[4] By contrast, the Satan's Choice chapters in Toronto, Kitchener, Oshawa, Thunder Bay and Peterbourgh remained loyal to the imprisoned national president, Bernie Guindon.
[12] Standing 6'3, weighing 300 pounds, and extremely irascible, Matiyek was greatly disliked in Port Hope owing to his rage issues and a tendency to threaten people with violence.
[25] Lowe wrote that most "scariest" of the Satan's Choice bikers who went to the Queen's Hotel was Sanguigni, a man with close links to the Mafia who worked as a hitman subcontractor for the mob, being the prime suspect in several murders.
[33] The women present, namely the waitresses Gayle Thompson and Cathy Cotgrave along with the bar patrons Sue Foote and Jamie Hanna all fled into the woman's washroom, and all left the Queen's Hotel in tears over horror over the shooting they just seen.
"[36] Constables Kenneth Wilson and David MacDonald of the Port Hope police arrived at the Queen's Hotel at 11: 08 pm and reported that the corpse of Matiyek was lying in a pool of his own blood.
The Port Hope Evening Guide in an editorial on 19 October 1978 stated: "Terrifying cold-blooded premeditated murder has destroyed the security of this tranquil community, smashing forever the misconception that violence and homicide exists only in the big cities.
[46] Corporal Terry Hall of the OPP's Special Squad, who took charge of the investigation on 27 October 1978 seems to have decided to use Matiyek's death as a chance to cripple Satan's Choice by convicting as many bikers as possible of his murder.
[46] One of the investigators, Colin Cousens, in his notes to Hall stated that several of the witnesses had mentioned that one of the Satan's Choice bikers had been shot in the arm and left the Queen's Hotel bleeding.
[59] On 28 October, Cotgrave identified out of the photo array Hurren, Sanguigni, Hoffman, McLeod and along with two Satan's Choice bikers in prison at the time, Michael Gallaway and Randy Gobo as present when Matiyek was killed.
[59] During the same session, Thompson named Comeau as the killer and identified Sauvé, Hurren, Hoffman, Blaker and another Satan's Choice biker in prison, Michael Everett as being present at the murder.
[61] Two of the men picked out the photo array and charged with Matiyek's murder, David Hoffman and Gordon van Haarlem, were not present at the Queen's Hotel on the night of 18 October 1978.
[77] O'Hara based this belief on the grounds that Sanguigni was a professional hitman for the Mafia who had been committed at least 11 murders with the police never being able to find enough evidence to charge him while Comeau's reputation was that of a bumbling petty criminal.
[82] Campbell was willing to accept the Crown's deal, but several of the "Port Hope 8" such as David "Tee Hee" Hoffman and Gordon "Dog Map" Van Haarlem objected under the grounds that they were not at the Queen's Hotel on the night of 18 October 1978, and should not have to do any prison time.
[97] Kerbel made the mistake of saying in response to an objection from Meinhardt "the point is not necessarily that someone else killed Mr. Matiyek", which both O'Hara and Affleck felt was a foolish statement for the defence counsel to make in front of the jury as it implied that Comeau was the killer after all.
[101] Leon testified that in sometime in March or April 1978 that he been drinking at the Queen's Hotel with Matiyek when a group of Satan's Choice bikers led by Sauvé and Blaker arrived to threaten their lives.
[117] Helen Ann Mitchell of Port Hope testified for the Crown that she had seen Comeau kill Matiyek and she identified Sauvé, Hurren, Hoffman and van Haarlem as being present at the murder.
[120] She testified that shortly before 11 pm on 18 October 1978, she saw a group of Satan's Choice bikers arrive at the Queen's Hotel, none of whom she knew except for Sauvé and Blaker whom she recognized on sight.
"[10] Hoffman took to the stand to testify that he spent the night of 18 October 1978 in Kitchener repairing the door to the Satan's Choice clubhouse that had been kicked in by the police on a raid to look for drugs (none were found).
[172] O'Hara felt that Martin had delivered a bad closing argument as he failed to note there were no phone records of Sauvé calling Hoffman or the Kitchener clubhouse on 18 October 1978.
[173] Ebbs was making an obvious reference to the alibi witnesses for Hoffman who were members of Satan's Choice with the implication that the testimony of law-abiding citizens should be preferred over those of outlaw bikers.
[173] O'Hara in his final submission urged the jury to consider the case "the way the world works" as he argued it made no sense for Blaker to be involved in a murder at the Queen's Hotel where he was very well known to both the staff and patrons.
[184] Glasiter and Haig often argued about the merits of the Crown's case, but were disappointed by Sanguigni's acquittal as he was the most sinister of the accused and they both kept hearing rumors about his career as a Mafia hitman.
In 1983, Hoffmann was acquitted on an appeal, with a judge ruling that the Crown had acted badly by not disclosing to Hoffman's lawyer that it had the audio tapes proving he was in Kitchener the night of the murder.
[191] Terry O'Hara, the lawyer for Blaker noted that he lived in Port Hope at the time of Matiyek's murder and was well known to both the patrons and staff of the Queen's Hotel, where he often drank.
[196] The issue was debated on the floor of the House of Commons as the NDP MP Svend Robinson and the Liberal MPs Warren Allmand and Christine Stewart all charged that the case was a miscarriage of justice.
[196] The 1990 song Justice in Ontario which compared the Port Hope 8 case to the Black Donnelly massacre of 1880 and its picture of Canada as a cruel, unjust society caused much controversy in 1990–1991.
[203] Unlike his statements on the stand during the trial in 1979, Campbell was not protected by the Canada Evidence Act and he could have had been charged with murder on the basis of his interview with Appleby that was published on the front page of the Globe & Mail.
[203] Campbell told Appleby that he was well aware that he was not protected by the Canada Evidence Act, but he had once again confessed to the murder because innocent men were serving life sentences for a crime he had committed.
[203] On 5 December 1991, Joe Bastos, one of the lawyers for Merv Blaker told a private detective who summarized his statement as: "The group jerked around for a long time before producing the gunman.
[204] A number of other wrongly convicted people such as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Donald Marshall Jr., and David Milgaard were all active in speaking at rallies for the "Port Hope 8" in the 1990s.