, had not been identified.

  The same day as that May 28 CAFE meeting, Whiteman flew to Winnipeg. The next day, Friday, at 10:50 a.m., dressed in coveralls and a green and white painter’s cap, he went into the Royal Bank at 286 Portage Avenue. Unlatching the counter gate, he walked through the employees’ area and approached teller Diane McKenty in the central cash cage. Pointing his gun at her, he threw her a vinyl bag and told her to fill it with money. She stuffed $15,995 in cash into the bag and gave it back to him. While Robert was departing the bank, two bundles of onedollar bills totalling $1,000 fell out of the bag. In his haste he left them lying on the floor. Once he reached his hotel he quickly packed his bags and departed for the airport.

  While Whiteman was flying home from Winnipeg Pete Bond was on the phone to George Snider in Ottawa telling him about Robert’s latest exploit.

  “Robert went to Winnipeg yesterday to pull a job,” Bond said.

  “Why didn’t you call me yesterday and tell me this?” George demanded.

  “Cause I just found out today.”

  “Is the robbery going to be today?”

  “I imagine so. That’s how he works.”

  “Is it another Birks job?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think it’s going to be a bank.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because I never heard nothing about a Birks store.”

  “Any idea which bank?”

  “No. I don’t know that. I just know he’s gone to Winnipeg and, since I never heard he was going to do a Birks store, I assume he’s going to do a bank. We both know he didn’t go there for a holiday.”

  “But you have no idea which bank?”

  “No. How many times do I have to tell you that? I told you, I don’t know what bank.”

  “OK, leave it with me. Keep in touch.” George hung up and discussed the matter with CAFE Sergeant Bill Van Kralingen. At 3:45 p.m. Van Kralingen called the Winnipeg Police. They told him that a bank robbery had taken place in Winnipeg just hours before.

  While they were talking on the phone, Robert Whiteman’s plane was beginning its descent into Ottawa. Below his seat was a briefcase chock full of Winnipeg money.

  Van Kralingen asked, “Did anybody get a good look at him?”

  “I think a couple of people did. One teller got a real good look at him. She even mentioned something about little scars or pock marks on his face.”

  “Great! We’ve got some good surveillance photos on this guy. We’ll send them out, and see if you can get a positive ID.”

  “OK, we’ll have the teller take a look at them. What else have you got on the guy?”

  “We think he’s an American named Robert Whiteman. Lives in Pembroke outside Ottawa. He probably flew into Winnipeg the day before he did the job. You might want to check out the hotels and car rentals and see if you come up with a registration or a contract.”

  “OK. We’ll wait for your pictures, and in the meantime we’ll check the hotels and see what we can find out.”

  It didn’t take long for the Winnipeg detectives to confirm Ottawa’s suspicions. Air Canada’s flight manifest showed that a Robert Whiteman had flown from Ottawa to Winnipeg on Thursday, May 28. A Robert Whiteman had checked into Place Louis Riel at 4:11 p.m. on May 28 and had checked out at 11:42 a.m. on Friday, May 29. He registered as an employee of IBM, and gave his home address as 450 Dominion Street, Pembroke, Ontario. All room expenses were charged against his En Route card.

  The first night in Winnipeg, Whiteman used his En Route card to make two phone calls to 613-732-8868, a number traced to his residence at 450 Dominion Street in Pembroke. One was for nine minutes at 10:17 a.m., the other for 42 minutes at 10:47 pm. On May 29 at 11:08 a.m., he made a one minute phone call to a number traced to his mother-inlaw’s address at 350 Trafalgar Road in Pembroke.

  When the Winnipeg police checked with Air Canada they discovered when Whiteman applied for his En Route card he stated he was employed by IBM as a financial consultant. The address of his place of business was listed as Scotia Tower, Suite 1200, Calgary, Alberta. No such business existed at that address.

  When Winnipeg reported their findings back to Van Kralingen, everyone at CAFE was positive that Whiteman was the armed robber Bond had said he was. Whether or not he was the Birks Bandit was another question. CAFE waited for a positive identification on Whiteman’s pho
tograph from Winnipeg.

  On Sunday, May 31, Robert went to church with Janice, Laura and his mother-in-law, Patricia McKenzie. Robert seldom went to church, but this Sunday he knew they were collecting for a food bank to help the needy in the city. Instead of contributing money to the food bank, Robert brought all the food necessary to feed one big family – a ham, vegetables, milk and dessert – and gave that to the organization. He didn’t like to give cash because he felt the money might be spent on something that wasn’t needed.

