Pimply-faced 18-year-old Sunday schoolteacher Edwin Finlay was an unlikely bank-robber, and an even less likely killer. When he told friends he was going to rob a bank they thought he was joking. He wasnt. And for him, bank robbery would be easy. As a trusted member of a banks staff in Glasgow, he had the branchs keys because his duties included being first there each day to unlock the door for his colleagues.
The arrangement worked well until August 30th, 1952, when he failed to turn up and the bank was found to be short of more than £1,200-worth of US dollars.
Edwins friends told the police that he had two guns. He soon had another, bought in Ireland where he changed some of his stolen dollars into other currencies. Then, missing a Glasgow girl he fancied, he returned to Scotland.
Having learned of his interest in the girl, the police had asked her mother to report any word received from him. When he phoned the girls home on SEPTEMBER 4th, 1952, she was out and his voice was recognised by her mother who took the call. The police were informed, and they guessed that Edwin might make for the tennis club where the girl was playing.
They were right, and when two officers spotted him on a street near the club and approached him, he shot one, fatally wounding him. Two more of his bullets severely injured the other. Then he ran off, pursued by a third officer. Shortly afterwards, cornered in a cul-de-sac, Edwin Finlay put a gun to his own head and fired his last fatal shot.