With a shared background of abuse, two brothers go on to lead two very different lives.
The Brothers Krimm, a new book by the editor of the Crosby Journal, details how the Krimm brothers of Taylor, Mich. were both victims of abuse, but one became an honourable serviceman in the military while the other robbed banks all over Western Canada and the northern United States. Cecile Wehrman reported on the local robberies committed by Jimmy Krimm, the police chase and his suicide, before deciding to write the book on the lives of both the serial bank robber and his brother who served 20 years in the U.S. Marines and Air Force.
She has been touring with her book since mid-September and appeared at the Estevan Library for a book reading and author session on Saturday.
Jimmy's last bank robbery was in Williston, N.D. in 2009, after which the police chased him to Fortuna, a small community west of Crosby.
Wehrman arrived home that evening to a phone call reporting a bank robber, who had been last seen a couple miles from her house, was on the loose.
"I said, 'Are you kidding?' This doesn't happen. You guys know how it is around here too, even with the influx of people with the oil boom. Even now, if someone told you there was a bank robber, that doesn't happen every day," said Wehrman.
When Wehrman went in to the office the next day, she began working on a story for The Journal regarding a bank robber who had been on the loose the night before and then committed suicide. She said the story could have ended there.
"We could have just left it at that, but there was something about the story that grabbed hold of me and just would not let go. A couple of days later when I saw his mugshot in the paper, personally, I needed more answers. I wanted to know who this guy was and how he got in my backyard."
She soon learned that Jimmy had a brother Rob, who had served two decades in the military.
"It was at that point that I learned there was another sibling who went on the right path, and virtually for the same amount of time his brother went on the wrong path. That was when I suddenly realized, there's more of a story here."
Both brothers were abused as children, Jimmy by someone they don't know, she said, and Rob was abused physically and sexually by Jimmy for about five years when they were growing up at home.
"They both had that same traumatic incident, but Jimmy went on to be a bank robber, and his brother went on to serve is country honourably. So I wanted to explore what causes that to happen. That was the nugget that spoke to me, because I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse myself."
Wehrman noted that it isn't typical that a journalist gets personally invested in the story, but for her, she said her own experience is what helped her uncover the story of what Rob went through.
"It helped me to be able to understand the character Jimmy, who I met through his letters and interviews with people who knew him. If I didn't have that background, I don't know that I would have been able to do as good of a job."
She called Jimmy a "subsistence" robber, stealing from banks whenever he needed the money, and she pointed out that his last known grocery receipt was at a Walmart for $2.72. He was caught after robbing another bank shortly thereafter, and she suspects that he was robbing again because those three dollars were all he had left.
After going over some of the stats of Jimmy's crimes, $150,000 stolen in the 35 robberies, including one in Weyburn, Wehrman said the grocery receipt was one that stood out to her.
"The most telling number to me was his last known grocery receipt. It wasn't until Rob came up last February with materials from his brother's car that we hadn't looked at previously, and he found the receipt from two days before his death. Have you ever gone into a Walmart and spent less than $3? It's pretty tough to do, unless that's all you have.
"Not that I feel sorry for him, but it paints a pretty vivid picture, if you can imagine a man roaming the countryside, driving around, and he's got $3 to his name, so he goes to Walmart because that's all he can afford to buy, until on Monday when the banks open, and he goes and gets paid again, so to speak."
She said the book really does share a positive message through the hero of the book, Rob. She and Rob got married just a few weeks ago in September. He was with her on Saturday.
The book isn't just about a bank robber who goes from town to town terrorizing banks, but it's also about the survival and strength of Rob.
"Who would want to read a just book that glamorizes the exploits of this guy who's a jerk?" she said. "I hate what he did to Rob, and I do not excuse how he victimized other people for one second, but I can still have sympathy for the victim he once was. Rob was lucky that he had several people that came into his life and made a difference. This kid literally never stood a chance."
She signed copies for those who purchased books that day. The book is available online at Amazon and locally at Henders Drugs.
