Criminal Addiction | Ricky Atkinson and the Dirty Tricks Gang
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A mixed-race boy living in a poor Toronto neighborhood was looking for role models and an outlet for his rage against white society. Would he take the straight path like his father and work a legitimate job? Or would he take the crooked path some of his relatives had taken? These were men who drove Cadillacs and wore fine clothes and seemed to live for the night. In the end, Ricky took both paths.

He would become leader of the notorious Dirty Tricks gang that terrorized Toronto for a decade, spend nearly half his life in prison, and finally battle his way free of a criminal addiction. Part 1: The Apple and the Gun In the early 1960s, Sonny Atkinson managed the Army and Navy Club, a bar in downtown Toronto. Each evening, he brought home the till money for safekeeping.

He also brought home his .38 revolver, which he hid in his bedroom. But one night, he didn't hide it well enough. The next day, his five-year-old son, Ricky, found it. And once he felt the power of the cold steel in his palm, he imagined himself as John Dillinger, Robin Hood, and William Tell. Ricky got an apple. Now he just needed a head to shoot it off. His four-year-old brother, Duane, would do perfectly.

The pair went into the backyard, and Dwayne put the apple on his head. Ricky held up the revolver, surprised by the weight of it, and pulled the trigger. Except it wouldn't budge. The young boy didn't realize the safety was on. The apple had rolled off Dwayne's head too, but Ricky was not about to give up.

He hit the gun against his thigh and banged it on the ground. Then, with Duane taking the role of human pedestal again, and the apple back in his sightlines, Ricky took aim. This time, as his finger brushed the trigger, he knew he'd freed it, and that the device would fire. But just as Ricky was about to pull the trigger, a voice screamed from the kitchen, louder than he'd ever heard before. The voice belonged to his mother,

Ricky froze and dropped the gun. He would later say, "That's my first memory of doing something really, really bad." A life was saved that time, but Ricky would not always be so lucky. Sonny, Ricky's dad, was an ex-military man. He was also black and part indigenous. Ricky's mother was Ukrainian. As a tri-racial kid growing up poor in 1960s Toronto, Ricky faced racism and discrimination.

He was called sickening racial insults and harassed by neighbors and the local cops. He remembered places where his dad wasn't allowed inside and gas stations that would not serve black gas. But his father, Sonny, believed in working with the white man. He was tough, but law-abiding. Sonny turned his back on crime, except he was still surrounded by it because his brothers had taken the crooked path.

They operated in a nighttime world of pimps, thieves, and hustlers. And these flashy men impressed Ricky, who recalled their pink clothes, diamond rings, and wide-brim mink hats. He said, "I knew a guy who had mink underwear." These men with their money and style would become his role models. Ricky said, "It's the attraction of the dark side. I wanted to be the best of the nighttime, not the best of the day."

Ricky's dad used his military skills of self-control and discipline to de-escalate situations. He chose tactical survival. But Ricky saw another way forward, and he wasn't the only one. Ricky's friend Owen, along with brother Duane and the other neighborhood kids, formed a street gang. Ricky was the leader, and stealing was their business. Ricky had been stealing for a while already.

At three and a half, he stole some bananas from Kensington Market. At four, he stole a bouquet of flowers, which he gave to his older brother who was trying to woo a young woman. Candy and small items were easy targets for Ricky and his gang. The boys knew the neighborhood and all the ways to escape down back alleys, up fire escapes, and across roofs. These kids were like alley cats and just as hard to catch. But that was about to change. Part 2

Detention. Ricky and his family moved into Alexandra Park, a public housing project near Kensington Market. The area had a high concrete wall around it, keeping out the surrounding community. Ricky thought of Alexandra Park as a prison. He said, "Your vision as a kid changes when you're in a ghetto to one of pessimism. You get to understand your social position. You have less opportunities than the rest of society."

At age 10, Ricky and his friend, Junior, were arrested for stealing bicycle bells. The two kids were thrown in a cruiser and taken to the police station. They were charged with theft, then sent home. But days later, they would appear in court. Sonny got a lawyer friend to represent Ricky, and he was released without jail time. Ricky would remember the look of the lawyer's expensive suit and the softness of his hands and his firm handshake. Ricky decided he wanted to study law.

But later, in high school, his guidance counselor would say, "There are no black lawyers." He advised Ricky to become a carpenter instead. The police were racist too and targeted Ricky and his friends. One day, Junior and Ricky were riding their bikes when the cops stopped them and demanded to see the contents of their pockets. Junior had a pack of matches.

