Running With Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws

by Edward Butts

This book picks up where The Desperate Canada’s Forgotten Outlaws left off. Here are more remarkable true stories about Canadian crimes and criminals ― most of them tales that have been buried for years. The stories begin in colonial Newfoundland, with robbery and murder committed by the notorious Power Gang. As readers travel across the country and through time, they will meet the last two men to be hanged in Prince Edward Island, smugglers who made lake Champlain a battleground, a counterfeiter whose bills were so good they fooled even bank managers, and teenage girls who committed murder in their escape from jail. They will meet the bandits who plundered banks and trains in Eastern Canada and the West, and even the United States. Among them were Same Behan, a robber whose harrowing testimony about the brutal conditions in the Kingston Penitentiary may have brought about his untimely death in "The Hole"; and John "Red" Hamilton, the Canadian-born member of the legendary Dillinger gang.

Genres: True Crime

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Ed Butts https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edward Butts has written many remarkable books about Canadian criminals. "Pirates and Outlaws of Canada", "She Dared", and "Outlaws of the Lakes" all demonstrate his gift for uncovering fantastic yet true stories about Canadian outlaws and their deeds, and "Running With Dillinger" does not derail his track record in the slightest.

The story of John 'Red' Hamilton, the only Canadian-born member of the Dillinger gang, takes its place beside chapters dedicated to the Power Gang of colonial Newfoundland, counterfeiter extraordinaire Edwin Johnson, and 'Bloody Jack' Krafchenko, of whom the author states with some justification, "Had Krafchenko been an American desperado, there would quite likely be at least one Hollywood film based on his exploits."

You don't have to be Canadian to enjoy this book. Criminal behaviour is rarely restricted by geography, and anyone who relishes good true crime tales should pick up this book.

[Leanne Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great bathroom book. Way, way more historical details than expected from a shoot-em-up blaze of dusty saddle grit headin' out into the sunset. The origins of the OPP, and the sheer mobility of both cops and crooks, in crime sprees bereft of anything travelling over 40mph keeps the imagination lubricated alongside what could be construed as a dry telling. Ideal, if you're used to reading historical; and if you analyse for historical etymological crime, as I do, half of those guys, from 1800s and early 1900s Canada, are frozen, unseen in the average Canadian daily grind. From the earliest recorded (in English or French) crooks in Canada, through to unaddressed--to this day, unaddressed--terrors employed in considered renowned penal institutions...well, Kingston Pen harbouring a sick, dark surprise for their stripped dignities...? As told by Butts, the real goals (...not to be confused with gaols) of 'Kingston' calls for a Supreme Court criminal inquiry, even today. Of course, this work not being completed definitely makes at least me worry, as it is (a 'was' type of 'is') nothing short of misery farming...imagine that...Kingston Pen as a trap, in a perverse struggle by men against men. No doubt the thieves hung together, as they were. All the while, 'capturing criminals' as the expected norm, but...not for more crime...