Sarah Cohen reviews the new book Bank Robber: My Time by André Stander, Allan Heyl
In Bank Robber: My Time with André Stander, Allan Heyl, bank robber and last surviving member of the so-called Stander Gang, turns a critical eye on the times in which he operated with humour, insight and self-revelation.
Heyl was only 26 when he received a 15-year jail sentence and he struggled come to terms with seeing his time out behind bars.
By the time Stander, ex-police captain and convicted bank robber, arrived in prison, Heyl was well advanced with his own plan to escape and together they teamed up to escape and rob banks at an unprecedented rate.
Heyl acknowledges that while revisiting the events, he has often paused to reflect in horror and disbelief at what the gang did.
“It would be remiss of me not to express my deep sense of shame, embarrassment and regret for the way I allowed myself to hurtle down the slope of moral disintegration,” he writes.
As one is taken through Heyl’s initial escape from prison and given a taste of his three-year sentence in Pretoria Central Prison, there is also background given about his childhood and how he found himself slipping into the events that followed.
Anxiety, curiosity and bewilderment were just some of the emotions that I felt as I paged through the 206-page book.
Chapter 5 and 6 are nail-biters and, as you read about the varied robberies, you probably will be intrigued as you continue into Part 2, titled “Zonderwater”.
Reading about what the prison food was like, the unethical body search practices and prisoner’s behaviour at the time, I found myself longing for a more in-depth comparison between the prison system then and now and what has changed over time, if anything.
Stander is officially introduced to the reader on page 77 which, given the title of the book, left me slightly puzzled, although the pages that follow made up for my disappointment.
One thing is certain – the poignant ending will stay with you well after you have put the book down.