The cops accused the two boys of using the matches to burn down empty buildings. They used racial slurs, then arrested the boys for arson. When Ricky's parents found out what had happened and that the two boys were in custody, they stormed the police station, and the youngsters were released. Ricky's parents would not tolerate racist police harassment, yet it was everywhere, and it affected Ricky. His attitude became "us against them."

The core gang of Ricky, Dwayne, Junior, and Owen decided to fight back against white people. One trick was to place burning bags of feces on doorsteps, then ring the doorbell and run away. Another was to fill a bottle with urine and tie it to a fishing line from a rooftop. When the boys saw a white person walking along the sidewalk, they would release the line. They also ended up doing the very things the cops had falsely accused them of.

They burned down abandoned buildings, stole purses, broke windows, and damaged cars. They also tried to stay out of trouble. The gang joined the Boy Scouts, but were kicked out for fighting. Ricky worked odd jobs. He took up boxing. But the pull of the street and adventure was irresistible. Crime was becoming an addiction. One night, the boys were walking around when they spotted a grocery store.

Someone had left the interior lights on, but the place appeared empty. They broke in and filled two boxes with their favorite foods, then dragged their haul to a back alley. They were dividing up their take when they noticed a gun among the items. One of the boys said he found it in a desk drawer. Ricky handed it to Duane and went on dividing up the haul when a car drove slowly past the mouth of the alley, then stopped. A man got out. He was white and carrying a gun.

The kids knew instantly he was a cop. They sprang up and ran. The cop ordered the boys to stop and threatened to shoot. Seconds later, bullets flew past their heads. Ricky took off through the back alleys and rooftops he knew so well. But the cop finally caught up with him. At the police station, everyone wanted to know about the gun. The cop had seen one of the kids holding a gun and swore he heard it fired. They grilled Ricky about this mystery gun.

But he pleaded innocence. He didn't have any gun. Also, the weather had been stormy that night, with lots of thunder and lightning. Ricky suggested that maybe what the cop heard was a bolt of thunder. They stuck him in an interrogation room for six hours. Ricky was pretty sure he would get a slap on the wrist like last time when he and Junior stole the bicycle bells. Maybe that same lawyer would take his case. The one with the soft hands and nice suit.

But Ricky was older now, and the cops had other ideas. The door opened and officers dragged him into another room. A hood was put over his head, and for an hour, someone swung a pillowcase filled with phone books at his head and ribs. Later, another cop gave him a beating, this time without the hood. Ricky was left alone for the night, bruised and bleeding. Days later, he would be placed in juvenile detention.

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Coming to ABC and Hulu. Amanda Riley was a mother, wife, speaker at her church. And then she got diagnosed with cancer. A beloved young Christian woman fighting a battle undeserved. We thought she was God's gift, but she was a liar. Why would somebody fake count her? From the number one smash hit pod

Part 3: The Black Panther The sickening racism that Ricky had been confronted with his whole life had lit a fire of rage inside him. When Ricky was 16, someone came along who understood his rage.

The man's name was Warren Hart, and he was a member of the Black Panthers, a political organization that promoted black power. Warren wanted to spread the movement into Canada and was looking for recruits. Ricky and his gang immediately fell under the man's spell, and they listened carefully as he taught them military tactics like demolition, bomb making, police avoidance, diversion, and surveillance. But Warren wasn't just about education.

He wanted the boys to make money for the cause, and the money they would steal would be sent to the Black Panthers in the States. Warren decided their first job would be robbing a bakery during business hours, and for the first time, Ricky and his crew would be armed. While they were experienced thieves by this time, armed robbery was a different skill. The young bandits were caught, and 17-year-old Ricky was sent to prison for four years.

Later, Rickey would discover that Warren Hart was working undercover for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The RCMP was on a mission to root out radicals. In the end, they helped create one in Rickey. In prison, and with time on his hands, Rickey read about black politics and power. Books like Black Skin, White Skin by Frantz Fanon and Black Boy by Richard Wright.

He also devoured former Black Panther, Eldridge Cleaver's soul on ice. From Cleaver's writing, Ricky gained self-discipline and learned how to conduct himself in the world. The only life rule of Cleaver's he did not take up was his advice to rape black women as a prelude to raping white women. Ricky wrote, "That's wrong in every way." A few years later, Eldridge Cleaver would be on a speaking tour and scheduled to appear at a Toronto hotel.

