Ep. 28 Too Crazy To Be True Series: My Father Was A Fugitive

Your dad vanishes, the rumors turn into legend, and you spend decades wondering if he is dead, hiding, or living under a new name. Then your phone rings and everything flips. We sit down with Lisa Alexander, who grew up with a larger-than-life father known as Whitey, a man whose chaos shaped her childhood and whose absence left a crater of unanswered questions.

About Lisa

The story about my father Whitey Macdonald being a fugitive for over 30 years and what it was like for me, his daughter to wonder where he was all those years. Finally believing he was dead, and I would never know the truth. Then  on January 2011 I got that phone call that he was alive and arrested and it was a life-changing experience. Reconnecting with him after all those years the shock the pain, finally having that connection with my father that I had always hoped for. But time was sure because he was dying of stage four cancer. Spending those last three years with him getting to know him, him getting to know me. That closure that that little girl was always looking for. 

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Transcript

Welcome And The Wild Premise

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Welcome to Mom is my emergency contact podcast, the podcast for single moms, figuring out how the fuck to navigate life, dating, and starting over. I am Lisa, your host. All right, it's time for another episode of Too Crazy to Be True, the segment where real life sounds more like a movie plot than actual reality. You know those moments when you find out something about your life and suddenly something you thought you knew kind of shifts? Well, today's story is one of those moments. Imagine growing up thinking you know who your family is, you know your parents, your history, your identity, and then one day you discover something that changes everything. Not just a small family secret, but something that sounds like it belongs in a crime documentary. So, how do you process something like that? How do you reconcile the person you loved with the real reality you discover? And how do you move forward with when your own story suddenly feels like something out of a movie? So today we're going to hear that story directly from her. Today we have Lisa Alexander. Thank you, Lisa, for being here. Oh, thank you for having me. So, Lisa, you were sharing your story on another Facebook page, and I really quickly, so what you don't know is I really click quickly went through your I saw the podcast or the um the YouTube interview, and I didn't get like the whole story, but just the beginning and the gist. And I'm like, oh, this is definitely a too crazy to be true story. So and and then that's how we kind of connect it. But why don't we go into it? Just tell

