Posted on 10/20/2005 9:22:17 AM PDT by timsbella
After thirty years running from the law, a man with alleged ties to one of Canada's most notorious gangs has been caught. Christopher Clarkson was arrested in Florida. Clarkson is allegedly a member of the Stopwatch Gang, a group so-named in the 1970s because of their reputation for timing their robberies to the second. The gang was linked to the robberies of more than 100 banks and armoured cars across Canada and the United States. Their biggest job was a $750,000 gold bullion armoured car heist in Ottawa. Clarkson, believed to be 61-years old, allegedly joined the Stopwatch gang in its dying years. He was not linked to any of the gang's alleged bank heists, but was charged for allegedly arranging a drug transaction on the Caribbean island Curacao. He was tried on those charges in Ottawa in 1976. During his trial, he threw a large beer party in the capital, and then promptly left the country. The celebration and escape reportedly angered the trial judge who sentenced Clarkson, in absentia, to 20 years in prison. Clarkson was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at his Hollywood, Florida real estate company. He was working under the name Stephen Willis Duffy. "Clarkson was sentenced to 20 years in prison but fled before he could serve his time," RCMP Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes told CP in Ottawa. "If he comes back to Canada, he will be arrested and he will go to prison." Christopher Clarkson once worked as a CBC producer, and is the nephew of author Stephen Clarkson, the ex-husband of former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. After leaving Canada, he allegedly took the identity of a four-year-old Californian who died in 1948. During a routine U.S. Diplomatic Security Service check of his driver's licence, an alert was raised because it belonged to a dead person. Upon investigation, the agency traced Clarkson to South Florida where he was arrested on charges of passport fraud.
"Christopher Clarkson once worked as a CBC producer"
Before or after he became a thief?
They're called "Snowbirds" in the Florida Panhandle.
That's probably where he got his training as a thief. Since he is related to Adrian Clarkson, you can see how it runs in the familly. The liberals are all crooks in Canada. I'll bet every one of them has a felon in the familly tree. If he is sent back to Canada, he'll be out in less than a year.
At least the dude was smart enough to go South from Canada. I would leave that place even if I didn't have to! :0 )
It's aboot time, eh?
They are charming, smart, funny and corrupt.
Everything that Canadians (and Hollywood and NY and DC) really seem to go for.
The book about them is a good read.
The story about the Canadian gold heist is incredible too.
How interesting that this guy is a Clarkson.
I never heard of him and do not recall him in the book.
There may be a CBC movie on the Stop Watch Gang too.
"There may be a CBC movie on the Stop Watch Gang too."
No doubt produced by the National Film Board supported by a generous grant from the Governer General's Office. All courtesy of my tax dollar.
Although these guys are perfect for Hollywood too.
I can just see Nicholas Cage as the "accountant" and George Clooney as Patrick Mcsomebody (I can't recall his name but he is the gang member who made a really bad mistake or two when he was sentenced in Arizona and Louisiana instead of Canada.)
One of them is an author and fired on the cops in Victoria recently while in a drug induced state.
I think he is getting "treatment".
I bet he was a lousy tipper. My wife worked as a waitress many years ago in Florida. Canadians didn't tip at all.
Give him amnesty - turn about is fair play.
Don't send this poor man back to Paul Martin's cowboy justice system. (sarcasm)
Cash was not a problem.
"The Stopwatch gang are treated like folk heroes in Canada."
They are? I've lived in Canada all my life (38 years) and I'm pretty well read, and my dad was an inveterate CBC listener (heck, I do to, still some of the only halfways intelligent radio to be found, leftist bias or no), and I've never heard of them.
No, it's senior citizens that don't tip well - they're just plain cheap. (one stereotype deserves another)
Very interesting if you like true crime.
Well, if they pulled off their heists without any actual violence I can see where some might have at least a grudging respect for them. Heck, some people treat true murderous outlaws like Jesse James, Butch and Sundance or the Dillinger gang as if they were heroes.
But lots of people do the same.
http:// www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/musgrave_reid.htm
They were always armed and it is just plain luck that no innocents were killed.
Too bad, their pictures on this page are classic. This is from before Reid fired on Vicoria police.
The Poet and the Bandit: The Life and Times of Susan Musgrave and Stephen Reid
She is the rebellious poet with a penchant for dangerous men; he is a man with a habit of robbing banks – they were married in a penitentiary. The uncommon love story of Susan Musgrave and Stephen Reid, The Poet and the Bandit, is told on Life and Times. After two failed marriages and other edgy relationships, Musgrave encountered Stephen Reid while working as a writer in residence at Waterloo University. Reid submitted a manuscript and it was the beginning of a relationship that would blossom behind bars. It was a romance conducted by letters that would result in a prison marriage and a honeymoon surrounded by cyclone fencing and razor wire. Years before in 1968, the couple had been at the same love-in in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, but the ‘flower children’ didn’t meet until many years later.
Today Musgrave and Reid live in a treehouse in Victoria, raising 2 daughters and pursuing their literary careers. They’ve overcome the initial obstacles that threatened their marriage, and both seem to have found peace.
The Poet and the Bandit tells the story of a fascinating, and highly unusual couple. Friends, family, teachers, and colleagues join Susan Musgrave and Stephen Reid in telling the story of their lives - from their turbulent early years to the tranquility they’ve found together today.
Original Air Date - January 15, 1999
Excuses? Not me. Just pointing out that many violent criminals have reached the status of folk hero despite their lack of redeeming values.
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