Some of you might recall a post I wrote a few months ago about Paddy Mitchell, Ottawa’s favourite bank robber: Life is cheap in Prison.
Paddy was born in a house at the north end of Preston Street in Ottawa, just about a block from where I live now. Sixty-four years later, he’s dying of cancer in a US federal prison hospital facility in Butner, North Carolina.
Paddy has spent the last 15 years in US maximum security prisons. He was well-loved and well-respected, as bank robbers go, perhaps because none of the members of The Stopwatch Gang ever fired a gun while committing a robbery or escaping from prison. Even the police had a grudging respect for Paddy, while the media helped elevate him to something just short of folk-hero status.
Now he wants to come home to die. His family and friends are trying to make that happen through the Canada/US Prisoner Exchange Treaty. We want him in Canada, preferably in Kingston Ontario, which is close to home, so he and his family can get to spend his last few months together.
In a letter he wrote to me before he was diagnosed with cancer, Paddy said, with respect to the prospect of a transfer back to Canada, “The United States wants its pound of flesh, and I can’t say I blame them.”
I’d say they got their pound of flesh when they ignored the tumor growing out of his chest for a year after he first noticed it and asked for medical attention. Now they owe him. The least they can do is send him home to die.
If you’d like to help bring Paddy home, the Mitchell family is asking that we send letters to our MPs or anybody else who might be able to help, and ask them to get involved. I’m writing mine tonight.
You know by now that I’m a big fan of Paddy. I was sorry to read about his plight since being imprisoned in the US and I know from other peoples experience what a hell the US prison and legal system can be.
I will send my fax off tomorrow to MP Scott Reid. I can’t stand some of his very conservative politics but in other areas he’s a level headed guy who I’ve met personally on a few occassions.
Thanks Techwood. I sent a letter to my MP this morning. I wonder if there’s more I could be doing?
If Karla Homolka can walk the streets for what she has done there is know reason why Paddy Mitchell who never in his whole life never hurt anyone cannot be brought back to Canada to serve out his time as he is dying of cancer anyway.
I am an Ottawa native and curiosity with Paddys story brought me to your site. I have followed this story with interest for over 25 years as I attended school with Paddys’ son. It is amazing the judicial system is anything but just. A parallel story in Frank Abagnale of the film “Catch me if you can” is walking the streets a free man and yet Paddy is still incarcerated. I will contact my local MP and demand an answer to this terrible situation. Paddy, Good Luck and God Bless,
Farewell to Paddy Mitchell.