Growing Up With Whitey’s Chaos

SPEAKER_00 2:00

us your story.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Well, um uh I'm originally from Canada, Winnipeg, Canada. And uh um my mother got married uh at 16. Her and my biological father eloped when she was 16 years old in the middle of the winter, and uh her parents weren't too happy, police were looking for them. Uh my father was a wild man. He he uh was adopted at birth, and uh his poor parents, he was running away with the circus by the time he was 13. He was just, you couldn't control them. Uh his nickname was Whitey, he had blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was a very good-looking man. Uh, anyways, um, I'm the firstborn child, and uh life was pretty stormy with Whitey, let me tell you. My poor mother, I don't know how she stuck it out, and then uh with with my father, she uh I have a sister and a brother I grew up with. So um basically he was in and out of our life until I was like nine years old. Uh my grandparents, thank God, my mother's parents were wonderful people. And they would, you know, we would go back and forth living with them. We never lived anywhere very long. Uh you just, you know, you never knew when Whitey was gonna show up or what he was gonna do. Uh he just uh he was wild. He just had a wild side. It was a real womanizer. Um one time he kidnapped me from my mom, like to piss her off, I guess. And I was just a baby and the police were looking for me. And, you know, that's kind of the beginning of my life. We uh, you know, we never lived anywhere very long. Life was a storm. Uh, you know, being the oldest, I carried a lot on my shoulders, a lot of, you know, worried about my mom. Um, eventually my mom got tired of it and uh finally divorced and by the time I was nine. But even up to like 10 years old, she still would see him. We'd see him. We went out on uh one of his yachts one summer up at the lake, and there was a storm, and the boat sank. And, you know, the owner of the Winnipeg Jets boat was uh yeah, the hockey team, their boat was behind us, and you know, just it just was always wild when you were with him. You never knew what was next. And uh so eventually my mother remarried, and uh um my stepfather wouldn't let us see our biological father. Uh, the last time I remember seeing him from a distance, I was 11 years old and walking down the street in our new neighborhood, and uh I was afraid to see him. So, you know, he tried to call me over and I wouldn't go. Well, um, from that I lost touch with him from 11 years old. And uh we ended up moving to Los Angeles with our stepfather in 1975, and later I found out that he had moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1974. So, but I had no way to get a hold of him, you know, it wasn't internet. This is we're talking late 70s, like 78, 79. I had no way to find him. And uh, you know, I think he'd married a couple women, but again, nothing was consistent. And so, anyways, um, I we were in Los Angeles, and of course, you know, a teenager, you know, 15, 16, I was homesick. I wanted to go back to Winnipeg, and I did, drove my grandparents crazy. And uh one of the uh young men that I went to school with, he said, uh, I know your father. I go, what do you mean you know my father? He goes, Yeah, he's the captain of our yacht in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And I'm like, oh, okay. And he goes, he's in town. I'm like, what? So this particular young man at the time was having a big party, and you know, everyone knew everyone because it was a small school, and you know, they're all the people I grew up with. And uh, so I went there waiting, and there and his parents were out of town. So, but there comes, you know, knock on the door, and there's my father, blonde hair, blue eye, husky, tanned with jewelry, very flashy. His friend, who was, you know, taller than him, my dad was six foot four, and I think the other gentleman was like six, seven or something. So very intimidating and very, you know, my friends were like, what? And so I reconnected with my dad at that time. Uh so that would have been 16 years old. I spent some time with him before he went back to Florida. And uh, you know, he bought me a cute outfit. And it just, it was weird. It was strange to, you know, start to reconnect. And, you know, he knew me as a child, not as a teenager. And I didn't, you know, I knew him, but you know, I just remember a lot of bad things too. But still he was my dad, and I I wanted to know more. And I'm, you know, so then he finally left and went back to Florida. And uh um I was uh living, I ended up living with a boyfriend at the time. That was smart, right? And uh, and so, anyways, um uh we ended up driving uh a car. He had a boyfriend and I and another friend drive a car from Winnipeg to Fort Lauderd, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and we did that. And uh, you know, we hung out there, we stayed on his boat out there, and he lived, he had a flashy house by the wall, you know, right off the water, and his cars were uh big Lincolns with Big Mac. His nickname was Big Mac because our last name was McDonald. His biological name was Ian uh Jackson McDonald, but he went by Whitey. And uh, but in in Florida, he went by Big Mac or Jack. So, anyways, you know, he had Big Mac on the bottom of his pool. He had Big Mac on his, you know, airplane, Big Mac on his cars with gold plaques, um, you know, these big Lincolns and whatever. So we hung out there and then we drove back. Well, the second time he wanted my boyfriend to come, I wanted to go and he wouldn't let me go. And I'm like, well, I don't get it. And he got I got we got in an argument. Well, um, he had my boyfriend pull back a boat from Florida into Winnipeg. I think it was um stashed with marijuana. Well, I'm almost 100% sure. And uh so, anyways, you know, at that point, things for me weren't going so great. So my grandparents called him up and said, come get her. He drove all the way from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and his white linking with the blue top and you know, plaques and big Mac on the side and Florida license plate. That's kind of a big deal for Winnipeg, and they they still don't have freeways, okay? And so, you know, knocked on the door and he said, Come on, you're going with me. And I don't think he gave me a choice. And uh um, he got the boyfriend to write a post-dated check because I owned all the furniture, and uh, and uh off we went, drove back to Florida, and that was a whole new world for me. I was living there with him. I started realizing what he was doing. And uh one night he woke me up and he said, Come here, I want to show you some. And there were green trash bags lining the kitchen all over the floor in marijuana. And there was um a station wagon on the side at Court Carport, which was kind of private, and he took uh they had the panels off and they were stuffing the car to get across Canada. And I just looked at it and went, okay, whatever, you know. And I mean, he was into the cocaine and it was it was a wild life. And he was married to a woman that had a daughter that he uh raised, you know, helped raise, wasn't his daughter. And um, I don't think the wife liked me too