With his Panther days behind him, the now born-again Christian was also on bail while waiting to face charges of attempting to murder three policemen. Assault to commit rape, assault to commit murder, and assault with a deadly weapon. A local politician was against the event. He said, "It's a mockery of justice to have him wandering around the country giving speeches." But the former Minister of Information for the Black Panthers would give his speech and say,

I have no fixed fee. I would talk for nothing about Jesus Christ. 200 people attended the $25 a plate fundraising event at the Holiday Inn. Meanwhile, in prison, Ricky not only read books, but he also continued boxing. And after his release, he spent time in Montreal, where he took up the sport again. He became the Montreal champ, Quebec champ, Eastern Canadian champ, and the Canadian amateur champ of 1975.

When he finally returned to his old Toronto neighborhood, he was both a boxing champion and a politicized leader. He said to his old crew, "Let's take from the white man all that we can, because he's taken from us for 400 years." The boys had failed in their first armed robbery, but they would learn from their mistakes. They were men now too. And from Warren Hart's teachings, they had learned a lot of dirty tricks. Part four, dirty tricks.

After winning in the ring in 1975, Ricky and his gang were back at work. But not every heist went smoothly. Ricky cracked a safe in a grocery store and got 20 months. Over two decades, he would be arrested a dozen times. About Ricky's gang, the police would say, "They caused nothing but trouble." By 1981, Ricky's crew were specialists in armed robbery. Ricky had also adopted Warren Hart's teachings.

His gang was careful. They cased their targets and used lookouts. They studied street maps to determine where the police would come from and found creative ways to block their access. They were tactical. Ricky even took a course in applying makeup to improve his skill at disguises. Grudgingly impressed by Ricky's attention to detail and the planning that went into his robberies, one officer would say, "Most robbers are dumb, but he was smart."

In 1981, Ricky was just 26 years old when the gang targeted a downtown bank near Kensington Market. Ricky spent time preparing for the heist. Once inside a bank, most robberies take no more than two minutes. But Ricky needed three to five minutes for this heist, and he had to find a way to hold off the police. On the day of the heist, gang members coordinated a diversion.

They abandoned 11 stolen cars in streets and intersections surrounding the bank and lit them on fire. They also phoned in a false alarm telling the 911 operator that a cop was shot. In the confusion, other gang members held up the bank, but there was one flaw in the well-executed robbery. Ricky's guys stole the wrong box. The gang only made $4,000 in the heist. After he paid out everyone, Ricky lost money on the job.

But 17 days later, the gang was at it again. This time, Ricky targeted a suburban bank. After the gang fled, the police raced to the bank. But as they neared the crime scene, their vehicles mysteriously slowed, then ground to a halt. Every car cop had deflated tires, and laying on the ground were hundreds of pieces of garden hose, each studded with two-inch nails.

Ricky had constructed the spike belts so a nail would always point up no matter how they fell. The police called Ricky's crew the Dirty Tricks Gang because they used dirty tricks like spike belts. But the police also got ideas from the gang. Today, spike belts are in use in police forces across North America.

That heist netted the gang $7,500. 17 days later, on March 12th, 1981, the Dirty Tricks gang struck again. Owen, one of the members who'd been friends with Ricky since they were kids in first grade stealing candy, was set to take part in the heist. The night before, Owen felt hopeful for his future. He was determined to put crime behind him and start over in Vancouver with his girlfriend.

The police didn't know him there, and he'd heard there were lots of jobs in the Pacific Coast city. He just needed one more robbery job to get enough money for the down payment on an apartment. The next day, Owen set off, along with the other gang members. Meanwhile, the police wanted the Dirty Tricks gang off the streets, and were covertly watching banks, waiting for them to strike.

A couple of days before the heist, an officer in an unmarked car had seen people casing an East End bank. The police suspected Dirty Tricks was preparing their next heist, and they were right. While Ricky, Owen, and other members of the gang arrived on the scene, the police were ready. But they decided to do nothing.

After seeing the suspects, who were wearing ski masks and theatrical makeup, enter the bank, a commanding officer on the scene said, "I realized that it would be foolhardy to attempt an arrest or apprehension at that time because of the dangers to bank employees, customers, and the possibility of a hostage situation." So, the police set up two roadblocks instead. After the robbery, the gang split up, four in a car and two in a van.

The first vehicle crashed into the roadblock. Gang members tried to escape, but the police opened fire. Three of Ricky's guys would be wounded in crossfire, and Owen would take a bullet to the heart and die. He would not get the chance to start over in Vancouver. Meanwhile, the two men in the van managed to slip through the other roadblock and race south into the city, with the police in pursuit and firing at them.

