This short book chronicles three major times in the life of Ken Leishman, the flying bandit of the title. Leishman robbed some banks in Toronto in 1958, and was later caught for it and imprisoned. Released on parole, he was again living in Winnipeg when he decided to steal some gold bullion from a shipment at the airport in 1966. That turned out to be a busy year for him, as he carried out the robbery, got away with it for a few months, was captured, then escaped from jail with a few friends. After the escape, the men made their way to Steinbach, where they stole a plane and flew south to Gary, Indiana, where Leishman was trying to contact someone he knew who might be able to hide the fugitives. After a dramatic series of close scrapes, the men were arrested, and Leishman was once again imprisoned (only to escape briefly later that year!). He served out the rest of his sentence, and reformed his life. In 1979, he was living in the town of Red Lake in Northern Ontario with his family when his plane crashed and his body was never found.