Reconnecting As A Teen In Florida

SPEAKER_01 9:20

much, you know, I was a teenager, a little wild, and you know, I didn't keep the room clean or whatever. But anyhow, she uh, you know, he was seeing other women. And, you know, they were calling me to see them, and I'd go hang out with them at night. She didn't, you know, she she wasn't liking it. So, anyways, um, I spent time off and on there. I worked as a valet parker at the big yacht club that he was a member of. Um, I saw a lot of stuff, you know, it was just a very wild life with him. And uh so from there, I um, you know, I decided to come back to Los Angeles. And then uh after that, he um he came to visit me once. And he came in this van and then he flew back. And uh, my sister and I and a friend, we had him in a V Dub bug, this is what I can remember, and I had some apartment he came to, and then uh, but he looked really nervous. And so this is towards the end. So all of a sudden, uh I lost contact. Well, he tried to phone me once in my apartment. My girlfriend answered, and that was it. I wasn't home, and that was the last we ever heard of him. Now, the wife he was with, I had a phone book that had her family's phone number in it, but I didn't remember her last name. And and I called her family and they hung up on me. They wouldn't, you know, and so basically, you know, I would get like um newspaper clippings from my grandparents talking about my dad. This was a really big story because he was smuggling marijuana in large amounts from Florida into Winnipeg, Canada. And so, and then like his best friend was a parliament member. He they call it an MLA, uh Bob Wilson. So, anyways, and his other friend was, you know, the owner of the Winnipeg hockey team. And, you know, they called it the rounders, all the big guys, you know. My dad was rubbing shoulders with some pretty scary dudes. So, anyways, I um it from what I heard, you know, my grandparents would send me the newspaper clippings, kind of like they weren't sure they were doing the right thing, but they felt bad, you know. But basically, they put him in jail in Florida to be extradited back to Winnipeg. And he played a heart attack, and they put him, he's 42 at the time, and they put him in uh in a Miami Jacksonville hospital, and he paid a guard off 10 grand, and a dentist friend had clothes sitting in the stairwell, and uh my father, you know, disappeared and uh never heard from him. 30-something years.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Wait, Lisa, let me stop you for a second. Holy crap. Okay, um, I was taking notes when you were talking. So when he had he you said he had an airplane? Yeah, he had a little airplane, I'm not a huge airplane. Okay, so he had an airplane, he had big cars. Like, what did you think he was doing for a job? Did he say what he was doing?

SPEAKER_01 12:18

You know, my father didn't say a lot. I mean, he was a big mouth, he talked, but I mean, I think I was picking it up pretty quick. I was pretty sharp. You know, I I I don't really I mean, I I think when I saw the marijuana bags and the, you know, in the kitchen, kind of like, oh, okay. That was and you know, and then I figured out later that the prior uh run with the boyfriend that that that had to be that that was a tester. The first time we did it, I think was a test to get through the border to see if we get harassed. So the second time he wouldn't let me go because he was the that time.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Oh yeah, yeah. So this is the boat with your boyfriend. So there was marijuana on the boat, and he was trying to see if he could get it through that.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

The first one without marijuana, the second one with, and that's why I couldn't go. He was protecting me in the way he knew how.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

So you saw the marijuana bag, so you kind of like thought, okay, I I kind of know what my dad's doing. But the clips, the clippings in the newspaper, were you already with him? Because it sounds like he was arrested. Were you with him at the time?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

No, no, that was when uh he'd come to LA and we took him to the airport, and that was the last I ever talked to him. So that all happened after. And see, prior to that, um, of course, I'm finding I found out a lot later, but he um before they arrested him, the FBI at the time, the uh uh Michael Weavers, he was the head of the chief FBI agent at the time, they brought my dad in and basically said, you work for us, so we're turning you into Canada. And so he became an informant for the FBI, uh doing surveillance for large necotic rings outside of Florida. So I never really knew why they arrested him because they did make a deal. The only thing I can figure um is that he um that Canada really wanted their man and because it made Canada look bad, especially because a parliament member was involved. It's the first time in history that their phones were tapped in the parliament. And so um, you know, Bob Wilson's still alive to this day in in uh Vancouver, still trying to clear his name. And now he's in a retirement home. I don't even know if he's completely with it, but uh he served seven years because they could find my dad.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Okay, so when he left, was he arrested? So when you drove him to the airport and he left, he wasn't arrested yet, correct?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Yeah, he wasn't arrested yet. Shortly after that, they arrested him, um, made a deal with him. He did it for a little while, or maybe he'd been doing it a little prior to the the time I dropped him off. I I don't know the dates exactly. I it doesn't seem like he was doing it for very long. And then they arrested him. And I think it was because they were getting a lot of pressure from Canada, is what I believe. I don't, you know, and uh next thing you know, he was gone. That was it. Um, he never contacted us, you know. He never, there was nothing. I would search, I would, you know, nothing, absolutely nothing. And the phone number that I had his uh wife's parents' name on, the phone book disappeared. So I I you know, I just I never I didn't know what town they were in. I didn't know her last name. I would have found him if I would have known

Smuggling, Arrest, And A Bold Escape

SPEAKER_01 15:40

that, but I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

And I was young. So he escaped, right? Yeah. So I'm getting okay. Wow, holy crap. Okay, so you never heard from him, and then how did the story unfold?

