One for the books: Arsonist leaves curious calling card
Star reporter baffled to learn his 2010 biker exposé was stolen from Timmins library and left at scene of a crime
As an author, you sometimes wonder who’s reading your books.
This week, courtesy of Google Alerts, I learned that one reader who’s apparently warm for my long-form is Timmins arsonist Gerald Caza, 49.
Astory published this week in the Timmins Daily Press notes that Caza stole my 2010 book, The Bandido Massacre: A True Story of Bikers, Brotherhood and Betrayal, from the Timmins Public Library, then left it at an arson scene.
Why he stole a book he could have borrowed free from the library intrigued me. Why he cared about the book at all was also of interest. He could have taken Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff or Margaret Atwood’s poetry collection Morning in the Burned House to make a more obvious statement. Instead, he chose my non-fiction offering about the 2006 murders of eight men connected to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club near London, Ont. The story has no connection to Timmins — which has no chapters of any outlaw biker club. There are no flames in the title nor on the cover — though there is a bonfire towards the end of the book, if Caza even read to that point. So what’s the connection? I emailed the article’s author, Ron Grech, for answers and he quickly replied: “It was never spelled out in court but I was left with the impression he dropped the book at the scene as a ‘calling card,’ the book title itself having a certain degree of menace to it.”
He added that “perhaps it wasn’t just the title that appealed to him.”
“I didn’t include this part in the story,” Grech continued, “but when Caza was being interviewed by police after his arrest, an officer pulled out the book and noted to Caza that he was seen carrying this item as he entered the building shortly before the fire. Caza remarked to the officer that he had finished reading it.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or appalled.
Further investigation showed that Caza has made multiple appearances in the news pages of The Daily Press.
They have all been unsettling. There was a 1999 story which noted Caza was charged with murder and arson with disregard and appeared in court in a “torn lumberjack jacket and leg shackles.”
He ended up serving more than eight years for manslaughter.
Then there was a 2011 article by Grech headlined, “Dressed like a bandit, jailed like one.” It describes Caza as “walking into a restaurant dressed all in black, with sunglasses, hat, bandana over his nose and mouth.”
“Just like in the movies,” commented judge Ralph Carr, the article notes. Defence lawyer Nancy Cooper tried to explain Caza’s attire by saying he covered his face with a bandana because he thinks scarves are “too effeminate.”
“It’s part of his fashion,” Cooper said.
Assistant Crown attorney Gerrit Verbeek added: “Mr. Caza is not too bright if he dresses like that after having a robbery conviction, whether it looks cool or not.”
Caza was defiant to the end that day, even after he was sentenced to 45 days in jail and scolded by the judge not to wear a bandana over his face while entering a business establishment.
“I don’t wear scarves,” Caza shot back.
“No one is going to force you to wear a scarf,” Carr said. “It’s a free country.”
Grech added in his story: “However, the judge pointed out that people get uneasy when someone walks into a business dressed like a bandit with a bandana covering the lower part of their face.”
“It makes people think you’re a robber,” Carr said.
That brings us to this week’s story by Grech, which describes how Caza set a $30,000 blaze in a two-storey apartment building last summer.
It notes that Caza pleaded guilty in Timmins provincial court on Monday to arson, break and enter to commit an indictable offence, theft and breach of probation.
“The theft charge was laid in connection with a book Caza stole from the Timmins Public Library, which he then left on the floor at the scene of the July 1st arson,” Grech writes.
“The name of the book was The Bandido Massacre.”
Caza didn’t comment on why he took my book when he tried to explain his actions: “It’s drinking that brings me in these courtrooms. I know for a fact, I will have to stay off the booze when I get out.” Caza was sentenced to 5 1⁄ years in
2 prison this time.
“So, how much was for the arson and how much was for the theft?” asked Star editor Barry Brimbecom.
I’m prepared to live with that mystery.