Last surviving member of the infamous Stander Gang of bank robbers dies

A particularly infamous period in South African criminal history drew to an end on Friday 16 April when the last surviving member of the Stander Gang passed away at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.

Allan Heyl was one of a trio of hardened criminals who both terrorised and captivated the country with a series of brazen bank robberies in the early ‘80s. They were led by Andre Stander who, for a part of his criminal career, was also a serving police captain.

Cop robbed banks in his lunch hour

So bold was Stander that he would sometimes rob a bank during his lunch hour and then return to his police work in the afternoon. At times he would be tasked with investigating the very robbery that he had committed that day!

He perpetrated these robberies in the ‘70s and was then arrested and jailed. It was while in prison that he met Heyl and the third accomplice, Lee McCall. They escaped and commenced a remarkable crime spree from late 1983 until early 1984.

Parole after 25-year prison sentence

Both Stander and McCall subsequently died violent deaths at the hands of police. Heyl survived and served 25 years in prison for his crimes. Prior to being jailed in South Africa, he had served a British prison sentence after fleeing there and being arrested for committing similar crimes.

Heyl was released in 2005 and remained on parole for the rest of his life. He was a rehabilitated offender and gave many motivational talks to discourage others from following a life of crime. He also gave numerous media interviews in which he conveyed the same message.

A book and a movie

Heyl wrote a book called Bank Robber: My Life & Times with Andre Stander. It was published in 2018. Stander’s life was the subject of a US-made movie entitled Stander which was released in 2003 at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada.

The cause of Heyl’s death is unknown at the time of writing

.