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Well, um uh 30 years goes by, and you know, I'm a strong Christian woman. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I used to say, God, I just need to know the truth. I need to have, I can't, I don't want to go the rest of my life. I need closure, whatever it may be. And about five years prior to that, my son met Michael Gabadi, the owner of the Winnipeg Jets in uh uh Palm Springs, and uh he basically told my son that my father was swimming with the fishies. And so, you know, we kind of started to think maybe he's dead. I mean, how could he go that long and not contact his three children? And uh, so, anyways, um just you know, I prayed and prayed and prayed, and I'd gone to Winnipeg in January 2014 to bury my mom's mom. And everyone asked me, oh, you know, uh, would I have you ever heard about your dad? No, no, no, you know, because it was this is considered a legend in Winnipeg. It was high profile. Um, so anyway, I came back and I'm having a drink with my friend at the bar, and I said, you know, I need to accept my dad's dead. And my chin started to quiver, and I'm not missing a beat here. And uh all of a sudden my phone rings. And my mother says, Are you sitting down? Your father is alive, he's been arrested. I mean, what do you say? I was in shock. My girlfriend's looking at her just like, I just said I have to accept he's dead, and my phone rings. I mean, there's the is so bizarre, and it's just it's so God because just as I was finally ready to accept, you know, he was gone for good, I get this phone call. And it was all over the news. It was all over AOL. I went home, I was on my AOL. There's my dad at 42, now 72, an old man. And uh all I want to do is find him. They found him in Homasossa, Florida, and and they um they took him from there to Orlando from there to Miami and put him in the Miami jail. Uh, I went the first time, I couldn't see him. I had to prove I was his daughter because this is federal. And then uh uh I went back the second time and they said, sorry, because I had an appointment now. Sorry you can't see him. He's in the hospital. We don't allow people to see him unless they're actually dying. Well, that's how he escaped the first time. But uh anyway, so um my husband and I, like we just were really persistent and uh wrote letters and um called them and called them, and I'm at the hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and I call the media and they're on the way, they want to do the story, you know. And uh uh, because it was in their newspapers back in the day, also. So um all of a sudden the warden phones me. And he's the warden phones me, you know. I don't know if that happens too often. And he says, You've twisted our arm, we're gonna let you see your father tomorrow. So he was in the same hospital that he disappeared from 30 something years prior. And uh I, you know, the next day at 11 o'clock, I get there and uh I get scanned and I get by federal marshal and I get uh escorted up seven floors, and they didn't tell him I was coming. And uh I walk in there and he's asleep, shackled to a bed with an IV. Now this old man, 72 years old, and three federal marshals in the room, and they weren't gonna leave. They weren't budging. And I went in there and I shook him and I said, Dad, it's me. And he looked up and he smiled, and I go, I didn't know what to say. I was pretty in shock myself. And I said, Well, how do I look? Because you look older, but you look good. And uh, so, anyways, um, I had a certain length of time I could sit with him, but they um but he got really nervous and wanted me to leave. And I said, Oh, no, no, no, no, I'm not leaving. You just met your match. I got this much time, I'm staying. So I made sure my back tried to cover his face from the marshals so that he wouldn't be intimidated from, you know, think about it, he was hiding all that time. And uh, you know, I one of the questions is how did you escape? Because one of the newspapers in Florida said he hit a guard over the head. That's not true. And uh he paid a guard off 10 grand to unshackle him and turn his head. And it was Bob Wilson, who served seven years, innocent or guilty? And he said he was innocent. And, you know, um, we chatted a bit, but uh you could tell he was nervous because of the marshals in the in the room. And uh anyway, I know they wanted to extradite him back to Winnipeg. I left him, and of course, all the family was waiting for me to call him and tell him, you know, what was it like, and you know, everybody's kind of crazy. And uh anyways, uh I went to uh um an immigration attorney, tried to stop the extradition, but it was too late, and I figured it was, but I gave it a shot, and uh that was it. He was taken two two RCMP came from uh Winnipeg and had him shackled to a wheelchair and flew him back to Winnipeg. They put him in a local jail there. Um I didn't know how sick he was, nobody would tell me. You know, they're not allowed to. And uh we became friends with the uh guards at the jail and because it's a small jail right downtown Winnipeg, and they uh they would get us on the phone with him a lot, so we kind of got to know him and bond with him. And then uh he had a court date coming up. I'm the one that found the attorney, who was a big criminal attorney in all Canada. We flew in, and I had just done a wedding for my daughter. I was exhausted. And we flew in and we went to the uh hotel we were gonna stay at, and we were at the bar, and we sat with the attorney and his associate and had a couple glasses of wine, pretty stressed out. But the jail was walking distance from where we were staying. So um we walked over to the jail. We had an appointment. He went in there and uh the hit there he is in a wheelchair, and I still really don't know the complete, you know, uh his health. It was uh prostate cancer that spread, but uh how bad I didn't know. So anyway, I walked in and I wasn't as friendly as the first time. The second time I was kind of like, yeah, screw it up, just say it. And I lost it in there. And the guard's looking at me and he's nervous because you know, I could have gotten thrown out of there. And I kept saying, Yeah, screw it up, just say it. You screwed up. And he finally, okay, okay, I screwed up. Yeah. I think that's I think that's the only thing he ever confessed. You know, he never said, I'm sorry, or I wish you would have done it different ever. That's just not the way Whitey roll, period. It just, you know, his pride was too big. So um basically, uh, we were at the courtroom the next day, and uh they wheel him in, and you know, there we're sitting my sister and I, and some of the media was there. Um, they ended up giving him two years, it's called two years less a day, house arrest because he was sick and he was dying of stage four cancer. And so um they basically let let wanted to send him to the Salvation Army. Well, I don't know if people know how cool Winnipeg gets, but yeah, that's no. I wouldn't, we wouldn't let that happen. Even though he didn't deserve it, he still was our father, and you know, that wasn't gonna happen. So, anyways, uh a gentleman that was his friend when he was young let him stay there for a while. But my father kept falling and he ended up in this hospital in uh Winnipeg. So my sister and I flew back. We spent a lot of time in Winnipeg. And uh, you know, we tried to get him into a nursing home and and uh his uh doctor there didn't like like him very much. He wasn't very supportive. But we ended up have having a meeting with all

