Lennoxville Massacre
The Lennoxville Massacre , also known as the Lennoxville Slaughter or Lennoxville Purge , was a rocker crime that occurred in Lennoxville , Québec , Canada . On March 24, 1985, five members of the Hells Angels were shot dead by another charter . The event led to the founding of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Rock Machine and thus had a major impact on the rocker war that took place in Canada in the 1990s .
Sequence of events
In 1985, the Hells Angels controlled parts of the drug market in Quebec. Several charters were involved in this trade, with the charter in Laval being headed by Yves Trudeau . The charter in Québec and Nova Scotia imputed embezzlement of drug money and massive drug use of cocaine , which was intended for sale, to the other members . In addition, Trudeau is said to have worked as a hit man for the West End gang, which also aroused the disapproval of the other charter.
In order to clear up these problems, it was decided to murder Yves Trudeau and his club. To this end, a meeting was called at a clubhouse in Lennoxville, on the pretext of discussing the problems. Trudeau, who was in a detox facility at the time, was unable to attend the meeting.
Michel “Willie” Mayrand, Laurent “L'Anglais” Viau, Guy-Louis “Chop” Adam, Jean-Guy “Brutus” Geoffrion and Jean-Pierre “Matt Le Crosseur” Mathies were to attend the meeting as envoys. They were ambushed on arrival and shot dead. Their bodies were then put in sleeping bags and thrown into the St. Lawrence River with concrete blocks . Richard Mayrand, a brother of one of the victims, Yvon Bildeau and Gilles Lachance were also present as emissaries of the Laval charter, but were spared. Mayrand later stated that he was allowed to choose between life and death. The bodies were not discovered until three months later.
Claude "Choco" Roy, a prospect for the club, was found shot dead in a motel two weeks later.
Investigations
Although several members were present at the execution, only Rejean “Zig-Zag” Lessard, Jacques Pelletier, Luc “Sam” Michaud and Robert “Snake” Tremblay were identified as the main perpetrators and sentenced in 1987 to long prison terms. Tremblay initially evaded arrest and lived for some time in France and the United Kingdom. However, he was arrested by Scotland Yard in June 1987 and extradited to Canada.
Effects
Yves Trudeau, who escaped the attack by accident, became a police informant shortly afterwards. He pleaded guilty to 43 murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, due to his contract as an informant, he was released after seven years. Michel Genest, the only member of the charter besides Trudeau who was not present at the scene, joined another Hells Angels charter, as did Gilles Lachance. Lachance later also became a police informant for fear of further retaliation.
Maurice Boucher and Salvatore Cazzetta , two members of a far-right motorcycle club in Montreal and Hells Angels candidates, fall out over the legality of the execution. Boucher subsequently joined the Angels, while Cazzetta founded the Rock Machine club . The later enmity between the two led to a seven-year rocker war in Montreal and the surrounding area that claimed over 150 lives. Michel Langlois, President of the Canadian Hells Angels, resigned after the arrest of the main perpetrators and fled Canada for Morocco . He made way for Walter Stadnick, a friend of Boucher, who became President of Québec.
Luc Michaud, Jacques Pelletier and Rejean Lessard broke with the Hells Angels in prison. Michaud was released in June 2005, Pelletier and Lessard in 2008. Tremblay is currently in custody.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paul Cherry: The Biker Trials: Bringing Down the Hells Angels . ECW Press, 2005, ISBN 1-55022-638-X , pp. 32 .
- ^ A b c D'Arcy O'Connor, Miranda O'Connor: Montreal's Irish Mafia: The True Story of the Infamous West End Gang . John Wiley & Sons, 2011, ISBN 978-0-470-15890-6 , pp. 203 .
- ^ A b Paul Cherry: Infamous killer not free yet. (No longer available online.) Canada.com, November 28, 2007, archived from the original March 1, 2012 ; Retrieved March 27, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Jerry Langton: Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick and the Canadian Hells Angels . John Wiley & Sons, 2008, ISBN 978-0-470-15714-5 , pp. 38 .
- ↑ a b c Hells Angels cleansed 5 in '85 . In: Toronto Sun . April 13, 2006, p. 10 ( online ).
- ↑ Peggy Curran: Police have witnesses who can identify those at bikers' mass slaying: detective . In: The Montreal Gazette . August 22, 1985, p. 7 ( online ).
- ↑ Jerry Langton: Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick and the Canadian Hells Angels . John Wiley & Sons, 2008, ISBN 978-0-470-15714-5 , pp. 83 .
- ^ Highway to Hell. (No longer available online.) Julian Rubinstein, archived from the original on July 3, 2011 ; Retrieved February 26, 2012 .
- ↑ Jerry Langton: Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick and the Canadian Hells Angels . John Wiley & Sons, 2008, ISBN 978-0-470-15714-5 , pp. 89 .
- ↑ Multiple murderer, ex-Hell's Angel biker granted day parole. (No longer available online.) Calgary Herald , October 24, 2008, archived from the original March 1, 2012 ; Retrieved March 28, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
