Michael "Crazy Mike" Fidanoglou
    Michael Fidanoglou, known as "Crazy Mike," was born in 1963. Fidanoglou would make headlines as  a bank robbery specialist, and according to various news reports, police suspect that he may have participated  in  as  many  as  a  dozen  murders, including  that  of lawyer Frank Shoofey.

     In 1988, Fidanoglou  was  found  guilty  of  a  string  of  armed robberies. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

     After  being  release, he  was  soon  back  at  it. In  April  1998, Fidanoglou, wearing  a mask and brandishing a firearm, barged into a Caisse Populaire credit-union and demanded some cash.
Independent Criminals

     When the cashiers, protected by bullet proof glass,  refused, Fidanoglou threatened to kill one of  the customers. When the  employees  refused  again, the bank robber shot Claude Mailhot, a client standing near the counter.  As he  fled  the  establishment, Fidanoglou  allegedly said: “We have dirtied the carpet enough.”

     Mailhot, shot  at close range, reportedly  had his spine shattered by the bullet. He was left paraplegic and confined  to  a  wheelchair for  the  rest  of  his  life. He has since filed  a $6 million lawsuit  against Caisses Desjardins because of their policy to not surrender any money to robbers. 

     Several months later, in August, Fidanoglou  and  an  accomplice were caught red-handed after they robbed a Toronto Dominion bank in the Outremont section of Montreal.  While his accomplice waited in a stolen car, Fidanoglou, wearing  a  cap  and  a  scarp to partially cover his face, reportedly robbed the bank. But as he walked back to the getaway car, police swooped down and arrested the two men.

     Fidanoglou was charged with the near-fatal shooting of Claude Mailhot  and participating in  a  series of bank robberies that took place between February 1996 and July 1998.

     He  was  found  guilty  in  April 2002 on 23 counts. The following year, he was  sentenced  to life in prison.

     Fidanoglou  supposedly rolled his eyes, yawned, and  snickered throughout the hearing, according to a  Montreal Gazette article. A  psychological  report  found  him “unrepentant  and dangerous,” with no sympathy for his victims.