The Phone Call That Changes Everything

SPEAKER_01 23:40

the board of Manitoba. And uh my sister and I had been out the night before having a little fun, you know, a couple, I think we were feeling so good the next morning. We were so stressed out, you know, and he's looking at us like, oh gosh, those are my girls. And so, anyways, um, we sat at that board meeting and uh we got a lot of guts, my sister and I. And I'm I'm kind of the one that did most of everything because I'm the oldest. It's just my personality. And uh uh the doctor was giving us not the nicest looks, but uh after that meeting, we they were some of them were in tears, and they basically granted him uh a nursing home that had a long waiting list. I said, Hey, you brought him here, Winnipeg, they brought him here, your government, you need to pay for it. I'm not paying for it. And uh we got him in a nursing home within three days, and they took very good care of him there. Um, and then we started to learn a lot about him, you know, spending that time, the stories and uh um just learning what he did and where he went. It he did crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yeah, it sounds like it. So so let me just make sure that every the listeners understand what unfulled here. So he was smuggling marijuana across can from Canada to the United States, correct? The other way, oh United States to Canada. Okay. And what was the charge? Like how much are we talking about?

SPEAKER_01 25:07

500 pounds of marijuana, and back then, you know, it's illegal, and so yeah. And I he um, you know, I learned, you know, a lot of things unfolded after. Um, I did talk to the daughter he raised for uh when I went to Florida to see him for the first uh second time before he was extradited. She told me some stuff. Uh what I did is I got his Freedom of Information Act and you know, from immigration attorney, which tells you a lot of things about him. Well, they granted him a green card. They he could cross the border with money in a suitcase, marijuana, and they weren't allowed to to stop him. Um, he, you know, he would tell us that he had all this stuff and we didn't believe him. But then I found out it was true. And then they really shouldn't have arrested him because um they made a deal with him and they ran ached on it. And I did become uh, you know, friendly with the chief FBI agent, uh, a very nice gentleman. They interviewed him um on TV. I mean, I've been on talk radio a couple of times. The night after he died, I was in talk radio. Uh, we've been on TV. I got very politically involved at one point, you know. I'm like, let him go home. I was really striving to let him his his home that they, their main home was in Homa Sassa, Florida. And they had a farm there, a ranch or something like that. But um, you know, uh I really tried hard to get him across the border and back home, but that wasn't gonna happen. And uh I got pretty close though. I I had some people at the border. I mean, I I had a lot of guts. And so I did things I didn't even know I had inside of me, which, you know, God gave me the strength and it actually built up my confidence a lot. Um and uh, you know, but I learned a lot about what he did on the run. And that was interesting. Um, you know, he he uh when he first disappeared, um, his wife met up with him. She stayed with him, ran with them. They went to Colorado and he started a uh gas station and a tow tow company. He was very creative and he loved money, obviously. And uh he was towing for one of the local police departments, and at night he was sleeping in their cell, you know, of course, not locked, waiting for calls to tow for them. They had no idea they had a fugitive. Um yeah, I mean, he did oh, there's just so many stories because he was so colorful and he did such, you know, in an emergency, you wouldn't want anyone else but him. He just handled situations, you know. Um, you know, he just was one of those people. He didn't think twice, he just did what, you know, did what he had to do.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Let me ask you something, Lisa. So he was when he was a fugitive, was he like on the most wanted? Yes. Actually he was. Wow. Yes, he was crazy. Okay. So let's just turn to you, okay? Because this has got to be like, how do you tell people this? Hey, uh my dad was a fugitive, you know, that's such a story to tell. How did you feel about all of that? Like, here you are. Um, well, let me take a step back. When you went to see him, because you you after he left your your family, and then you wanted, you know, you had a connection with him. And that whole time, were you just trying to rebuild a relationship with your dad? He didn't let me get too close.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Um like he couldn't handle it. He loved, I mean, he he loved to be around me in that, you know, because I was his biological daughter, the oldest. I was the closest to him, because I'm the oldest. And um, but he uh, if I got emotional or anything and I, you know, he pushed me away, he couldn't handle that. Uh he um but yeah, I mean, I I wanted to know my dad, you know. I mean, what what daughter doesn't want to know their father?

