The 1973 Kenora Bank Robbery Explosion

The Canadian Gothic

Curiouscast

Society & Culture, Documentary, History, True Crime

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On May 10, 1973, a stranger walked into a bank on Main Street in Kenora, Ontario, carrying guns, duffle bags, and a homemade bomb that was armed to a switch he clenched between his teeth. For more than an hour the standoff dragged on inside the bank as a growing crowd of onlookers crowded the street outside it’s doors. At 4:12 p.m., a single rifle shot ended the robbery in an explosion that shattered windows, scattered money through the air, and erased the man at the center of it all. More than fifty years later, his identity and his motives remain unknown. In this episode of The Canadian Gothic, I’m joined by Jack Luna, host of the Dark Topic podcast, to examine the Kenora Bank Robbery Explosion. Links: the Dead Man (Dark Topic Podcast Episode) - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5vi0tKj0o93GOFGmBaIl8c Joe Ralko’s the Devil’s Gap - https://a.co/d/0rxCjmD CTV’s W5 Special - https://youtu.be/wFoYfEGtrVM?si=QGE2MQUkoALIoSUl Send a voicememo to the show: https://www.thecanadiangothic.com/contact Subscribe to the show: https://www.thecanadiangothic.com/subscribe Musical Theme: Noir Toyko by Monty Datta Social Links: Website: https://www.thecanadiangothic.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCanadianGothic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecanadiangothic/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You can listen to the Canadian Gothic early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
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0:08.2	Welcome to a world of infinite worlds, a world of adventure, possibility, and happily ever afters.
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0:38.1	Hi, Jordan.
0:39.1	This is Lindsay, sending a message from Kenora, Ontario.
0:43.4	I love the show, and every time I listen, I think about sending a voice recording to talk
0:47.8	about the 1973 bank robbery in Kenora, and so this is me doing it.
0:53.1	This story's been told in my family quite a bit because
0:56.0	there's a smidge of a connection. I guess my uncle at the time was quite young and everyone lined
1:03.3	Main Street to watch this ordeal unfold and my uncle was lining the streets with everyone
1:09.6	watching and as this man exploded, a chunk of his
1:13.4	flesh landed on the woman beside my uncle. So that's always the story that comes out when my family
1:18.9	talks about it. But I know it was quite the ordeal. You were listening to Canadian Gothic.
1:26.1	Hello, listeners. Tonight we're going to explore one of Canada's
1:29.3	most bizarre mysteries. It's one wrapped up in a shocking crime that became a public spectacle.
1:35.7	It all happened in Canora, Ontario on the afternoon of May 10, 1973. A man walked into a
	...

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