National Network for Equitable Library Service

In October 1935, three prairie farm boys embarked on a deadly trail of robbery and murder that stretched across three western Canadian provinces and made newspaper headlines from coast to coast and as far away as Los Angeles. By the end of the spree, seven people were dead, including the fugitives themselves and four law-enforcement officers. For the next 70 years, these Depression-era “farm-boy killers” held the distinction of being the RCMP’s deadliest adversaries. In Dirty Thirties Desperadoes, Rich Mole recounts the full story of these young men who achieved notoriety as bandits and killers. In telling their tale, and that of the men who fought for their lives near the gates of Banff National Park, he also chronicles the economic, social and political challenges of the Great Depression that turned men on both sides of the law into victims.