Please also visit the Gibson House Museum’s website for many more ongoing exhibitions and events!
Photograph © Gary Gould
About The Author
‘Mark Bulgutch is a journalist, educator, speaker, and the author of the instant #1 national bestseller Extraordinary Canadians and three other books. He worked for CBC for forty years, eleven as the senior editor of The National and another ten as senior executive producer of all live news specials. He taught at Toronto Metropolitan University for thirty-five years. A regular contributor of opinion columns to The Toronto Star, he has won fourteen Gemini Awards, four RTDNA Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation Award of Excellence, and the Canadian Association
of Broadcasters Gold Ribbon Award. He lives in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter
@MarkBulgutch.’
That’s what Simon & Schuster says about Mark Bulgutch. But let’s back up a little.
Mark worked most of his career as a journalist behind-the-scenes – ‘senior editor’,
‘senior executive producer’ – and this doesn’t mention his role in producing the CBC
Olympic coverage for several years. His bestseller may be Extraordinary Canadians, but his tour-de-force is his book That’s Why I’m a Journalist. His extensive knowledge of the many contributors to his collection on Journalism and the familiarity of the names in the book make this book a special read.
Mark will be speaking on his books with a special reference to That’s Why I’m a
Journalist. Don’t miss this talk by an important contributor to what can only be called documentary history and a great read. And, by the way, Mark lives here in North York.
Nate Hendley is a Toronto-based journalist and true-crime author. His most recent book, The Beatle Bandit, won the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Non-Fiction 2022. Nate has also written books about gangsters, cons and hoaxes, and bandit duo Bonnie and Clyde. For more information about Nate’s books and background, visit his website at www.natehendley.com.
The Beatle Bandit: A Serial Bank Robber’s Deadly Heist, A Cross-Country Manhunt, and the Insanity Plea that Shook the Nation.
Matthew Kerry Smith was a troubled navy veteran who robbed Toronto-area banks in the early 1960s to finance a one-man revolution. On July 24, 1964, disguised in a Halloween mask and a “Beatle” wig, Smith held up a bank at Bathurst Manor Plaza in North York, Ontario. Smith killed a patron who tried to intervene, then escaped. Dubbed “The Beatle Bandit” by the media, Smith’s actions fueled a nationwide debate about gun control, insanity pleas, and the death penalty.
The book, The Beatle Bandit, written by Nate Hendley and published in November 2021 by Dundurn Press, details Smith’s life.