Wolodumir "Walter" Stadnick (born 3 August 1952),[1] also known as "Nurget", is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who was the third national president of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Canada.
[2] The journalists Michel Auger and Peter Edwards wrote that much about Stadnick is mysterious, ranging from what is the meaning of his sobriquet "Nurget", to how a unilingual Anglo Canadian from Hamilton became the leader of the then largely French-Canadian Hells Angels.
[18] On 5 December 1977, the Popeyes of Montreal, generally considered to be the most violent of all of Quebec's many outlaw biker clubs, "patched over" to become the first Hells Angels chapter in Canada.
[10] The private detective Alex Caine, who met Stadnick several times, described him as "a vindictive little man with the charisma of a hockey puck" who appeared to be trying to over-compensate due to his diminutive stature.
[33] On 17 July 1983, while riding through northern Ontario, Parente happened to see two Hells Angels from Montreal, Michel "Jinx" Genest and Jean-Marc Nadeau, on the bus to Vancouver to attend the ceremony.
[33] Enraged, Parente and the other Outlaws proceeded to shoot up the bus when it stopped at the Mr. Mugs coffee and doughnut shop in Wawa in an attempt to kill the two Hells Angels.
[35] At the time of his assassination, Buteau was meeting Guy Gilbert, an emissary of the Kitchener chapter of Satan's Choice, who was also killed by Goudreau, to discuss "patching over" to become Hells Angels.
[32] Buteau's successor as national president, Michel "Sky" Langlois, together with his right-hand man, Réjean "Zig Zag" Lessard, both decided that Stadnick offered their best hope of establishing the Hells Angels in Ontario.
[39] Lessard arranged for members of the 13th Tribe biker gang from Halifax led by David "Wolf" Carroll, who were hoping to join the Hells Angels, to guard Stadnick.
[47] The Outlaws planned to assassinate Stadnick by firing a rocket launcher at the Rebel Roadhouse, but the police arrested those involved in the plot before the attack occurred.
[51] After remortgaging his house, Melanson contacted the Hells Angels to say he had some $50,000 in cash of the $80,000 that he owed and he would meet them in a room in a hotel on Yonge Street to hand it over, promising he would pay off the remaining $30,000 soon.
[56] In the spring of 1988, Langlois fled to Morocco to escape charges of first-degree murder in connection with his role in the Lennoxville massacre of 1985, and Stadnick was chosen to be his successor.
"[56] 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.
[61] The journalists Julian Sher and William Marsden wrote that Manitoba was crucial because it was "the axis of distribution for any drugs moving east and west in the country.
"[68] The journalist Jerry Langton stated: "An informant told me that if he could boil down Walter's philosophy to one sentence, it would be: 'He would rather buy his rival a drink than kick his head in.
[80] Stadnick was unable to force Verhaege to reveal her sources and the judge rejected the attempt to stay the proceedings, but the effort had delayed his trial for 15 months.
[58] Unlike Thunder Bay and the Albertan cities where the Grim Reapers were active, Winnipeg had two outlaw biker clubs and, moreover, both the Spartans and los Bravos largely engaged in auto theft.
[4] In January 1994, Stadnick founded a puppet club in Toronto called the Demon Keepers headed by Dany Kane, while at the same time trying to persuade the Satan's Choice and Para-Dice Riders gangs to "patch over" to become Hells Angels.
[91] Members of the Nomads were Stadnick, Boucher, Donald "Pup" Stockford, David "Wolf" Carroll, Gilles "Trooper" Mathieu, Richard "Bert" Mayrand, Luc Bordeleau, Pierre Laurin, Louis "Mélou" Roy, Richard "Rick" Vallée, André Chouinard, Michel Rose, Denis "Pas Fiable" Houle, Normand Robitaille, Normand "Biff" Hamel, and René "Balloune" Charlebois.
[4] Stadnick spent so much time in Winnipeg in the 1990s working to establish the Hells Angels on the Prairies that he rented an apartment in that city and fathered a son Damon (nomad spelled backwards) by his common-law wife.
[96][83] After attending Boyko's funeral, Stadnick was denied permission to enter los Bravos' clubhouse in West Winnipeg as feelings in the gang were much against the Hells Angels.
"[46] Stadnick's right-hand man, a film stuntman and Hells Angel who served as the Nomad vice-president, Donald "Pup" Stockford, lived in neighboring Ancaster.
[104] With Papalia – who hated outlaw bikers – out of the way, Stadnick moved in and in the summer of 1997 made contact with a locally prominent criminal, Gerald "Skinny" Ward who lived in Wellend.
[111] On 7 April 1998, Jeffrey LaBrash and Jody Hart, two leaders of the Outlaws biker gang, were gunned down leaving a strip club, the Beef Baron, by two men known to be associated with the Hells Angels in London, Ontario.
[124] The Globe and Mail reported in 2004 about the Hells Angels' push into south-western Ontario: "From 1999 to 2002, when the conflict reached a peak, beatings, brawls and shootings became common.
"[4] On 22 December 2000, Stadnick arranged for Dew and los Bravos gang to join the Hells Angels as "full patch" members after only five months of waiting as prospects instead of the normal year.
[3] The police officers who monitored him were struck by the deference that he was shown by other outlaw bikers, noting when he visited Toronto that the "hang-arounds" served as his bodyguards when he dined at expensive restaurants, standing guard outside even in the winter to keep out any would-be assassins.
""[3] On 28 March 2001, as part of Operation Springtime (a police crackdown on the Hells Angels), a warrant was issued for Stadnick's arrest for 13 charges of first-degree murder.
[148] Greenspan and Gold were able to delay the trial by demanding that the Crown translate all 500,000 papers of documents and ten CD-ROMs worth of evidence into English, a request that the Quebec government refused as it would cost more than $23 million.
"[160] Pierre de Champlain, an expert on bikers for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, stated: "Since 2000, the Hells Angels have had complete control over Quebec, from Sept-Îles to Granby.