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Canadian Crimes and Capers    by Angela Murphy Amazon.com order for
Canadian Crimes and Capers
by Angela Murphy
Order:  USA  Can
Lone Pine, 2005 (2005)
Paperback
* *   Reviewed by Martina Bexte

Canadian Crimes and Capers takes readers on a cross-country tour that features a host of criminals you may - or may not - have heard about before. Angela Murphy covers a period of over 150 years, discussing the criminal activity and history of individuals who 'failed to be concerned with the harm that resulted from their actions'.

Take for example these two very recent cases: Dr. John Schneeberger routinely sedated and sexually assaulted his female patients and went so far as to cut open his arm to insert a fake tube of blood to confound DNA tests. He was eventually nabbed and deported back to South Africa. Then there's Nick Lysyk, an Edmonton bank manager who embezzled over sixteen million dollars that he spent on flashy cars, flashier homes and women. Lysyk is now serving time, but millions have yet to be repaid.

Step a little further back in Canadian history and read about British Columbia's gentleman highwayman, Bill Miner, who stole thousands of dollars from railway baggage cars. Or learn about Valentine Shortis, a wealthy young man whose downward slide into crime - and eventually punishment - bordered on the bizarre and covered a span of forty years. And the RCMP are reputed to 'always get their man' - that's exactly what they did on their wild fifty-day chase through the Arctic wilderness to apprehend 'Mad Trapper Albert Johnson'.

Those are only a few of the stories in Canadian Crimes and Capers. This slim volume is very readable and is filled with many more fascinating facts about some of Canada's most colorful and notorious criminals.

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