Wrong Side of the Law: True stories of Crime

Canada’s criminals might not be as well-known as American outlaws like Billy the Kid and Bonnie and Clyde, but this country has nonetheless had its share of newsworthy bandits, killers, and other desperadoes. British bank robbers on the run turn up in Newfoundland. A legendary Nova Scotia detective matches wits with smugglers. In the West, the Mounties track down bandits and rustlers. Vancouver police officers hunt down the bank-robbing Hyslop Gang in the 1930s. A decade later, the Polka Dot Gang rampages across southern Ontario. The Newton Brothers’ Gang, outlaws from Texas, engage in a gunfight with bank guards on the streets of downtown Toronto. A former Canadian Pacific Railway engineer masterminds a sensational kidnapping in Colorado, and a career criminal from Quebec with a talent for jail-breaking goes on the run, resulting in the largest manhunt in Canadian history and a scandal that almost brought down the government. No matter where the atrocities were committed and no matter what the circumstances, these individuals all had one thing in common: they lived on the wrong side of the law.