{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/62471f9b30fb610012001dd0/69fdbaf8051b78474e241db9?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Red Ryan: Canada’s Fake Reformed Gangster","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/62471f9b30fb610012001dd0/1778235872643-0e09a3f5-57af-47dd-b635-dce490e33628.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>Rhys and Jesse dive into the wild life of Red Ryan, a Toronto-born hooligan who grew into one of Canada’s most notorious early 20th‑century criminals. From leading street gangs at 10, to hard labor in Kingston Penitentiary, to a wartime desertion and a “most daring” prison break that even inspired Ernest Hemingway, Ryan’s story is packed with chaos.</p><p><br></p><p>They unpack how Ryan pulled off a decade‑long scam as a “reformed” model prisoner—writing a book, sculpting Virgin Mary statues, charming a prison chaplain, and emerging as a media darling with his own radio show—while secretly robbing banks on the side. It all ends in a bloody liquor store shootout in Sarnia that shocks a country that thought it had found its redemption poster boy.</p><p><br></p><p>Plus, in the STD (Small Talk Dimension) zone, Jesse recounts a ridiculously elaborate 1745 powdered‑wig dinner party, complete with questionable Scottish accents, Jacobite plotting, and a near “diplomatic incident” over a misunderstood signature.</p>","author_name":"Jesse Harley, Rhys Waters "}