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Edwin Alonzo Boyd, bank robber (b at Toronto 2 Apr 1914). The son of a Toronto policeman, Boyd hoboed across the country as a youth and had minor scrapes with the law during the Depression of the 1930s. He served with the Canadian Army in WWII but, failing to find adequate employment in the postwar years, he turned to crime. Operating at first as a lone bandit, then later with a gang, Boyd committed several daring bank robberies in the late 1940s and early 1950s, most of them in the Toronto area. His holdups and 2 spectacular escapes from the Don Jail brought him notoriety.
On 6 March 1952, 2 members of the Boyd Gang, Steve Suchan and Leonard Jackson, killed Edmund Tong, a Toronto police detective, and were later hanged for the murder. Boyd was not involved in the homicide, but for his robberies and jail breaks he was sentenced on 16 October 1952 to life imprisonment. He was eventually paroled and retired to private life under a new identity.
 Don JailDon Jail, Toronto (courtesy Archives of Ontario/5.15356).
Author
EDWARD BUTTS
Suggested Reading
M. Lamb and B. Pearson, The Boyd Gang (1976).
Links to Other Sites
Toronto's Infamous 'Boyd Gang'
Radio and television news stories from CBC Archives about Edwin Alonzo Boyd and his notorious criminal gang.
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