{"id":660737,"date":"2026-05-09T23:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/660737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T23:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:28:11","slug":"today-in-history-may-10-bank-robbers-identity-a-mystery-after-sniper-blows-him-to-smithereens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/660737\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – May 10: Bank robber’s identity a mystery after sniper blows him to smithereens"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bank robber<\/a> was blown to pieces after a police sniper’s bullet detonated the dynamite he was carrying in a small Canadian town on May 10, 1973<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bank robber walked into the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Kenora with six sticks of dynamite strapped to his chest and a rifle in his hand. In his teeth was a “dead man’s switch” which would trigger the dynamite.<\/p>\n

He ordered six duffel bags be filled with cash.<\/p>\n

\"MayThis man has never been identified. (Toronto Public Library)<\/p>\n

As the robber left the building, he was struck by a bullet fired by a police sniper.<\/p>\n

The only other person hurt was Constable Don Milliard, an undercover officer posing as a getaway driver.<\/p>\n

Milliard was only a few metres away, but was largely shielded from the blast by the giant bag of cash he was carrying on his back.<\/p>\n

He suffered a concussion but \ufeffwas spared lasting physical harm.<\/p>\n

The dynamite caused an explosion substantial enough to make identifying the robber impossible.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The sniper’s bullet caused a massive explosion. (Toronto Public Library)<\/p>\n

His identity has still not been established, 50 years on.<\/p>\n

The robber had checked himself into a hotel under the name Paul Higgins, a fake name.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The initial suspect was later found to be alive and well in France.<\/p>\n

More than $100,000 in Canadian cash ($A840,000 in today’s money) was blown all over the street after the blast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly all of it was returned.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/This man has still not been identified. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bank robber was blown to pieces after a police sniper’s bullet detonated the dynamite he was carrying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-660737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}