  That same Sunday, Shawn Smith’s surveillance on Whiteman’s home revealed that Tommy Craig stopped by for a visit at 450 Dominion Street. When Robert and Tommy left the house, Smith followed them and watched as they had a few drinks at Wally’s.

  On Saturday, June 6, in Winnipeg, photos were taken of nine Winnipeg police officers in street clothes for the purpose of putting together a photo line-up. These nine photos were combined with Whiteman’s photo and shown to various witnesses from the Winnipeg Royal Bank. Whiteman’s photograph was assigned position number 4 in the line-up. Teller Diane McKenty, who was badly shaken by her experience in the bank, was unable to identify the suspect at all.

  The identifications by the other witnesses were tentative at best. Bank accountant Dirk Reid said, “Some of these guys for sure are not him. Maybe this guy (pointing to suspect number 4) is, but his hair was red. His face looks the same but this isn’t a great picture.” Later when he was asked to use a magnifying glass on the photos, he appeared to be interested in suspect number 4. He viewed each photo commenting that the person portrayed was not the robber. Then he returned to the number 4 photo and said, “Yeah, that looks like the guy but it’s hard to say it’s exactly him.”

  Larry Kent, an administrative officer with the bank, who had observed the suspect at the time of the holdup, used the magnifying glass to go over photo number 4 and said, “It sure looks like the guy, but I’m not one hundred per cent sure. Definitely none of the others.”

  The Winnipeg police were undeterred by these inconclusive identifications. On June 8, on the strength of the circumstantial evidence at hand, they advised Van Kralingen that they were obtaining a warrant for Whiteman’s arrest, charging him with armed robbery of the Royal Bank. They said they would be photo faxing the warrant to him as soon as it was ready. Van Kralingen, in turn, advised Winnipeg that Whiteman was a suspect in several other armed robberies across the country. He said Ottawa would be seeking a search warrant of Whiteman’s residence and planned to arrest him in the very near future.

  That same day Robert went down to Bennett Travel in Pembroke and booked a Wardair flight for Mick Daglish from England to Toronto. He also arranged a flight for both Mick and himself from Toronto to Miami to the Caribbean Islands. The cost of the tickets came to $2,364 for which he put down a deposit of $820. Robert’s idea was that he would meet Mick in Toronto and they would fly to the Turks and Caicos together. If they found a place they liked and everything worked out, their wives and families would join them later.

  While Robert was making these travelling plans the operatives at CAFE were seriously debating the merit of arresting him at this time. They felt they didn’t have enough to convict him for the Winnipeg bank job right then. What if the tentative Winnipeg identification fell through? What if no money could be found in the house or in his bank accounts? All they would have against Whiteman would be the circumstantial evidence of his being in Winnipeg at the time of the robbery. And then Whiteman would be forever warned that the police were on his trail. Once he knew that he would leave the country immediately and they would be powerless to stop him. Any hope of recovering the stolen jewels or money would be lost.

  Inspector MacCharles listened to the CAFE members’ arguments against arresting Whiteman and agreed. The next day he took their concerns to a joint forces management meeting in Ottawa. Although there was much argument to the contrary, management decided that Whiteman should be taken immediately. An operational plan was devised whereby he would be arrested on Friday, June 12, in Pembroke. As soon as he was taken into custody a search warrant was to be executed at his residence on Dominion Street. MacCharles was assigned the responsibility of heading up this operation, and because Whiteman was considered armed and dangerous, a SWAT team, which in OPP parlance was called a TRU team (Tactical and Reserve Unit) would be brought in to take him down. A dog master and his dog would be on hand.

  The only problem with CAFE’s plan was that they had not been watching Whiteman around the clock. In order not to spook him, they had been running a spotted dog surveillance on him, which meant watching him on and off – just enough to have a good idea of his whereabouts. At that time, CAFE members felt Whiteman had no reason to run away or leave the country. They were confident he couldn’t go very far without them knowing it. As it turned out, they were wrong. But the police got lucky because it was his next departure that sealed Whiteman’s fate.

  On Thursday, June 11, needing more money to finance his upcoming venture with Mick Daglish in the Caribbean, Whiteman, unbeknownst to the police, flew out of Pembroke to London, Ontario.