SPEAKER_00 29:00

I will say this, you're right, good or bad, but most people I mean, I shouldn't say most people, but you were at the end of the day, no matter what, you still he was still your dad and you still wanted that connection with him. Um, so even when he was on the run, I mean like how did you react when you found that that he escaped?

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Well, I knew he had escaped because my grandparents, you know, were sending the um paper clippings. And uh I knew I, you know, but we we would wonder like the things we always wondered, well, is he hiding in the Bahamas? Is he in witness protection? Is he dead? Is he, you know, there's so many things we wondered. Um, how couldn't he didn't contact us? And being that he was adopted, I really didn't have, I didn't really know who to contact. And there really, there were some uh family that he had that were um through adopt, you know, his adopted family, but um no siblings. I I really didn't, you know, I had no clue. I mean, it was really a dead end for us, you know. The and the wondering, you never stopped wondering. Uh, but as time went on, you kind of accepted, you know, the the tears stopped. And obviously that moment when I said, well, I guess, you know, I need to accept he's dead. Voila! There he is. Good old Whitey.

Extradition, Court, And Final Years

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Wow. So you said something where you said that there was a lot of things that you you stood up for yourself and you felt like you had some confidence. What were some other things that surprised you the most about how you handled the whole situation?

SPEAKER_01 30:36

You know, um, I had a lot of courage because, you know, uh, I actually one day I even called the crown of uh of Ontario. I mean, I called the crown, and my husband and the uh said that he goes a lot of balls. I I'm pretty gutsy. I I was calling, I wrote letters all over to government officials. Um, I uh I made phone calls. I was pretty, pretty brave. And yeah, you know, because I mean I literally f failed first and third grade because first of all, I hated school and I didn't know what was going on. And my childhood was so stormy that, you know, uh paying attention at school was the last thing I wanted to do. So yeah, um, but I I did things, yeah, it built self-confidence for sure. And talking, you know, I would have never talked on talk radio or I mean they had me on talk radio the night. He had died around midnight. I was on talk radio, CBC talk radio at nine o'clock the next morning. And uh, you know, in a real studio and all that.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

So what about other people? Like before he was caught and he was a fugitive. Were you embarrassed by the story or were you proud about it? Or you're just like, hey, this is my story.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

I'm more of that person, hey, this is my story, it's colorful. Um, you know, even with time now, um, I'm learning things years after he's passed away. He lived, he lived for about uh three years after he was arrested in the nursing home, which they were very good to him there. Um, but shortly, you know, after he had died, uh, I had been starting to feel sick. I found out I had a brain tumor, I had brain surgery, you know, I just I've I've been hit hard. And I've just been through a lot. So um, you know, but the one of the sweetest things in the nursing home, we spent a lot of time there. Uh, you know, we we flew in and out of Winnipeg to Los Angeles and spent a lot of time and money. But uh uh about two weeks before he died, he loved his food, he loved his hamburgers or whatever. He ate like crap, which probably didn't help it help his health at all. And uh I was feeding him a hamburger and uh he looked up at me from his wheelchair and he goes, God, I fucking love you. And that little girl got what she was looking for, you know. It's a mop that I'll never forget. And uh, you know, Whitey was just waggity. He was larger than life. Um, you know, he when he walked in a room, he had charisma. You know, he had that kind of way that people noticed him. You people remembered him. He just that was who he was. And you know, you don't find that, you don't learn that. You're born with that.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Wow. So do you feel like there's a part of him of who he was or you know, what he embodied in you?

