Lennoxville massacre
[3] In the 1970s, the Popeyes had successfully fought against the Devils Diciples and Satan's Choice biker gangs, and as the journalist Patrick Lejtenyi noted: "The violence that ensued cemented Quebec's reputation as one of the most dangerous places for organized crime to do business in North America.
[5] As the three bikers were leaving the restaurant, a member of the Outlaws, Gino Goudreau, opened fire, killing Buteau and Gilbert while wounding Lamoureaux.
[5] In a division of labour, Langlois focused his efforts into expanding into the rest of Canada while Lessard had effective operational control of the Angels in Quebec.
[7] The North chapter's gratuitous aggression also frequently led them to being arrested for minor offenses, which put the entire Hells Angels operation in Quebec at risk.
[7] André Cédilot, the crime reporter with La Presse newspaper, told Pierre Obendrauf of the Montreal Gazette: "At that moment [in 1985], the Hells Angels were doing a cleanup to become a real criminal organization.
[8] The Hells Angels assassin Yves "Apache" Trudeau later testified for the Crown that relations between the North and South chapters were "ice cold" by the beginning of 1985.
[7] Lessard needed little encouragement from Carroll and spent most of the meeting railing against the North chapter, which he called a menace to the existence of the Angels in Quebec.
[9] Most of the North chapter now appeared with the notable exceptions of Trudeau, who was undergoing drug rehabilitation in Oka, and Michel "Jinx" Genest, who was in the hospital recovering from a failed assassination attempt by the Outlaws.
[9] Viau and four of North chapter members – Jean-Guy "Brutus" Geoffrion, Jean-Pierre "Matt le Crosseur" Mathieu, Michel "Willie" Mayrand,[13] and Guy-Louis "Chop" Adam – attended.
[9] Lessard then told Mayrand and Bilodeau that he was fond of them, and so he was giving them the option to retire from organized crime permanently or else be killed, while Lachance was offered membership in the South chapter, which he accepted.
Salvatore Cazzetta found the event an unforgivable breach of the outlaw code and, rather than joining the Angels, he and his brother Giovanni formed their own smaller gang, the Rock Machine, in 1986.
[1] Maurice Boucher, future Quebec Nomad chapter president, did not share Cazzetta's concerns, and after finishing a 40-month sentence for armed sexual assault on a 16-year-old girl, he joined the Hells Angels in 1986 and began to rise through the ranks.
The Angels and the Rock Machine co-existed peacefully for several years, which police believed was due to Boucher's respect for the Cazzetta brothers, who were well connected to the Rizzuto crime family, and were the only criminal group the bikers were unwilling to attack.
Pierre de Champlain, a former RCMP officer and a specialist on biker crime, told journalist Patrick Lejtenyi: "They [the police] noticed that the Laval chapter's garage that served as their bunker was closed.
[14] At the bottom of the river, police divers located the decomposing bodies of all five victims, wrapped in sleeping bags and tied to weightlifting plates.
[3] Gilles Lachance, who was profoundly troubled by the massacre, contacted the Sûreté du Québec to state his willingness to work as an informer and to wear a wire.
[2] Gerry "Le Chat" Coulombe, a prospect with the South chapter, was also troubled by the massacre and also agreed to turn informer for the Sûreté du Québec.
[3] Several members of the Hells Angels were present and played a role in the slaughter, but only four – Jacques Pelletier, Luc "Sam" Michaud, Réjean "Zig-Zag" Lessard and later Robert "Snake" Tremblay – were convicted of first-degree murder.
