Toy guns and Montreal mayhem they caused

Richard Lanthier

Jan. 1979 Little Richard Lanthier of Greenfield Park used a fake gun to rob every bank on St. Catherine, except his own , the Royal at St. Matthew where he had an account.
    The drug-addled Lanthier was jailed for four years then escaped from a halfway house in December 1978. He robbed a few banks downtown to fund a trip Vancouver in hopes of eventually leaving the country. But Vancouver police shot the father of two dead after he robbed a bank with a fake gun and then it to a man's head in a restaurant and pulled he trigger. He purchased the replica guns for $7.50.
   He was 29.

Jean-Marc Proulx

Nov. 17, 1986 Jean-Marc Proulx, 29, robbed a depanneur on Logan of $300 but owner Guy Guilbeault, 32, came out and shot him dead outside with a licensed .357 magnum he kept under his counter. Guilbealt was not charged.

Lucien Jacques

Mar. 8, 1978 Inmates Roland Simard, Edgar Roussel and Lucien Jacques took guards hostages at St. Jerome Common Jail in 1978 by using a plastic gun. Three convicts held seven guards and 16 inmates hostage for 14 days after tricking the assistant direct Jean Claude Mayer into believe the plastic toy was a 45 calibre pistol. The hostage-takers took real guns from the guards. The siege ended peacefully on March 22.
Aug. 23, 1962 Jean Lesieur, 36, pointed a fake .38 Special Cobra revolver at cops on the third floor of the Vauquelin Cafe at 50 St. James W.. He pointed it at cops who arrived on the scene and they opened fire and seriously wounded him. Lesieur's wife was a waitress at the establishment and he had threatened her in the past. "He's armed and he's going to kill me," she said while running down the stairs.
Jan. 1977 New York City resident Samuel Roosevelt Hopkins, 23, robbed 15 Montreal stores with a toy gun. He was sentenced to eight years in a federal penitentiary.
Nov. 25, 1948 Well-dressed Jean Crepeau, 46, was arrested trying to rob the City and District bank in the east end with a wooden imitation of a small automatic gun near closing time. The alarm was sounded and Crepeau attempted to escape with his useless arbor contraption but customer Benoit Norman wrestled him down.
Mar. 12, 1951 Denise Beauregard, 20, entered the Banque Povincial du Canada on Ontario E. wearing a blue coat and a kerchief over her head and attempted to hold the bank up. A customer slapped the obvious fake gun out of her hand. The 4'11" woman did not resist her arrest and was sent for mental examination.
Aug. 20, 1952 Riva Pastal was held up in the hallway of the Balfour Building a t3575 St. Lawrence. The man grabbed his briefcast as he aimed a nickel-plated gun at him The fake gun was found later.
1976,Rene Ouellette, 24, of Rosemunt Blvd., robbed 19 banks over a five month period, graduating from a toy gun to a pellet gun and finally to a 9 mm semi-automatic Browning pistol.
Feb.  1953 Percy Wayne Mitchell, 31, a veteran criminal, used a toy gun to rob a trio of pharmacies. "using toy pistols or real guns, armed robbers must be stopped in this city," Judge Legrand said.
1952-53 David Darwin, 27,from a good family, used toy guns to pull of six payroll heists totaling $13,000 and finished the job by using adhesive tape between Aug. 1952 and July 1953. He made a complete confession. His father wept.
July 5, 1953 John Brown, 27, a car salesman in LaSalle was nabbed after robbing a Bank of Montreal at University and St. Catherine. The father of one confessed to robbing four other banks with a toy gun previously for a total of 18,253.
March 12, 1951Vincent Perry was busted after a holdup of $2,226 at the Windsor Station Bank of Montreal, which he held up with a toy gun, described by police as a "masquerade pistol," one week earlier. Cops noticed him in Victoria Square due to his sweater. "It was a mild day but people usually don't go around dressed in sweaters, so we took a second look at the guy," said a cop. Perry had recently arrived from New Brunswick.
Nov,. 10, 1963 Isaac Wagen knocked a toy-gun wielding robber over during an attempt to rob the Wagen Fruit Store at 5180 St. Urbain. The would-be robber fled and Wagen kept the gun as a souvenir.
July 19, 1968Andre Boyer intimidated three teens - two girls and one boy - into robbing a credit union in Ville St. Pierre with a toy gun.
Jan. 1980Two youths, one 21, one 12, both from Pierrefonds, were busted after robbing a gas station at 14301 Pierrefonds Blvd and a Esso station at 3340 Sources in Dollard, both with a realistic-looking toy gun.