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I'm a I'm I'm probably the most like my mother in a lot of ways, but I definitely have a lot of my father in me. Um, yeah, definitely. I think all three of us kids do, but um uh I think we all tend to have, you know, uh that free spirit in us. I know I do, my yeah, my brother does. And then uh um, you know, after my father uh passed away about a year later, or not even, I got a message from Facebook that there's some information that I might want to know. And uh I look at the picture of this guy and I'm thinking, then it I'm telling my friend in Canada, and as I'm saying it, I go, that's my brother. Well, sure enough, when I was three, my father got the bank teller pregnant in uh in uh Winnipeg, and she went to from Winnipeg to Calgary and gave him up for adoption. And so um I've gotten to know him. And then about a month ago, I got another message and a friend of this gentleman who is my other brother I didn't know about. Um uh so yeah, you know, um we keep thinking, well, who's next? My sister and I keep saying, well, there's no sister yet. We're the only two girls.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Wow, that is that is crazy. I'm sure you're learning more and more as time goes by, all these things about your father. Um, you know, some people might listen to this, Lisa, and they're being thinking they might be thinking, like, I don't know what I would do if I had a father like that, maybe even go into that negative route. So, what do you think people must misunderstand about situations like this?

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Well, you know, I I had it from some family members, cousins and stuff, and uh, you know, kind of like, you know, he's a bad man, why would you bother? Well, you know what? Everybody has their own journey. And at the end of the day, you know, I I serve God, and whether my dad deserved us or not, it's not even the point. You know, I needed to know the truth. I got to know him, I got to spend time with him as a grown woman, and you know, it's a lot different than when you're a child. And he knew he knew he wasn't gonna mess with his girls. But there's mean people. I mean, I got some really mean things happening, but uh well, they're not in my my shoes, so who knows what they would do if it happened to them. I don't let those things bother me.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

Right. Would you say that this experience not only gave you a confidence, as you mentioned, but maybe even like strengthen your your will? Because it's almost like, you know, you said that you had, you know, uh a brain tumor and you had all these other things happening to you, and you you feel like did that experience with your father being on the run and all of that, did you feel like that prepared you or maybe made you withstand hard things in life?

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Absolutely. I mean, you know, look, everybody has a different personality. Uh I'm fortunate, I can be a hothead. I, you know, I'm the nicest person you'll meet, I'm as loyal as they come, but uh you push me too far and yeah, that other side pop out. Um, but you know, uh things build character in you when you go through those kind of things. And it's your choice on how you handle it. I choose to walk in forgiveness. I don't, I don't want to be bitter, I want to be better, and I really believe in that for my life. That's the choice I made. Um, you know, I got to spend that time with my dad that was super precious. Uh a couple of weeks before he passed away, my mother flew into, she's still alive, and she flew into Winnipeg because uh um her sister-in-law passed away. So she came in. I said, Mom, are you gonna go see him? Do you want to come to the nursing home? She says, I don't know, I don't know. And I know my mom, she's so cute. And she goes, Okay, okay. So that moment that my mom walked in, and he by that time was bedridden. And watching that whole, this is 42 years later, it was really touching and really something to watch. Uh, she said, I forgive you, Whitey.

Forgiveness, Regret, And New Siblings

SPEAKER_01 37:40

Not that Whitey asked for forgiveness, because God forbid. And uh they talked, he called her dodo back in the day. And I think my mom was always really the love of his life, you know, but uh she couldn't take it anymore. So, but anyway, he uh uh we sat with him and then at the and they talked and listening to them talk about some things were you know very touching for me. And then uh we held hands with him. My mom and the three of us were holding hands and we prayed with him and led him to the Lord, which was amazing, you know, because he was very anti-God. I mean, even on his deathbed, I said, Daddy, you know, by then he was out of it. I said, Daddy, it's okay, you can go. And he got mad at me even when he was on his last breath. He got like really flustered with me. I'm like, oh my gosh, this man, he's just yeah, he's once she was one strong person for sure.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

If you could ask your father one question today, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Why didn't you contact us and aren't you sorry? Like, say it. You know? All I ever got out of him is, yeah, I screwed up, but that was because I put a lot of pressure on him. You know, but you know, the one thing when he was in the nursing home, they were very good to him there, thank God. Uh, because you know, tying down Whitey wasn't he's you know, he was a free spirit, obviously. But uh he would say, Oh, those are my girls, those are my girls. And you could just see how proud he was of us. And uh and you know, the biggest thing was regret. I saw a lot of regret. He wanted to California to meet his grandchildren. Uh, you know, at that point he even had great grandchildren. And, you know, um, I tried so hard to make that happen. And uh, you know, when I carried back his ashes through the airport, which Whitey was heavy, uh, you know, um got back to Los Angeles. We went out on my son's yacht and uh let his ashes go out here out outside of Huntington Beach, California. And uh my mom was there and my kids were there, my siblings. And uh, anyways, the ashes flew back, and my mom was for holding her beer bottle, and the ashes circled the top of her bottle, and she was about to drink it, and my my son grabbed the bottle real quick. We're like, oh mom, you almost drank whitey. So, you know, we have a we have a really good sense of humor. Um, you know, thank God. I think if you were a really um stiff person and were overly serious, and you might take it different. But we laughed a lot and we we found a lot of humor. And we we have a very good sense of humor. And that's probably a big part of what got us through it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Lisa, you told me that you've been telling your stories, your your story to um other people on podcasts and other shows. What's next for you? What do you see coming for you?