"It was going 100 miles an hour," the bystander said. I thought to myself, "Gee, that guy can drive. The police were right behind." But the van, now pockmarked with bullet holes, got stuck in a shopping area of narrow streets blocked with delivery trucks. The two men fled, but police would catch up with one of them. But the other thief ran up a fire escape, leapt across roofs and disappeared, just like he'd done as a kid growing up in Alexandra Park.

That was Ricky. The gang made off with $25,000, but this time it was recovered by the police. The men were charged with robbery, using firearms, and attempted murder. And months later, the officers involved in taking down the Dirty Tricks gang received gold medals. Except the gang wasn't taken down. Ricky was still at large. He was also shaken up by Owen's death. Ricky's rule was that no one gets hurt.

But now, his childhood friend had died. While he grieved Owen's death, he had to keep going. By now, Ricky was addicted to crime. He said, "Getting away with it was all that mattered. Crime is addictive. Stealing is addictive. Just ask any housewife who shoplifts." Part 5: Mad Dog

Back in Alexandra Park, Sonny Atkinson, Ricky's father, was working with the local government to turn the low-income public housing project into a co-op. He wanted to remove the stigma of public housing and give tenants pride in and rights over their homes. He also wanted to rid the place of crime.

At the same time, his son, Ricky, led one of the most sophisticated robbery networks Toronto and Canada had ever seen. Five years after Owen's death, Ricky had regrouped and was back hitting banks and jewelry stores. And he was still using the tactical advantages he had learned and refined over the years. In one job, Ricky crawled across a ladder from the roof of a bank to a waiting car.

In another, his crew tailed a police cruiser that was tailing them. Ricky intercepted police scanners, and his gang used walkie-talkies. They always seemed to be one step in front of the police, but the police were growing frustrated. Operation Nightmare was set up to bring down the Dirty Tricks gang once and for all. In March of 1986, two banks were hit in the same week, netting $48,000 for the robbers. Was this the work of the Dirty Tricks gang?

Ricky says he robbed over 100 banks, though he was only ever charged with 16. We'll never know about those two hits, but we know about one that happened a month later. Three of Ricky's guys entered a jewelry store. One was holding a crowbar. He said, "Everyone freeze!" Then he smashed display cases and grabbed jewels while the two other guys threatened staff and shoppers.

All three fled in a van, which was later found abandoned and empty, except for a tiny pendant. That was the only item recovered from the $1.4 million heist. On August 22nd, Ricky's guys hit a suburban bank, but this time, the cops were using the same tricks. They had been watching Ricky's home and trailing his guys. They had seen them case the bank on two occasions.

They were monitoring their calls, and they knew Ricky was the leader of the gang, and that he operated out of a West End basement apartment. The cops waited and watched as four men entered the bank. One was wearing a clown's mask, the other had a stocking over his head. Minutes later, the gang members ran out of the bank, but heavily armed officers were waiting and swarmed them. Two men were arrested, and two others took off in a van, but they were stopped at a roadblock and arrested.

And finally, the cops picked up Ricky at his home. Now they had enough evidence to put the Dirty Tricks gang away, for good. While the gang's rule was to never hurt anyone, bank employees were nervous and traumatized after the holdup, and some reported feeling physically ill. Meanwhile in court, the four men pleaded guilty to robbery and related charges.

But the Crown surprisingly sought out the testimony of an informant and occasional member of the Dirty Tricks gang. The man was David Atkinson, and he was a relative of Ricky and Dwayne's. His nickname was Mad Dog. Mad Dog was on record saying he "likes to hurt people." Not surprisingly, he had a history of violence. At age eight, he cut a man's ear off with a brick. He had been a cocaine addict, an extortionist, an armed robber, and an enforcer.

Diagnosed as a violent psychopath, Mad Dog once stabbed his own father, beat his pregnant sister and caused her to miscarry, and cut off a man's toe for revenge. In exchange for his testimony against the Dirty Tricks gang, David "Mad Dog" Atkinson received a new identity and a monthly paycheck of $1,150 from the government. The gang was caught

But Mad Dog, a known psychopath, was living free and on the taxpayer's purse. The deal was controversial and people wondered if the ends justified the means. Back in court, the gang members pleaded guilty to a total of 62 charges and during the trial were housed in a modified jury box surrounded by bulletproof glass.

The judge named Ricky the commander of this very dangerous gang and one that netted over 2 million during its decade of existence. The gang members were sentenced to a total of 82 years behind bars, but Ricky would receive the longest sentence. At just 33 years old, he would go to prison for 32 years.

