Remembering Mississauga's “Great Chase of ‘63”

Burrows' police car, showing bullet holes, from Port Credit Weekly, May 30, 1963.

It all began in late April of 1963 and unravelled a few weeks later in a hail of bullets near Cooksville amidst a convoluted (and poorly thought-out) plan to infiltrate the FLQ. Sounds far fetched, doesn’t it? But it happened, and it was quite the sensation in the local and national newspapers at the time.

Melvin George Brown (1928-c1983), aged 35, of Houston, Texas and Donald Eugene Cotham (1930-1981), aged 33, of Tacoma, Washington hatched a plan to infiltrate Le Front de Liberation Quebecois (FLQ) in Quebec … via British Columbia, Hamilton and eventually historic Mississauga. Their plan, without detailing how they planned to accomplish it, was to acquire funds, join the FLQ, capture its leaders, and hold them for ransom.

Headline from The Globe and Mail newspaper, June 27, 1963

Melvin Brown had an extensive rap sheet that included forgery, theft, burglary and auto theft dating back to the early 1950s. Likewise, Donald Cotham had a criminal history dating back over 18 years that including trying to break a cousin out of federal prison. Both had been, in separate instances, dishonorably discharged from U.S. military service as well. It is not known how the two met.

The two men reportedly arrived in British Columbia in late April of 1963 with the idea of meeting a contact for the FLQ. Although it is not said what happened with that meeting other than Melvin Brown saying that things “did not work out”, the two men made their way east to Hamilton by early May, where they planned to meet with another FLQ contact.

Presumably short of cash, and not quite in Quebec (or having infiltrated the FLQ) yet, Brown and Cotham found themselves near Cooksville on Monday, May 27, 1963. They targeted the Royal Bank of Canada branch on Dundas Street, east of Dixie Road, to fix their need for quick capital. They cased the bank in early morning hours. They returned around 11 am and parked their car at the rear of the bank. Bank teller Patrick Gruber described the two as looking like a couple of “ordinary Joes”. Brown and Cotham walked into the bank through the front door, and immediately pulled their guns, telling the staff of five people in the bank that “if no one gets smart nobody will get hurt.” There is no mention if other customers were in the bank at the time. Bank teller Gruber did not follow the instructions, and while the robbers were distracted with accessing the vault, he pressed the floor alarm.

Headline from The Globe and Mail newspaper, May 28, 1963

Within minutes, while the thieves were filling a shopping bag with almost $10,000 in cash, Patrol Sergeant Bernard Oakes and Constable Norman Howard arrived. Seeing the officers, Brown and Cotham fired at them, and warned them that they had hostages. Herding tellers Gruber and Johnston in front of them, ordered the police to drop their weapons. When the officers hesitated, Brown shot Sergeant Oakes twice. Constable Howard then dropped his weapons, and the culprits, finding the driveway to the bank blocked by the responding police cars, forced the two tellers into one of the cruisers and fled the scene in a stolen police car. Detectives Mel Simmons and George Wilson, arriving on the scene, saw the departing cruiser and gave chase, followed closely by Detective Douglas Burrows. The suspects, together with their hostages in the in the stolen police car and the stolen money, travelled at high speeds along Dundas Street and then northward on Dixie Road, using the cruiser’s radio to relay false information in hopes of confusing police and aiding their escape.

The “great chase” as it was dubbed lasted some nine miles, with over 50 shots being fired. Detective Burrows’ car was struck by bullets nine times in the chase before he rammed the stolen cruiser, but he failed to stop it and wrecked his own vehicle in the process. The chase continued with Detective Burrows commandeering a passing car driven by Cooksville resident Clayton Smith. The fugitives attempted escape ended north of Derry Road near Malton with police being able to disable the stolen cruiser thanks to Clayton Smith ramming the suspect’s vehicle. Police then apprehended the robbers and rescued the two hostages.

Brown and Cotham were brought before Magistrate H.T.G. Andrews on Wednesday, May 29, charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder. They pled guilty to armed robbery and kidnapping, and the charge on attempted murder was remanded for trial in June. That charge was later withdrawn, and the two were sentenced to 20 years hard labour at the Kingston Penitentiary on June 26, 1963.

The bumbling duo, however, only served seven years before being released, and the two did return to the United States, and court records show they continued running afoul of the law. Donald Cotham died in Oregon in 1981, while Melvin Brown may have died in Texas in 1983. Detective Douglas Burrows (1934-2020) would go on to serve as Chief of Peel Regional Police from 1974 to 1988. Chief Burrows recounted the story of the “Great Chase of `63” in “VIPs of Mississauga” by Kathleen Hicks (1998).

Does anyone remember the “Great Chase of ‘63”? We’d love to hear from you!