Having spent many of his adult years in prison, Galvan fled to Canada where he assumed the name Robert Lee Whiteman and began a three-year spree robbing banks and jewelry stores in the 1980s.
[3] In 1984, he escaped from prison in St. Joseph County, Michigan, and fled to Ontario where he took a new name, Robert Lee Whiteman.
[1] Galvan was dubbed the Flying Bandit by Canadian media during his crime spree robbing banks and jewelry stores.
[7] When Galvan and an accomplice stole $1.2 million in jewelry in Vancouver, they left behind a gun which police traced to a break-in in Ottawa.
[6] A long-term investigation by police into stolen goods in the Ottawa area came across a man named Robert Whiteman fencing jewelry.
Police determined that Whiteman had no social insurance number or birth certificate, but found a trail of credit-card receipts in that name.
Duhamel said Galvan told him that he had "wanted to create a life and family, and his only option in his mind was to start robbing banks.