Again, the police handed out medals. Ontario's Attorney General said, "We got the most sophisticated gang in Ontario history off the streets." But would this really be the end of Ricky Atkinson and the Dirty Tricks Gang? Part 6: The Straight Path With the gang incarcerated, and Mad Dog renamed and relocated somewhere in the country, Toronto quieted. But Ricky kept busy.

In prison, he co-founded the Black Inmates Friends Association, or BIFA. This group was designed to bring together black inmates and allies to foster inclusivity and to defuse racism. It was the first multiracial, all-inclusive group in any prison in North America. BFIA groups now operate throughout Canada, the US, and England. Ricky also became a television producer.

While Ricky was in the Kingston Penitentiary, inmates got their hands on video cameras and produced a show called "Contact" for a local cable channel. Inmates were interviewed about issues on the inside, and people across the country and in other prisons could call in. The show was inmate-produced, from cameras and lights to conducting interviews, editing, and producing.

A March 2nd, 1995 episode described a violent, all-male emergency response in the prison for women, where female inmates were hauled from the cells wearing little more than hospital gowns. The women recounted their ordeal, and the episode prompted an inquiry which led to the closing of the prison for women. A Kingston-based filmmaker said the television show was "the only prisoner-made television series in North America to be publicly broadcast as a weekly series."

and the show was completely uncensored. Contact was on air from 1991 to 1996, and Ricky worked on it as a producer and an interview subject. About the influence of the show, he said, "It gave me the idea that I could do something other than crime." 10 years later, Ricky would be out on parole at age 41 and be able to test that theory.

He spoke to youth about his life of crime and explained how it sucks and how the money's not good. Even if you have the bling, your eyes are always in the rearview mirror. He opened a boxing gym to train young boxers. He did appearances on television. He talked to anyone who would listen about reasons to avoid a life of crime. Even when you're at the top of the game, you have to worry about police arrest, assassination from your own gang members, and assassination from other gangs.

So it's never a peaceful, enjoyable life." He told people, "Look at my story to see the tracks not to follow." Trying to set up a bank account, he faced more than one barrier. He'd never had a legitimate job in his life. So he didn't have a social insurance number, which is Canada's version of a social security number. And there was the stigma of being an ex-con. When Ricky couldn't produce the right ID, the manager came over and he showed him his Correctional Services Canada ID.

The manager said, "You're not getting an account here. Go somewhere else." Ricky just shrugged. He'd never had a problem in a bank before. He used to say, "Give me the money," and they always gave him the money. He said, "Now I'm trying to give them money. I've got $1,500 and they won't take it." Out on parole, Ricky said he was a changed man, but was he?

While at a television station to be interviewed about how he had overcome his addiction to crime, he took a call from a contact in St. Kitts about a cocaine smuggling job. But the police were listening in. They had wired Ricky's phone. They also had an RCMP officer working undercover among his associates. It would come out that Ricky was working with contacts in Brazil and St. Kitts to smuggle 200 kilos of cocaine into the country.

The undercover agent had agreed to sell the drugs to western provinces. But in a phone conversation, Ricky and his Saint Kitts contact were beginning to suspect the gang member. That meant the police had to move and Ricky was arrested. He wasn't a changed man. The judge declared that Ricky Atkinson was addicted to crime. He would be sentenced to 20 more years behind bars. Part 7: The Wall

Back in prison, Ricky ran into one of the young people he'd warned against the criminal life. He said, "Why didn't you listen to me?" The young person said, "Why didn't you listen to yourself?" Would Ricky ever change? In 2012, he was released on parole again. This time, he wrote a book about his life. He also took up pottery. When he was doing time at a prison in Mission, British Columbia, he took a course in clay. Ricky said,

Through a lump of clay, I created something a guard wanted to buy, and I saw success in that. Meanwhile, back in Alexandra Park, the public housing project had become a cooperative and was named the Atkinson Co-op, after Sonny. And the wall that used to separate the area from its neighbors was still there, but Sonny had it cut down to half the size. Alexandra Park was no longer a prison, it was a home.

Today, Ricky teaches pottery and boxing to young people in the old neighborhood, and he still speaks to anyone who will listen about the perils of criminal life. He said, three different judges said that with my skills and business acumen, I could have run a Fortune 500 company. Instead, I chose crime. Thanks for listening. Be sure to click that follow button with all notifications on to get notified every time a new episode is released.