  On Friday, June 12, Shawn Smith went to Dominion Street at 6:30 a.m. and spotted Whiteman’s Chrysler 5th Ave, licence YVS 595, in the driveway. He returned at 8:00 a.m. and saw that it was still there.

  At 9:00 a.m., Lyle MacCharles convened a meeting in the OPP detachment office in Pembroke of the police in his operational plan to arrest Whiteman. Representing the OPP were George Snider and Tim Sheppard; TRU team members Ray Twomey and Chris Sharpe; dog master Tom Murray and ident. officer Ron Lipscombe. From Ottawa Police were Sgts. Gord Weir, Jim McKenna and John Zoschke. Detective Don Pellerin attended from Gloucester. Ottawa and Gloucester were represented in the arrest procedure because of the Birks holdup and other bank robberies that had taken place in their jurisdictions.

  MacCharles advised all present that the raid on Whiteman’s house would take place at 10:30 a.m. and the search warrants would be executed immediately after Whiteman had been secured. So that everyone involved would be thoroughly apprised, he went over the specifics of the operational plan in minute detail.

  While this meeting was taking place Shawn Smith was out on Dominion Street watching Whiteman’s residence. He reported by radio that, although Whiteman’s Chrysler 5th Avenue was still parked in the driveway, he didn’t see much movement inside the house. He said that he’d caught the occasional glimpse of Janice moving back and forth but had seen no sign of Robert.

  “I hope he’s in there,” MacCharles grumbled. “We had to almost kiss that Justice of the Peace on the ass to get that search warrant. He’s not about to issue another one again so quickly.”

  “I know,” Shawn said, “but I can’t see him inside.”

  “Well, do you think he’s in there?” MacCharles asked.

  “You better drop a dime and find out,” Shawn suggested.

  MacCharles phoned Whiteman’s house.

  “Is Bob there?” he asked.

  “No,” Janice answered. “He’s not home. He’s out of town.”

  MacCharles could feel his chest tightening.

  “When will he be back?”

  “Probably later today. Who’s calling?”

  “Oh, just a friend from out of town,” MacCharles replied. “I’ll call him back later.”

  Janice found it strange that a friend of Robert’s would call him Bob. Nobody who knew Robert ever called him that.

  When MacCharles put down the phone he said, “Jesus, Jesus, I think we’ve spooked him. He’s not there.”

  “Any idea where he’s gone?” George Snider asked.

  “I don’t know,” MacCharles replied, “but his goddamn car’s there. How do you figure that?”

  MacCharles was in a difficult position. He wondered if Whiteman really would be coming back later today or if that was just his wife’s story. It was costing a lot of money to keep the TRU team in town, and he didn’t know whether to call off the raid and bring them back another day or
hold them in Pembroke until Whiteman did come home. To make any kind of a sensible decision MacCharles had to find out where Whiteman had gone and when he was coming back. And he had to find that out quickly.

  MacCharles had one of his men call Whiteman’s house again at 10:42 a.m. This time they didn’t get his wife but a female friend of hers. She said the same thing as Janice had said. Robert was expected home later today or tonight. Now MacCharles was even more concerned.

  He gave orders to his men: “You guys get on separate phones and call the bus station, the train station, all the car rentals, the cab companies and see if you can find out how he got out of here.” As the policemen scattered to make their calls, MacCharles mumbled to himself, “I hope we didn’t spook him when Shawn was talking to him last week.”

  MacCharles went into the little lunchroom at the back of the detachment office for a smoke in an attempt to think his problem through. In his anxiety he began pacing up and down, mumbling to himself, “I don’t want to lose this guy. He’s too big to lose.”

  He walked some more and smoked some more and said out loud, “How the fuck did he get out of here?”

  Several of the regular detachment members were sitting in the lunchroom having a coffee break. They looked up at MacCharles and wondered what he was talking about. MacCharles paid no attention to them but quietly whispered to himself, “Where the hell could he have gone?”

  The policemen in the room made no attempt to answer the anxious inspector’s questions. They even avoided making eye contact with him. One of them hid behind a copy of the local newspaper, the Pembroke Observer. On its back page there was an advertisement for a charter airline that flew out of Pembroke, called Pemair. MacCharles spotted the ad.

  Then it dawned on him.

  “Holy hell. Did anybody check the Pembroke airport?” Shaking his head in disbelief, he walked out of the lunchroom and into Shawn Smith’s office.

  “Shawn,” he said with a devilish smile on his face, “has anybody checked the fucking airport?”