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Introduction
Their lives were like no others.
All across Germany, Britain, Canada, and the United States, Bob and Mildred Restall amazed audiences with their death-defying feats on motorcycles inside a steel sphere known as the Globe of Death.
Then, at an age when they might have been expected to settle into a more conservative way of life, they embarked on a bold new adventure — one that would bring them recognition from around the world as television stations, magazines, and other news media chronicled the Restall search for treasure on Canada’s famous Oak Island. That adventure would test them in every measure and would change them profoundly. Ultimately, it would end in unspeakable tragedy.
Bob and Mildred Restall were my parents. This is their story.
Note: Throughout this book, comments in square brackets within primary source material are mine. Comments in parentheses belong to the author of that particular piece. Original documents have been edited for clarity, spelling, and punctuation and have had extraneous content removed.
The Start of It All
CHAPTER 1
Although they were born on different continents, my parents’ early years had much in common. Each started life in a family that struggled financially, each was forced to abandon formal schooling very early, and each chose a career in entertainment as the portal to adventure.
Once their lives intersected, my parents discovered they were a perfect match. They joined forces and set out, confident that their life together would be exciting and glamorous. Throughout the ensuing years, they encountered exhilarating highs and daunting lows, but true to their expectations, the life they shared proved to be a most extraordinary adventure.
My mother was English, born and bred, but Dad was a fourth-generation Canadian, born in Toronto.
Dad’s parents, Ernest and Annie Restall, had three daughters and four sons. Shortly after the last child was born, Ernest moved the family to the United States in search of a better life. Ernest was a hard-working skilled tradesman, but he was also a heavy drinker. After only a few years in the United States, Ernest and Annie separated; alcohol was blamed.
Ernest returned to Canada, and Annie and the children remained in the United States. Ernest had taught his trade, plumbing, to his oldest son, my father. By the time his parents separated, Dad was already working to help the family financially. He had left school immediately after graduating from grade eight. His sisters Lillian and Margaret did the same, securing jobs with the Bell Telephone Company. In those days (around 1919), you could leave school before age sixteen if your family needed your assistance. So at the earliest opportunity, each of the Restall children left school to help support the family.
Dad, his siblings, and his mother lived in Yonkers, New York. Soon, the older boys in the family — Dad, Goldy, and Bill — discovered dirt track motorcycle racing and became local stars. The name Restall hardly conjures up visions of speed, so the boys adopted the surname Lee, after General Robert E. Lee. Dad took the name Speedy Bob Lee, Goldy became Goldy Lee or Curly Lee, and Bill became Wild Bill Lee or sometimes Billy Lee. Bill lost interest in riding motorcycles pretty quickly, but Dad and Goldy were hooked. As well as motorcycle racing, they began trick riding inside a motor drome and were so successful that they took their act to Britain.
A drome (sometimes called a wall) is a huge barrel-like structure. Motorcyclists ride around on the inside of the barrel walls. Spectators pay admission, climb a steep staircase, and stand on a platform that goes all around the top of the drome. Then they peer down into the barrel, watching the riders roar round and round, now riding with no hands, now steering with their feet, now crossing one leg over to ride sidesaddle, now standing with both feet on one pedal with hands in the air. Sometimes two riders on separate motorcycles race along the wall, criss-crossing each other’s paths. Sometimes a car is driven inside the drome instead.
When my mother and father met, Mom was a dancer. She had been earning her own living, working with variety shows that played across England, from the time she was twelve years old. Mildred Shelley was born in Brackenhill, Ackworth R.D., England, in 1912 to Henrietta Shelley, née Greenwood, and Henry Shelley, a colliery banksman. Henry went overseas to serve in the First World War, leaving his wife and young daughter in England. In less than a year, Henry was killed in battle. Henrietta took little Mildred and returned to her parents’ home. Her father owned two or three fish and chip shops and was also a gentleman farmer, keeping a few cows, pigs, and chickens. He was a stern man who expected each of his children to work long and hard in the service of the family in exchange for room, board, and a very small allowance. Henrietta toiled alongside her younger brothers and sisters. There were plenty of jobs, so even little Mildred was pressed into service.
My mother recalled no happiness in that household, no fun, no kindness, no compliments — only work. She and her mother slaved for the dour old man. When the family sat down together at mealtimes, his was the only voice allowed to be heard. It was fresh in Henrietta’s mind why she had been in such a hurry to marry and leave home, but now she was a widow with a young daughter and few options.
Eventually Henrietta gathered enough money together for her escape, and she and Mildred were on their way. At that time in England, live theatre was flourishing. Comedies, dramas, musicals, and variety shows played in cities and towns all across the country. Henrietta had always dreamed of being an actress. Now she was determined to realize her dream. She proved to be a natural. With her commanding stage presence and magnificent speaking voice, it was not long before she was working in theatres across England and travelling to India, Japan, and other exotic countries for months at a time. Acting is an uncertain career, but Henrietta was almost never out of work.
While she was establishing herself as an actress, Henrietta sent my mother to live with her aunt and uncle in a rural seaside village in England. Mom told me that she doubted these people were really relatives, but they were warm, loving people who truly seemed to care about her. Life with them was idyllic.
Money was tight, but there was good solid food, the lovely seaside, and people who cared. Mom liked to recall the excitement when her mother sent money. Her aunt would take Mom on a shopping spree to buy beautiful new clothes. But many times during those years, my mother had only one school uniform, which she washed and ironed each evening. Sometimes she felt sorry for herself, wishing she had a vast wardrobe, but her aunt comforted her by saying, “Mildred, even if you wore a flour sack, you’d still be beautiful.” Maybe it was there that Mom learned to carry herself proudly in spite of everything.
Those days with her aunt and uncle were the happiest of her childhood. When Henrietta returned from India one day and took Mom away, Mom and her aunt and uncle were heartbroken. But it was time for Mildred to earn her keep. She was twelve years old.
Henrietta enrolled my mother in a boarding school just outside London. There, girls from twelve to sixteen were schooled in the three Rs and taught to perform on stage. Their ballet teacher was Madame Kiesh, formerly a Russian prima ballerina. She claimed to have been a contemporary of Madame Pavlova. But the Dying Swan was choreographed for Pavlova, transporting her to fame and fortune, while Madame Kiesh was left to spark the talent of troupes of bedraggled English schoolgirls.
No doubt the study of ballet helped these youngsters develop flexibility, economy of movement, and grace, useful attributes in any kind of stage performance. But they spent much more of their stage
