Manhunt

By 3pm on July 28, 1996, Skipper John Copik and his son Craig had spent ten hours fishing off the coast of Teignmouth, in Southwest England. The nets felt heavy, and when they were hauled in, they held the body of a man - an unidentified, unreported death that became the subject of a six-years-long international manhunt for a famous con artist and murderer.

On March 4, 1952, three men robbed the Bank of Montreal in Toronto. A caretaker mistakenly turned off the alarm so clerks upstairs could not signal police. The increasingly notorious Boyd Gang escaped with almost $25,000, raising their haul over the past three months to an astonishing $72,000. The mayor declared a "reign of terror" and the manhunt for Edwin Alonzo Boyd began.

On the morning of October 5, 1970, two armed men forced their way into 1270 Redpath Crescent in Montreal. The men handcuffed the British High Commissioner of Canada, warned his wife and maid not to call the police and hustled into a taxi. This political act of the Front de libération du Quebec, or FLQ, would tear a country apart, result in the imposition of martial law and spur a massive manhunt.

In 1931, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Alfred "Buns" King cautiously knocked at a log cabin situated eight miles up Canada's Rat River. King was shot by the man inside, a trapper whose name may have been Albert Johnson. A manhunt ensued led by dogsled, foot and plane across the northern tundra region.

Leonard Lake distracted a clerk while his partner-in-crime stole a Chinese-manufactured gray steel Dominion Brand bench vise. This $75 shoplifting spree resulted in a simple car search that led to the discovery of a string of murders and an international manhunt for sex killer Charles Ng.

On July 13, 1910, at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Holloway, a suburb of London, tenacious Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Walter C. Dew and a team of investigators uncovered what proved to be filleted human remains without bones, limbs or heads. Three days later, "Doctor" Hawley Harvey Crippen and Miss Ethel Le Neve became the subjects of an international manhunt.

On October 23, 1998, obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Bernard Slepian returned home from a visit to his synagogue and was making soup in the kitchen when he was killed by a bullet from a high-powered assault rifle. It was not the first murder of an abortionist, but it launched an international manhunt for a man who thought killing was a way to save lives.

Lucius Jack Warren was having his fifth beer at the Pope's Hotel bar when Donald Morrison came back to Megantic. The American bounty hunter had been hired by the local police to hunt down Morrison, who the townsfolk had been hiding. In the warm afternoon shadows of June 22, 1888, Warren drew his gun but was shot dead by his prey. The chase for the murdering Morrison was now and all-out manhunt.

On August 28, 1973, high temperatures shut down elevators in Manhattan's Diplomat Hotel. Two drug buyers walked up ten floors for cocaine that was only 17% pure. Real dealers might have killed the seller for the low quality, but these were narcotics officers arresting 60s political folk hero Abbie Hoffman. Two weeks later, Hoffman skipped bail and became the subject of a seven-year manhunt.

On December 2, 1919, Ambrose Small, well known in theatrical circles in the United States and Canada as the owner of the Grand Opera House in Toronto, was last seen in his office before he disappeared. This episode follows the manhunt for Small by the police, fueled by several newspaper advertisements offering handsome rewards for people who might have information on him.

In 1945, Allied forces occupied Germany after five years of war, and German war criminals including Adolf Eichmann went into hiding. Eichmann visited his family in Austria and gave poison to his wife in case the Russians captured them. On April 30, Hitler committed suicide. Germany surrendered, launching a massive global manhunt for the criminals of war - especially Karl Adolf Otto Eichmann.

The water off Venice Beach, California was a cool 52 F on May 18, 1926 when the most famous woman in the world went for a swim. The disappearance and suspected drowning of Evangelist star Aimee Semple McPherson stole the front pages of newspapers around the world and launched a manhunt that fired an international media frenzy.

On September 10, 1904, the Canadian Pacific Railway's Transcontinental Express left Mission Junction, British Columbia on the last leg of its journey from Toronto to Vancouver. Shortly after departure, bandits forced the train to a halt and stole millions of uninsured securities. They disappeared in the thick mountain mist as Canada's first CPR train robbery resulted in a cross-border manhunt.