'DRUG ADDICTION IS WORSE THAN A MISTRESS'

Novelist Says Reid Was Incoherent Night Before Armed Robbery

VICTORIA - The night before writer Stephen Reid allegedly executed the
botched bank heist that led to his appearance in court here yesterday - on
charges of armed robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder - he called his
spouse, the poet-novelist Susan Musgrave, on a cell phone.

"He was incoherent," Musgrave explained, standing on the steps outside the
courthouse.

"I said, 'I don't think you should come home Stephen. I just can't take
anymore.'"

What she couldn't take, she explained, was Reid's heroin addiction.

She'd told him before, of course. But Reid, celebrated bank robber-turned
writer, always came home. And she took him in.

That night, however, both cried and hung up.

Reid hasn't been home since.

Instead, he's accused of having gone out the next day and robbed a tiny
branch of the Royal Bank in Victoria's sleepy Cook St. Village.

Then with about $100,000 in hand and an accomplice on board, he allegedly
tried to blast his way to freedom.

He's also accused of having held an older couple hostage during a later
stand-off with police.

Musgrave had to tell an out-of-touch staff member from her daughter
Sophie's elementary school who telephoned this week that, no, Stephen won't
be at the school's Christmas fair this Friday.

Stephen Reid won't be doing anything outside for a long time.

For Reid, a former member of America's once-famous Stopwatch Gang, renowned
for no-muss-no-fuss bank robberies, the heist was a mess.

But by then, so was Reid's life.

Musgrave, 48, tried to lend insight into that agony yesterday, as Reid's
trial was set back until today after the accused, looking pale and
troubled, made a brief appearance.

"It was pretty bad at the end," Musgrave said. "I hardly recognized him."

If anything was clear from her recounting, it's that living with heroin
isn't hell just for the addicted - but for those who live with them.

She felt lonely, abandoned and powerless.

"Drug addiction is worse than a mistress," she explained. You can't just
call her up.

"It's total. It's a possession that family and love and everything you've
ever relied on, doesn't work."

Reid, 49, regrets the incident and understands that it was only a
circumstance of luck that he didn't kill or injure anyone. And he's
resigned to the fact that he's going to do "serious time," Musgrave observed.

Reid's lawyer, Dennis Murray, added: "His remorse is deep and his sense of
reality about what he faces is deep as well ... Stephen has indicated all
along that what he did was outrageous and reckless, (but) he has
steadfastly maintained that he didn't intend to kill anybody."

Murray said his client will plead guilty to numerous charges connected with
the robbery and shootout, but "I can't tell you precisely to what because
the prosecutor and I are sitting down to sort out some fine details."

And what of the victims, Musgrave was asked.

Yes, she said, as a mother and a wife she empathizes with the wives of the
police officers who pursued Reid. And she empathizes too with the bank
employees who feared for their lives.

Musgrave married Reid while he was still in jail in 1987, finishing a
cumulative 13 years behind bars. He was writing a book.

She ended up editing it, and then married him.

Last night Musgrave took Sophie to see her father, as she does every
Monday, at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre.

Sophie understands that her father has made a big mistake, her mother says.

"She understands that he's done a bad thing, but that he isn't a bad
person. It's sort of basic child psychology," she said.