Filming on a movie on one of Canada's most notorious gangsters will begin in Sarnia, Wyoming and Petrolia later this month.
Red Ryan, who served several terms for bank robbery in Kingston Pen beginning at age 17, convinced Prime Minister R.B. Bennett to release him in 1935. Then, while hosting a popular Toronto radio program and advocating for prison reform, he and his gang shot and killed a father and son in Markham while stealing a car.
Months later, his luck ran out in Sarnia during a bungled robbery of a Christina St. liquor store. He shot and killed Sarnia police officer Jack Lewis before being shot and killed himself.
Local filmmaker Aaron Huggett wants to bring the depression era story to the big screen using local actors.
One of them is real life Sarnia police Constable Les Jones.
Huggett, who has won several awards at International Film Festivals , hopes to take the Red Ryan story on the 2016 festival circuit.