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Well, I I know I have a phenomenal story. I mean, I'm giving you the tidbit of who Whitey was and what, you know, who we were um and who I am. But uh I'm I've been trying to write. I'm not a writer, but I've been writing, they call it a treatment in the movies, you know, industry and uh and uh pitch deck, and I'm getting close to getting that done. Thank God for AI. Help me, you know, put it in the format that it's supposed to be. Um, you know, I watch a lot of movies. I'm a movie buff, you know, a lot of crappy movies out there. Come on. This got this has just got so much to it, you know. Um I mean, just recently when I contacted my new brother through his friend who originally who found us for my brother, was telling me he knows the guy that was going uh uh across this lake or river from Can S US into Canada carrying the marijuana from my father and got busted. And he knows the guy. I mean, things still are unfolding and it's just so crazy. I just found that out recently, you know. Um, so I know, like our attorney, you know, he was the biggest crime criminal attorney in Canada. And he said, you can't make this stuff up. And, you know, I I know I have an amazing story. What what do you want people to know about Whitey? He was larger than life. Uh, you know, he was a shyster. Um you know, uh he um I think deep inside he did care. Like, you know, one time we were on the river and uh we were in our boat, and uh we went to this one place and my sister it had a pool, and my sister decided to take off. We thought she was on the bottom of the boat, and the other parent thought she was on the top. And as we're going down the river back towards the city, uh we realized my sister's not on the boat. Well, of course, panic overstruck us, you know, and I had some dumb little doll thing I'm preying on, and you know, we're young, maybe nine years old, ten years old. And and so on the way back, a boat was on fire, a ski boat, and three people were in the water, and the one guy was burning. Skin was like he was burning on the boat. My dad jumped on that boat, got that guy. We had to get the people out of the water. The one woman was about nine months pregnant, and you know, we had a radio in and have an ambulance meet us. And, you know, thank God my sister was fine. She decided to go back to the pool and was sitting with the lifeguard crying. But, you know, if it wouldn't have been for us, who knows what would have happened to those people. So, you know, he was that kind of guy that in an emergency he was amazing that way. But uh, you know, Whitey did it Whitey's way.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Lisa, what an incredible story. I I mean that is quite a story. Um, and I really do hope it becomes larger than life on the movie screen. Um, Lisa, where where can we find you? Or where could people find you if they want to reach out or maybe even share their own stories or maybe even reach out to you to have you on their podcast? Where can we we find you?

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Well, they

Turning It Into A Story And How To Reach Her

SPEAKER_01 43:55

could go to my uh email for one. I'm at la formalibu um 18 at uh gmail.com and then uh Facebook Lisa Shane, S-Hane Alexander. I'm under that. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

We'll put all of those links in the show notes if you want to get a hold of Lisa. Um again, Lisa, what an incredible story. Thank you so much for coming on here and sharing it. And I'm sure that every time you tell the story, something new comes up that you didn't share the last one. And I'm sure even when you're telling me that there's new things that are keep that keep coming up. So it's never gonna be the same story, which is always interesting, right? Um, but I want to again thank you for coming on. If you want to reach Lisa, um, all her information will be on the episode notes. But before you go, just make sure to subscribe to Mama's My Emergency Contact wherever you listen to podcasts. We're on Apple, Spotify, and all major platforms. And if you'd rather watch the conversation, head over to our YouTube channel. Just search Mama's My Emergency Contact and hit subscribe. Wow, amazing story. It really reminds us that life is rarely as simple as we think it is. Um, but how powerful it is how when people can move forward as Lisa has shown us and forgive, and just enjoying the wonderful stories of this person who is her father and carrying that positivity on. Just amazing. Again, thank you for sharing your story so personal, so extraordinary with us today. It takes a lot of courage to tell a story like this, and we appreciate you trusting us with yours. And to everyone listening, sometimes the truth about our past doesn't define us, but how we respond to it absolutely does. This has been another episode of Too Crazy to be true. Until next time, bye, I'm not sure.