Rory Shayne, Montreal's most spectacular criminal

   The most fantastic crime ever committed in Montreal took place almost on this day in 1979 using a highly-spectacular and unusual modus operandi never seen before or since.
   Prison escapee Burkhard Bateman, aka, Rory Shayne, commandeered a helicopter and robbed a bank on Cote Vertu of $12,000 on Feb. 23, 1979.

Shayne, seen cuffed after the 'Couver caper

   Over his entire criminal career, Shayne orchestrated three hostage-takings.
   Shayne was born in Germany to a Canadian father and German mother. They left him in Hamburg as they came to Canada, both reportedly suffering some sorta psychological challenges. He eventually moved to Ontario and ended up in BC where on September 24, 1970, at age 19 he took part in a bizarre sailboat hijacking fiasco in which he shot up a CIBC in downtown Victoria, injuring two cops, and then commandeered a sailboat with two people aboard. He wanted to sail to the states and told his abductees that he felt the world was against him and he had spent three years confined for a car theft in Ontario that he hadn't committed. They eventually got him to surrender to US Coast Guard authorities. He was sentenced to 20 years.
   Shayne was transferred to Le Clerc medium security prison and escaped Dec. 14, 1978 prison and while on the lam knocked over a dozen banks for a haul of about $250,000.
   In one of those robberies on Feb. 23, 1979 , Shayne and his girlfriend (who a witness described as "very ugly") hired a helicopter to take them to Quebec City. They paid $600 to Olympic Helicopters' Hank Ford and then pulled a gun on the pilot. Shayne, who had a collection of guns ranging from pistols to machine guns, pulled a weapon on pilot Le Huu Nguyen and handcuffed him to the helicopter while his girlfriend held a gun on him while he scored $12,000 of loot from the Royal Bank at the Place Vertu shopping centre while about 15 customers were inside.

Copter caper complica Micheline-
Rachel Dubiel

   

(In an entirely unrelated event, about three minutes later elsewhere in the city another bank robbery took place, in which a security guard and cashier were shot. Oh, the good ol' days!)
   Shayne was nabbed on March 2, with girlfriend Rachel Dubiel, 36, of Pierrefonds, who was sentenced to five years, while Shayne got 12, although it was 20 years in total when the others were taken into account.
   Shayne was back in the pen and one year later participated in a prison riot at the Laval Institute, which seemed to have involved yet another hostage taking.
   So they brought him to court in Montreal whereupon he whipped out a gun (possibly hidden in his rectum, according to his then-young laywer Gary Martin) and tried to take a hostage in the courtroom on December 15,1981.
   Martin calmly talked him down. The gun went off twice but the bullets just slid to the ground, possibly wet from being kept in a moist place. He plead guilty of trying to kill judge Martineau and was sentenced to life in prison.
   Back in prison in Laval in Feb. 1982, Shayne complained that he was being beaten regularly by guards following the incident and was being regularly sent to the hole. (West End Gang chronicler Darcy O'Connor actually taught Shayne in prison and has a couple of tales of the guy in his excellent book.)
   He was transferred to Milhaven Ontario and is likely out by now, he would be 60 if he's still kicking around.