Fashion Plate Bandit

Based on articles from the Daily Miner and News Sept. 21 – Oct. 8, 1954

For one week in the fall of 1954, Keewatin residents were caught up in the drama of a daring daylight bank robbery and the subsequent manhunt and capture of “The Fashion Plate Bandit”.

Dubbed the ‘Fashion Plate Bandit’ because he was wearing a belted sports jacket with matching hat ‘in the latest style’, the man, later identified as Raymond Leonard Schultz robbed the Keewatin Royal Bank just after 1pm on Tuesday, September 21, making off with $11,597.

Schultz had visited the bank on Monday under the pretence of making inquiries regarding the sending of a wire to a Halifax bank. When he returned on Tuesday, he continued the pretence. As bank manager James Rolston began to write up the order, Schultz pulled a sawed-off shotgun from where it was hidden in his jacket and forced bank employees to hand over bundles of bills.

He stashed the bundles in his pockets and got into a waiting taxi. He had told taxi driver Charlie Powell that he wanted to cash a cheque. Powell had no indication that anything was wrong until his fare pulled a gun and forced him out of the cab. Schultz then escaped in the taxi, abandoning it on the west highway.

The big break in the case came Wednesday when police apprehended the young woman who was Schultz’s accomplice.

Rhoda Joyce Millard of BC was arrested in Winnipeg as she was attempting to return to Kenora to rendezvous with Schultz. Although she didn’t participate in the actual robbery, she was waiting by the side of the highway when Schultz escaped. As Schultz passed by, he threw about $1500 to the waiting Millard. Following the drop, Millard made her way to Winnipeg by bus.

With the information provided by Millard, police prepared to take her place at the planned rendezvous on Beach Road. On Thursday night, OPP officers staked out the area while Constable Bob MacGarva, disguised to resemble Millard, drove to the meeting point.

When Schultz approached the car, he was apprehended by Chief Pike and Constable Cox.

At the time of his arrest, Schultz was carrying a loaded sawed-off shotgun as well as a .38 caliber revolver he had taken from the Royal Bank. Police recovered all but $100 of the stolen money.

On October 8^th, following an earlier guilty plea, Schultz was sentenced to serve six years in a Manitoba penitentiary. Millard received a two-year suspended sentence and was released into her parent’s custody.