John Gordon Harris (15 November 1947 – 10 September 2019) was a Canadian policeman, widely regarded as one of the most honored officers of the Hamilton Police Service.
[1] Harris nearly joined the U.S Marine Corps in order to fight in the Vietnam War, but was dissuaded by his coach, which became the source of a lifetime regret for him.
[1] In 1971, he graduated with a joint degree in history and political science, and then returned to Toronto to attend York University in order to "kill time", as he phrased it.
[1] Harris was a huge 6'7 man, described by the journalist Jerry Langton as "the biggest, most intimidating cop I've ever seen" and "the most knowledgeable person I have ever met in law enforcement when it comes to biker gangs, especially in Ontario".
[8] Harris was assigned to the organized crime unit because it was felt he could best handle the "low-life, anti-social misfits" that made up the Hamilton underworld.
[1] A major break was made in investigating the bombing spree on 3 June 1980, when a bomb planted in La Favorita Bakery on Concession Street failed to explode due to faulty construction with an excess of glue insulating the screw that was to send the electric current to set off the dynamite.
[9] Harris frequently crossed paths with Mario Parente, the president of first the Hamilton chapter of Satan's Choice and then the Outlaws.
[11] In 1981, Harris was assigned to the anti-biker unit of the Hamilton police, where he became the "nemesis" of Walter Stadnick, the Hells Angel who became their national president in 1988.
[13] Harris noted when Stadnick became the Hells Angel national president, he started to own a Jaguar automobile with Quebec license plates, which stood out in the working class city of Hamilton.
[1] Harris served as expert witness for the Crown in several trials of outlaw bikers, and from abroad was consulted by both the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service.
[19] His assumption proved to be correct, and Parente was arrested by the Niagara Regional Police later that night at the house where Harris said he would be.
[20] Harris also tried unsuccessfully to have the Canadian Army plant bugs in the trees in Central Park, which was at the bottom of Railroad Street, which also a favorite meeting place for Papalia.
[21] Harris pressured several criminals into wearing a wire while meeting with Papalia, but he was always very careful with his words and there was never enough recorded to lay charges.
[1] The same year, during a vacation in Australia, due to diabetes, both of Harris's feet became infected with gangrene and two toes on his left foot had to be amputated.
[1] In April 2004, another infection had turned his right foot into a "big ham", as he called it, forcing the doctors to amputate all of his right leg below his knee.
[1] In 2009, Harris stated in an interview that the Mafia was still a major force in the Hamilton underworld, saying: "Look at the Royal Connaught situation, lots of people got paid, but not a thing been done".
[1] In 2012, the journalist Susan Clairmont wrote: "Harris is, surely, the most respected member of the Hamilton Police Service, an organization with some 800 sworn officers and nearly 300 civilians.